The Spectator

I didn’t actually get a photo of one of my favourite signs. It was a road sign translated into English (even though you can’t hire a car in China unless you are a resident with a Chinese drivers license) It read:
“Don’t fllow too clowsely” - must have been a first edition, because on another one [...]

The Olympics are over, so now is the time to quickly do all the things you didn’t get around to when there were sports to watch…
I saw the Forbidden City.
I made a dedicated effort to find postcards - I think Beijing is the only tourist destination I have been to and not seen one postcard [...]

In the absence of big screens to watch events with lots of people, I headed to a little bar in a cool hutong frequented by locals and westeners, where Tim had reserved a table in front of their big screen.
CCTV, the main propaganda/TV company in China, were also there filming foreigner’s opinions and reactions to [...]

I don’t feel like I’ve seen all that much of them – Beijing is such a big city that a lot of time gets swallowed in travelling from one place to another, and there seems to have been a hell of a lot of table tennis and volleyball on the television!
Last night I saw [...]

I am staying in the University district in the North West of Beijing. There is no metro station within walking distance, and since I can’t read Chinese, I have no hope of working out where the buses go. This leaves me with taxis as the only real transportation option. At about 30c per kilometre, it’s [...]

I decided to try my luck for a ticket to see Australia play the USA dream team on Wednesday. Unfortunately so did a lot of Americans, and the Chinese can see their money coming from a mile away.
These are supposedly “the sold out Olympics,” but as you may have noticed on the TV, there are [...]

I piked early from Club Bud last night, as I left I found a guy who had been helped out of the party by security. He couldn’t stand still without falling over, which he almost did as security let him go, satisfied he wasn’t coming back in.
When I asked him if he was ok, [...]

After my big night at Club Bud, I got up in the early afternoon, showered and put on the last of my clean clothes to go and grab a greasy western lunch at KFC.
Thanks to my rubbery arm, I somehow found myself in the washing day hangover clothes with Hamish and Andy, drinking the Australian [...]

Last night was the first really big night of the games. A lot of athletes have finished up in the first week and have another week to cut loose.
Where better than Club Bud where the beer is free?
The Heineken House was off limits as they went with a “Dutch only” theme, making Bud the [...]

My hosts must think I’m a trashbag.
A few days ago I navigated my way home from “Club Bud” in a taxi at about 3am, got in the front door, up the 3 flights of stairs only to stumble at the last hurdle: the f-off security door with dual locks. After 15 minutes of trying to [...]