Secondly, I had my quarterly dental hygiene check last week, during which J2 recommended that I consider having our new dentist take a look at my mouth and see if he could anything about the increasing crowding of my teeth (I still have my wisdom teeth, which results in my teeth being tight to start with, and apparently as you age your teeth want to gravitate toward the center of your mouth, so if they are at all misaligned, the result will be a snaggletooth smile). Sure enough Dr Phil could help me out without having to extract any teeth, though he did need to "strip" a few (basically sandpaper away some of the enamel to make the teeth a bit narrower) and I'd have to wear braces for around six months. So they ordered the brackets on Friday, they arrived on Tuesday and they were installed on Wednesday, and I am now reliving the experience of my teenage years having food get caught in my dental work. Fun.
Third, last night was our company's annual Chinese New Year party, held at a new Japanese-y buffet restaurant called Todai. There was a Todai in Fairfax near our old house, which we visited a few times but did not really like, but this one is much better. Perhaps the difference is having actual Asians prepare the food, but whatever the reason, the variety and quality are far better at the Beijing branch. The staff loved it, and since it's a big buffet restaurant with lots of stations, we avoided the nightmare of last year's party, held at an Argentine churrasco place, where there were endless queues to get at the food.
Fourth, we had a new colleague join us at work. He's going to be one of our senior VPs, and he's a very nice guy who moved here from Maine with his very nice wife, so today I offered to take them to my favorite wet market to introduce them to my usual vendors, including Mr Ma, my beef and lamb guy, who always gets me the tenderest cuts of meat. They bought a bunch of stuff that got turned into a wonderful lunch, or so I am told.
Finally, with our trip to Spain for the Chinese New Year approaching on Friday, I naturally have already started to think about our next trip (I find it expedient to always have in mind where our next trip is going to be, so that when we return to Beijing or China from some wonderful place outside we have something to look forward to). I had promised J2 that I'd take him to Africa for a safari for his 40th birthday, but due to the Olympics I could not take the time last year, so we had to put it off. We had a lot of miles accumulating in our frequent flyer account that were going to expire, so we decided to use them to go to South Africa for two weeks in May, spending about a week each in Cape Town and vicinity (for the wine and food) and about 4-5 days in the Kruger National Park and then the remainder in Johannesburg and the surroundings. We are lucky enough to have good friends who live in Joburg who have kindly offered us the use of their beach house in Cape Town along with a car, and their 4x4 to use to drive from Joburg to and around the Kruger park. What could be better?? So we leave Beijing on May 13, returning via Singapore on May 29. This may mean that I get to buy another lens for my camera, too....
My next report will likely be about our trip to Spain!
Click here for some Ivan photos and here for some other Ivan photos
Click here for photos of the Chinese New Year Party
Click here for photos of the Xinyuanli market
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