Had a good weekend -

Had a good weekend - Saturday was quite relaxing/fun - started by going with a friend to a xinjiang restaurant for lunch (had yang rou chuan) mmmm… We then went for a drive and ended up at a french outdoor cafe near the french embassy (in the sanlitun embassy/bar district) - there we met a few more friends. We sat there for a few hours enjoying one of the last nice days before the winter comes. Following that, we went to a belgium beer bar and had pizza (their pizza is really, _really_ - cooked in a wood oven). Following that, we went to a place called “The Orchard”, a restaurant in the apple orchards north east of Beijing (about a half hour drive). This was a really neat place that had excellent food (although we only had desert). Definitely the place to bring visiting guests (i.e. parents) for a good meal that they will potentially pay for :-). Yesterday was even more lazy, didn’t do much of anything - but it did involve my bike breaking down on a busy street. Boy, was that fun. I outsourcing the tow to one of the two shops I go to. Not exactly sure what went wrong - it was running fine on Saturday, but then it started acting funny on Sunday (after I got gas). Could be a bad gas problem, but wouldn’t be surprised if something spontaneously broke. Basically, while driving, it decided to cough a lot and shut down. Had to push it to the fulu (bike lane). Very difficult to restart, when I did, it would backfire quite a bit, cough, and die. Hopefully it will be fixed today. Next week (starting Wednesday) is the National Day holiday. We have a full 7 days (including 2 days from the weekend) between October 1 and October 7. While that is nice, we will have to work this coming weekend - so that is 9 days straight without a day off. Nice. I was thinking about going somewhere with some friends, but not sure. I wouldn’t mind just enjoying Beijing - plus, I am moving to my new apartment at the end of this week, so I may want the time to settle.