Mario Party 24.06.11

Today was my birthday, got up before the other 2, DanDans mother made some breakfast and eventually Leon and DanDan crawled out of bed. DanDan was still feeling sick so went to get a drip just outside the building complex. Was waiting for Cake to be delivered when a knock on the door presented a neighbour whos son had just come back from Ireland, he was with her and when I asked can he speak English he replied "yi dian"(a little) which was strange as you would think someone who had studied English abroad would be more willing to show off anyway we didnt speak a word of English until they said they may come back later and the guy said "see you later". After a few hours DanDan and her mother got home and DanDan showed me where they inserted the drip and where the also failed to insert it, her had looked like a pin cushion.

Later we left Leon at home and headed to Lao Da to try and buy some computer bits'n'bobs, first 2 sellers where looking for 50 yuan each for 2 bog standard computer mice, we eventually found someone that didnt have their head in the clouds and was willing to sell at 25 each. We also pick up a pair of Headphones.
Decided to walk to BeiHang as it was not too far from Lao Da. We passed a sign for 'Ma Jia Shao Mai'

which confused the hell out of us as the sign was hugh but everyshop under it told us its not here. We found it eventually on the 2nd floor of Bank of China, WTF. Thats the last place I would have looked. In fairness the sign did say something like that but we missed it at first.Went to the underground shopping area because it was so hot topside so decided to walk under ground to reach BeiHang. All the stuff is stupidly more expensive than it needs to be especially since shops selling the same stuff cheaper were just upstairs. Picked up a Mario Figure for Leon. DanDans Mother had booked the place for the party but getting there would prove harder than we thought, 4 o'clock and all the Taxis where full, every single one, so we walked to a more busy street, same deal but this time even taxis that had no passengers were passing us by, If we saw someone get off a cab we would run to ask the driver if he was working and he would say "Im going home now" we were so pissed off as we had to get to the restaurant by 5pm. So after 45mins we gave up and walked to the top of the road and got a bus, So hot and humid. Got to mthe party and met up with a Chinese guy we knew from Ireland Liu Peng, he was back in ShenYang after 10 years in Ireland. We headed to the room but the Taxi situation just ruined the whole day, turns out that in Shen Yang Taxis finish their morning shift at 5 and go home and then evening Taxi drivers start their shift at 5pm, just stupid. Cake was ok, KTV was bad and old and despite the guests it was no Mario Party.