Once again, I must apologise for taking so long to update this weblog. Fortunately Victor (the fellow I'm sharing the flat with) is pretty keen on getting a computer after the next payday (the 12th), so after that, I should be able to post more frequently.
Today we've made our acting debut - we played in front of the camera for some commercial, and then we were asked to change into civvies and pretend we were tourists. They had us, and the russian dancers, and not an asian person in sight - a bit of propaganda methinks!
For those who've been waiting weeks to hear my great bargaining anecdote, here it is. But first some background.
One of the twins, John, is a very keen chess player, so he was delighted when I was up for a couple of games. Well, we played quite often, so we decided to purchase a quality set (nice large board, weighted pieces etc). The set he had seen in a shop was priced at 980 RMB (AUD$1=6RMB). So we go in there and look at the set up close, feel the pieces etc, and get down to the issue of price. Now, to overcome the language barrier, bartering is done on a calculator - he types an offer into the calculator, and we make a counter-offer in the same manner. So he types 980 into the calculator, we hit clear, and try for 800. He says "no, no" and types 980*0.9= 877. We say "how about 850". Again it's "no, no", so he drops the price to 85% (instead of 90%). Now the mathematically inclined amongst my readers will no doubt realise that this will come to 833, less than what we had offered! He hit clear straight away, but realised that we had both already seen it, so had to settle on 833!
I'm trying to find a way to put all my photos online, and give them captions, so you can see them all - as you've no doubt seen, the photos I have put here have been cropped. If anyone has suggestions as to a good site, please let me know.
The food continues to be atrocious, but plentiful. There are some days that of the half-dozen or so dishes on the menu, it's the boiled cabbage that's the most appetizing!
I'm told that even the chinese people don't like the food here, so it begs the question, who are they catering for?!?
Anyway, I must away.
Until next time.
Cheers, Captainowie.
1 comment:
Owie,
You will find that 980 x 0.9 is 882, but never mind.
Sounds like a good bargain, you should talk to Ross and Richo about Chess set purchases in the far east - they will share your sentiments.
Sounds like a ball of large radius of fun is being had, ofthatparticulartype.
Tim
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