my crazy week
So today I feel like crap. My legs are killing me, but most importantly I have a jaw ache and I'm pretty sure my neck should not be as tender as it is. On Sunday I was pretty convinced I had tonsillitis, too, but that didn't eventuate. This is, of course, not because I've been eating badly or not getting enough exercise, but because I was out almost every single night last week, and that includes yesterday because it was a long weekend. Which is awesome, because I had been missing, you know, seeing people and stuff, but has been horrible for my bank account and clearly, not so great for my health. But anyway. For posterity, and because I can't manage to write my way out of the paper bag I'm in with my ninoexchange at the moment, here's a summary of what I did over the last week.
Monday 30 May: My friend Ben was back in town and had a party to help raise money for colon cancer awareness. Not entirely randomly, of course, but because when he left last November it turned out that his gastrointestinal issues were not actually just Chinese food being too spicy, but he found that he has colon cancer. He finished a round of pre-operative chemotherapy recently, and is looking great. Most importantly, he seems really positive and has a huge network of friends and family supporting him. He has a blog, called Ben B Brave (his last name is Bravery), and I spent some time reading that before I saw him again as well. The drinks were free, but I gave all the money in my wallet to his fundraiser - at the end of the night there was more than 5500RMB.
Tuesday 31 May: Ben and a much smaller group of friends had dinner at a new Vietnamese restaurant in town, hidden and looking very much like someone's house in a hutong near our place. It was nice and quiet - even if I had to hold down a table for eight for twenty minutes or something. The food wasn't amazing (the trouble with new places is that they get hyped by the owners' friends and not much else) but the atmosphere was great. Definitely one of those gems of the hutongs. It was an early night, though, as Ben had to go to the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) hospital the next morning.
Wednesday 1 June: My one night off! I drank beer and watched TV by myself, it was pretty awesome.
Thursday 2 June: Garth's birthday dinner! He doesn't usually celebrate his birthday, but some of his pushier friends insisted so we went out to this Indian restaurant sort of in the middle of nowhere. The food was really good, even if it was at a hotel that mainly caters to corporate visitors. Afterwards we went to Q Bar for a few drinks and I was, once again, cleared out of money that I had just gotten out on Tuesday.
Friday 3 June: I spent the day at a very nice cafe at Sanlitun Village North which, while great, proved to be an expensive exercise. But I did get a lot done and their coffee was amazing. That night, I went to Wudaokou and had a very nice Korean dinner with Samantha before heading to D-22. There, we saw a few bands and were completely bored, so we were going to head home since Samantha had a ride. However, at the door I met up with Ami and Jo and they had only just gotten there, so Samantha went home and I stuck around. Which was just as well, because the headliner - a NZ band called Die! Die! Die! - was just nuts. The lead singer climbed all over everything and sang in the middle of the audience. The music wasn't necessarily my thing but I really enjoyed the performance.
Saturday 4 June: I woke up super early somehow, went to a really disappointing breakfast (71RMB for fresh juice and one soggy eggs benedict! This place used to be good, too), and then went to buy myself a fan and a new iPhone plastic cover at some markets at Di'anmen. I don't think I did much else all day but that night I went to dinner with Leslie and a bunch of new people for her coworker Jon's birthday. Then there was a bluegrass band at the venue next door, after which Jon and his friends took the stage for their regular jam session. I don't really like their music, so Leslie and I stuck around for a few songs and then headed home.
Sunday 5 June: Didn't wake up quite as early, but had to be at brunch by noon. It was an all-you-can-eat champagne brunch at the Westin hotel with a bunch of new people I met through one of Garth's friends. They were okay, but a little older than me and all in industries and with important sounding jobs and it was... well they were lovely to hang out with, but I have such an inferiority complex I swear. Anyway it was expensive again (460RMB, which is a lot when I usually try not to spend more than 500RMB during the week), but I spent the rest of the day lazing around watching TV, talking with my family on Skype, and not much else.
Monday 6 June: Went out near the Olympic park for a music festival with my newest bff Ami. I met her a while ago but she and I realized recently that we have much more similar tastes in music than anyone else we know, so we decided to go to the festival together. We didn't get going until late, so we only saw a couple of bands: Eels - who played for 90 minutes or something insane - and Super VC, who I was really excited about seeing again. Weirdly, the festival was running ahead of schedule, and rushing to be finished by 9PM (I assume because of regulations on the venue area), so Super VC seemed cut short a bit but that was okay. What was also awesome was that there was alcohol - the last few festivals in Beijing have been dry events, which is upsetting and pointless, so this was a nice reinstatement of alcohol-fuelled enjoyment of music.
... and now it's Tuesday again. I wrote for ninoexchange at work all of last week (as my boss was flitting around the countryside and still isn't back in Beijing), but I stopped over the weekend. I need to get back on track because it is due on Friday and I'm only a little bit more than halfway done with the "banging it out" part; I'll need time to polish this turd too! ;)
Oof, just writing it out and rereading it makes me tired. brb, sleeping for a week.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
Monday 30 May: My friend Ben was back in town and had a party to help raise money for colon cancer awareness. Not entirely randomly, of course, but because when he left last November it turned out that his gastrointestinal issues were not actually just Chinese food being too spicy, but he found that he has colon cancer. He finished a round of pre-operative chemotherapy recently, and is looking great. Most importantly, he seems really positive and has a huge network of friends and family supporting him. He has a blog, called Ben B Brave (his last name is Bravery), and I spent some time reading that before I saw him again as well. The drinks were free, but I gave all the money in my wallet to his fundraiser - at the end of the night there was more than 5500RMB.
Tuesday 31 May: Ben and a much smaller group of friends had dinner at a new Vietnamese restaurant in town, hidden and looking very much like someone's house in a hutong near our place. It was nice and quiet - even if I had to hold down a table for eight for twenty minutes or something. The food wasn't amazing (the trouble with new places is that they get hyped by the owners' friends and not much else) but the atmosphere was great. Definitely one of those gems of the hutongs. It was an early night, though, as Ben had to go to the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) hospital the next morning.
Wednesday 1 June: My one night off! I drank beer and watched TV by myself, it was pretty awesome.
Thursday 2 June: Garth's birthday dinner! He doesn't usually celebrate his birthday, but some of his pushier friends insisted so we went out to this Indian restaurant sort of in the middle of nowhere. The food was really good, even if it was at a hotel that mainly caters to corporate visitors. Afterwards we went to Q Bar for a few drinks and I was, once again, cleared out of money that I had just gotten out on Tuesday.
Friday 3 June: I spent the day at a very nice cafe at Sanlitun Village North which, while great, proved to be an expensive exercise. But I did get a lot done and their coffee was amazing. That night, I went to Wudaokou and had a very nice Korean dinner with Samantha before heading to D-22. There, we saw a few bands and were completely bored, so we were going to head home since Samantha had a ride. However, at the door I met up with Ami and Jo and they had only just gotten there, so Samantha went home and I stuck around. Which was just as well, because the headliner - a NZ band called Die! Die! Die! - was just nuts. The lead singer climbed all over everything and sang in the middle of the audience. The music wasn't necessarily my thing but I really enjoyed the performance.
Saturday 4 June: I woke up super early somehow, went to a really disappointing breakfast (71RMB for fresh juice and one soggy eggs benedict! This place used to be good, too), and then went to buy myself a fan and a new iPhone plastic cover at some markets at Di'anmen. I don't think I did much else all day but that night I went to dinner with Leslie and a bunch of new people for her coworker Jon's birthday. Then there was a bluegrass band at the venue next door, after which Jon and his friends took the stage for their regular jam session. I don't really like their music, so Leslie and I stuck around for a few songs and then headed home.
Sunday 5 June: Didn't wake up quite as early, but had to be at brunch by noon. It was an all-you-can-eat champagne brunch at the Westin hotel with a bunch of new people I met through one of Garth's friends. They were okay, but a little older than me and all in industries and with important sounding jobs and it was... well they were lovely to hang out with, but I have such an inferiority complex I swear. Anyway it was expensive again (460RMB, which is a lot when I usually try not to spend more than 500RMB during the week), but I spent the rest of the day lazing around watching TV, talking with my family on Skype, and not much else.
Monday 6 June: Went out near the Olympic park for a music festival with my newest bff Ami. I met her a while ago but she and I realized recently that we have much more similar tastes in music than anyone else we know, so we decided to go to the festival together. We didn't get going until late, so we only saw a couple of bands: Eels - who played for 90 minutes or something insane - and Super VC, who I was really excited about seeing again. Weirdly, the festival was running ahead of schedule, and rushing to be finished by 9PM (I assume because of regulations on the venue area), so Super VC seemed cut short a bit but that was okay. What was also awesome was that there was alcohol - the last few festivals in Beijing have been dry events, which is upsetting and pointless, so this was a nice reinstatement of alcohol-fuelled enjoyment of music.
... and now it's Tuesday again. I wrote for ninoexchange at work all of last week (as my boss was flitting around the countryside and still isn't back in Beijing), but I stopped over the weekend. I need to get back on track because it is due on Friday and I'm only a little bit more than halfway done with the "banging it out" part; I'll need time to polish this turd too! ;)
Oof, just writing it out and rereading it makes me tired. brb, sleeping for a week.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.