I'd prepared myself to totally push my social boundaries this evening:I'd commited to attending a Mooncake party at the Crowne Plaza Hotelat Wangfujing, sponsored by the Beijing Review magazine and bound tobe attended by the European Chamber types. I had the invitations in mycomputer satchel, and every intention of coming home, changingclothes, and setting off with my extra thick stack of business cards,ready to be engaging and curious and quick to move from one crowd tothe next.

However, I missed the bus by minutes, and took a cab. Traffic washorrendous. By the time i got home, I hadn't the time to shower andchange clothes (essential for such an event; I went totally Old Navyto work today); and I was reminded that my rear bicycle tire was flatas a pancake. I went to have the tire fixed, and it turned out that myinner tube and outer tube were in disrepair.

At the bike repair shop, I had a typical conversation with the eightother people there. I thought he was super busy when I first pulledup, on account of hte crowd. but when I asked, "Are you busy?" Alleight of them shouted, No! in a combination of English and Chinese.Someone called the boss over and everyone settled into their stools(old tire strips stretched over folding wooden frames) to see what theforeigner could say.

This guy with a huge beer belly walked up. This other old guy who'dalready been badgering me asked, "What do you think about that?",clearly gesturing towards the man's stomach.

I replied, in the open Chinese fashion, "I feel that his stomach isquite fat." And then, because I'd studied a Chinesepod.com lesson onweight loss, I knew that the Chinese don't say beer belly but tirebelly. Only, I suddenly can't remember hte word for tire, even thoughthat's what i'm dealing with there at the shop. So I'm forced toimprovise by dirtying my finger by nudging my own cracked tire andpointing at his stomach.

"You like to drink beer," I said.

"Used to," he said, "but not now."

"Why?" I asked.

He patted his stomach and smiled.

Alas, it was 7:00pm when I got home, and Rayco reminded me it wouldtake 30 minutes to cycle to Wangfujing, and so I passed on going formooncakes and a stack of European name cards.

WIll and I went to Sichuan fusion for dinner, and got full on a pricey $2 each.

The total cost of my new inner and outer tube, labor and parts (healso fixed my basket with a new screw and oiled down all the essentialmoving parts) was $6 USD, and I thought it was expensive, but didn'tdare argue in front of all those people.