4th week - and not much really to report.
Whilst the UK is under heavy heavy snow, building igloos, factory roof cave ins, schools closed and trains not working we have had the worst weather since I have been here. Temperatures in an evening have dipped to about 10C, Tuesday it poured with rain, and Thursday we had some more. Still it is due to warm up for the weekend, may be 14 to 18C. Cant say I miss the snow and chaos. Just hope the airport is open next week both in Helsinki and Manchester.
Cultural differences still prevail. Went to a Japanese restaurant on Wednesday evening. The cook and staff were told of my dislike of seafood. They managed to avoid giving me the lobster that they cooked alive in front of us, however the whelk and mushroom salad as an alternative to the tuna fish cake was interesting, as was the roe on foie gras. Even more funny when they tried to scrape the roe off.
One thing I have found that always seems to be done well is pumpkin soup. Sometimes it is done with cream other times without. Apparently it is a favourite of many Chinese so done well. Worth trying when you come here.
On a different culinary scale 4 of us working late (conference calls with UK and US mean have to do them at 2100 or later to avoid someone having to be up in the middle of the night.) went to get a quick bite to eat close to the office. We were recommended a place on the next block. Wandered in to find a Chinese Italian restaurant. We have Italian restaurants in England so why not in China? The menu had fried rice with bolognaise sauce, noodles with bolognaise some sort of cannelloni type dish with rice. I stuck to the Hawaiian pizza - which was very good, but the BBQ chicken and fried rice left a lot to be desired. Still for less than £4 a head with drinks - cant be bad.
Had some altertaions to the house this week. The walk in wardrobes has six rials for hanging stuff. However they are above drawers and shelves. The gap between rail is too small so when you hang a suit or a shirt on the rails the bottom 5 or 6 inches of the garment rests and crumples on the shelf. Every wardrobe is the same. Obviously not designed for suits or shirts that fit a 6ft 2in Englishman. The workmen came Tuesday and removed some shelves - suits hang perfectly now.
Last week I received an e-mail from the house mmanagement company, to tell me the Ayi (house keeper) wanted me to buy Glass cleaner so she could do the shower and some of teh doors properly. Well after much effort I did so in Carrefour and left it on the side for the Ayi. Monday arrived home after the Ayi had been to find two other bottles of glass cleaner - different makes, a window cleaner squeegee and sponge on the side with receipt from carrefour. Obviously male englishman chose the wrong stuff!
Now have a very basic mobile phone for use in China. China brand of phone and very cheap. So it is easier for the china team to get hold of me and cheaper - rather than ringing the UK etc., Trouble is though I selected English language option, trying to send and receiving texts they appear in Chinese. So not a chance in understanding them. The instructions are also in Chinese so havent worked out how to change that.
So early start tomorrow - 7.31 tee off time, - sorry for those in the UK who will just have to watch re-runs of old sporting events
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