Road TO Beijing 2015

The time has come. The training is done.
I am in Beijing for the World Athletics Championships. Above is a small trailer that I made from the beginning of the year until a few days ago. I made it on my way over to Beijing because the flight was stupidly long. 13 hours of flying. But what made it worse is that we were stuck on the runway for 7 hours. Just as we were about to take off from the ground, the whole plane came to a sudden stop. One engine was only working at 30%. You wouldn't want to have a fear of flying!

Beijing isn't what I was expecting. In fact, it reminds me of Brussels. The pollution isn't what everyone was telling me. The heat isn't that bad and the humidity is ok. Well, it goes between 45-60% with the temp at high 20s and low 30s. But its always overcast which is probably why the humidity is so high. Picture Irelands summer...without rain...and a little hotter.
I was expecting to see lanterns everywhere and what you would expect from a typical Chinese postcard to look like. I haven't seen one lantern yet.
I found this little food garden. It's actually called a beer garden but there is more food then beer. I ordered oysters cooked over an open flame with chilli, garlic and soy sauce. It was one of the nicest mouthfuls of food I have tasted. What was even better is that 6 oysters were the equivalent of €6. Good food isn't always the most expensive food!

As i write this, Yas is just about landing in Beijing after 23 hours of flying! She always researches places before she goes so I know she already has the best places to visit. The both of us are "foodies" and when in China, you do as the Chinese do. Eat everything! Well, thats my stereotype of them. I don't think its as true as what everyone says. I haven't seen dog or scorpion on any menu. However, I asked a local where to get dog and the like. So thats on my to do list. People may wonder why the hell i would want to eat dog, or snake or whatever it may be. Because it is there! If it wasn't for the Egyptians, dogs wouldn't be seen as pets. Asians HATE blue cheese, and think that eating it is sickening. I do too. It makes me nauseous if I even think about eating it. In Asia, they don't really look at dairy products at all. Eating a camel is ok in Arab countries. In Ireland, we wouldnt even think of eating a camel. So delicacies are only strange because we haven't grown up with that idea.

Taoufiks first race is on the 27th. Semi final on the 28th and the final on the 30th. I am not that nervous as I know he can win. I have seen the training he has put in. He is ready. Nothing can be changed by worrying about something.

#BeatCF