What’s that session code?

Music to start blogs by: Wolfstone — The Half Tail

Last Friday in our weekly staff meeting someone mentioned table tennis, and someone said, “We should get a ping pong table for the office.” CL told the administrative head that the purchase would be approved and to go ahead and start the process of getting one. After the meeting, the admin guy asked one of the other Americans if CL was serious. Yes. Yes, he was. So the table arrived this week, and now we have a way to blow off a little steam during these trying times.

Since the table is in an area near several people’s workspaces (including my own), we’ve devised some rules about acceptable hours of play.
As with badminton, I haven’t played in ages, but I’m determined to learn to hold the paddle the way all the Chinese do. It works for them, and I haven’t played enough to built up any habits around the old-fashioned way of holding it.
Here, CL gets in on the action with one of our visitors from the US, in town for meetings.

The heat has continued, occasionally interrupted by rain, but I’ve tried to maintain a habit of walking to the office as often as possible. Many times I passed by a fenced area that had some sort of strange sculpture inside, but never really knew what it was. Finally I went in, and it’s a lovely little park called Nan Guan (which means South (of) Embassy, I think – it’s just south of the big Russian Embassy). It’s called a “water park” but I’ve yet to see the fountains going. I’m sure they look pretty interesting when they do.
But even aside from that, it’s a nice little haven in the midst of the city, and I usually arrange my walks to pass through it. Unfortunately the “haze” you see here has been pervasive the last few weeks.
And one last little bit…
They’ve been washing the exterior windows at Seasons Park.
And a shot looking up at the tower next to mine. I just thought this picture looked interesting.


Music to end blogs by: Horslips — The Táin

...And boy, are my arms tired!

No, I haven’t been doing any more flying. I went to my first badminton night last night. A few weeks ago, some of the people at the office decided to organize a weekly evening of badminton. The first week was when I was in Seattle, and the second week, when I was back, my sinuses were bothering me so I didn’t go. But this week there were no ready excuses to hand, so I went. It’s been something like 20 years since I last attempted the sport, so “rusty” doesn’t begin to describe the state of my skills. Decomposed into component elements and turned into something resembling crude oil, maybe. I remember back in some foggy distant decade when I got what then passed for a high-tech badminton racquet – made of aluminum, not wood. My new one makes that seem positively stone-age, with its nanotechnology (that’s what it said on the label). I think it’s carbon fiber or something. Anyway, it’s so light you hardly know you’re holding it.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been kind of warm in Beijing lately, and yesterday was no exception. It was above 90°F outside, and almost exactly the same temperature in the Chaoyang Community College Gymnasium.
There were only seven of us this week. I heard there were 16 last week. We had rented three of the four courts in the gym, so that meant all but one of us could play at once, or all of us if you play two-on-one, which we did a little.
But it was so hot that it was prudent to take frequent breaks to rehydrate and get a little fresh air outside. As you can see, we are a very cheerful bunch.

After a couple hours of that, I was pretty wiped out, and my right forearm is pretty sore today.

I was so amused by my colleague’s T-shirt that I just had to take a picture of it.
It’s a picture of a cartoon dog, and this is what it says, in case you can’t make it out:
Shiro Petto
YOU reimv httle angei
Oussi naving you close alis mewith loveaiid nupc
Nothing is mpossible with yo bv my side
Love yourse
SHIRO PETTOOORANGF STORV
HAVE COME TO HERF TO GIVE YOUR GOOD LUCR

The really funny part is that her job at the office is as an English-Chinese translator. I think she finds the shirt amusing too.

And now for the Random Picture of the Day.
I came across a whole bunch of flowers walking home from work the other day. Lilies and roses – might have something to do with my nose being all stuffed up. But they are pretty. Or as I’ve just learned, piaoliang.

It’s Too Darn Hot!

Location: Beijing
Status: Hot

Just for fun, click over to ask.com and type in Beijing weather. Here’s what I just got for a result:

7-Day Forecast

Today
Extremely hot
41 ºC/105 ºF
22 ºC/72 ºF

Tomorrow
Extremely hot
43 ºC/110 ºF
21 ºC/70 ºF

Sat
Extremely hot
38 ºC/100 ºF
20 ºC/68 ºF

Sun
Extremely hot
39 ºC/102 ºF
19 ºC/66 ºF

Mon
Extremely hot
41 ºC/106 ºF
22 ºC/71 ºF

Tue
Extremely hot
40 ºC/103 ºF
25 ºC/77 ºF

Wed
Extremely hot
37 ºC/99 ºF
22 ºC/72 ºF

I put in the ºF for those not yet used to the ºC, which I’m starting to get the feel for. I don’t try to convert, I just try to remember what 22ºC feels like, or 41ºC. I’ll give you a hint: 41ºC is darn toasty.

I got the air conditioning going in my apartment on Sunday, just in the nick of time. When I got off the plane on Friday afternoon, it was actually kind of chilly, cooler than it was in Seattle last week. That did not last. I’m just glad the building maintenance people work on weekends, or I’d be melted into a puddle of American goo on the floor.

For further amusement, here’s a little news item related to both music and the Olympics: Kids' band contributes song for Olympics. These kids have been in the news a lot lately over here, and I managed to find a place where I could download their song. It’s very cute and it rocks. China’s youngest rock stars, indeed. If you feel the need to listen to it and can’t find it on your own, let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction.

It’s much too busy at work for me to think much about anything, so I’ll leave it at that for today. It’s after 10 and I just got home from the office, and I’m tired.