Bargain!

The Stumble Inn (a very promising new bar in every way, except being stuck way out on the east side of town) used to sell its Stella at 35 RMB for a 500ml glass. That didn't really tempt me away from the much more centrally-located Luga's Villa, where it is the same price. (I think it is the same price also in Tun, but that's too big and - on busy nights - way too crowded for my taste. And in The Rickshaw, at least on 'happy hour'; but I long ago gave up on that place.) There's no longer a 'local option' for me to indulge my predilection for this fine Belgian brew: Ginkgo (the former Room 101) keeps promising to reinstall a Stella tap, but keeps on failing to get around to it; and the Bell & Drum had one put in sometime last year, but seems to have given up ever actually stocking the stuff. Sigh.

Well, the Stella at Luga's Villa is 35 RMB until 9pm. Then it goes up to 40 RMB - which can be a bit of a nasty shock. 35 RMB is already quite enough: far more, in fact, than I have ever regularly spent on a beer in all my time in China. (I got into a Stella habit again last year on Room 101's early evening happy hour, when you could get TWO 330ml glasses for 20 RMB.) As I have mentioned in my What Makes A Great Bar? post and elsewhere, I disapprove of 'happy hours' that aren't happy enough or straightforward enough, that aren't simply an across-the-board 50% reduction. Rickshaw cemented its place in my disaffections by whittling its "happy hour" discount on Stella down to a miserly 5 kuai at some point last year. Luga's Villa has the same problem: the 'happy hour', though it covers a sensible 6pm-9pm timeframe, just ain't really all that "happy" - the discount on Stella is again only a poxy 5 kuai. I am more inclined to tolerate this with Luga, because I like the guy. And because I usually only go in there for a quick post-work gargle if I've been busy with something in that part of town, just one or two pints at 6pm or 7pm before I head off elsewhere. Oh yes, and because if I stay for more than two, Luga almost invariably comps me another one....

So, the good ol' Stumble was recommending itself heavily on principle, if not actually on cost-saving, by offering its Stella at the same reasonably keen price all the time.

But then..... the last time I went in there, they had a new promotion on Stella. It's being quite professionally advertised, and I thought perhaps it might be a new marketing campaign by Stella's distributors in China. But no, it seems that it is the brainchild of the Stumbling Crew themselves, Glenn and Shane.

It's beautifully simple: a mini 'loyalty card' on which the bar staff record each 'pint' as you drink it. Each one gets cheaper. The first is the standard 35 RMB. But the second is 30, and the third only 25. And the fourth is FREE. And then you start again....

Four 'pints' is a very manageable total for the 2.5 hrs or so that I'd typically spend on a visit there. And there's no hassle about you keeping your card and continuing next time, if you don't use up all four beers in one night.

Oh... my... god - that's 22.5 RMB per 500ml glass on average. That is, by some margin, the best deal on Stella currently available anywhere in this town. It's blowing Luga's Villa, Tun, and the rest out of the water. I look hopefully towards Luga to see if he will respond, but I rather doubt it.

Thank you, Stumble Inn. I know where I'm satisfying my Stella craving from now on.

Last call for Luga...

I had been thinking - after the strange and unexpected failure to open for the Superbowl last Monday (perhaps Luga just didn't know that it was on?!) - that Luga's Villa might have closed its doors for good.

There's obviously something jinxed about that location (and I hear some alarming tales about the landlord!): even The Golden Elephant (one of the better Indian restaurants in Beijing history) and the Handsome Café (awful name, but actually a rather decent little bar in that semi-basement space) couldn't survive there very long - and there have been god knows how many other failed ventures there since.  And the Villa suffers acutely from the 'divided space' problem - with three utterly unconnected floors (and two separate outside seating areas, with little or no service): has anyone ever set foot on the upper floor??

And - for a fairly divey bar - it's just a tad expensive. 40 kuai for a Stella??!!

But its biggest problem, as I've said on here often before, is that Luga keeps on failing to commit to the idea of being a sports bar.

On Saturday, I set out to watch the two big games in the English Premiership that day, the Manchester derby followed by Arsenal v Wolves.  Paddy O'Shea's - labouring under the burden of now being the ONLY (half-way) decent sports bar in town, and being the only place able to offer coverage of the Six Nations rugby competition (albeit a crappy picture from a Slingbox feed) - was completely swamped; when it gets that full, it's really not good for business, because it becomes almost impossible to get a drink!  Hence, I was forced to seek out alternatives in Sanlitun... and discovered - surprise, surprise! - that Luga's Villa was still open after all.

The TVs he's got in there aren't very good, and the small wall-projector he was using for the alternate game produced an unfortunately squashed picture, but... at least he was showing two games at once... and there was plenty of room to sit down.  Things went well enough at first (stupendous goal from Loony Rooney!!)... but then, at 11pm, he unaccountably brought a DJ on (someone I know, actually; lovely bloke - but I can't stand the shit he plays!).  The first 15 minutes of 'tune-up' was excruciating torture, with constantly see-sawing volume and the frequent buzz, crackle, and pop of loose wires in the PA.  Once we got into the set proper.... it was even worse.

I only survived - with difficulty - to the end of the second game by relocating upstairs (which, despite being a more obvious 'party' venue than the basement space, was not where they'd chosen to place the DJ; and which was not, at least at first, playing his godawful 'music' at such a high volume), and then by plugging my ears with balls of paper torn from the edge of a serviette.  It's much harder to attend to  the game and to follow what's happening without an audible commentary (or at least a little bit of crowd atmos in the background); it's practically impossible with the distraction of painfully loud music playing over the top of it (they've started doing this at The Den too - why, why, WHY??).

And if this is a ploy to woo the younger drinking crowd, who actually like this kind of 'music' (and aren't so interested in the football) - well, I think it is woefully misguided.  There were a couple of dozen such youngsters upstairs at The Villa on Saturday - but quite a few of them didn't order any drinks, and they all left at around midnight.  There are too many other bars and clubs in that neck of the woods that cater to people who want to dance - Kai at the low end, Lantern at the top, Kokomo in the middle, and more besides.  Luga isn't going to break into that scene.  And if he tries to attract a pre-clubbing crowd in for just one or two drinks on a Saturday night, he's only going to succeed in pissing off the sports fans.

I like Luga - but he's running this place like a concussed bee.  Luga's Villa, I'm afraid, is DOOMED.

A new game for you!

Since even the formerly indefatigable Gary seems to have run out of steam on the band naming game, and the bar naming game has never really taken off (although they are both still available, if you want to go and make a contribution), I offer you a new piece of frivol.... something I was discussing with The Weeble the other night.

We noted that there have already been some fairly positive rumblings about the new Vietnamese place in Sanlitun, Luga's Pho Pho.

We also noted that Luga - long honoured as a great copyist, in the great tradition of the Chinese people - is showing a remarkable ability to transcend genres.

His first venture, the eponymous Luga's, was a straight steal from the old Saddle. (Quite literally! He managed to get the previous incumbents bumped from their lease, and took over the space, keeping almost everything - the menu, the chef, most of the staff - identical. Many people decried this as extremely underhand, and advocated a boycott. But, frankly, this is just the way business is done out here: if the Saddle owners were blindsided by it, I'd blame their naivety more than Luga's devilish cunning. And Luga has in fact managed to improve the venue in certain ways. I have a soft spot for the guy - he's a more astute businessman, and much more focused on customer relationship building than the Saddle people ever were.)

That was just the beginning in what is now emerging as a masterplan for world domination.

First, he doubled the size of Luga's by taking over the adjacent space and knocking through. Then he opened up the much grander Luga's Villa around the corner (a would-be sports bar, which critics sneer is again rather too obviously aping the model of Rickshaw and/or Saddle Cantina - the other successful venues started by the Saddle team [for whom Luga once worked!]), complete with an 'authentic' Mexican restaurant, Casa Mexicana, upstairs (although I'm not sure that anyone has yet been to it - it might as well be under quarantine!). And now, the Vietnamese bistro in the space above the original Luga's.

The question is..... what next??

A giant expat sports bar - Luga's Duck & Goose?

A late-night snack shop - Luga's Gyros or Luga's Fish'n'Chips?

An Irish bar - Durty O'Luga's?

The possibilities are nearly endless! Share your thoughts with us.

Although, I fear The Weeble may already have come up with an unbeatable entry. He suggests renaming the Tongli enclave where Luga's empire was born as..... The Lugation Quarter.

All I want for Super Bowl Sunday Monday

I'd like to find a bar/restaurant that is actually showing the game....

(Last year, a lot of places surprisingly didn't bother to open for it.)

.... with a decent picture and audible commentary, in English....

(All of the major sports bars have at some point in the last few years proved unable to find a decent satellite link, and have ended up showing the same crappy BTV6 coverage in Chinese that we could watch at home; or, in the case of the disastrous Luga's Villa last year, decided not to open for the game at all! And Paddy O'Shea's last year, despite having good English coverage, was overdriving its loudspeakers so badly that the commentary was incomprehensible.)

.... without charging an exorbitant door fee, or attempting to insist on advance reservations...

(Last year, the wretched Stumble Inn had been advertising a preposterous 150 kuai door charge! And asking for reservations!)

.... that isn't ridiculously overcrowded...

(The proliferation of Americans - particularly young Americans - in Beijing in the last few years, and the withering in the number of sports bars, has meant that there is now often extreme pressure on available space for events like this.)

... and is reasonably accessible.

(I suspect that Grinders or The Irish Volunteer are likely to be two of the most amenable venues; but that's a hell of a long way for me to be going at 7am!)

Home Plate BBQ would be my dream venue for the game, but I don't think they've got satellite TV yet, and I haven't seen them advertising anything for tomorrow. And it is a bit far away from me.

Next likeliest option is the James Joyce - which is, hopefully, still sufficiently 'below the radar' to avoid excessive crowds (it's become my favourite place to watch English Premiership football games for that reason). It if it is too heaved out, I suppose the just revamped Luga's Villa is the likeliest emergency option - although they really don't deserve the support after last year's fiasco (and their generally dismal showing as a 'sports bar' over the past two or three years).

Actually, I fear the likeliest option is that I'll just not have the energy to attempt to go and see the game in public, and will make do with BTV6 at home. That's if I don't oversleep, and miss the game altogether.

Kick-off in 8 hours, and I don't feel like going to bed yet. And it's a 'Super Sunday' in the Premiership as well, - Chelsea v Manchester United likely to keep me up until 2am. Hmm, perhaps I won't subject myself to another round of Beijing sports bar HELL tomorrow: cheap beers in the fridge and a comfy sofa are starting to seem very appealing.

The Froog Bar Awards - 2008

Time again for my year-end roundup of the best and worst that Beijing has to offer in the bar & music scene.

I find, in fact, that in many categories my thoughts are quite unchanged from last year. There have been scores of new bars opening in Beijing this year, but I haven't tried most of them, and am unlikely to do so. Most of those that I have tried suck most mightily. Perhaps I am a person of rather fixed habits (although I'd prefer to think of it as a case of my being a person of clear judgment and robust loyalty: once I've found a place I like, I stick to it.)

Anyway, to mix things up a bit this year, I've added some new or modified categories - highlighted in red.

Best Live Music Venue

Winner: 2 Kolegas


Runners-up: MAO Live House and Jiangjinjiu

(Last year I had a separate category for the smaller music bars, but that seemed a bit of an extravagant and superfluous distinction, so I've dropped it this year. Amongst the other contenders, Room 101, alas, did not survive the year, Salud and the Stone Boat were banned from having music for a number of months [bloody Olympics!], and - while I'm delighted to learn that it's still soldiering on - I haven't actually been to the tiny and obscure What Bar in 2 or 3 years. Jianghu, alas, is not what it once was. And Yugong Yishan, as I have bewailed often, is just shite. Club 13 is too far away to be on my radar very often. MAO is still far-and-away the best venue for rock'n'roll - great ambience, great sound system - but gets dropped from the top spot this year because of its overpriced beer and its infuriatingly haphazard scheduling.)



Worst Music Bar

Winner: New Get Lucky


Runners-up: D-22, Guitar Bar

(No changes here!!)



Best Gig Of The Year

Winner: Blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite and the Alex Wilson Band at Cheers in January.

(His Sunday afternoon spot at Jianghu was quite magical, but really more of an intimate fireside chat than a show. Cheers is an ideal space for the blues - small, dark, smoky - and the performance that night just rocked. I saw all their performances here in Beijing, and that was way the best.)


(Very close) Runner-up: The stonking 2 Kolegas 3rd Anniversary Show at the beginning of June (after which I lost the hearing in my right ear for a couple of days!).



Worst Gig Of The Year

Winner: A toss-up between the dire White show at D-22 at the start of this month and the Elevator Music Hell that was last week's Ruins/Zhou Yunshan gig at Yugong Yishan.



Best Bar Food

Winner: Luga's

(Last year's winner Saddle now re-branded, but almost identical; in fact, improved in many ways - the burritos are fantastic value and the burger is one of the best in town).


Runner-up: Luga's Villa

(I've found the food a bit spotty in Luga's new - much grander - place around the corner, and the 'authentic Mexican' dishes are mostly rather a disappointment. The portions, however, are HUGE: the burger and the fajitas are popular choices. I was reluctantly prepared to include The Den as a runner-up last year, but the place is in a nosedive, in my opinion: I never liked it much, but the booze, the food, the service, and the decor have all taken a turn for the worse this year.)



Most Overrated Bar Food

Winner: The Tree

Runner-up: There are no runners-up in this category. The Tree is the only place I can think of that has built up such a ridiculously overblown, undeserved reputation for its food. (Once again, no change this year.)



Best Place To Drink While Eating

Winner: White Nights

(Best of the cheap Russian joints these days, I think [though how I miss the old Traktirr!]: the food is hearty; they have an accepting attitude towards people who want to drink more than eat; the draft beer is usually pretty good and not too expensive; the bottled Baltika beer is exellent; and then there's the vodka....)


(Very close) Runner-up: BiteAPitta

(No changes from last year here. Kro's Nest makes the best pizzas in town, but the place lacks charm as a bar. The service is all over the place at the best of times, and on their "cheap beer Tuesdays" they get completely overwhelmed: you can wait an hour to get your food or a drink. I hear very good things about Pyro Pizza - but it's way out in Haidian, so I'm afraid it's highly unlikely that I'll ever go there.)



Best Place To Go For A Cocktail

Winner: Reef

(Especially if one of my friends has been allowed behind the bar to mix the drinks.)


Runner-up: 12 Square Metres

(I'm not really that much of a 'cocktail person'. Most of the places in this town that fancy themselves as 'cocktail bars' are outrageously overpriced, and don't in fact make very good cocktails. Q is the one honourable exception [on the latter point, at least], but it's still ridiculously f***ing expensive, and I don't like the clientele. If you want a decent cocktail that won't cost you an arm and a leg, you should stick to one of these cosy neighbourhood bars on Nanluoguxiang, I say.)



Best Place For Sitting Outside
(Category suspended - because of the bloody Olympics. Sitting outside on the street was banned almost everywhere in Beijing during the summer months, and that ban seems to have become permanent on Nanluoguxiang [probably a good and necessary thing, since the street is so busy these days]; Chen at Reef has got rid of his outdoor furniture, alas. Roof terraces were also supposed to have been banned, but that wasn't actually put into effect - or, if it was, it wasn't enforced. However, thanks to the over-zealous weather management by the authorities here, we had an absolutely dreadful summer in the lead-up to the Olympics anyway: there was not much sitting outside to be done this year.)




Most Pointless New Bar
(rather than Worst New Bar or Most Disappointing New Bar, as we had last year; so many of these new places are somewhere beyond merely bad, and have never raised any hopes to disappoint)

Winner: Lugar's

(A would-be 'upmarket', very expensive Taiwanese whisky/cocktail/wine bar - hidden away in an oscure, unfashionable hutong. There's dumb, there's unfathomably dumb, and then there's this. [Not to be confused with Luga's, of course!])


Runners-up: Nearby The Tree and Drei Kronen and Tsingtao Beer Palace

(Nearby The Tree tries to trade on the popularity of its parent bar The Tree, but is completely dissimilar - and conspicuously fails to draw any customers at all. Drei Kronen is a cavernous and charmless German brewhouse which conspicuously fails to draw any customers. And a Tsingtao theme bar?? What kind of monstrous, idiotic hubris is that??)




'Sign of Desperation' Of The Year

Winner: Nearby The Tree giving away FREE BEER for a month, and still not attracting very many customers.


Runner-up: Drei Kronen giving away scads of free beer vouchers, and still not attracting very many customers.



Foot-Shooting Of The Year

Winner: The steadily degenerating Rickshaw's batty decision to impose a (secret) 15% surcharge on everything during the Olympic month of August - a policy which resulted in it being almost entirely deserted that month.


Runner-Up: Any one of a number of daft and custom-harming ideas that contributed to Room 101's demise, though the leading contender would surely have to be the decision to scrap the enormously popular midnight-1am 'happy hour'.



Redemption Of The Year

Winner: Room 101, which made a pretty dismal start 15 months ago, but was a really great little bar for the first half of this year.

Runner-up: D-22 - which, despite still sucking rather as a music venue, has managed to transform itself into a pretty darned good bar (it's the staff that make all the difference).



Bar Which Has Deteriorated Most This Year

Winner: The Den


Runner-Up: Rickshaw



Worst Bar

Winner: Centro

Runner-up: Paddy O'Shea's

(D-22 and The Tree are so much improved this year that they drop out of contention in this category, allowing the foul Centro to reclaim its rightful - almost unchallengeable - place at the top. Paddy's is also somewhat improved, I found on a recent visit; but it's still appalling.)



Most Overrated Bar

Winner: Ichikura

(Yes, they have a very nice selection of whiskies. Yes, the head barman is very knowledgeable and helpful. But it's way too expensive. They serve the whisky in sherry schooners - what the fuck? And that business with sculpting your ice into a golf ball is just tedious. I've had at least half a dozen people recommend this place to me this year - but I just do not get the point.)


Runners-up: Centro, Q

(As ever....)



Most Sadly Missed Departures

Winner: Room 101

(My most regular - at times, almost daily - haunt for the first 9 months of this year.)


Runner-up: The Sunset Grill - better known as Sammy's, a true dive bar!



Party Of The Year

Winner: The Jack Daniel's Night at Room 101 in April


Runner-Up: My birthday party at Salud in October (only modesty prevents me from putting this first; we certainly had better music at this one!); also, the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Room 101



Best Barperson/Bar Owner

Winner: Li Mei, of 12 Square Metres

(A charming lady, who works with remarkable thoroughness and efficiency behind that cramped bar - and she mixes some pretty nice drinks too.)

Runner-up: That new guy at Salud

(I never get around to asking his name, but he's friendly and fast - and he always gives me the most ridiculously generous free pours of whisky. [Later, much later, I gathered that his name was Bo Wen - or "Bowen"?? - but, sadly, he quit the place half-way through 2009.)



Most Promising New Bar
(rather than Best New Bar, as we had last year; the jury is still out on these places...)

Winner: Luga's Villa

Runner-up: Ned's



Bar of the Year
(rather than Best Bar, as we had last year: my personal favourites are unlikely to change much year by year, so I wanted a category title that was a little more in touch with the shifting zeitgeist)


Winner: Salud

(I fear it is now in danger of becoming rather a victim of its own success: it seems to be becoming impossible to have a party anywhere else. And in this year of so many departures, it seems as though scarcely a week, scarcely a day goes by without a leaving party of some sort there.)


Runner-up: Room 101

(It would have claimed the top spot if it had survived: it was a central part of my life for 8 or 9 months.)



So, here we are once again: my picks of the year. Any comments, complaints, additions, suggestions?

The Superbowl that (nearly) wasn't

Finding a venue to watch the Superbowl has become next-to-impossible.

I had originally planned to try out the (consistently well spoken of since it opened... a couple of years back now, I suppose) Irish Volunteer out by the Lido.  However, despite cruising past that area relatively often (DVD-buying sprees at Tom's or Sunday afternoon walks out to Dashanzi...), I have never yet managed to suss out exactly where it is.  And I hear it's a fairly small venue, so I feared there'd be a serious danger of unpleasant overcrowding.  And I found I just didn't have the requisite will-power to schlepp all the way out there on my own that early in the morning.  The reason I still haven't tried the place out in nearly two years is that it's just too damned far away.

My second choice would have been The Brick - but owner Lee had told me he wouldn't be able to open up because of his competing commitment to help run The Stumble Inn (of which I had better say no more).  Also pretty bloody remote from me, but reasonably accessible via the Line 10 subway: I was disappointed to learn that was a no-go.  I heard belatedly that Chad was planning to show the game at Grinders down that way, but... well, I wasn't confident I could rely on that information (does he even have a TV screen in there, much less a satellite??  I wasn't going to undertake such a huge trek just to watch the local BTV coverage on a small screen!)... and it's not a very cosy venue - more wine bar or bistro than bar.

So, my default option - purely on grounds of accessibility and reliability - became Paddy O'Shea's.  But boy, was that crowded!!  You could scarcely get in the door half an hour before the start of the game.  They were trying to redirect people to the Indian restaurant upstairs, but that didn't have a very appealing ambience (and was rapidly becoming almost as packed out as the downstairs).  Even worse, the audience here seemed to be entirely composed of raucous young Americans - who had played the game themselves in high school or college.  Very bulky lads, most of them.  And not adept at manouevring through narrow gaps; I lost count of the number of times I got barged in the back in just a few minutes.  And the handful of diminutive wait staff were completely lost in this burly throng: it was impossible to get a drink.  And the sound system in there is just awful: despite being boomingly loud, it was too indistinct to render the commentary comprehensible.  Time to try other options.

Sanlitun, alas, proved to be a ghost town: Luga's Villa (scene of my Superbowl bender last year) was... closed!! WTF??!!  (I suspect this means the place is on its last legs, if not demised already.)  So were 1st Floor and Bar Blu and the Saddle Cantina, which are the sort of places you'd expect to make an effort to show this.  (So too, apparently, was the Blue Frog, which had been advertised as planning to show the game; although the place is too pricey and too upstairs in a mall to win my consideration.  The same factors weighed against the Stumble Inn [which had, in any case, ineptly ruled itself out of contention by advertising - possibly misleadingly - a 150 kuai door charge!] and the Union Grille; although a couple of people have told me that the latter - despite being uncomfortably full - provided a pretty good experience of the big game.)

I moseyed by The Den, which - just before kick-off - seemed, surprisingly, to be not that full.  Pretty full, but not jammed-to-the-rafters full like Paddy's.  It might have had something to do with the two goons on the door, who seemed to be trying to extract a 50 kuai door fee.  I understand from someone who went a little later that this was supposed to be a special 'breakfast' deal, and was not compulsory - but that's not what they were saying to me at 7.30am.  He also told me they had a special deal on some of the beers - Beijing Draft and Carlsberg for 15 kuai, or something like that.  Again, NOT advertised outside, or mentioned by the guys on the door.  I hadn't fancied paying an extra 50 kuai (even if I was going to get some free food with it).  And I'd been worried that regular morning prices at The Den would be in force, and thus prohibitively expensive (their 'happy hour' tariff isn't really cheap; just a tad lower than other would-be 'high-end' bars these days, but not CHEAP; the double price they charge most of the time is just outrageous).  But I don't think even the 15-kuai beers offer would have tempted me in: the draught beer there has been disgustingly skanky every time I've tried it in the last couple of years or so.  I rather think they're getting their kegs at a discount because they're beyond their use-by date (and/or they never clean their lines).  No, The Den was not appealing.  Only one more possibility left to explore, and that a very outside chance....

I'd heard that Chicago Bears fans had been enjoying some of the playoff games in secret lock-ins at Hooters (the Chinese owner, apparently, supports the Bears), so I thought I'd give that a try.  Indeed, it was open.  Well, kind of.  The boss still hadn't remembered to open the front door 10 minutes after kick-off, which perhaps accounted for the fact that there was only one guy there watching with him.  And despite assurances that the game was to be available with both Chinese and English coverage, the TVs were only showing BTV (perhaps he meant that you could still just about hear the original American commentary at low volume underneath the inane babble of the Chinese presenters?).  Then I looked at the menu and remembered why I never go to this place - 28rmb for a stubbie of Tsingtao???  No, thank you.

I toyed with the idea of getting a cab out to the Irish Volunteer, but in the middle of the Chinese New Year holiday there are very few cabs out and about around Gongti at that time in the morning.  So, I found myself giving up and taking the subway home.  At least I was able to get a jian bing for breakfast at Dongsi Shitiao, and I made it back just in time for the start of the 2nd quarter (though, of course, I'd missed the Packers storming to an early 14-0 lead).  After a while, I became quite adept at 'tuning out' the distracting Chinese commentary (although at times it could become overpoweringly obtrusive:  "That guy just got kicked in the nuts - HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAA!!!").

Hell of a game!  The Packers had me sweating bullets in the last couple of minutes - but I had remained robustly confident through most of the game that they would prevail in the end.  Go, you Packers, GO!!!  (I've long had a soft spot for them; an inclination reinforced by fear of verbal or physical battery by my bud The British Cowboy if I dare to express any interest in or sympathy for any other team!)

[I'd been a little surprised - nay, mystified - by the size of the turnout at Paddy's.  It's not a great bar, and not - usually - a very American bar.  I hadn't known that the enormous Goose & Duck sports bar - a staple for Eastsiders - was closed for renovations!!  Or that The Den would have surly doormen discouraging people from entering.  Or that Luga's Villa would be CLOSED.  Or that just about everywhere else would be closed too.  There's been a huge increase in the number of Americans - young Americans, especially - in Beijing in the last few years; but there's been a dramatic withering in the number of sports bars.  I rather fear that I'm going to have to watch the Superbowl at home every year from now on...]

Signs of desperation

1) I've never been to super-ritzy nightclub Lan (the one with all the cod Louis Quatorze decor designed by Philippe Starck), and I don't suppose I'm ever likely to. It doesn't sound like my kind of place. In fact, I've never even worked out where it is.

I'm not sure how many other people go there. Only a handful of my friends ever have, and seldom more than once. It can't have been a good year or two to be launching such a venture, what with the Olympics killing Beijing's nightlife for much of last year, and then the 'meltdown' hitting us. I keep hearing of (half-hearted, short-lived) new initiatives to try and build a stronger clientele for the place, but nothing much seems to come of any of them.

And then..... I discovered from one of my cooler and more high-tone friends on New Year's Eve that they were doing an all-night 'free flow of drinks' deal.... for 90 kuai a head! I daresay there were all kinds of restrictions on it: surely no champagne, and probably only the cheapest house wines; perhaps some basic cocktails and mixed drinks, and domestic beers. But even so, 90rmb is a pretty keen price for an all-you-can-drink - especially on New Year's Eve. And at a place like Lan, 90 kuai would ordinarily buy you probably only one or two drinks.

Damn it, they were undercutting Luga - who was charging 100rmb for his New Year's Eve Party at the Villa (though with some discounts for advance or multiple ticket purchases), and was only offering heavily discounted drinks rather than a completely free flow. A deal that cheap at a place like Lan strikes the wrong note; it should be charging more than anyone else, to emphasise its class and exclusivity. If the place had any kind of a following at all, it could easily have charged a 200 or 300 kuai door fee for a New Year's Eve Party, even without offering a lot of specials on the drinks. When the city's swankiest nightclub is trying to compete with Luga's Villa for custom, I rather think it must be on its last legs.

2) New entry in the nightclub stakes (rather less swanky than Lan, but still with somewhat lofty ambitions) Le Zazou has its official launch tonight. There's an "exclusive, VIP pre-launch party - with French cabaret" from 8pm. Well, "exclusive" - except that they seem to have been giving away invitations to anyone who's gone in there this week (admittedly that's not many people, because of the post-holiday lull and the severely inclement weather). A double ticket found its way into my hands, but I decided it was not likely to be my kind of event and have been trying to give it to a good home. Trying and trying and trying. Can't give these tickets away! (Zazou hasn't been building itself much of a rep in its two weeks of 'soft opening', and I can see why. But more on that some other time....)

One thing these two rather sorry examples have in common is their indifferent - almost non-existent? - promotion. I didn't see any advertisements either for the Lan New Year's Eve offer or for tonight's Launch Party at Le Zazou.

Bar tab II

Or... The Return Of The Revenge Of The Son Of My Drinking Habit

April always seems to be one of the busiest months - if not the busiest - in the whole year for going out drinking.

There are a number of likely reasons. Folks from back home in the UK are apt to come and visit during the Easter holidays. The music scene emerges properly from its Chunjie hibernation period, with album launches and warm-up gigs for the May Holiday festivals and what-not. New bars start opening up in time for the busy summer season. The weather is (usually) just starting to get nice - yet work still hasn't really picked up from the winter doldrums, so I don't have to worry too much about early morning starts the next day. Yep, if I'd kept records of these things, I suspect they would indicate that April has pretty regularly been my hardest-drinking month.

But this month just past really was a doozie.

I find I went to Salud 5 or 6 times (mostly for the Wednesday night music), Jianghu 3 times (always for music), and 2 Kolegas once (for the first time in ages - the relaunch of favourite blues-rockers Black Cat Bone made it worth giving the place another chance, after a pretty consistently dismal showing for gigs over the last year or so). I also went to a speaker event at The Bookworm for the first time in some months, to Paddy O'Shea's a couple of times for big football matches in the English Premier League, and to The Den for the Malaysian Grand Prix (Paddy's only had Chinese coverage; and the staff there on a Sunday afternoon are too dopey to work out if it's showing on any of their online or satellite English-language channels). Finding myself in Sanlitun for one reason or another quite often, I found myself dropping into Luga's for the cheap early evening Tsingtaos quite a few times. And, since my friend Little Anthony was in town, I gave him the whistlestop tour of worthwhile drinking venues: Flamme (best food - although, since we were looking in on a lunchtime, we refrained from sampling the excellent cocktail menu), Luga's Villa (best pool table - though sadly a bit crap in every other respect), The Den (the only affordable Guinness in town), Fubar (most hidden - and sadly devoid of customers these days, at least in the early evening), El Nido (best value), Amilal (warmest welcome, best music selection, most coquettish cats), and MaoMaoChong (best cocktails outside of Flamme; although, sadly, we weren't able to try their excellent pizza as well because chef Stephen was on holiday with his family). And - to cast the net just a little wider than usual - I found myself kicking off the month at What Bar by the Forbidden City (which was actually closed for the night, while a group of Beijing Film School students shot scenes for their graduation project in there; but The Choirboy and I enjoyed a few xiaomaibu beers on the sidewalk with the lady boss), and closing it with a rare stop-off at Laowai's, a new-ish student dive in Wudaokou.

Alas, in the midst of such diverse activity, I neglected my old favourite The Pool Bar for the whole month - must put that right soon!

My other 'second homes', though, maintained something like their usual frequency of visitation: I looked in at Amilal 6 times during the month, and El Nido 4 times.

And 12 Square Metres... well, I can't begin to count!! I think I hit a run of 15 straight days there at one point, and probably only missed 4 or 5 days in the whole month. (This only ever seems to happen when the boss JK is away. He'll be starting to think I've got something against him...)

Hence, it was a rather painfully heavy spending month, nearly twice as expensive as my very low-key March! I must try to tighten the belt a little (A LOT!) in May.  Wish me luck.

What if they closed a bar and nobody noticed?

I had been meaning to start an occasional series pondering the shifting fashions in the Beijing nightlife scene, with the theme "Does anyone go to.... any more?"

The projected first post for this strand was - of course - going to be "Does anyone go to The Rickshaw any more?"

I missed my window on that. The place closed - abruptly, without any advance warning, without any farewell party - a month or so ago. The avarice of their rent-gouging landlord was blamed, but.... well, the place had been moribund for the better part of two years anyway.

I don't think I set foot in it once during 2009, and I doubt if any of my friends (many of whom were quite keen on the place as an after-work rendezvous when it first opened) had either. It had always seemed ominously quiet whenever I walked past on my way to The Bookworm - positively funereal compared to the wild frat-boy whooping and hollering that used to emanate from the place through '07 and on into early '08. They'd lost their outside seating area and hugely popular beer-pong table (I always suspected that it wasn't covered by their lease anyway, and that they had no legal right to occupy that space). They'd lost their satellite TV sports (they never did have much idea how to operate the channels, and the TVs weren't very good quality; but then, I gather, the satellite signal started packing up altogether, and for a long time the only thing they seemed to be able to offer was Women's NBA; then they lost that too; I heard tell they were blaming new construction for blocking out their signal, but that sounds like hogwash to me - there's nothing all that tall near to them that hasn't been there for years, whereas The Den is surrounded by tall new constructions but is managing to preserve its satellite sports feed). But above all, they'd lost their way: once the owners' new venture, Saddle Cantina, became such a big hit, they were never to be seen in the old Rickshaw any more, with the result that the already abysmal standards of service there just plummeted through the floor. The final nail in the coffin was the stupid decision to impose an unadvertised 15% surcharge on everything while the Olympics were on; most of their regular clientele had been driven out of the city already by the crazy visa regulations that summer; and tourists or other passing trade were not going to be won over by an attitude like that - the place was completely deserted every time I looked in that August. And I don't think it ever really recovered.

They were probably getting caned by the new competition in the area as well: Nanjie became the 'in' place for the youngsters; Tun became - for a while - the big weekend party spot and pick-up joint; the expanded Luga's and the new Luga's Villa (and the sadly short-lived Stumble Inn) were also hitting much the same demographic, and hitting it better; and a lot of their custom was probably being cannibalised by their own new venture, the Saddle Cantina (which I find charm-free, hellishly noisy, and seriously overpriced - but it is, for some strange reason, hugely successful).

Yep, Rickshaw had its little spell of vogueishness, of being super-successful (probably peaking in the summer/autumn of 2007)..... and then it just DIED on its feet.

By chance, I had happened to look in there two or three times just before it closed. It was completely empty on each occasion (and these were early evenings, Wednesday or Thursday, when you'd expect a fairly decent after-work crowd to be starting to show up). The staff fell on me like piranhas, hassling me to take a seat and look at the drinks list when it was very clear I was just checking to see if friends were there - a glaring sign of desperation, an indication that the end was at hand. [I've encountered the same thing at Tun a number of times in recent months. I wonder how much longer that place can keep limping on. "Does anyone still go to Tun?"]

Has it come to this?

Yes, alas, it has.  The quest for a place to watch English football has led us to Touch Nine, an utterly charmless Korean bar concealed within an office building adjacent to Wudaokou station.  Their "Asahi" beer appears to be brewed locally under licence by the Beijing Brewery, so the quality isn't wonderful; in fact, I fear perhaps they've got their hands on some nasty fake stuff (either that, or the chaps at the Beijing-Asahi factory are washing the bottles out with formaldehyde again: just a couple of bottles of the stuff made me feel very ill on Sunday night).  And it's gone up to 20 kuai a pop (it was 18 when I first visited this spot a year ago; and I still have fond memories of a few places where you used to be able to get the premium 'Super Dry' brand for only 10 or 12 kuai).  And we have to watch the game with Korean commentary.

But..... at least we could watch the game.

New favourite hangout in my own 'hood, Sand Pebbles, is becoming a regular spot for watching the F1; but they only have StarSports, a general sports channel which doesn't prioritise football, and only seems to show one or two games each weekend (in fact, it doesn't even seem to show F1 very reliably).  All the places around Sanlitun are stupidly expensive (except The Den, which ambushes you by surreptitiously becoming stupidly expensive at 10pm - half-way through a game).  Danger Doyle's and the (finally) revived Stumble Inn suffer also from having dreadful locations (upstairs in a mall!).  Paddy O'Shea's has spectacularly awful service and can get obnoxiously raucous (as well as being, of course, a faux Irish shitbox).  And Luga's Villa continues to be a complete shambles as a sports bar (I went in with The Chairman a few Sundays ago, just before a major Premiership fixture, and found.... no Luga, no customers, no football on the TV, and no staff who knew how to operate the satellite channels; no-one, in fact, who even knew that there was any football on; we were forced to go to The Den instead; we had very similar experiences there two or three times towards the end of last season as well - Luga's, I'm sorry to say, is now a dead option for watching sports).

Unappealing locations, shitty ambience, obnoxious clientele, lousy service, arm-and-a-leg prices, and - in many cases - no certainty that the event you want to see is going to be shown!  Beijing's sports bar scene is just unbelievably DIRE.  I think I may have to bite the bullet and pay for my own satellite dish at home.  Or goad The Chairman into getting one.

Although I hear a rumour that the nice folks at The Box may be trying to get a satellite hook-up shortly.  Western snack food, decent 10-kuai draught beer, and football on the TV..... and right on my doorstep??  Oh, please, please, please make it so.

A convivial footnote

I have just learned that tonight (or tomorrow??) is also the first anniversary for Luga's Villa.  I understand the celebration rolls from midnight.   I am wary of going, since a) Sanlitun on the weekend is a wretched place, and b) Luga's idea of a celebration is to plonk a free bottle of highly dubious vodka or tequila down on your table (and urge you to feel free to request another if you manage to finish the first one and are still alive).  On the other hand, I rather like the old rogue.  And there is a big football game on tonight.   My, it could be a long evening....

Choices

Tonight, Ed - of Red T Music - is putting on one of his MicroMu events at MAO Live House: strange but true - Oxygen Can, a rather fun heavy metal outfit, are doing an 'unplugged' show. I'm really not sure how that's going to work - you might be able to unplug their instruments, but you can't unplug them: these boys are diehard headbangers. Still, their distinctive gimmick is that they have a second drummer who beats the shit out of an oil drum with a pair of heavy wooden billets - I suppose they don't need any amplification for that. Definitely an intriguing prospect, this; I am sorely tempted.

However, over at nearby rival venue Yugong Yishan there is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a screening of notorious North Korean monster movie, Pulgasari - the climax of a mini DPRK film festival being staged there all evening by the Koryo Tours boys.

Ah, and then there are some tasty match-ups in the English Premier League today: the Manchester derby, and Chelsea v Arsenal. I fear the lure of Luga's Villa may win out over the more 'cultural' options.....

Dang!

Where has all the Stella gone?

Some while back - maybe two or three weeks ago - I was denied my usual pint of Stella in Luga's Villa.

At the time, I dismissed this as a minor irritation, put it down to a fleeting glitch in supply (or the perennially flaky Luga having forgotten to order fresh stock!). The thought that he might have chosen to discontinue carrying this beer was briefly disturbing to me, but I put it out of my mind.

However, they still had no Stella at the start of this week. And other places seem to be running out too - Gingko, Fubar, Tun. I was relieved to find some last night at Nearby The Tree. (How? How do they still have it when everyone else has run dry? Do they get in twenty kegs at a time??)

I'm told that the distributor here has encountered some kind of problem with supplies from Belgium: it's suggested that one or two inbound containers due for distribution this month were either delayed in transit at sea or have been held up through customs. (I wonder: have the poor Belgians done something to offend the Chinese government? Has their Prime Minister been rash enough to profess that the Dalai Lama is really quite a nice chap, or something like that? Such petty punitive actions as delaying passage through customs of a country's goods usually have some such political motive.)

While trying to dig up some more definite information on this online (I failed), I learned that Belgium is suffering something of a beer famine (dread words!) itself at the moment. Supplies of many beers are being choked off by strike action against Anheuser Busch over threatened downsizing of its European workforce. However, that's blown up just this week, so it wouldn't yet be having any impact on the supply of imported beers in China. And I assume the disruption of supply is limited to Anheuser Busch brands - which don't include Stella, or the more worthwhile Belgian craft brews.

So, does anybody know for sure -- what's up with the Stella drought in Beijing??

Local Rules

Someone over at BeijingBoyce was asking for a definitive account of the local pool rules a little while ago. I attempted to post an answer, but..... well Boyce claims he's been having problems with his comment moderation (although this is just a recent glitch, and I don't think he's posted anything I've left for him this year; so I must assume he's still in a grump with me for likening him to Da Shan during the Olympics - silly man!).

Anyway, I thought I would attempt to address this topic here.

First off, it's pretty silly to suppose that there is any canonical set of rules for any given place. There are huge variations from country to country and city to city, and even within the same city; every venue, almost every single player has an individual concept of what the rules should be.

I give credit to recent opening The Stumble Inn, which is the only place I know which actually posts a comprehensive set of house rules (though in English only, so it can cause some moments of awkwardness with Chinese opponents). Luga's Villa seems to have just posted some rules too, but again in English only, and rather incomplete. Everywhere else, you just have to suss out what the 'regulars' are doing, and/or conduct a friendly negotiation with your opponent before you start.

The rules I like to play are classic, 'old school' UK rules (more specifically, they're probably south Midlands rules, circa late '70s or early '80s). I'd like to call them 'Temple rules', if anyone would get the reference (and there was no danger of people supposing that it was a Freemasons reference!). My buddy The Chairman, when we play each other, likes to lobby for a slight variation which he terms 'Birmingham rules'.

1) Two shots after a foul. (The alternate penalty of taking the cueball in hand and placing it anywhere you wish is a relative novelty in the British game, and is, I imagine, designed to make the games go faster. I suspect that it may also act as something of a leveller, since ball-in-hand is often a bigger advantage to the less skilled player, while better players usually press home more of an advantage from two shots.)

2) The first of the two shots is also a 'free table': i.e., you can play any ball and count it as one of your own. (Problems arising around this rule - Can you also play the black first? I say YES. Does potting a ball other than your own count as a legitimate pot allowing you to continue your break, or is it merely not a foul? I say YES, it's a legitimate pot and you can continue.) Although I don't particularly like this rule, I have learned to accept it.

3) If snookered after a foul, you may reposition the cue ball (behind the line, or in a notional 'D' - proper pool tables should have a 'D' marked on them, but you hardly ever see that anywhere these days) and still have the two shots - and a 'free table', as above. You should have the choice of being able to play one of your own balls if you want to, and still have the full benefit of your opponent's foul penalty.

4) The two shots 'carry': i.e., they allow you to take two consecutive turns at the table. Some people say that you are merely given two opportunities to pot a ball, but that if you pot a ball on your first shot you can only play a single break. That severely limits the impact of the penalty, and I can't see any persuasive logic behind making such a distinction. 'Two shots' should mean 'two breaks'. Simple enough.

5) Lucky pots count (although it is polite to explain your intended shot if you're going to try anything the least bit exotic or unexpected).

6) The black ball can only be legitimately potted in a nominated pocket (but there's no need to 'stick' to the first nominated pocket; you can choose a different pocket every time you take a shot). I don't particularly like this rule, but it's one of the 'Birmingham variations' that the Chairman has foisted upon me.

7) You only get one shot on black - not two - after a foul. Now, I think this is an utterly silly rule. It effectively means there is no penalty at all for your fouls once your opponent is on the black ball. However, it does make it a bit more difficult to close the game out, which is sometimes to my advantage when playing New Dad or The Chairman and battling back from behind.

8) The only 'game foul' is potting the black out of sequence, or knocking the black off the table. Going in-off the black with the cueball results in 'two shots' with the cueball replaced in the 'D' (or behind the line). [Some folks allow respotting the black if it's potted out of sequence or knocked off the table, and I am in sympathy with this approach; it sucks to have a game cut short by an unlucky accident. However, I don't think this has ever been a very common rules variation in any of the countries where I've played, and I've certainly never seen it here in China. On the other hand, many people - Americans, especially - insist that any foul on the black is a game foul.]

9) You can play the cueball backwards when respotting (in the 'D' etc.). It is very, very common to find people who insist that you can't - but there is no compelling logic for that: it is the silliest and most annoying of all pool rule aberrations.

Yes, I think that's all.

Ah, but now...... the common 'Chinese' rules we have to put up with when playing the local pool sharks.

a) No 'slop', as our American friends say. All pots must be called in advance, and lucky shots don't count (they're not treated as fouls, but your break comes to an end).

b) Ball in hand after a foul (but only one shot - well, ball in hand and two shots would be a bit crazy!).

c) It is not a foul to pot one of your opponent's balls (but you do have to hit one of your own balls first). I HATE this rule. [You also occasionally come across Chinese players who claim that the black ball belongs to both players, and it is thus not a foul to hit the black ball first. I think they're just trying it on....]

d) It is a foul if you do not drive at least one ball to a cushion with every shot (sometimes you even encounter a really hardcore version that holds you must drive a ball to a cusion after first contact; it's not enough to play the cueball off a cushion on to one of your balls). I hate, HATE, HATE this rule: it makes it almost impossible to play many kinds of safety shot or to attempt long slow pots.

e) You cannot lay claim to spots or stripes until the first pot after the break. If you make a pot from the break, you can take a further shot - with a free table (i.e., any pots you make from the break don't actually count). Bizarre.

So, there you have it. Chinese rules are pretty fucked up, and take quite some getting used to. I always prefer to play by my old-style UK rules, if I can (which is pretty much what they have at the Stumble, god bless 'em). However, they are not the worst I've ever encountered: there are a lot of places in Sydney where there are no fouls, and deliberate foul play (especially potting of your opponent's balls) is an integral part of the tactics; I found it impossible to get my head around that.

Even after 6 years of playing pool here (and 2 years of playing regularly in the Pool Bar) I'm still learning new wrinkles in the local rules from Chinese opponents. I sometimes suspect they're making them up as they go along. I like to joke that these are perhaps 'Tianjin rules'; it's quite common where I come from to gently mock obscure, unlikely, or unheard of new rules by suggesting that they must originate from a neighbouring town or city (much as the inhabitants of The Simpsons' home of Springfield disparage everything about nearby Shelbyville). The Chairman is similarly disdainful of 'Coventry rules'.

Shall we? Let's!

The end of the week is almost upon us.

I have a Thanksgiving party with friends tonight.

And Luga, the estimable host at promising new sports bar Luga's Villa, is threatening to give away FREE TEQUILA at midnight.

It's such a pity I have to work tomorrow.....

The Budget - an end of the month spending review

I know, not quite the end of the month yet - but I'm getting ready to quit the country.

And I have completed 4 weeks' of my 'back to basics' attempt at cheap, Chinese living.

So, how did it go?

No foreign bars?? Well, I did pretty well on that. I've only looked in at 12 Square Metres a scant handful of times, just to be sociable, and have usually only had a token one or two drinks. I've only visited the dear old Pool Bar once or twice, very briefly. Amilal has been my major temptation from the strict path of virtue: it has proven impossible to resist looking in there for a nightcap, especially on the weekend - in fact, it became established as a semi-regular 'allowable exception' to my regime, an almost invariable last stopping-off point whenever some special activity had given me sufficient excuse to abandon strict adherence to the policy for the night. In my notebook, I count 10 visits there, although a relatively restrained total expenditure of only a little over 1,000 kuai. Aside from that, there was only the impromptu closing-down party for the ill-starred Bad Company, a brief look into Luga's Villa for a Stella or two on a baking Saturday afternoon a week or two back, and a visit to the wretched Paddy O'Shea's for a book talk. Oh, and a couple of gigs. And a couple of quiz nights. And a freebie media junket (yes, FREE - although it did lead to yet another late-night session at Amilal afterwards). But not a bad showing, really.

No foreign restaurants?? I did much better with that one. Until this weekend, when I allowed myself to play along with The Mouthpiece Of Evil's sudden craving for Russian food, the only demerits on my record in this regard were one Subway sandwich at the start of the month and one cappuccino at Cafe Zarah. I've been to more than a dozen different Chinese restaurants this month, including quite a few novel ones.

No fast food?? Yay! Well, apart from that Subway sandwich lapse.

No taxis (other than when unavoidable)?? Well..... most of my taxi use was occasioned by the 'exceptional' nights out I allowed myself. For work, I was pretty good, using the subway most of the time, and even walking to places quite a lot of the time: I only took a taxi - genuinely unavoidably - about a half dozen times; and one of those a friend treated me, another couple were reimbursed by an employer. So, my total taxi spending this month was just under 250 kuai. I'd guess that's less than half what it is most months, maybe less than a third what it is in a heavy month.

No baby bottles of Tsingtao?? Well, I was doing really well on this until last night! I went to Yugong Yishan for a film screening; and there's really not much else worth drinking there.

Never paying more than 4 kuai for a beer?? Hmm. Quite a lot of restaurants (and the newly discovered No. 8 Beer Garden) charge 5 kuai these days, but that's not violating the rule too severely. And one of the 7/11's I use most regularly has recently put up its price for a large can of Yanjing to 4.20 - which is an irritation, but not a huge financial blow. No, the biggest problem I encountered was that the Hunan restaurant I rather like (a few doors up from 12 Square Metres) charges a whopping 12 kuai for its beers. Admittedly, it's the just-slightly 'premium grade' Yanjing Draft (though still served in a bottle); but that stuff should really be only 7 or 8 kuai in a place like that; good food, though....

Cutting back on gigs, and trying not to spend more than 50 kuai each time on booze?? Ah, well, there's been a dearth of tempting rock gigs lately. And even my old standbys have been getting a little stale: I've looked in on most of the Salud Wednesdays and Ginkgo Thursdays this last month, but have rarely been tempted to stay - and when I have, I've managed to limit myself to one or two drinks (or had a drink or two bought for me!). So, rather to my surprise, I've kept to this very well. Only last Thursday's trip to Jiangjinjiu to catch up with Panjir went over this budget (it was a very warm evening, so I found the need to quaff 4 or 5 pints of draught).

Since I was out and about even more than usual this month (house-hunting on top of everything else!), and the weather's been quite scorching, I spent a fair whack at xiaomaibu on things like water, coke, ice creams, and salty snacks - a little over 100 kuai all told. My total spending on beers - whether to drink on the street or at home - was more like 160 kuai.

I spent about 650 kuai on dinner (and drinks) in restaurants. When eating alone, I can usually keep below 20 kuai per time quite easily; but when accompanied, one gets tempted to try slightly more expensive places, and to over-order..... and occasionally to treat people.

I also spent about 550 kuai on groceries to eat at home (three major shops, one of them for expensive imported treats at Jenny Lou's; and a handful of sorties to pick up bread, pastries, crisps, etc. from nearby 7/11's). I think that's a bit less than in a typical month, but the summer heat helps to suppress my appetite - I've mostly been satisfied to snack on salads and sandwiches rather than cooking major meals.

My expenditure on public transport seems to have been 40.80 RMB.

I've only needed three deliveries of drinking water this month (low: I usually get through 1 a week; again, it's down to being out so much, I suppose), at 10 kuai per time. And I reckon I've spent about 100 RMB on my mobile phone (unusually high - because of the househunting).

So, gosh, yes, that's around 1,900 kuai in all - only a little over 60 kuai per day on average.

Ah, but..... then there was the unfortunate incident of the lost bar bet with The Mouthpiece - that set me back 115 RMB for a bottle of Jameson's. I had one little splurge at the DVD store, to the tune of 200 RMB (a fairly typical monthly average). And then the utilities (I've ended up paying two instalments of phone & internet charges, because I was late paying for May; and it's been a very heavy month of electricity usage, with the need to run air-conditioning almost every night): probably a bit over 440 RMB all told. Then I spent 85 RMB on special events (two art exhibitions and a film). And.....

..... well, even with the very limited 'exceptions' I thought I was allowing myself, I seem to have racked up nearly 2,500 RMB on such nights out (although fully a fifth of that went on my crazy night at Er right at the start of the month).

This is what happens when I'm trying to restrain myself??

Um, yes - I fear that figure would probably be twice as much in most months.....