Thursday May 7th Beijing

Buying handbags

Handbags Purchased

Shopping for dinner

More shopping

Purchasing fish

Produce area

Phil's nurse comes for dinner Guangjun

Dinner with Guangjun

Dinner with Guangjun

We are still at Phil and Astri's apartment. We went to sleep very late last night. That caused a small problem in that we did not hear Astri's knock on the door at 7:30. That meant that we missed the cleaning woman coming in to do her thing and we missed the door bell again when Astri's Chinese language teacher showed up at 8:00 am. I got up at 8:40 and had an appointment at Phil's hospital for my monthly blood test at 9:00. The hospital is a 20 minute walk from here. I got there 30 minutes late which was not a problem. I had to sign a number of forms before I could be tested. Since the hospital is private they wanted to make sure I could and would pay. They started by taking my passport. Phil's head nurse did the testing. Fortuanately for me she spoke very good english. All went well and I was back at the apartment by 10:45. I only made one minor mistake and missed the hospital which caused me an extra 10 min. I walked on the wrong side of the street but with Phil's business card in english on one side and Chinese on the other made it easy to ask for help. I also have a small electronic translator that helped.

When I got back Geri and Astri were ready to shop. So off we went again in a taxi which cost $3.00 for a 20 min ride to the handbag complex. This one had more than handbags but it had at least 50 handbag stalls. We went to the one Astri had success with a month ago. After an hour of talking and haggaling Geri has two new bags which look great and I am told we got them at a good price. I got two belts at also good prices. But I started at 800 yuan a piece and left paying 300 yuan for two. I was told I could have done better. We then went for lunch in the building and had some great dishes. The best was my eggplant and noodle dish. Eggplants dishes have been very good in all the countries we have visited. I think Joe B and Sally A who do not like eggplant would like these versions. We think we know how to do it, so those of you who come to our house for dinner when we return will have a treat.

We then went to a covered market that sold produce , meat and fish/seafood. The produce looked fresh and very colorful. Some of the fish were still alive in tanks. The meat was just hanging around. I was told it was fresh and good. But what would I know. s you probably know I Lenny is writing this blog today. Since I have not had meat since 1997, I do not know good meat from bad meat.

Astri goes to this market on a regular basis and many of the people knew her. She was easily able to communicate with them in Chinese and their very limited English. We even got a few free samples of fruit and candy. Loaded down with packages of handbags and produce/shrimp etc we got a taxi back to the apartment.

It has been hot here today. I would say it is in the mid 80's. Astri is making dinner for us and Phil's head nurse and is busy preparing the food and Geri is helping. I spent some time while they were working hooking up their new DVD. What should have been easy was not, they lost the manuals and the remotes and sets are in Chinese lettering. After making a few guesses I got the unit to work.

I will have more time later tonight when dinner is over and the tailor leaves who is due here around 9:30 tonight for a fitting session. Needless to say we have had very busy days here and on our entire trip.

Phil and Astri invited Phil's nurse, Guangjun, to dinner and we had a lovely evening with her. It was also very wonderful to be eating at home having Astri's terrific home cooked yet gourmet food. Then the tailor came and completed his fitting of Phi's suit and Lenny's jacket and pants. It has been a very nice day.