25 and feeling not any older

Beijing has certainly been in my good books of late. In some strange phenomenon that challenges the many opinions held by many Western expats and news bodies across the world, we’ve seen nothing but blue skies and clear, sunny days for near on three weeks now. The warm, pleasant weather has certainly brought that usual summery lift to my mood, especially considering it was cold and grey barely a month ago. My first day where the Beijing thermometers hit the mid-twenties was spent with me being a little over excited, forgetting that beer at 1pm coupled with sunshine equals lethargy, which left me reluctant to move for the rest of the day. I’m continuing the fashion of not learning from many of life’s mistakes by repeating this feat of sitting outside a café in warm weather getting slowly drunk in the afternoon; which I must say is certainly helping these words roll out from my often uninspired brain onto the computer.

Had a decent birthday last week, which began with my official entry into the 21^st century by getting a smart phone, HTC of course, as I’m far too special for those common Iphones. It was a sweet present which was made even sweeter by the way it given to me, as Simone decided to kidnap by old beloved (yet dying) Motorola whilst I was deeply focused on a Pro Evolution soccer game, changed the SIM card into the new phone, and wrapped it up in a secret location in the flat. Having realised my phone was missing, I entered a state of being somewhere between panic and confusion, called my phone from Simone’s own, heard an unrecognisable ringtone, and eventually located it hidden in a drawer. Great present! Though the touch screen pad still confuses my fat fingers. The birth “day” quickly snowballed into a birth “week” due to various work commitments, though I was able to celebrate it properly with the usual Sunday night gathering after work with several of my dearest in Beijing. Working as an English teacher does certainly require you to take on a schedule which seems to prevent English teachers form mingling with the rest of society as we often work on weekends, with the conventional Friday night out of shenanigans and mischief occurring on a Sunday. Sorry god.

Thou shalt not get pissed on Sunday

Up until recently I have had a pretty relaxed schedule, working intensely on the weekends with a lesson here or there in the evenings on weekdays. Now however, I have been required to teach a Kindergarten which has recently signed a contract with my school, meaning I have to be up at 6.30 every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to be picked up and taken to this school for lessons starting at 8.30 and ending at 11.30. I say picked up, though the first couple of days left me waiting for an hour while the driver navigated his way around the terrors of the Beijing rush hour, and with me having to direct him to his own school the first few times we went. As I mentioned, my work schedule does, for better or for worse, allow to me live relatively outside the normal 9-5 slog, though this new job at the Kindergarten has exposed to me to the true nature of Beijing’s rush hour at full flow. The first days I saw several incidents such a guy being knocked off his bike by a car followed by a brief argument while the poor guy was still lying on the floor, and a car driving in front tailgating another car which led to the inevitable bump as the car in front stopped, and the two drivers simultaneously opening their doors almost in sync as they got out to quarrel in the middle of the motorway. The pick of the bunch however was seeing a bus, which had seemingly driven through a barrier on an intersection on an elevated motorway, and had crashed down onto the grass about twenty five feet below. Judging by the amount of debris and the absence of the emergency services, we’d obviously missed this by a few minutes, though it was pretty horrific driving past the wreck of the bus with all its smashed windows and possibilities of people being trapped inside. Accidents like this happen all the time in China, and go frequently go unreported save for online social websites spreading the stories around the net. Still goes to prove that even after three years there are some things here that don’t take much to shock me, in both good and bad ways.

Fallen through a barrier? You ain't seen nothing till you've had a bomb on a bus

Having these ongoing experiences whilst in China, plus a discussion with a local Beijinger about China’s ups and downs, has led me to start writing an article about things I love and loathe about China, and maybe I’ll start posting it bit by bit on Facebook or similar sites should anyone be interested to have a peek. I found that writing the bad points took up much more word space that the good points, though I feel a lot of the negative things here need explanation as there are often relatively legit reasons behind them. Anyway writings like this can offer a different perspective on China rather than those BBC articles which constantly highlight it’s downfalls from the eye of a developed democratic nation; Beijing correspondent Damian Grammaticas being a prime example of this, with article headings such as:- Are China's leaders worried? Welcome to the Beijing smog ,China's pollution, Held 'hostage' by China, When words are crimes in China, Confronting the China challenge, China's critical poor gather to watch premier, Damaging coup rumours and so on.