Stil got it!

Bloody hell! It's 38 degrees outside and I've just been in un-air-conditioned taxis to and from Lido with Mei-Mei to have her checked out at the clinic (nothing exciting, just routine).

Whenever I am in Lido, I like to pop over to Comptoirs de France and by God, this place is YU-HU-HU-HUUUUUUUUMY! Best. Hot Chocolates. Evar! And the best chocolate croissants in Beijing... and macaroons... and lemon tarts... fwooooooar! (and I'm spent!). It is my little slice of heaven here in hell Beijing.

And it is actually owned and run by people who are... French! There is a surprisingly large French community here in Beijing and I have met more French people here than I ever did at home. Most have been lovely, the lady that came to our house when we were interviewing her ayi, was... bizarre... "Your daughterrr, she is beautiful! She is not fat, she is thin!" (yeah, thanks, love!). But I digress.

So today, I figured I would give it a shot and drag the highschool french kicking and screaming from out of it's dark, comfy place and use the most basic french to order a hot chocolate and a quiche. And surprisingly enough, I seemed to pass with flying colours (and amuse the manageress, who is lovely and I am getting to know quite well). Go, me!

Actually, it's funny and I am not sure if I have talked about this before, but when we first arrived here and had absolutely no mandarin, but a very strong desire to communicate, my brain was trying to throw everything it could at people to get the point across and I kept wanting to speak French without consciously deciding to do that and mime (though, that was a conscious effort). Anyway, a colleague of Mr C's went to Indo with him and did the exact same thing.

Wacky... just sayin'.

So yes, it's 38 degrees out there and I am glad I am inside! Though when we got to the clinic, they did the usual testing of our body temperatures by aiming a thermometre at our foreheads with a new fandangled variety electronic gadget. Good thing too, could you imagine using mercury thermometres in this day and age with the whole paranoia surrounding various influenza strains? I shudder at the thought...

Anyhow, we freaked them out a bit because our temperatures registered (surprise, surprise) 38 degrees. We're talking surface temperature here, people. Not core. Core's a different story, and obviously was when they used another fandangled gadget which they poked in our ears, registering a much lower and safer temperature. I'm glad we got that cleared.

Lordy.