After the tourist trappings of yesterday I felt that today I would be best to sort my stuff out for the following trip to India, arrange the last of my flights back to Europe and then catch up on some emails and blogging before it got too much away from me.
Thus it was a quiet morning and afternoon that I spend in Beijing, flicking and searching the internet trying to find better hotel deals, one day tours to Agra and such, with some success and even managed to arrange an airport pickup for my arrival in Delhi, which would be dearly needed with it being an 01:30 landing and having no Indian money to speak of thus far.
Being my last night here I had decided to try and get both my two Beijing friends together and meet each other, however this did not go quite as easily or as smooth as I had intended it to be.
Both of them worked and clocked off at different times, both worked in different parts of the city and knew different areas, so I ended up meeting one first and then waiting for the other to come and find us.
With a lot of confusion on my drivers part, getting us lost twice, I finally managed to pick up my H' and together we headed on over to the Sanlitan area which is one of the best areas for shopping and bar life in the city, grabbing myself a quick subway sandwich to keep me going til we all go together for dinner.
However once we arrived I received a message from V' to say that she was still at work and would be for at least another hour and as I had not eaten so far I suggested that she grab herself a bite to eat and meet up with us as I did not feel I could wait that long for some proper food.
Thus it was that H' and I walked along and found a secluded little Italian restaurant just off the main strip that was a bit more pricey that I had planned, but at least it was warm, quiet and gave us a chance to talk without the hussle and bustle normally found in Beijng.
An hour later we still had not heard back from V' and to complicate matters for me H' now felt a little uncomfortable and sick and requested that we leave as she no longer wanted to stay out much later. I made a decision to let V' know that we were leaving and that instead we could meet up tomorrow lunchtime and just as we were driving away in a taxi she called and said that she was a bit angry as she had rushed to leave work, changed her plans and was almost here now.
So, feeling between a rock and a hard place, I let H' take the taxi and returned on foot back to where I hoped V' would still be waiting for me and as it turned out she was but had not had anything to eat and was eager to find a restaurant close by. Being polite I managed to tuck away a couple of dumplings before I hit critical mass and knew that any more would be a mistake, so let her finish on her own.
It was a slightly uneasy truce for the first half hour, til we got talking properly and thankfully by the time we were ready to leave and heading off to a nearby by for some drinks and good music we were back to being happy friends again.
We found a bar where the music was good but not too loud, the atmosphere and decorations funky and the waiter very friendly who thickly chinese accented english was understandable and his skill at mixing drinks was exemplorary. V' and I chatter away for a couple more hours, getting more relaxed and friendly as the drinks flowed and then without any prompting the waiter asked to show me a magic trick.
Being a lover of magic tricks I was happy to oblige and it was both a real treat and a bit of a let down at the same time when I realised that he was about to show me the exact same trick that my fellow stranded travellers in Fiji had shown me a few months earlier. The advantage that I had hear was that the bar was almost empty so the bar tenders secret assistant could only be one of three people and after being amazed at how how he knew my choice the first two times I narrowed it down to being V', and I guessed more than saw that she was using her bear mat as the tell.
I played along gamely the whole time until they finished when I admitted that I knew how it was done which caused a bit of a laugh, though V' said that she had really planned on keeping me in suspence and email me a few days later to tell me it was her the whole time. Had I realised this was her aim I would have kept quiet, but as it was it just opened up the door to me showing them a few of my own magic tricks, however all the Chinese coins are much smaller than the £2 or 50p coin that I normally use so they were a bit of a flop.
Around 11pm I knew that as I had a long day ahead of me and also V' had work in the morning so I felt it best that I let us both get back before midnight lest we turn into frogs or pumpkins.
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