Day 4 – Thur Aug 7

Heather moved to Shunyi today.  I spent the morning on the computer answering a few emails waiting for her to return.

Just thought I’d do a bit of electronic banking.  Would you believe it…my credit card has been cloned and there are five fraudulent transactions on it.  Spent the rest of the morning sorting things out with my bank.  What a bummer.  Somebody paid 4 London congestion charge bills and an electric bill, totalling some £700.  Good job I check regularly.  This is the second time this has happened this year.  Probably a symptom of excessive travel and internet usage.

Might have to change my behaviours on this one.

Bank very apologetic and claim to be working hard to prevent this happening and immediately want to close my card….not helpful considering I’m in Beijing.  Anyway all sorting itself out.  What a palaver!

Oh yes the Olympics is going on as well.

Heather arrived back at the hotel at lunch time.  We had a lazy afternoon…which is precisely what Heather needs.  All the Olympic venues, accommodation, etc. are all busy with accreditation checks, people coming and going.  It is quite restful to be away from all the hurly burly.

We went out to dinner.  Life in Beijing seems to take place early, so we headed out for an 18.30h booking at the Thai Lotus vegetarian restaurant.  Quite a fun place.  An indication of the ethos of the restaurant can be gleaned from the names of some of the courses.  My desert was called “The Black Flower giving birth to ice Black Beauty Peanut Ice”……..I kid you not.   Main courses went by such titles as the “splendid and enlightened flower of enrichment” etc. etc.  The table settings were built around an enormous (real) leaf, which was folded back, with your plate on it, when you ate.  All the plates and bowls were very funky with the obvious high spot being the melon coarse, between main and desert, arriving in the middle of a bowl of smoking dry ice.

Food was actually pretty good and even though I’m definitely not a vegetarian it actually tasted OK.

Not much sporting news to report.  Today and tomorrow are really all about rest and enjoyment and getting away from things.  It will all ratchet up a gear late tomorrow evening when Heather goes to the opening ceremony.  I still have to decide where to watch it, but I think I will try to hook up with a couple of media people that I know.

Annoying gadget of the day has to be Heathers “drug phone”.  All the US athletes have been given a mobile telephone which they must carry at all times, in case of being called for a no notice drug test.  The problem is that the phone is programmed for English, not Chinese, so every time a Chinese advertising txt message comes in (something that is apparently common out here) it beeps.  We can’t turn it off and the phone cannot receive the txt messages.   I think the phone will be sleeping alone in the bathroom tonight!!!!!!

Well that’s pretty much it tonight.  A quiet day and looking forward to a boat trip to the Summer Palaces tomorrow morning.  I’m off to have a cold Tsingtao beer and go to bed.
Kind Regards
Geoff Parsons