It wasn’t a bad day as such.\u00c2\u00a0 We had a bit of a business discussion in the morning and went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant across the street.\u00c2\u00a0 On the way there we passed a liquor and tobacco shop with glass doors and an English translation underneath the Chinese warning: Mend the Glass.\u00c2\u00a0 The Chinese are far less trigger-happy than the Japanese about using English, so cute signs like that are few and far between.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of their English use goes toward “Bank of Beijing” and such signs.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The food at the restaurant ranged from cold and vinegary to hot and spicy.\u00c2\u00a0 The spicy chicken bits with peanuts and hot peppers contained a flowery-sweet note which came from small pepper corns.\u00c2\u00a0 When toward the end of the meal we asked for rice, the informed us they were out of rice and would we like noodles?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d just explained to Joe my rule of not having noodles in Asia before dinnertime, so we opted for dumplings instead.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite boasting upscale furnishings the toilets only boasted squat pots, and it didn’t impress me much more than rocket scientists apparently impress Shania that up the same staircase that led down to the toilet came a guy with a platter of hot dishes.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh well, I’ve got King Creosote to back me up.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
After lunch Paul and I hailed a cab and took a ride through Beijing’s sto-pan-d’go traffic back to the hotel to pick up my demonstration microscope<\/a> for some training.\u00c2\u00a0 I enjoyed that, even though it took us all afternoon just to cover basics and get everyone to change a tip.\u00c2\u00a0 (I’d link to the wikipedia page for atomic force microscopes<\/a> here, but the Chinese government has apparently decided that wikipedia is a dangerous site that needs to be blocked.)\u00c2\u00a0 I’m still not sure they can carry out a good measurement…<\/p>\n The day ended with yesterday’s customer demanding that we demonstrate another measurement mode before they sign the acceptance form and pay the remainder.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel like the car dealer whose customer pays 80% cash for his SUV and then says: “Now you demonstrate to me that my car can do what the ad promised and I’ll pay the rest.”\u00c2\u00a0 What is it that makes Europeans and Americans alike purchase and accept our instruments without such testing?\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently, Chinese researchers will purchase ovens they intend to use for temperatures around 100 \u00c2\u00b0C but insist on seeing the oven reach the specified maximum of 240 \u00c2\u00b0C before accepting it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n So, in honor of this day, here’s an ABBA sing-along:<\/p>\n My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender Squatterloo – I\u00c2\u00a0am defeated, you won the war My my, I tried\u00c2\u00a0another\u00c2\u00a0tack but that took longer Squatterloo – I\u00c2\u00a0am defeated, you won the war And how could I ever refuse Squatterloo – I\u00c2\u00a0am defeated, you won the war It wasn’t a bad day as such.\u00c2\u00a0 We had a bit of a business discussion in the morning and went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant across the street.\u00c2\u00a0 On the way there we passed a liquor and tobacco shop with glass doors and an English translation underneath the Chinese warning: Mend the Glass.\u00c2\u00a0 The Chinese are far less trigger-happy than the Japanese about using English, so cute signs like that are few and far between.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of their English use goes toward “Bank of Beijing” and such signs.\u00c2\u00a0 The food at the restaurant ranged from cold and vinegary to hot and spicy.\u00c2\u00a0 The spicy chicken bits with peanuts and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,3,10,11,4,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOh yeah, and I have met my infamy in quite a similar way
\nThe\u00c2\u00a0Sears catalogue\u00c2\u00a0on the shelf
\nIs\u00c2\u00a0singing this ditty\u00c2\u00a0itself<\/p>\n
\nSquatterloo – promise to use you (can’t wait no more)
\nSquatterloo – couldn’t escape if I wanted to
\nSquatterloo – no other place for a man to poo
\nSquatterloo – finally\u00c2\u00a0straddling my squatterloo<\/p>\n
\nOh yeah, and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
\nAnd how could I ever refuse
\nI feel like my bowels are loose<\/p>\n
\nSquatterloo – promise to use you (can’t wait no more)
\nSquatterloo – couldn’t escape if I wanted to
\nSquatterloo – no other place for a man to poo<\/p>\n
\nI feel like my bowels are loose<\/p>\n
\nSquatterloo – promise to use you (can’t wait no more)
\nSquatterloo – couldn’t escape if I wanted to
\nSquatterloo – no other place for a man to poo
\nSquatterloo – finally\u00c2\u00a0straddling my squatterloo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"