Valerie spotted this pic on a wall during a business (?) visit a couple of days ago and knew I would love this one.

It reads “Save my life”.
OK, where do I jump?

Well, the answer is in Beijing – yes.
I was looking for a certain Nelly Furtado CD and couldn’t find it.
Asked a Chinese friend and he said, can’t find it either but here’s another one for you.
Ok, I opened the CD box and horror! There a piece cut out from the CD. Then I looked better and both the plastic cover and the CD were missing a small square.

I call my friend, no he says, no problem, can play, just try. It’s from the customs people. We are familiar with that. And yes, it’s an original (made in Canada).
OK, expecting my CD player to spit it all out: it played. Just except for the last track.
Don’t ask me for explanations. I am just an electronic engineer.

If you don’t know Bus Bar, you fail the exam as Beijing (laowai) ren.
First it stood in front of City Hotel and the Den. Then, gone.
Reappeared a couple of hundred meters further, on the parking lot in front of Vics & The Outback, a bit hidden by a wall. Then the wall became higher and only insiders knew the location, or the regulars at “Shut Up and Just Drink”. (or something like that).

The 2008 Olympic wrecking Crew came along, closed the parking, got rid of the 5-by-side football courts.
The, a few days later, no more. I thought, this time, R.I.P.
But the owner and his regulars, majority from African countries, are tenacious.
I was just at FLO (3rd Ring Road East, but of course you knew that), and, voilà, there it is. Wrecked, but under repair. I had a chat wit the owner and it seems that is the new parking spot for the Bus.

Now you know.
BTW, seems popular Browns is history and the owner vanished in thin air with most of the goodies of the installation. Overnight. That at least is the rumor.

Nanjie (“Shut up”) has now changed its door (again, back to the old door of years ago) and is still in business, without the outdoor seating. Indestructible.

A couple of days ago I had one of those total burn-outs (is as regular as the pollution). Felt so empty I couldn’t even drag me to my favorite sauna & massage club, now, that is a real bad sign I tell you.
So, I took Sun to have a drink in the closest bar to us, The Pavilion, just next door.
Nice place, in principle, and quite popular with foreigners. Problem is, you get eaten alive by fierce mosquitoes. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, Sun had brought repellant but I forgot my arms in the beginning. So, ended up with 5 big ugly bites.
Conclusion: Sun and me won’t go there much again, unless we have a repellant shower first.
Mosquitoes, pollution, hot sticky air, foreigners all love it. Any place in Beijing where you can sit outside and have a drink or eat is in high demand. Like The Olive (Gongti Beilu), Bar Blu, etc.
Chinese don’t understand that really. They prefer to be in the air conditioning.
I really miss Europe for that. Aaah. Sitting on a Belgian “terrasse”, with a good Belgian beer, a waffle or a coffee and looking at people passing by. Or on the Champs Elysées.
In Beijing, where can you enjoy that? A bit in Houhai, but still not the same.
You have to be Belgian, French, Italian or something to understand that. Or Brazilian. Hmmm, reminds me of my many years there living on the beach…
OK, I’ll go to Maggies next time. Good music, good beer. And something to look at.

One needs humor, sarcasm and curiosity when looking at the constant changes in the Chinese society.
Some days ago I had a challenging discussion with an Australian diplomat who was very surprised when I said China was becoming more and more liberated with regards to sexuality. He did not seem to believe me.
Not that surprising as most of the “liberation” escapes to the eyes of us foreigners. Our Chinese friends tend to keep their liberation much to themselves.
But to think this society is still as it was twenty years ago is a bit naive.
The Internet Police is now busy patrolling local websites and cartoon police characters pop up on local websites to warn against porno and other evil stuff.
Yesterday evening they missed out on something, most probably because their English is too poor.
I was reading the IHT and listening to CRI 88.7, they usually have good pop music on Saturday nights. Except for that stupid rap music I had to endure yesterday, repeating endlessly vulgarities like:
“Mother fucking car, nigger, fuck them, all shit, wanna bit of heroine, wanna bit of ecstasy, etc.”
Otherwise our Chinese friends are very discreet.
Well….

A lot to clean up before August 2008. Hope is on the way:
So, here announces China Daily on 1 September:
The Ministry of Commerce has ordered all public bath houses to make their premises more accessible to public inspections in a bid to fight the growing sex trade.
The ministry released draft rules on Thursday that require bath houses with massage rooms to be viewed openly from the outside.
Foot-massage parlors must have their cubicle doors unlocked when attending clients.
Commerce and health authorities are determined to combat the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in public places.
Earlier last month, the commerce and health authorities ordered all hotels, resorts and public bath houses in the country to provide condom-dispensing machines.
Some cities have already taken the lead in cracking down on the sex trade.
Shanghai introduced regulations last year requiring all bath houses and hair dressing saloons to have clear glass windows.
etc.
Reminds me of Beijing rules long time ago that massage could only be provided by same sex masseurs. Apparently that was stopped to counter gay and lesbian excesses. I can imagine the newly announced rules will be interesting to follow over time. No panic guys & girls, Chinese are clever, always find ways around as this is all unstoppable. You’ll just have to find the right places or wait till after September 2008.
Joke apart, let’s give thumbs up to China for promoting safe sex and condoms. Much better than in some of our hypocritical western countries where condoms are still taboo, thanks to the Vatican, the Republicans and others who are still stuck in another century (or millennium). Talking about sexual liberation!