Howdy folks, it's been a while since the ol' Sashimi has reported in... since January! Well a lot has happened since then but the end result is the whole family is now based in Beijing.
All that time away from the blog, I managed to have a few months off from work too – highly recommended, but only of if you’re aged above forty, otherwise you’re too damn young to ‘take a break’.
The ol' Sashimi has finally left the Land of the Rising Sun and is now in the Middle Kingdom, not to be confused with Middle Earth, though there certainly are some Orc-kish looking creatures here displaying Orc-like behavior and mannerisms. It’s fairly easy to avoid the Orcs, when summer was in full bloom and temperatures reaching the mid 30’s during the day, you tend to smell them way before you see them.
Having been here in the capitol of the Middle Kingdom, Beijing, for a couple of months, I have managed to dodge death several times while crossing the street, been caught in a two hour traffic jam (which promises to be a regular occurrence), eaten the meat of an animal I cannot identify, given a few kuai to an female Orc beggar just to get away from her and been scolded by the toilet cleaner for entering the bog while she was cleaning it… the culture shock continues.
The office is just as interesting, I have the privilege of working with an Ant, a River, a Moja, a Coco, a Cherry, a Ding, a Bright, a Sun and a Fox, colorful names for a bunch of colorful characters, though I’ve yet to meet the legendary Pubic Ha from the Hong Kong office. Productivity in China must be at an all time high, with the banning of western social networking sites like Facebook, Blogspot (where this blog is hosted), Youtube and tons more, what else can the regular office worker do during office hours but, work, what a novel idea. We finally updated our systems in the office and now route through our Hong Kong server, so no more blocking!
That's pretty much the whole gist of things, Mei and Nicole are well and truly settled in, things are moving along and I'm going to try and revive the blog and provided periodic updates of our ongoing adventures in Middle Earth... er, I mean the Middle Kingdom.
Chao Yang Park, note the 'lake' on the left and the amusement park in the centre. Currently the lake is frozen... and in the mornings you can see tough little old ladies practising their tai chi moves in sub-zero temperatures.
The living room, the landlord was pretty generous with the sofas... and nothing else.
Dining area, not much storage space in the apartment, so we had to do an Ikea run for the bookshelves...
We do have high ceilings...
...and not much else.
at least I have a room, note the imitation Ikea desk...
The Chuahs in Meguro station
That All-Japanese breakfast... McDonalds
Our spare room... after a day
Leonard doing what he loves best...
Passed out... this is what you get for drinking 10 beers for dinner, hardly eating, then chasing it all down with another can of beer at home
Great! They put the gutter barriers up...
"Hey Dad, doesn't mum have a funny looking stance..."
Enough said...
