15257 Tasting Notes
Best. night. evar. No really. tonight i think wins the prize for the best evening out here in beijing. One of the women who is also in to the city for the work we’re doing here, had a friend come pick us up so that we could go out. Tonight is the last night of Chinese New Year, so we went out to some pedestrian areas by the water. There was laughing, good food, fire crackers and fire works…music. lots of fun!
I’m having a cup of this before bed, though I’m not sure how much sleep i’ll get given that the fireworks are non stop tonight because it’s the last day. Hard to believe the weekend is over and it’s back to work in a few hours. ugh. At least the tea is helping me to relax and de-stress before bed.
Had a cup of this in the afternoon while waiting on people to arrive to pick us up. Talk about a cup of cinnamon hearts. I don’t mind this tea, though I can’t say that I’d want to drink this often. It’s more of a special occasion, I’m craving cinnamon hearts kinda of tea :)
Pretty sure I ruined this cup by over steeping it. It was barely drinkable and since I’ve had it before with no issue, I’m sure I just did something foolish. Fnished up with testing thing for work so I might get out a little this afternoon…won’t be much but better than nothing!
I guess i really should rate this tea. Overall, it’s not a bad little tea, but it’s not great. It’s about what i’d expect from a bagged tea. Another pot of this today. I need as much as i can get in terms of liquid so i’m happy to down a pot of this every morning after my bottle of water and in addition to the juice i also have. Late start to the day but it’s hard to get excited about getting up and going, when you just have work to look forward to on a saunday blech. At least i have a bit of my tea from home to keep me company in the room.
One of two caffeine free teas I thought to bring to china with me. I’m glad for the variety though I likely could have brought a few more since even though caffeine doesn’t usually affect me, I really don’t want to risk it when I’ve got such long days. Had this tonight while catching up on a few things from work after a day of exploring today. As much as it pains me to say it, actually had my first “north American” thing today in the form of Starbucks. Lol. Tracy had to pee desperately but didn’t
Want to use the public washrooms or eat lunch. So I suggested that if anywhere was going to have clean-er bathrooms it would be starbucks since they have to adhere to NA standards. She thought I was crazy….I was right though :p
Score one for the non native!
Highlights of today?
Tongrentang – chain of Chinese pharmacies…..seriously 4 floors of medicinal goodness
Temple of heaven and surrounding park
Best subway signage: “wheel chair fixer-please open door as necessary, take cord and fix wheelchair” go go gadget corded wheelchair fixer?" :)
Simple things to chuckle at.
Having a cup of this tonight while i wait to get on a call with canada. It seems i can’t win no matter which country i’m in, i always have to take the evening calls lol. The only upside to this is that i’m getting more work done (after meeting with the bosses, i have a crazy number of things to help china with). Also, my colleague and i have our day tomorrow planned out, though it sucks that her idea of sleeping in, is to have breakfast at 8:00…sigh oh well…at the very least i know i’ll get to see some things since it appears my sunday may be fully taken up with work :(
However on the scary upside? downside? i’m not too sure yet? there is talk of China seconding me… which basically means i stop my day job and come here to do the job they want me to do here…for however long that might take. O.o yeah i’ll get back to you on how i feel about that heh.
Wow. That would be a major change. Exciting and yet… :)
yeaaaah…not sure how i feel about it yet. The other half is having a hard time even getting through the week without me. though until there’s a more concrete conversation, i am not going to worry about it
Ohh, changes are so scary. As is the unknown! Hopefully you will have all the details and facts soon. In the meantime, enjoy what is in front of you and your travels. :)
Wowsa! that’s big. Can he come to China with you?
IB…not if I’m gone for as long as I would be….if its what I think they would want, I’d be here until at least October….so like 7-8 months
Eeeeps! well hopefully he can atleast visit
Backlog from this morning as well…
Today was recap day and meet with the “bosses” to update them on our progress this week so it was a long one. I’m pretty happy i had my teas to jump start me this morning. I opted to bring this one over to the office in a travel mug since i have just enough time between breakfast and running back up to the room to brush my teeth, to make tea. I’m happy that i brought a bunch of this one with me, though i’m guessing the tin i put it in isn’t as air tight as i thought it was since it’s gradually becoming less and less flavourful in terms of the aroma of the dry tea. Not a huge deal since it still tastes wonderful, but something to note.
wheee! backlog from this morning and it was pretty darn tasty for a bagged tea today. Not sure if they put something in the water here or what today but it was a good morning. I have been finding however, that the tea that i brought with me, totally tastes different than when back home. I’m sure there’s some scientific reason like altitude or some such nonesense but i’m so tired i could hardly care. It’s green..it’s average…it’s here in china!
might be harder/softer water! I noticed that when I was in the US vs Toronto
It’s bottled water :) so maybe, but less likely when compared to tap waters. You can’t drink anything from the tap here….and even though I’m boiling it, I’m sticking with bottled water. The tree hugging hippy in me dies a little every day when I see how many bottles are being used by everyone ( I can go through 6+ myself without drinking tea) but that’s the way it is…
that’s sad. Even if they recycle, it’s a huge waste.
One more day….until the weekend that is. Having a nice cup of this while i finish up some work for tomorrow’s sessions. This is the last of what i brought to china of this tea but i’ve got a bunch left from my home stash – to the point of feeling bad that i haven’t had more time to enjoy a nice cup in the evening. We’re trying to plan a few things for saturday since i may have to spend all of sunday working. So maybe no great wall of china for me this trip. Maybe i’ll get lucky and be able to come back and have some time off afterwards. if not, i still can’t complain since i’ve had a great time here so far with what limited time i’ve had. Since it was a work trip, i’m happy for whatever i manage to do.
i needed this cup tonight…tempted to have another but i thinkit might get cold or i might crash before i get around to drinking it. :) It was a good thursday.
I feel like i should just log this 14 times for every day that i’m here in China :) I’ve switched to this as my morning tea and apparently i’ve been too buy to really get to drinking my tea in the evening which sucks a lot. Some mornings i get a quick cup while i’m getting ready to go down for breakfast but it’s not happening a lot.
In any case… from the china files for yesterday (or your today, since it’s tomorrow here..haha hello this is the future calling..) anyway..omg i’m a little crazy. Yesterday i got to go to a supermarket that’s in the basement of the high end mall across the street from the hotel. It was amaazing! Pretty much kind of like those giant target grocery stores in the US. and then outside of the supermarket was even more shops. We had a blast and now i have a list of parisienne teas to check oon prices and reviews before i buy them lol
That sounds like so much fun!
Sounds like they showed you a great time! :)
That area of Beijing is great!
I am so glad you are having a good time over there!