Color Run in Utrecht!

Earlier this week I have bought my ticket to the Color Run in Utrecht in September!

After a really good fun in Beijing last summer, I have decided to join a small group of colleagues participating at the local edition.. and I am sure it will be a colourful funny event!!

Pictures and video are all blurry because the camera was wrapped in transparent thin plastic to protect it from the colour dust!! That is innocuous food colouring addictive but apparently it has scared people away..

I am sure I will have more funny pics in September!

Where’s China??

Apparently, these days, you can see some of the big cities only behind a thick curtain of smog!!! Got this from a good friend in Shanghai and then I have been told that Beijing is in an even worse condition! And I still got some of these memories from those 2 cities:

blue sky in Beijing

Shanghai sky

Color Run in Beijing

This is the reason we came back to Beijing after the two weeks of Aikido and the trip to Qingdao: The Color Run.

First time in China for The Color Run – 彩色奔跑 event after a few happenings in USA of course!

Night at Houhai

FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – After walking around the lake we decided to get something to drink in one of the several cafe in the lake area. My friend got a Perrier and the waitress (probably fresh student having a summer job and just started) had problems first to find some glasses and then when my friend asked for a slice of lemon she had to ask the boss if there was an extra charge for it!! My friend, Chinese, was a little surprised and frustrated!!

I asked for an espresso … And got it in the right cup but with a cappuccino dish 🙂 the cup seemed so little!!

Beijing, 38C!

What a day!!

Second I’m a row with cloudless blue sky but today the temperature was much higher than yesterday. I had a nice long walk in the center, from Sanlitun to Sci-Tech after a good lunch with a friend and you could really feel the heat drilling through your head!!

Convenient to be a child and play freely in the fountains!

I just gave myself an extra cold vanilla
Frappuccino 🙂

In less than a hour the last Aikido session in Beijing with Dominique and tomorrow we will go together to Wuhan for four days. I’m a little worried about the temperature now since Wuhan is one of the three hottest cities in China (the three ovens: Wuhan, Nanjing and Hangzhou).

More sweat… Better for my fat body probably 😉

Beijing… Japan?

Just checked in my hotel for Dominique Rascle seminar in Beijing and the first thought was: wow, am I back in Japan?

The room is really tiny!! Very compact, real Japanese style!!

Unfortunately no window: little worried about how my keikogis can dry!!!

FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – Then I took a look of the toilet/shower room:

The toilet is straight under the shower head with about 20cm per side and the basin 20cm in front… Should I stand on the toilet seat to shower??

Cheap Hainan Airlines

Cheap as mingy, miserly, penny-pinching, stingy, thrifty, tight, tight-wad…

I took the last flight from Kunming to Beijing an since it was arriving around 23, when express train and buses are not in traffic anymore, it was also the most convenient ticket.

I had planned my usual airport night and this time I discovered a 24 hours open Starbucks so at least it was more comfortable and with Internet.

What surprised me was that in the three hours flight between Kunming and Beijing on a completely full A330-300 we were served a tiny peanuts bag and a glass of soft drink or coffee/tea. That was all!!!

Ok, there was a nice entertainment system on every seat, good movies available from the boarding to the disembarking.

But in three hours flight in China I expect what most if not all the other companies I flight with: some food. In most of flight with length equal or larger than 2 hours you get warm food.

Hainan Airlines have clearly a different policy: movies, pretty stewardesses but nothing for the stomach!!!

Damn cheap!!

But dawn has come… here at Starbucks…

FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – I watched a couple of American movies in the flight and during the first one, after some moments of confusion, I realized that they had reformat the movies muting the swearing!!! All f-words, s-words and similar were muted inside the dialog… and often it was difficult to understand the full sentences!! Too cheap to provide a meal… maybe because they spent too much for editing the movies??