Free days are recovery days!

Free days are recovery days! At least that's how they seem at the moment. I seem to get progressively tireder as the weeks progress what with working and doing a Chinese course. I haven't been able to manage going home late and getting up early. I still want to stay up late! Consequently, I've been using caffeine to keep me going during the week but towards the end I seem to run out of energy and end up sleeping in on my free days. Even when I want to get up :-(

I'm grasping on to something and it's keeping me awake. Just need to find out what it is and let go!

Back on line but I'm not sure that blogging's for me!

Now I have access to blogger again I'll see if I can actually write anything sensible and/or interesting. But for sure this would be easier if I moved to a shorter working week. Work is very time consuming!

The nod

This is the one that gets the nod.

I'd already looked it over in the past but Evan's online ordering wouldn't work last time. Also I'd chosen the Kona Paddywagon over it as it was a little expensive. This is the '08 model and is discounted :-) The bars are wide enought, the cranks are long enough and the frame big enough. I'm a little concerned I might spin out on that low gear on the flat roads of Beijing but it just means going out into the hills in the Summer should be a blast!

It looks great and I'm so looking forwward to riding fixed and on my first ever aluminium road frame. Can't wait for it too arrive. Just hope they forget to add import tax when it arrives :-)

Here's Bike Radar's review:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/urban/product/dispatch-31951

Rip off China

We used to feel miffed back in the UK that everything there was artificially expensive - and it was true. The biggest example was the price of cars which were some 20 to 30 per cent higher for exactly the same model and specification than in Europe. So this fuelled a grey import trade and coined the phrase "rip off Britain". The car manufacturers were keeping the prices high - much higher than in nearby countries. The cost of manufacture was the same.

Now, over here in China, I find a similar rip off effect. I want to buy a new bike, a fixed wheel bicycle and everywhere I look they are massively more expensive than in the UK or the US. The Trek District is a hefty £599 and here in China it's 9580¥. But £599 in ¥ is 6038. A significant difference. Now Trek China tell me the start price is the same but there's an import tax of 30% and a sales tax of 17.5% which accounts for the difference but by my calculations, they're still 1727¥ more expensive than the start price + import tax + sales tax. I arrived at this comparative figure by first subtracting the UK sales tax and then adding the Chinese import and sales taxes.


So what's going on? Well I'm not sure. I just know that my bike in a UK store is £599 and in China it's an equivalent of £950 and I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay the extra to the Chinese Government and/or to Trek. It's a lovely bike but I'd rather go without. There's no free trade here.

Free day

Free days are precious. Even more so now that I've found out that I've lost 3 days annual holiday because the end of the year came before I knew the rule at my new employer. So now one of today's jobs is to use my free day to write an email to ask for leniency and my 3 days back. I'll keep you posted!

But today my free day is for me. Not for my friends and their needs but just mine. And that means fixing my wheel, tidying my place and allowing me some time to think for myself. A lovely thought in itself :-)

Friday is a day for others when I'll be taking friends to watch the UCI track meet at the Laoshan velodrome here in Beijing. I'm so pleased to finally be going along to see a track meet and see the speed and tactics and of course the bikes. Roll on Friday!