right im back on it now and will make sure i keep this blog updated! its sunday today and tonight we meet our tour group for the first time. i have already met one girl from canada who is going to sri lanka after the tour so im sure we'll have plenty to talk about. Today is a bit of bummer day because darren is feeling really ill with a really bad cold. yesterday he had an awful cough which was making him heave (even without the smells from the market stalls!) and so we went to a pharmacy and got him some medicine. its chinese medicine and tastes awful apartently, but its funny watching him down shots of the stuff! its all herbal and is in little bottles that you have to stick straws in and down in. he's convinced it's not working so i've dosed him up with some sudafed too and hopefully that should kick in soon. im not feeling great myself as i think the change in diet is affecting me if you get my drift! so we are feeling a bit sorry for ourselves today and not really doing much.

yesterday was an amazing day. we went out and took the metro to the olympic area were we tried to find somewhere to have brekkie. but the chinese dont really seem to do brekkie so we ended up in a restaurant with these vegetable pancakes things which were really good, but im dying for a coffee! not many places seem to do it! anyway after this we went to see the olympic stadium which was absoloutley amazing. of course i dont have any pictures of it though :( it was such ana amazing building but you werent allowed anywhere near as there is still a lot of construction going on (considering the olympics are in august, they seem to be cutting it a bit fine!) but it was still really amazing to see and we had a nice mooch around. after this we went back to the area we are staying in and had a mooch round looking at shops. i was trying to get some jeans but couldnt find any to fit me. i started thinking i was really fat until i realised they only stock sizes 6 and 8! crazy! these people are tiny! after this we went to some of the hutongs were they have crazy markets selling all sorts of kitsch stuff such as chairman mao watches and sadaam hussain playing cards! after this we walked around some more and ended up walking through tainamen sq. it was amazing to see and so big! we saw the changing of the guards who protect the flag which was cool. there are loads of soldiers around who take themselves way too seriously. and there are loads of people flying kites in the square so to look up is amazing. after a bit of people watching here we decided to have a late lunch. we found a resturant but had real trouble ordering. darren just wanted noodle soup but communicating this was very difficult as it wasnt already on the menu. and i ordered some bean curd thinking cockily to myself, well at least i know what im going to get as darren had all the staff confused and we werent sure what he had ordered. so we waited for our food and then out comes this plate of what could only be described as grey s***. i was praying that it wasnt coming to our table but yep, of course it did. it was my bean curd, not the usual tofu stuff that you get in england, but a pile of green/grey mash present in a pile that really resembled dogs waste. it looked and smelled revolting, and was flecked with beans that gave it more of a dog doo appearance. im always up for trying food (as long as i know its not meat or mushrooms) but this i really couldnt stomach. i tried a bit (on a chopstick as thats all i had to use - how are you supposed to eat 'mush' with chopsticks?) and it tastes revolting and bitter. then i suddenly remember what it reminded me off and after telling darren this and him nearly vomiting i wont share it with you but lets just say its something i saw in the hospital... darren was finding this hilarious, especially when his came and it was simply a bowl of noodle soup. luckily he let me share it with him and i put the pile of mush on the other side of the table out of sight, out of mind. kind of. could still smell it.

after this we went back to our hotel to get ready for our evening out. we were heading to a chaoyang theatre to watch the flying acrobats. it was absoloutley amazing, the best show i have ever seen. the stuff they did was so unbelievable and in some places i couldnt actually watch for fear someone was going to fall off a pole balanced on someones head or run off the spinning wheel the were running round blinded folded 20 feet in the air. nutters. absoloute nutters. we were on the front row too so all this was going on a few feet in front of us, and some of the acts even came out over the audience! it was just amazing. the costumes were great too and the set was really well designed. its definately a must for beijing!

after this we went looking for a restaurant nearby that my guide book recommended but couldnt find it. then i realised why not, my guide book it 3 years out of date! doh! so we went back to our area and after lots of searchign finally found a decent place and had a really lovely meal, probably the best yet.

anyway now im off to pick up my washing (im so excited to have clean clothes!) and nurse darren some more. hopefully we'll both be feeling better by the time we meet the tour at 6!