04/02

The morning started with someone flooding the bathroom. We've stayed here before but not in this room, but I would guess the bathroom has recently been refitted, with a very powerful shower, however the drain has not been equally upgraded and it now shown that it is possible to flood the shallow tray in about 15 seconds QED. 

Did I also mention the desk lamp that electrocutes, or the heating that comes on as soon as one leaves the room, so it's necessary to leave the window open all day? And what about the robes - we had two for one day but one disappeared, and the other has a cord that just about meets when Hubby is wearing it but has no chance when it's my turn. Or the clothes-hanger that broke, we left it out but it was just shoved back into the wardrobe. Or the loo-roll holder that is impossible to reach, or the basin plug that won't stay in? All just everyday challenges in our room! And don't mention the static, it will get you when you're least expecting it. 

Hubby went to NCPA today to have the meeting he planned to have yesterday. I stayed home and worked, battling against the dubious internet connection. Currently Google is out of favour which makes life quite difficult as that includes all Google services like maps, graphs, charts, mail and other exotica, as does the 20 second lag on nearly every Internet lookup outside the country. Some pages take significantly longer than that. 

Hubby brought back lunch and then we the went walkies up North from the hotel. Heading up the side of the Forbidden City we were in "Whitehall" district where every building is heavily guarded by legions of police and army. Looking fresh-faced, some of these young boys even smile (I give big grins to everyone, I'm from Yorkshire) which is disconcerting for the others, hopefully I won't get locked up. However the ones in brown-jacket, black trousers and shoes, with no discerning markings do not like it, they just glower back - presumably some form of special service? The area is huge, spanning a block the same width and hight as the Forbidden City, just to the West, with two huge lakes in the centre. 

Directly North of here is the lovely Beihai Park where we visit a temple, climb up to a chedi, watch people ice-skating and generally messing about on the frozen lake and wander round for a while before heading back on the other side of "Whitehall" unnerving yet more soldiers. 

A quick afternoon tea and it's time to change into suits and head back to NCPA. I head FOH whilst hubby meets with the Deputy Chair of the NCPA. The performance is excellent once again, and for some reason (and why not?) there are flowers tonight for Daisy and Gatsby.

We return to the hotel for dinner, but our steaks are cooked to "medium well" and "well done" upside down to what we ordered, so they have to go back. Not sure how rare translates but second time they were lovely, allbeit half an hour late! Well past 23:00 we decide to make do with chocolate bars instead of dessert, here Galaxy Dove is exceptionally good, especially the dark one!