Land Rover - Making a commercial

I was asked to join a Land Rover commercial clip. My role was to tell how Land Rover is seen in UK and how great a car it is! So i was just making up stories about the car while camera was rolling. Was my first time I've done anything like this. And I wasn't even British so can't really say how people in UK see the car. But something like: It's a high end car, safe and fast and high quality...

1,2,3, action!

Walk around the shop looking at stuff

 Newest Land Rover, price 1.3 million rmb

Definitely need more Land Rovers in this traffic...

Beijing Ducks - Floor-ball @ Beijing

In Shanghai we had Hakkapeliitta floor-ball team and won the Chinese championship a few times. The Beijing Ducks did really well in our last Hong Kong tournament so let's see how our next tournament goes. The playtime is from 19.30 - 21.30 and it gets REALLY hot running indoors with no air conditioning when it's about 30 degrees warm.

                                     

The Ducks are playing in WAB which stands for Western Academy Of Beijing. It's an foreign international school with only people from abroad. Chinese kids with Chinese passport is not allowed to go to this school because the teachings might not be "correct" and no government officials are allowed to interfere with the learning materials. 

This and that happens on the road

While walking around the streets here in Beijing there are always some things that catch your attention. For example the way locals deliver things here, people wearing umbrellas on a sunny day so they they will not get tanned or houses torn down. 

So many people walk around with umbrellas on sunny day because it's still taught a "status" thing to be pale. The paler you are the better because if you are dark it means that you do labor outside. This is totally the opposite in Finland and so many other western countries.

 Rubble just next to a high end living quarter, in a few months there will probably be a 10 story house...

 This bike is SUPER, or at least it says so

 How beer is transported to shops and bars

 The water guy crashed with his small 3 wheeler. Caught this from the taxi, the guy seemed to be in 1 piece

 Hollywood movies with steaming sewers

Beijng's # 1 Brunch - Capital M

Capital M has been woted to one of the best brunch places in Beijing. It's an Australian guy who started it. The location is amazing just south of Tian An Men Square and food amazing! They also have a restaurant in Shanghai by the bund called M On The Bund which also has very high ratings.

For the brunch you can choose 2 or 3 courses, price is almost the same around 30 Euros. It also includes a free of choice cocktail and limitless coffee (any kind of coffee)

One of Beijing's best restaurant views of the Tiananmen Square

  Restaurant theme is 1920s all over

The reason why I chose this place was because it was Mikkos 18th birthday and birthday of that age should be remembered forever...I remember my 18th birthday, had too many tequilas and I still can't manage to drink shots of it except for some reason when James talks me into it...

Worlds Biggest SPA - Shun Jing @ Beijing

It's been quite some time since I was here last time! Henkka and Stefan you were both here about 2 years ago! There are almost 10.000 m2 of pools, hot springs and saunas here! They also build a huge grotto area where no one was swimming. In general this place was kinda empty considering we went here on a Saturday around 4 pm when it should be "rush hour". Price at the door is about 25 Euros but if you buy online the tickets it's about half that price. And for that ticket you can spend 24 hours in the SPA. They have a chill room for sleeping and also offer drinks (own beer which tasted strange) and massage. All in all WORTH the money! Hope you liked your birthday present Mikko :)

If this is not fake they made it into the worlds biggest SPA list

Their own beer which tasted kinda strange

Yes, everything looks very fancy here...

View from the reception

Cave area

Rubs The Regio Dorsells??

Blind Massage

Sunday and tired after 2 days of hard workout in the gym. Instead of going to Bodhy me and Mikko went for blind massage. They only charge 50 rmb/hour and it was pretty good. The place was popular! While we were there 4 people came asking if they are free but it was booked until 22pm and we were there at 17pm. Great massage! Will def. come again! And for 400 rmb you can buy a card to go there 10x!

New Office Opening Ceremony

Now the Beijing office is officially opened! We were blessing it with incense, BBQ port and Chicken. This is mainly done in Hong Kong for good luck and good business. The pig was barbecued in the morning and still warm when they brought it to the office. 

Comedy Night

The Swedish chamber organized a Stand-Up night at Live Bar. There were 6 persons on the stage from different countries. Some were good, some not...Drinks were cheap and the place was very cozy and "Beijingnese" old styled bar. 

   

                           

                                     

Finland vs. Canada - Beijing Hockey

As a hockey loving country we have a hockey team in Beijing as well who trains 2 times a week in one of the many arenas that are frozen all year. The event started with some 6-10 year old school kids singing oldschool classic songs on the roof stage like "Eye of the tiger" and "We will rock you". They did pretty good and were dressed up like Spice Girls :)

 Whaaaaaa, am I on camera?

The game is about to begin! I the first round we scored 3 times but second and third Finland did poorly and finally let in 5 goals. Better luck next time! Hope we can still win the World Championship like last year!

On the break time some kids were playing. Can't have been more than 10 years old.

Polar bear on ice :)

Canada wins, 5-3

And the game ends...

Lots of people were watching

Tickets were about 5 Euros

Funny things you see here...

This guy should definitely get the worker of the year price. Did your job get boring? Is your boss giving you a hard time? Go out in the street and have a powernap!!

Now and then they have dance classes in the gym I go to. The girls there dress up in miniskirts and high heels while doing the "dance". It's really funny to watch. There are also surprisingly lot of guys doing the same dance. What can we learn from this? Aerobics classes in China are not the same as back home....

 This is one of the most innovative "hands free" devices I've seen. Like a Boss.

Wudaokou and how it changed

It's been a long time since I was in Wudaokou and it has changed a lot. But some of my favorite places are still there like Lush and Helen's cafe. The building where Red House used to be is no more. It was one of the best pizza places in Beijing!
The cloth market had also been torn down, only a small part of it was left standing. The old one was great, crappy but they always had some nice clothes to be found for a good price and no need for too much bargaining either like in the silk market where they ask for 500 and you end up giving them 30.

New building where the old low restaurant building used to be, goodbye Red House Pizza

All that is left of the cloth market....

The menu in Lush was about the same but everything around 20% more expensive than before. Although it's still fairly cheap :) Helen's still have their cheap drinks and Propaganda was still there but didn't go there, some other weekend.

BLCU had changed the most! So many new buildings coming up. I could not believe that it changed so much in such a short time. Last time I was here was last year in May. At that time none of these buildings were here.

Where did these all buildings come from in 12 months?

My old school building. First semester on 2nd floor, 2nd semester on 3rd floor

The air was CRAZY bad when I did the Wudaokou tour and when I came home it felt like I had smoked 3 packs of cigarettes. My lungs hurt for a few hours. Please get less polluted in the future Beijing!!