Published by Swiss James on 28 Feb 2009
Whilst searching for ukulele songs I found a site called, well, ukulelesongs.com.
Lots of good stuff on there, but what caught my eye was the advert at the bottom of the screen.
Now that’s what I call targeted marketing.
Published by Swiss James on 27 Feb 2009
Check this out then:
It’s a jigsaw puzzle of China where each province is a different piece. Me and her bought it on Fuzhou Lu and put it together back at home.
Was a pretty good test of how well we know the geography of China (of course the names help, Hebei is further north than Henan you know…) and we finished the thing in about 10 minutes.
If there was a similar map of English counties I’d still be trying to finish the thing- everywhere below Nottingham is just “down South” to me.
Chinese provnices jigsaw
5RMB from a bookstore on Fuzhou Lu
Published by Swiss James on 26 Feb 2009
Today I feel awful. Got a hangover so bad that you could wring my tongue out and use it to clean floors.
So I went to KFC at lunchtime instead of writing a new post on this blog. Deal with it.
Published by Swiss James on 25 Feb 2009
Walking down Jingling Lu, near(ish) the Bund on Saturday I had a sudden urge to buy a Ukulele.
Don’t know where it came from, but it was overwhelming, like a thirst. I went into a couple of shops before finding a cheeky little yellow number.
The asking price was 240RMB. I didn’t argue, I was in love. Anyway my bargaining power was compromised after I danced around the shop going
“Look at the little strings! And it’s covered in fruit!!”
By the time I got home I’d picked up “Shake Rattle and Roll” (the taxi driver actually turned down his radio to listen) and now I reckon I can play a few songs reasonably well.
This isn’t necessarily one of them:
A note on the video: Youtube is rubbish in China- takes forever to load, so I’ve also put it on a local site called Tudou (”Potato”).
It was pretty easy to do; good old Google Translate eh?
On Tudou
On YouTube.
Yellow Ukulele all covered in fruit
240RMB including bag- from a guitar shop on Jing Ling Lu (proper address to follow)
Published by Swiss James on 24 Feb 2009
Picture the scene- I’m on the subway, doing my yoga exercises, clipping my fingernails and generally minding my own business when I see a tall foreign guy get on.
Taking a quick glance at his shoes I notice that they were similar, no- identical to mine.
Shoe Twin! I'm on the right
I’ll give you a minute to compose yourself. Click “Read On” when you’re ready
Published by Swiss James on 23 Feb 2009
The last time I locked myself out of an apartment I took a taxi to a cheap hotel, paid about 200RMB for a night in a cold room on threadbare sheets, and waited in the morning for the Ayi to let me in.
This Sunday when I locked myself out, I went to a spa for 5 hours, spent about the same money and came back looking 10 years 5 years 6 months younger slightly less like a wrinkled thumb.
The place was called Xiao Nan Guo, it’s a chain with a branch on Yan’An Lu, 11RMB in a taxi away from my house.
When I lived in Korea I would go to saunas / spas quite a lot so I know the rules:
At this place they had a bunch of odd spa type treatments. I had 4 hours to kill before Emma came back from work so I got loads of them.
After all of the wet type stuff above, you change into the provided Hawaiian shirt and shorts set, meet up with anyone of the opposite sex that you came in with and head off to drink coffee, read, play computer games or…
Delivered whilst you sit in an easy chair, watching a personal TV. The most relaxing way I can imagine spending a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Full price list
Full price list contd
Published by Swiss James on 20 Feb 2009
Last night I bought a Nintendo DS including all of the technical trickery you need to download copied games. The game I really want for the DS is called Korg DS-10 and is basically a full synthesizer you can play in the palm of your hand.
The shop I bought the Nintendo from didn’t have this ‘game’ on Wednesday when I went in, but last night they had it hot off the internet and ready to roll.
There’ll be no more of this reading books nonsense for me on the subway home!
Nintendo DS Lite + NDSTT card + 2G memory = 1150RMB
Orange looking computer shop on Beijing Xi Lu (between Changde Lu and Jiaozhou Lu)
