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beer fest eye candy for boys

So I can’t believe it’s gone so quickly but I’ve only got a few weeks left here now.

I finally had a bit more luck with the races, winning a short dh in my home town here (ok, so there was only one other girl competing and she walked down most of the course..!) and came second in a government organised xc race. That was a bit like hard work as I was told it was just a 6km course so put everything into my first lap. Then when I finished it, they told me to go round again. And then again, and then again..! It turned out it was Big Dog style – as many laps as you could do in 2 hours (about 7 in the end I think as it was a pretty fast course) so with zero preparation I was a mess by the end of it!

Heilongjiang forests

The government races turn out to be well worth it though as I won 50 quid for my 2nd place, which more than made up for the confusion!

Other than that I’ve been doing a bit of travelling up north where the temperature’s nice and cool – saw some Siberian tigers in a reserve there, huge things. You could buy live animals to throw to them, ranging from a chicken to a live cow!

Also went to a beer festival in Qingdao (of Tsingtao beer fame), chinese beer festivals are very amusing, but rather a few too many big sweaty beer bellies display..!

I’ve attached a few photos of an english friend who got a deep gash on his forearm this weekend. We spent the morning getting him patched up, the chinese doctors are far from gentle and were pulling it open to clean it up, it was right to the bone. He had about 7 stitches and the doctor looked like he was stitching leather, he was so heavy handed! All without any anaesthetic or painkiller, poor guy.

IV time

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