Tuesday, February 13, 2007

On the beach

We're off to Thailand for Chinese New Year. Lots of updates when we get back.

Happy New Year, hope the Golden Pig is lucky for all of you!

posted by spiritofstockwell @ 10:13 PM 0 comments

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Beijing

I had to be in Beijing for meetings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (yes people work weekends!) so Cecile came up to join me and see the sights. On Friday she visited Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City.
Me voila toute seule a visiter Beijing/Pékin!!!
...l'entrée!!
notre hotel: le Peninsula.
...nos petits amis chinois ont tendance a sécher ...les poissons...comme ceci dans les rues!
Je les trouve super mignons...ils voulaient regarder mon objectif en meme temps que celui de leur fille!!..ben..euh non pas possible...
L'architecture de la Cité est epoustoufflante!
...IMMENSE!

Magnifique!

Nous sommes allés diner dans un resto: le Dali, dans la ''vieille partie'' de la ville. C'est un collegue de Scotty qui nous l'a recommande! Ce n'est pas evident de le trouver; on a du faire qqs rues avant de le trouver! Mais cela valait la peine! Nous avons dine comme des rois! Il n'y a pas de menu, c'est en fonction du nombre de clients qu'ils font leur propre cuisine.

We went for dinner in a Yunan restaurant called Dali which was great. It was totally hidded away in an old Hutong which are the old-style lanes and residential areas in Beijing.
On Saturday morning we headed off to Simatai which is a section of the Great Wall outside of Beijing around 2 hours drive away. There is a saying from Mao Zedong "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" and many of my friends in Beijing remind me of this! Well now I've done it!
Donc samedi matin, direction: La Grande Muraille de Chine! Cela nous a pris 2h pr y aller. Il existe plusieurs sections a visiter, nous avons choisi la section appelee Simatai.
This is the wall from below where you start the walk, you can just make out the guard towers in the distance.

It was a beautiful sunny day (I got sunburnt again!) but pretty cold too, all the lakes and streams were frozen.

et voici qqs apercus de la muraille..nous avons fait 6 tours!!! Youpi!
C'est magnifique n'est ce pas???????
Respirez le grand air!!
Admirez!
The Great Wall was originally built over 2000 years ago in the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It has been added to and restored at various stages and is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Great Wall gets a double thumbs up from me!
And in case you are reading Martin, don't worry they have blackberry access so I was still working on that deal! Eh oui....le blackberry de scotty fonctionne tout la haut! Incroyable ...mais vrai!
Voici une des collegues de Scotty, elle s'apl Hope (Espoir) et qui a traduit nos noms en chinois.
Saturday night we went out with Hope who is not only the best interpreter in China but is also responsible for coming up with Cecile and my Chinese names, which everyone loves! Thanks Hope! Merci Hope!
Coucou!!
Big bisous de Beijing!
On Sunday we went to The Temple of Heaven in Beijing before heading home.

posted by spiritofstockwell @ 8:01 PM 0 comments

Jason's Stag in Rome

Whilst back in Europe I managed to tag Jason's stag do in La Bella Roma on to my trip.

We got there fairly late on Friday night and had a few beers in Campo di Fiori where we were staying then retired to bed. The action started the next day. After pizza for breakfast (mmmmm) we introduced Jason to his costume for the day:

Here he is dressed up as a Foreign Legionaire and also holding one of the costumes we would all be wearing, which was handily labelled "Arab" in case you couldn't guess.


Best comment of the day, Tom asking if he got an "extra long" version?



We then headed off to the Rugby which was around a 40 minute walk away and it became fairly apparent quite quickly that Romans don't really do fancy dress!



On the way Jason almost managed to get married live onthe radio.


We took our seats in the Stadium which was a great place. Weather was fantastic too, I even managed to get sunburn!



After the match, Jason caught up with some mates

And then went for a swim in a fountain... as you do.

You can't have a stag do without an injury, so Tom got one.

He later claimed he hadn't told Ren cos he thought he would be able to hide it from her!


We watched England destroy Scotland on the big screen where Jason had almost got married earlier!

We had a quick game of rugby in Piazza del Popolo and then off to the pub!

After putting Jason on trial for his numerous sins over the years and making him drink drink drink to atone for them we headed off for dinner then many many more drinks...



Great weekend! Felt a little worse for wear in my taxi to the airport at 6am so I could get back to Shanghai but well worth it!

posted by spiritofstockwell @ 6:56 PM 0 comments