eventful week!

Please pardon me for the lack of updates. It's like every time I think there's something to write about and share it with you guys, physical + mental exhaustion gets the better of me -_- Imagine, sleep at 12 plus 1 at night, wake up at 8.30am, work from 10am to 6pm (sometimes later), reach home at 7pm, make and eat dinner till 8plus, watch tv, clear emails, chat on msn etc and it's time to sleep again. And the cycle continues. Then when weekend comes, it's school on Fridays and Saturdays, go do a little exploration after Saturday's school, do household chores, then the occasional outings planned for Sundays. And there goes my week. It's kind of scary to think that working life in future is going to be like that, there's not much time to do anything else! ARGHH.

Anyway, enough of ranting. Let me touch on the point of this entry now. The last week has been an eventful one for me.

On Tuesday, barely half an hour after I stepped into office, my colleague asked me to speak to an angmoh, who was at our office's reception, on the phone. The receptionists always put these foreigners on the phone with us because our channel is the foreign language broadcast channel, so there are people who can speak English. Anyway, back to the point. So I picked up the call, and the guy said, "I've a story about a brain chipping programme that I would like to SELL TO YOU FOR MONEY." It was supposed to be an exclusive scoop kind of thing, but then pay for the story?! I don't think there is a practice of doing that at the radio station. So to cut the long story short, I asked another colleague of mine what to do with this guy and she called our stand-in leader (the station head and deputy weren't in), and of course, the answer is no, we don't buy news ideas.

So I called the reception again to ask to speak to the guy, and told him that. But he started to talk about how this is a big story blah blah blah (I don't think I should be revealing too much here, just in case :P), and then I heard camera. I was like, WHAT?! you mean you have a camera with you?! He said yah, I'm going to expose it to C-C-T-V (a TV station here). I was like, huh?! I thought he was some kind of foreign media who was going to write about censorship and things like that. So I panicked and told my colleague about it, and that was when she asked the leader to go downstairs with me to settle the issue. There's a side-track story here, but that shall wait.

The first thing I asked when I met that guy was, I thought you said you had a camera?? And you know what, he was referring to the C-C-T-V camera, meaning the security camera and not the cameras we use to shoot stuffs! -_-"' On second thoughts, the whole thing really didn't make sense, because if he was going to talk about censorship and stuff, C-C-T-V being a state media, wouldn't buy his story too! I should have known better! But then because it was the first time I've encountered such a thing, of course it was natural for me to panic! haha.

Anyway, he tried to read to us letters and tell us stories and all, but the thing is, we couldn't verify his facts and he didn't want to leave any of his materials with us, so how do we know what he was saying was real?! It was all a very bizzare incident, because he said he had a brain chip in his head blah blah blah, and I had problems translating some of what he said to my colleague, so it was all rather confusing but the point is, at the end of the day, we managed to get him to go after like, almost an hour. And he actually said that because we met him, there might be other groups of people (read: in-telli-gence agen-cies) looking us up later in the day! I mean, it was all very difficult to believe! But whatever the case, we managed to get rid of him, and I'm still here so....I guess, let's just not think too much into it. hahaha :P

And I mentioned there was a side note right? Let me say it now. That day, the LIFT WAS SPOILT not long after I reported to work at the 20th storey. So I walked down to the 12th storey to look for my colleague, and we walked down to the ground floor to meet that guy at the reception. Then when we were done, the lift was still not working! -_-"' But I was supposed to have lunch with this colleague of mine who's still upstairs, and I left my phone upstairs so I couldn't contact her! So what did I do??

YES YOU GUESSED IT. I CLIMBED 20 STOREYS! omg. It was no joke okay. I was panting quite badly by the time I reached 10. The steps were pretty steep, and they have this thing sticking out on each step (I've no idea what it's for) so it can be quite uncomfortable for the feet! But it was quite an achievement to climb 20 storeys! I think the people walking down from 15th storey must have thought I was mad. HAHAHAHA. oh well.

Then on Thursday, I attended my very first press conference here and it was a great learning experience too! :) It's so different writing for the print media and reporting for a broadcast media. It's like, you don't know what soundbites you will end up using, so how do I know when to stop recording?! So in the end, I recorded everything, and had to make notes on where the more important stuffs are so it would be easier to edit later on. In any case, I was quite glad that I finally got to attend a press conference thingy here because then only I can get a more wholesome experience of being a journalist here mah, right?! hahaha :P

Thursday was an exciting day because I attended a press conference in the morning, and I met 2 ladies, who organise speed dating sessions in Beijing, at night! hahhaa :P It's quite interesting to talk to them, understand why they started this and hear about the interesting things that happen at their sessions. hahaha :P And I'm going to drop by one of their sessions later! How exciting! hahaha :P Oh, they said they are going to hold sessions solely for the Chinese in the near future, so maybe I should pop by one day and check it out huh?! hahahahaa :P

Alright, I've been rattling on non-stop. I shall end here by posting some pictures of our trip to Yonghegong Lama Temple yesterday, and Quanjude restaurant for dinner...

Before we visited the temple, we went to a nearby hutong to find a place for lunch. And we settled on this place, which was cheap and good! Yum! :)
This is a common sight in the hutongs...I vaguely heard something like, "就是几张破被子，有什么好拍的！(It's just a couple of old blankets, why take photos?)" when I was taking this photo. hahaha. Well, I guess to those aunties, it's just part and parcel of life, but then to us, it's something new and interesting mah! hahaha :P

This is the temple when we went in...
And the temple when we left. I think I like it more when the doors are closed :)
And this is something that can be turned, but no one knows (I asked a couple of locals) what exactly is its significance! hahaha :P
See? This is proof that they really used "皇帝万岁万万岁 (long live Your Majesty)" in the ancient times! All these are carvings on a big, big bell.

Quanjude roast duck! I didn't think it was fantastic leh, but then since you are in Beijing, have to at least try the supposedly most famous duck once right?! haha :P
And presenting to you...the scorpions - raw - that I ate the other time! hahaha. Lo and behold, they were still moving before they were cooked you know! *faints*
Phew, I finally reached the end of my entry. It took me an hour and a half to put this entry together -_- See what I mean by I don't have enough energy at the end of a work day to blog?? hahaha :P Okay okay, that's just an excuse. haha. Till the next time then! :)