Yesterday

Tomorrow we have the annual P&G party and the theme is Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. My group inherited of Yesterday. While the people who were here over the last 2 weeks actively worked on this party with different activities and talent shows, the rest of us only have to show up dressed as "Yesterday". To be honest the foreigners who arrived in the last 3 months haven't put too much effort into it (it's just an office party). Until we realized in the last couple of days that it is a serious business. All locals have been thinking about their outfit and part if talent shows quite a lot. So out of desperation (or guilt) we went tonight shopping for our Yesterday outfit. And I can tell you it is not easy when you don't have much inspiration (it is not too late to get a dress from one of the Chinese dynasties) and no matter what clothes never suit you. Not to mention they do not have any carnival shops here... I finally found a shirt that looks like from the late 1800s which suits me (and nothing else as I can barely breathe) which I will have to accommodate somehow. Hopefully I will not have to wear it too long and will switch to my "red carpet" outfit as soon as possible. Now let's see how the party is going to be...

Chicken or Beef

Most likely it will be beef as of now. A woman died a few days ago in Beijing of the bird flu. Measures have been taken to prevent any further casualty but still people feel uneasy around me, especially those cooking. Let's hope it was just an isolated case.

Mixer

Yesterday Aaron asked me if I wanted to a mixer. Quid? Cindy, a friend of his, is an English teacher in Beijing (highly needed as you may imagine). Every now and then she organizes a mixer, i.e. a dinner with her students and she invites foreigners to speak English with them.
So tonight, Aaron, Dave, Tami, James, Tamara and myself joined her students from Lenovo in a restaurant. While having dinner we were getting to know each other and answered the million of questions they had for us on how we find China and how life out of China is. It was really a nice evening and we all exchanged our emails and phone number as all of them wanted to see us again so they could practice their English and us our Chinese. Not so sure about the latter but it would be nice to know Chinese people out of P&G or have more people with whom have coffee or dinner.

The masseuse was a masseur

First night back in China and of course I go for a massage. Although my physiotherapist had managed to squeeze me in last week, after the travel my back clearly needed an intervention. I was a bit surprised when a masseur arrived instead of the usual masseuse. The little Chinese girl was this time a little Chinese man. Well I thought, whatever, a masseur is a masseur. What difference will it make? It does make a difference because the hard massage by the man was clearly harder than the one from the girls. I guess hard with the girls is soft with the man. So it was painful especially because he had decided that no tensed muscle will resist to him. He pushed, squeezed, rubbed hard, harder than usual. The discomfort I usually feel was pain this time as obviously my muscles were not cooperative. Let's face it the pressure applied by the knee of a girl of 50-60kg is not the same as the one of a man of 70-80kg.

I could barely walk afterwards feeling like a bulldozer had driven over me. But I did sleep like a baby despite the jet lag. Maybe not that bad actually... Still I'll ask for a girl next time.

Swimming pool

After the long trip and a busy afternoon in the office, I decided to go to the gym. When I realized that my fitness outfit and the running shoes were in the suitcase missing, I grabbed my swimming-suit and went to the pool. What a great idea! I had the pool for myself, I could swim, float, exercise, relax, do whatever I wanted... the space was mine!
I have decided that my 1st resolution of the year will be to go there more often. After all I always say that my barrier to go swimming is that you need to find a pool, get there, struggle with opening hours, etc. Now I have a pool right here, 12 floors below, open until 10pm, and nearly almost empty. I really have no excuse.

Something is missing

My suitcase :(
I feared my suitcases would not make it given how late I dropped them. So I was happy to see the 1st one come out. The problem is that the 2nd one, the big one, the one with my clothes, pains d'epices and chocolate never showed up. I waited until the end, until someone came and ask me if my name was on the list he was holding. It was the list of passengers whose luggage were still in Paris. Of course my name was on it :(
I was impressed by how fast it was for me to fill in the forms for my "lost" luggage although I would have preferred not to have to. Now keep your fingers crossed my suitcase will take today's flight and it will be delivered tomorrow. Otherwise I will have to go shopping and spend the Amex insurance money (maybe something to consider :))

Flight AF126 or Run, Baby, Run

Yesterday I flew back to Beijing. I was booked on the train at 16:09 in Brussels to catch the flight at 18:55 in Paris. I usually take the train earlier so I don't need to stress about the short connection and have time to see my sister or friends. However this time it was not possible so short connection it was. Very short. I arrived on the platform at 17:45 and rushed to drop my luggage. Fortunately this time there were some trolley on the platform so I didn't have to waste time looking for one. Nicely and with a stressed smile I bypassed every one in the lane for drop-off and dropped the 2 suitcases. I ran to the security only to discover that I had to take a shuttle to get to the gate. So shuttle it was and finally the security check. Despite the VIP access for Business Class there were still some people. But my favourite part, as usual in Charles de Gaulle, I get to go through the full search. So I had to put on the belt the 2 laptops, the photo frame, the DS, the bags, the trolley and the shoes. Imagine the circus it was. Of course, even though it's "random" they wanted to search my bags and check for explosive. It's systematic with me: each time I fly via Charles de Gaulle I get searched. Am I stressed? No, of course, at this point what can I do? It got even better when the girl mis-used the machine to detect explosives and they had to re-start it. In total I spent 15min there, waiting. To be fair for once the staff was friendly and polite. After this delay I ended up being the last passenger to embark; 2nd time in a month it happens to me :)
Once in the aircraft, I finally relaxed mid-way through the dinner and enjoyed watching 2 movies: Mes stars et moi, a French comedy, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the latest Woody Allen with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz.