A Nice Day Out

After weeks of gray, grim skies that reminded us why Beijing is often referred to as "the Beige" by long-term expats, and loads of uncharacteristic rain, broken up by only one day of sunny blue skies last Sunday, Saturday morning broke with the pattern and gave us yet another gorgeous day, this time coupled with high temperatures. This was very timely, since the HR department at work had planned an outing to the Agrilandia Italian farm out in rural Beijing, about an hour away from our hospital. We were to meet up at 9:30 at the hospital and gather in a bus for the ride to the farm, and when I arrived I learned that one of my colleagues had brought her beautiful 8-month old Husky along. They then asked why I had not brought my dog(s), and offered to have the bus swing by the apartment to pick Leo up. We had to do a bit of persuading of the driver, who was not crazy about carrying one dog on board, much less two, but eventually he came around.

Leo has not left the apartment that many times since arriving in Beijing, so this was a big day for him. He was a very good boy on the bus, though he clearly wanted to have a bit more space to check the other dog out. When we got to the farm we let the two dogs off the leash, and they got down to their thing, running around, causing havoc, and just being dogs. The farm itself was lovely, though we did not spend much time exploring it, focusing instead on having a very good Italian lunch (though my Chinese colleagues were woefully unaware of a) how to order Italian food or b) how to eat it; the way they ate spaghetti was particularly interesting). We also visited their hotel, which has beautiful rooms overlooking the fields (and which are being discounted for the months of July and August--guess they also are suffering from the difficulties visitors are having getting visas).



Lest you think that only Leo had a chance to get out, we also gave Genghis a bit of an outing. It had been a while since he'd been groomed, and as a result his fur was flying all over the place, and his claws would make an awful click-click-click noise whenever he walked around. So we walked him over to our nearby pet shop/groomer and got him very nicely trimmed up and beautified. It was as though they pulled enough fur to make another dog from him, and now he looks magnificent, and he seems a lot happier all dolled up for a change.

J2 and I managed to have some fun too after I got back from the farm; we went for massages at one of our favorite places and then had dinner at a new (to us) restaurant that served very good Spanish food, along with a great bottle of Australian wine. All in all, a great day!