Last month, I joined my first ever alleycat since I got my fixie from Natooke some time last summer and got DFL (dead fuckin’ last), well not really because I came back after the cut-off time. 4 hours and 40 minutes of getting lost all over Beijing starting from 798 to Chaoyang Park, Drum and Bell Tower, Bird’s Nest and back, riding alongside Chinese cyclists and shouting “Shifu! Do you know how to get to …?!” Tired and dirty with my confidence growing little by little as I fought the crazy traffic of cars, bicycles and people. I am proud that I went to all the checkpoints and completed the race, coming in 6th place. Videos of the race here and here.

Beijing’s gotten a lot warmer and I’m bracing myself for the impending heat wave armed with The Tipping Point and The Party. Meanwhile, I’ve given up on recovering zakka-zakka.com and the old craft blog has moved to woolgather.me.

Home Sweet Home

And here’s a picture of my 31.5m² of goodness that was my studio apartment in Chongwenmen. My bathroom was behind the kitchen and came with a shower head with strength of a leaking hose but made it up with a toilet capable of flushing down toilet paper. What you’re seeing now is the result of more than a year of personalisation (thank you, IKEA), which I’ve learnt makes living abroad a lot easier and better. You have to make it home, and it becomes home. Moving out of Chongwenmen means leaving urban comforts such as fast food joints (MacDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Yoshinoya) and my staple brands H&M, Muji and Uniqlo behind. I will miss the DVD guy and remember the night-time BBQ guy outside my apartment, both of whom never failed to show up throughout the seasons.

Disclaimer: Apartment had been cleaned and uncluttered before photo-taking because my landlord wanted pictures to advertise for new tenants.

Don’t have the chance to see it in Japan so I had to settle for the ones in Beijing. Yuyuantan (玉渊潭) Park is located between subway stations Gongzhufen (公主坟) and Muxidi (木樨地). It’s quite a walk from the subway so if you’re unable to ask for directions, it’d be better that you take a cab. It might be unfair for me to say that the cherry blossoms in Beijing are unimpressive given that I haven’t seen them anywhere else. Maybe it’s because the grounds had more earth than grass with the exception of random spots like in the photo above.

Midi Music Festival and Strawberry Festival this weekend! I’m going for Midi (flea market, yay!) and probably White Rabbit, post-party. It’s a shame that I’ve never been to Zoukout or The White Rabbit in Singapore; gonna make the effort to if I go home…

庙会

Is it raining outside? Afraid not. It’s just endless fireworks day and night since the eve and it’s still going on. We went to Chaoyang Park Temple Fair (庙会) to rub off some of the festive atmosphere. Entrance was 15rmb and I don’t quite understand why this counts as a Spring Festival fair as international food stalls greet you. Lots of game stalls, terribly stingy with the prizes. We had a good time on the bumper cars though, I love bumper cars.

2010-01-08 0941: Orange

This is my kitchen. My new IKEA chopping block and knife. That’s me, standing on a wobbly stool that the tenant left behind. The door of my front-load washing machine left ajar with fresh dirty laundry in the queue. This could have been a better picture if I had paid more attention to the horizontal lines. Photoshop won’t fix it now, my toes would be cropped. I could have taken another shot if the orange hadn’t been eaten. But I like this photo because it tells the story of a moment in my life right now.

New year’s day came and went like a regular night’s out with some friends and a couple of drinks and work the next day. Browsing through my friends’ blogs, Twitter and Facebook with my new paid VPN subscription, reminded me of the good ol’ New Year’s resolution.

Ever since my spine operation (about 8 years ago?), I’ve lost my flexibility. I wanna touch my toes again.
Join a yoga/pilates class.

I’ve quit my first job in Beijing. If overworked and underpaid aren’t reasons enough to leave, send me your resume. Awaiting results from my second interview at a reputable English school, thanks to my CELTA tutor for introducing. Fingers crossed that I get the position as an ESL teacher; working 25 hours per week would give me plenty of time to explore this city and take more pictures. I want to improve my photography. I also wanna learn Japanese, maybe Spanish, or learn to play the guitar.

11:50am
Beautiful day for a photo-walk. Gonna go grab some 1RMB meat buns off the hutong I discovered near my estate yesterday.

View from my apartment

Realised I left out a lot of information about my Europe trip after going through the digital footprints on my laptop. Particularly fish and chips from North Sea Fish near Passfield Hall, with vinegar instead of mayonnaise. My last couple of days in Europe were spent getting wasted every night with Hert and Kyle, two American soldiers I met in Paris who really changed my perspective on wars. I can never watch another war flick or read news about wars the same way again.

The previous posts are a year late and I’m currently in Beijing embarking on the next chapter of my life. Snow cheers me up in these negative temperatures.