Day 384 in Beijing: EXCALIBUR!

 

King Arthur's court in Beijing?

King Arthur’s court in Beijing?

My buddy, Richard Ivey, wanted to know more about American Muscle Cars in China.  And Jill’s dad, Bill, also loves hot rods and rebuilds them so here’s a little something for you guys.

Jill and I went for a walk in search of the famous Xinyuanli wet market.

A wet market, for those that don’t know, and I didn’t know, is a place that sells mostly fresh goods and foods.

This means fresh meat, cheese, fruits and veggies.

We found it and it is amazing.

I will do a blog post on it in the near future but since I’m on my 10 day green smoothie challenge, and all I’m drinking is green smoothies, we didn’t buy anything there and I didn’t want to be too tempted by staying in it for a long time.

Suffice to say it is a huge market of pretty much anything you want.

I dub these, "Excalibur!"

I dub these, “Excalibur!”

As we walked around, looking for it, since we didn’t know exactly where it was, we happened upon this car.

EXCALIBUR!

I was a huge Dungeons and Dragons geek, and loved pretty much everything medieval when I was a kid, so I dig that they named this car Excalibur after King Arthur’s magical sword.

Interestingly enough, while researching this post, I found out that it was originally designed for Studebaker and then privately made by a company in Wisconsin.  It is also a very classy and highly original and elegant car.  Check out the link above for some of the facts about it.  Definitely American made with love and respect.

How one ended up parked on the streets of Beijing, I’ll never know.

Day 351in Beijing: Our Fakeamix Has Arrived!

 

Cheers!

Cheers!

Jill and I decided we want to eat more healthily and really wanted a Vitamix.

We’ve been vegetarians for 5 months now and wanted to take the next step.

I have a Vitamix back home, sitting and waiting for me, at my friend Sue’s house.

However, it weighs a ton and it is too expensive to ship over to China.

Therefore, we asked our friends Martin and Kenn, at The Local, and they suggested we buy the same ones they just bought a few days ago.

So, they ordered it for us and we received our new Fakeamix blender a few days ago.

It is almost exactly like the Vitamix I had at home and it works wonderfully.

It also only cost about 100 USD, which is a nice savings, and is quite easy to use, clean, and store when we don’t need it out on the counters.

Honestly, it is the little things, like having good friends order a blender for us, that make being an expatriate so much more enjoyable and easy.

Our Fakeamix is made by Hyundai and is actually more quiet than my real Vitamix.

This may be because the engine isn’t as powerful but it seems to do just fine for what we need as we mostly make green smoothies with it and it blends them up perfectly.

 

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Day 313 in Beijing: The Speciality Ices the sand Nursing one’ health Machine.

 

Martin and the Fakeamix Blender.

Martin and the Fakeamix Blender.

Those of you that follow my blog know that Jill and I love The Local.

It is a great bar/restaurant here in Beijing, and the owners, Martin, Kenn and Jessie, are awesome people.

They are funny, kind and work 14-16 hours a day and yet never complain or get annoyed.

I doubt I could do the work they do and stay as positive and cheerful.

We love hanging out with them and we often play “Beeriocart” with them when they are taking a well deserved break.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jessie play so far and we need to get her in on the fun!

Beeriocart, by the way, is the video game, “Mariocart” but when we play we drink at the same time.  Mariocart is a car racing game that is a blast.  Martin and Kenn are amazing at it.  Jill and I?  Not so much.

The rules are simple: there are four players who race the cars around different tracks. The person that gets last place, usually Jill or me, has to do a shot of alcohol.  The person that gets first place also has to do a shot.  Now, this is a very fair way of dealing with winning and losing because if you suck, like Jill and I do, you get a little drunk and have fun.  However, if you are great, like Martin and Kenn, you get drunk and start driving worse and it brings you down to our level.  Well, not down to our level but it does give us a little edge once in a while.

Anyway, Jill and I have been looking for a Vitamix since we moved here and noticed that The Local had a Vitamix!

I bought a Vitamix about 3 years ago, with the help of my mom and dad as a present for becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist, and have done a 10 day green smoothie/juice fast which I loved.

Jill and I want to do one here but we haven’t been able to find a blender that is powerful enough.

I was hoping our problem was solved.

However, we soon found out that this was no Vitamix but instead, as I’m going to call it, a “Fakeamix.”

We asked them about it and they said it has been amazing.  They want to buy a new one since their’s is dying but they can’t find them anywhere.

Martin let us take a picture of it because the Chinglish on it is utterly hilarious.

I honestly love the look on Martin’s face.  It think it says it all.

Because who doesn’t want a blender that is, “A Machine Multiuse” and has the ability to be “The Speciality Ices the sand Nursing one’ health Machine.”

By the way, it is, as they openly declare, a “High Perform ance commercial Blender.”

Agreementness, would Eye have.  Question with out not, Perform ance.