Beijing Evenings and days

It's been raining quite a lot here lately, I never remember it rained this much before in this super dry city. There was also a huge flood while I was in Shanghai a few weeks ago. If it's something local people are afraid of it's water. When it rains it's impossible to get any kinda of taxi and all streets are completely blocked because people tend to take their cars. Also, the traffic police are gone as well because they don't like standing out in the rain.....so it's more or less a chaos when it starts pouring down...Coming home from the office also takes a lot longer time.

                 

One day when I left the office a little later than usual the buss terminal in Dongzhimen was completely packed. There must have been about 200 meter of que to the buss...This about doing this twice a day 5 days a week. I'd go insane and change the city or district I live in ASAP! Don't see how people cope with this.

And when mentioning the office I found a crab in our kitchen one day. Thought someone had got a new pet or something. After lunch when I came back I saw my colleague washing the tank where they kept it. So I asked "where is the crab?" It's dead Seba"....Wait, what? It turns out a girl at our office had poured a lot of chinese alcohol on it and tried making a popular dish called "Drunk crab" Obviously this was not the way of making that dish. RIP crab...

We went out to check some new restaurants one night. Found a cool  Japanese cocktail (everythings cute in Japan) place and a German bar selling 1 meter beer or 15 liters on a tap to your own table. Sanlitun, love ya!

 A meter of beer!

 Work safety first!

  Work efficiency is often very high here :) But they keep hiring people for "useless" jobs

Bling bling galore silver benz!

Summer Party - 2 Kolegas

Now it's proven that you can find a cheap party in Beijing! For 100 rmb you could get into the Summer 2012 new music showcase. In the price the ticket, beer and food was included. They had all kinds of beers available and there were no ques or other annoying things with getting it. Just premium beer and great service! Wish there were parties like this more often. The also roasted 4 whole pigs, but it was still not enough to feed all the hungry people at the concert after the long day....Still, loads of fun!

 DJ stage, early evening before people started to drop in

 Roasting the pork - Laakso, this on is for you, remember tiny Tim?

 Chinese heavy rock on the indoor premesis...the singer kinda looked like Kim Jong-Un

There was a goat next to the DJ stage...wonder why

Mao Livehouse - Knuckelbone Oscar

Was invited to a concert that turned out to be a Finnish band called Knuckelbone Oscar. It was the best stage performance in Rock and Roll I have ever seen. The band members were jumping down from the scene, running around the audience, spitted beer on the people in first row, broke a guitar and just going berserk on the stage. So much energy!! I even bought their cd and T-Shirt after the gig. It must be the first time in 15 year I buy a record...Last one I can remember buying was Michael Jackson - Blood on the dance floor and that must have been middle school or something. 

 Love the hair :)

 Amazing drummer from Lappland

 Jumping down from the stage and play in the ground

 Throwing around some drums

 Standing and jumping on the drum set

 Buying the band merchandise after the gig

At "we want more 2 more songs were played"

Can food get more lovely?

Don't know when I had this much fun eating and ordering food before. Some of these pictures are just priceless and beyond ridiculous translations!!

Sounds wonderful (actually the word to describe a can is same as listen in Chinese)

 BADAM

Chicken comes, bacteria goes

 Well if you can turn water into wine then why not wood into meat?

 Please pass me the home made skin mom....

 Boom goes the bamboo

 Seriously don't tell anyone 

 Dei die you deep sea fish head! AY!

 Volume donkey pancakes....that has nothing to do with the chinese text! It's suppose to be a wrap with donkey meat...where do they get these??

Clusterluck - When it rains, it pours

It's nice to be back in Beijijng again after 2 months of "exile" in Finland and Shanghai. Didn't even feel like I was away from "home" for 2 months.

But these last 7 days have been seriously unlucky. And this picture below just describes how retarded I feel now! That feeling I seem to have daily!

Firstly: Last weekend on Friday I managed to fall in Kokomos stairs and hit hit face so I got some small bruises, well that was no big deal. Went to the hospital and took a CT scan which showed I was perfectly fine. BUT that same day my phone got stolen. Luckily I had all phone information saved on my iCloud so it was just to go and buy a new phone from Apple store and then download the saved info, check! This is one reason why it's so convenient to have an iphone (although I know you can also fix this with an Android).

Anyway, yesterday we went out Karting for 2 rounds with some friends. I took some pictures of the track with my phone and started panicking after the race when I got out of the car without a phone. I thought I had it safely in my pocket. I did not. It fell out of my pocket and the guy behind me or whoever on the track drove right over it smashing the whole screen, camera etc. Well, off to Apple shop and repair it for 1200 rmb. So, did you have a better 7 days than me? Feeling lucky, punk - NO? Now I know exactly how Harry felt when he had a bad day...

Yepp yepp, a few cracks....Wonder how many cars drove over it

One thing would be great if u guys back home would leave a short comment even once every 2 months because I have no idea who is even reading this all....

Riding in rush hour

It's always the same in mornings and when people get of work, traffic traffic traffic! Also, the same thing in weekends when you want to get out to a restaurant from dinner.

The best way to move around in Shanghai on weekend evenings is by black motorbike drivers! They usually charge the same of 10 rmb more than a taxi. Depends how "primetime" it is for them.

For visuals, click HERE

Shanghai for a week

Stayed in Shanghai for a weeks work since my flight came here from Finland. Had some meetings and other things to take care of. I have never seen the weather so clear and skies so blue here. Every day of the 9 days  I spent here was blue sky, sunshine and clear white clouds. Never seen it like this before! Got a really nice tan after Finlands rainy weather.

Views from Robertos flat, probably the best in Shanghai!
Click the image to see better

Office view from 15th floor. 

Going back by train because I had so much stuff. Takes 5h 

On the second day my computer got a virus from an email. It was unable to start any program and completely useless. Luckily I had a backup on it, it was just to install all software over again. They also opened it and cleaned it for me, it was getting overheated by the amout of dust it had inside. Sometimes services here in China are amazing!

We went out to check a place called DADA since they are one of the only clubs playing electronic music all night. On the way we found this "street bar". The owner gave us free drinks and said we should spread word...so here is my part of the word spreading. It's just outside The Apartment and drinks are 20rmb each. 

My shorts I bought up in Lappland some time ago bailed on me. I was going to a restaurant opening and this happend on the way when I was driving my scooter there. Well this is China so no big deal, it was dark and i don't think too many noticed. 

Food after coming home in the evening, always great to get some BBQ chicken and fried noodles! And it's really really cheap! Too bad they don't have this outside my Beijing apartment. In Shanghai it's just taking the elevator down and they are ALWAYS there are 22.00!

The Last Supper

A month passed so fast! Too bad I was sick for over half of the time and had to spend a lot of time in bed just sleeping and fighting the fever. Hopefully it will be better next year. I will not be coming to Finland this Xmas since we are spending it with family around Asia. At least it's going to be warm :)

I tried to meet as much people as possible during my stay but it's not always easy to catch everyone because of different holiday plans already made in advance. Sorry Tommy for not being able to come to you bachelors party and wedding, would really have loved to! Congrats to both of you! 

As for "the last supper" me and Dad went to Roadhouse, best kebabs in town!! Goodbye for a year again Finland!