Beijing, Part 1

, I arrived at 9.30, as expected, and Liz was waiting by the exit. She'd dropped her grandparents off 5 minutes before at departures. We jumped straight in a taxi (something that would have been a challenge for me, as it involved at least some Chinese dialogue). We headed back to her place and popped out for lunch. We ordered a spicy pork dish, rice and two vegetable dishes, and a big bottle of beer. The whole thing cost about £1.50. Most of the rest of the day was spent sleeping...

I woke up yesterday morning and headed out to The Forbidden City. It's an enormous palace at the centre of Beijing, and you enter into a colossal courtyard. It quickly leads into another colossal courtyard, and you can get the impression the whole thing is going to be a bit dull, but towards the back of the palace I found lots of little passageways and hidden rooms, and the palace garden, which was particularly lovely. I could have spent days wandering around it.

As I left, a very personable young woman called Lucy tried to sell me some art (successfully, I have it in my bag - it's a picture fo a girl with a parrot, and it cost roughly the same as a large Mocha in London). I also met Cindy and Jack, who were from Xian, and who took me to have tea, somewhere very expensive. More on that later, once I establish where it was.

Yesterday evening, Liz took me to a Thai restaurant by the lake, to the north of the centre of town. The food was excellent, though our drinks were pretty dreadful. We popped into a bar next door where we met Paul and Chris, some friends of Liz's. Vodka ensued, and the last thing I remember, I was watching some guy try to work a diablo, at the shop just outside the building here. My head hurts.

More about China

Realising the below post could easily be taken as offensive, rather than a flippant indication of my own ignorance, I thought I should add that I am looking forward to this trip to China more than any holiday I've ever taken (a few notable exceptions, but that was about the company, not the destination). I've only been outside of Western Europe to visit America, and these days, the two are practically indistinguishable. This is the first time I've ever been somewhere properly foriegn, in the non-Daily-Mail use of the word. China is an enormous economical force at the moment, growing at a frightening rate, it has a fascinating ancient culture (from what little I know, I'm preparing to be much more fascinated next week), and doubtless has an exciting culture today, that I can't hope to experience properly in two weeks. I'm going to try though.

I take suggestions for things I should do (other than make quips about food, tea, communism, bicycles and walls) in the comments.

What do you like about China?

Last night Claudia was trying to set up a poll on her blog. As it turns out it's pretty straightforward, but needs some external help. In order to appear slightly smug and terribly clever, and also to gauge people's feelings on China, where I will be in just four days' time, I set this up. I invite you to give me your opinion, and feel free to add some other ideas in the comments bit.

What's China most famous for? Tea Chinese food Hideous political oppression That big wall round the outside Bicycles, cause of that Melua chick Free polls from Pollhost.com

Willard Grant Conspiracy

I went to some folky thing last night at what used to be Dingwalls. I sampled Kronenbourg Blanc for the first time (foul muck that it is) and while Ruth, the biggest Willard Grant fan among us, chatted to the singer beforehand, I hovered and listened. He seemed like a nice chap, and he was happy to tell us which albums he was most pleased with. Then we bought a 5 litre keg of Grolsch to keep us refreshed for the evening. The band was excellent to a man (or woman) - I didn't know a single tune they played, but I enjoyed every one. Excellent solos from mandolin and guitar alike, and some very well judged bassism. Their violinist also wielded the viola from time to time, in the fiddling style (a nod to the west, it can be done...). If there was one thing I'd change it would be that I was holding a great big barrel of beer for half of the time. It seemed like such a nice idea when we bought it.

Dinner, CDs

Last night Debbie, Claudia and I had excellent dinner, with Sainsburys providing the sushi and collaborating with me on the Thai Green Curry, Debbie providing an excellent dessert, in the form of Triple Chocolate Gateau, and Claudia providing a nice bottle of organic rose. We chatted about the idea of a 20ft hedgehog made of broccoli (in the vein of The Sultan's Elephant) and how on earth it's possible to jump into a bush in Mile End and suddenly find yourself falling 12ft to the ground.

After Claudia turned in and Debbie went home, I spent a few minutes sorting through CDs - my recent purchases were beginning to pile up after Virgin had a jazz clearance at £1.99 a CD. As it turns out, I now own 9 Herbie Hancock albums, 12 Miles Davis albums and 9 CDs where Jaco Pastorius is the bassist. Apparently Herbie has another 40 albums for me to find... Parhaps I'll pick some up in China next week.

The Sultan's Elephant - 7th May

At about 11.30, I wandered past Buckingham Palace, where the changing of the guard was drawing a big crowd as usual. But at the other end of The Mall, another show was drawing a much bigger crowd. A 42 tonne, 12 metre high elephant was wandering around town, with 12 people operating it, moving eyes and ears, and a trunk that sprayed water at the crowd. Also, sauntering through St James' Park was a 5m high puppet of a little girl. At one point she took a nap in a deck chair. Later she licked a lollipop. The elephant, meanwhile, wandered up to Piccadilly, where it sat down for most of the afternoon, while the Sultan had lunch. It then came back to Horse Guard's Parade at about 3.30, via Piccadilly Circus and Haymarket, where it met the little girl, and bid her farewell. At 5.30, they walked round the parade ground, and the little girl climbed up into her time machine, and disappeared.

The whole thing was on a colossal scale, all very simple, but very compelling. I'd expected to stay for an hour or two at most, but in the end I didn't leave until the show was over. The atmosphere into he crowd was one of childlike wonder, from children and adults alike. In fact, even a small brown dog was pretty impressed by the whole thing when its owner held it up to see the elephant. It did give the impression it wanted to fight the elephant though (which would have been something to see).

A request for Ken: More of this sort of thing please!

Photos here.

Jazz gig - Saturday 6th May

Easily our best one yet. Some excellent songs (both vocalists outdid themselves), some great instrumentals (although the crowd did talk through most of them), a particularly nice rendition of Brubeck's 'Unsquare Dance', with the audience clapping, a great improvised blues thing, in a direction we've never taken it in before, and some very nicely judged percussion solos. All in all, plenty to be proud of. The next one will be outdoors with any luck!

Work socials and the evils therein

I'm in work and it's Saturday morning. Last night we had a bit of a party, based around the theme of an open mic night, in the office's Atrium. I kicked off with a couple of covers, Tyler followed with some of his own songs. Then Caroline sang 'Heaven' by Bryan Adams and 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' accompanied by me. Gabby did a solo flute thingy by Bach (very impressive), we had a song from Andrew (preceded by a bit of standup), a song from Gary (nice shades), a few from Greg (about girls), a couple from Ruth (who insists she was drunk and terrible, though she's the only one who noticed), a bass solo and a lounge Postman Pat from me, a Dylan song from Cat, another from Tyler, with flute backing from Gabby, a song from Greg with Tyler on harmonica, another song from Greg and a loud shouty song from me. By this time it was about 10pm, but everyone was in the mood to carry on, so the wine kept flowing, the music kept coming and by about 12.30am, everyone was just at that point where they were really enjoying themselves (apart from the one or two vomiting incidents).

The place looks ok today. A bit of mess on the floor, but very little. One broken ceiling tile. A touch of washing up to do. I'm looking forward to the next one already.

It's the most beautiful day...

... the sun is shining, the birds are singing, there's a light breeze in the air. I've just spent an hour sat outside, watching two colleaguesrehearse a banjo/guitar duet, chatting to folk at work about all sorts of random crap, generally enjoying the weather, and enjoying being alive now the winter is firmly behind us. All is right with the world.