nico's Page

Hey thanks!

I like yours, also a very different perspective...

Hi Nico,

How r u? It's nice to be your friend. What you up to these days?

Take care!

Aadi

ummm ok.... its on what happens to used electronic products (like phones, laptops, kitchen appliances, etc.) once they have reached the end of their life (they are used/have failed/unwanted). So i'm over here looking at the state of chinese legislation and industry practices on how these old products are collected, transported, recovered and responsibly disposed of, and what kind of infrastructures and systems are in place to encourage and help with this recovery. It is effectively about sustainable development and saving the earth from production wastes.

What do you study? i hope its more exciting!

Hi Nico, Yeah the campus is massive; I got lost a lot at first but am pretty well adjusted to where everything is now. Plus I have a bicycle here now so i find it easy to get around. I see that you are a student, what university are you at?

Hey Nico, sorry for the late reply but I have been busy with work and then went to a house warming party last night and left my laptop there.

How are you enjoying your few days off? Have you done anything nice today?

Umm I live in Xisi so just down Line 4 from you. I can’t believe that you don’t often leave Zhongguancun, does that not frustrate you?

The Smiths kick ass. I like “big mouth strikes again”, “sweet and tender hooligan”, and “a rush and a push and the land is ours”. And speaking of music/holidays, what are you doing tomorrow evening? Do you want to go and watch the Beijing Beatles at Mao Live House?

How did your test go? Are you now officially a business genius?

Take care

Capote definitely gets a thumbs up. Maybe a few toes in the air aswell. It is pretty good. You need to put that one on your list.

Better not because as you said, I think London during the 60’s was a little bit different to Beijing. You would have to be specific with your choice of destination when you are in the time machine. If you do manage it though, please be sure to send me a postcard.

I don’t have a favourite song as they have a huge back catalogue of quite diverse songs so it all depends on mood. I don’t think I could pick one song but  my favourite album is “Revolver”. That blows my mind each time. What about you? Is there any song in particular that floats your boat?

Do you not get to leave Zhongguancun very often? I presume you live on campus then? Where do you like to go out in Beijing.

So I take it you will spend your holiday watching Forrest Gump on repeat then? Haha. From Monday morning to Wendesday night:  just you and Gump. Wouldn’t that be fantastic!!!???ha.

Take care.

What is this cream that you talk of? I need to get some. I have 7 bites and it isn’t even April yet.

Yes, often when my cat was a kitten it used to sleep on the pillow beside my head but I can assure you that nothing more happened other than that haha. Nowadays the only animals that stay are mosquitoes even though they are very much unwelcome. Why did you ask whether or not I let the cat sleep in my bed?

What is the name of the place where you get your full English breakfast from? And more importantly, how great is it? You can’t beat a good English breakfast.

So even though the Dali Patio was the only restaurant which name I could remember, I still got it wrong. It is actually called the “Dali Courtyard.” http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/Dali-Courtyard We could go, if you like? Although you probably know of better ones. The courtyard is very beautiful but it is best in the summer.

How much fun does the Kingdom of Little People sound? It is like a circus/ theme park thing where lots of dwarves do tricks and dance etc. As if it even exists! Who thought of this? Some genius, I bet. And where do you find enough midgets to fill a kingdom? There are so many questions.

No plans for the Qingming festival as of yet. Maybe stay in Beijing and have a BBQ in my courtyard on Monday if the weather is nice. If that is the plan then you are welcome to join. But like you, I don’t really have any plans. Maybe go to the 798 one day, I don’t know.

Is that film Korean? Is it called “Late Autumn”? Did you watch the Lennon documentary? Am about to watch a film called “Capote”. It is based on the writer Truman Capote.

Hope you are well and the week isn’t dragging too much.

You do need to be prepared. If they are already here then I bet they are going to be going on some sort of rampage in the summer. Somebody to said that the best way to avoid mosquitoes is being submerged in water. However there is a likelihood that you would drown or simply not get anything done. Mosquitoes are like the wind: annoying but little you can do about it.

Only a sweater in the winter sounds marvelous. The only good thing about winters is that it makes you appreciate your own bed more. But Kunming sounds good. I just did some research and they apparently have a theme park filled full of dwarfs. ha. It is called The Kingdom of the Little People (小矮人王国). Is that true? If so, please tell me that you have been!?

Shakespeare was obviously a talented man but he ruined a lot of peoples teenage years in England. It was made compulsory to read but when you are younger it just isn’t very interesting. I have some good books for you if you would like to read them? I reckon that

And why the hell would I sleep with cats? Haha. Umm no, the cat in the picture isn’t mine. That is at a bar in gulou. The cats name is Jean-Pierre and we are good friends. This place also has a pet squirrel.

Chinese food is nice but just like you miss food from Yunnan, I miss food from the west. I have been to a few nice Yunnan restaurants actually. The food is pretty good. The only one which name I can remember is the “Dali Patio”? Have you been?

What did you eat in your dream? Chicken and rice? Jiaozi? Bat wings? Who doesn’t dream of delicious bat wings!!??

Cool basically means something that is good. If you think people dress well then you would say that they “look cool” or have “cool clothes”. It is a slang word which is often used with positive connotations. Cool can mean a lot of things and most peoples definition of “cool” would differ. Perhaps you should look it up and see what you think. To me, if something or somebody is cool, then it/ they are interesting, perhaps quite nonchalant etc . You seem cool for example. But there is no single concept and the word can be used very broadly and loosely.

A question: What animals do you sleep with? Haha.

KEEP COOL.

How was your early Monday morning start? Thanks for your wishes but I didn’t have a very good sleep because some mosquito decided to play mind games with me all night. You know when you are just about to drift off and you hear that buzzing in your ear? My god it is annoying.

What part of Ireland are you moving to? The Northern Irish accent isn’t particularly pleasant but the Dublin accent is quite nice. You might have trouble understanding them at first. You may develop a slight accent which would be amusing as I doubt there are many Chinese people with Irish accents.  

My home town is a little historic market town called Stamford. It is meant to be very pretty but you grow bored of it after 20 or so years. Whereabouts is your home town? Do you miss it? Beijing is a bit of a love/hate sort of place, don’t you find?

I love Midnight in Paris. I know the theme of the film is that you should never want to go back in to the past and to completely embrace the present, however, how cool did 1920’s Paris look!? I fell in love with the girl (Adrianna?) that was seeing Hemingway and Picasso etc. Although I don’t think I have much chance there as she is a fictional character and only dated some of the most famous men in history. Oh well.

Am not too sure what my favourite book is as I only really took up reading a year or so ago after it dawned on me how much I was missing out on. So because of this I have only read the classics from the greatest authors and therefore it is difficult to pick a favourite as they are all so good. I haven’t read a book yet that I haven’t loved. I enjoy William S. Burroughs, Bukowski, Hunter Thompson, Huxley, Kerouac etc. You must be quite the hardened reader considering you study English Literature. What sort of things do they make you read? It isn’t all Shakespeare, is it?

As I said, cats aren’t too bad but I prefer dogs. Do you not have any pets? I used to have 4 dogs but they have all died now so now I only have a cat. Her name is “pussycat”, of course haha.

Fried grasshopper does sound disgusting. But you must have eaten worse? Some of the things they have in China are pretty far out. Bat wings for example? Scorpian? Deep fried sparrow? Chicken fetus?

On that delicious note, I am off for lunch. Keep cool, Nico.

Oh yeah, and you are always welcome to come and visit the courtyard whenever you like. :)