Maybe it's because I've reached that magical point where things really start to piss me off here. Usually I am a fairly civil down-to-earth kinda guy adopting the shake of the head but accepting that weird stuff occasionally happens here.

Went to Walmart today to buy a hat for my gf that I saw there last week. When I came in I walked through the food area and noticed one of the cleaning ladies picking something up from the pile of rubbish she just had broomed together. Out came 2 big shrimps that had fallen down from the ice table. She looked at them carefully then brushed them off a bit and put them back on the table. Uhm,, the dirt on the floor aside it doesn't take many braincells to know that shrimp can go bad pretty darn quick and there was no way to tell how long they had been on the floor.

Anyway,, after having promised myself never to buy "fresh" seafood from Walmart again I walked up to the clothes department and discovered that the grey hats had sold out. There were plenty of other colours but my gf wanted the grey one so I dared to trouble the 3 fuwuyuans standing nearby disgussing last night's episode of "Ugly Mother". "Do you have any more of those hats but in grey somewhere?" I asked getting the usual up-n-down stare from half the staff on the floor. "Yes but we can't go and get them from storage right now since we have to stay here" is what she replied (roughly,, my Chinese isn't so good yet). So after once more having realised that service isn't a big deal here and having tried to argue that the other 600 fuwuyans could look after the clothes while she helped me out I decided to walk down to the soft drinks and stock up on diet cola.

Since Pepsi stopped making Diet for Kunming it's been increasingly hard to find cola without sugar and Coca Cola is taking advantage of this by jacking the price of CC Zero up to 4.5-5 kuai a bottle. I wanted some but after having scoured the isles for 10 minutes coming up with nothing I again dared to ask a fuwuyuan. She repeated "cola without sugar" and took off to another isle where the no-sugar products were. No cola though so I asked her again if they had any cola without sugar and she said no.

Then I asked specifically for the Coca Cola Zero (many people here haven't got a clue that you can get diet coke) but when she was about to answer me the top most annoying thing happened (again). Chinese guy walks over, taps her shoulder and starts asking her stuff completely ignorant that she is with another customer. I guess I could live with that if the salespeople would just tell them to wait a second but as usual she immediately turned her attention to him instead.

Having tried that before I just kept talking ( a little bit louder ) to get her attention back,, when after 30 seconds it finally worked she turned and said "Look,, we don't sell coke or pepsi without sugar here at all". Nice,, a Walmart that sells imported dates from Algeria for 60 kuai a kilo and imported (crappy) cheese for 25 pr 200 gram doesn't even sell diet coke.

Needless to say I am not going back to that place. I can ofcourse accept that things get sold out and that brands dissapear but the lack of service and the way that woman handled the shrimp just doesn't cut it. It's not the local noodleshop we are talking about where you don't expect hygiene is in the Michelin class but from a place like Walmart you would hopefully get better.

You can bash me all you want for not robotlike chanting "This is China" and go on with my business but I don't really care :)

"As a sidenote, if you attempt to render aid to someone for any reason, you have automatically accepted responsibility for their complete recovery. That includes all expenses as well. Think about that the next time you see someone hurt and needs help." -Bucko

Sorry Bucko,, just because there was one high profile case about a guy who (supposedly) wasn't the purp and now some Chinese people belive that's the law doesn't MAKE it the law. I understand why you find it absolutely disgusting ofcourse that it can happen in such a Harmonious Society but hospital bills can easily run into 6 digits if you are seriously hurt and people just can't pay this kind of money (odd,, I always thought that in a communist society hospital and healthcare would be free) then there will be a few desperate people who will try anything to get away clean.

I am not really disagreeing with you in your indignation but it's still not a law as such. Something even more scary: The countless of cases where traffic offenders had to kill off the injured part on the scene by driving over them again. How sick is that?!. There is a limit for compensation when it comes to death whereas hospital bills, injury compensation and possible comp for lost ability to work or indefinate future care can easily run into the millions. Mao would be rotating in his grave if he knew some of the things going on.

Give me a pair of scissors and 20 kuai and I'll fix it for you. Is a US navy cut ok with you?

The Bilderberg Group held their annual meeting in Greece this week and as usual they are plotting to take over the world, extent the financial crisis indefinately, spread swine flu all over the world, assasinate people and all the works. At least that's what some people think.

Granted I was suspicious at first but now I've gone and done my research. The Bilderberg Group (at first I looked up Edwin and Ethel Bilderberg by mistake, the nice elderly Jewish couple down the road) consists mainly of "these people", "them" and "they". It sure is scary. With so many "journalists" following "these people" around whereever "they" go noone figured out who "they" are besides some not-so-qualified guesswork. "They" sure are good at keeping everything secret.

On the website www.UnfoundedEvidence.com/"where-is-the-truth?"/black_eyed_beans.html I found out who the leaders are. The top guy is only known as "The Man". Directly under him are the lieutenants: Hans "Goldmember" Van Brockenhorse, the Dutch representative in the EU International Banking Corp. Phillip McCrotch (aka "Richelieu") American CIA trustee. Carrie Oakey, the widow of the late and very influential Canadian billionaire Michael Oakey III. Dr. Evan Ville representing Swiss banking interests and last but not least Mohammad Derka-Derka (aka The butcher of Dhaka), Prince of SaudiArabia. Unconfirmed rumours place Burma's General Zod in the inner circle as well. We need to wake up and smell the green tea.

My friend and I ran into a young woman a couple of months ago who had gone to one of the biggest schools in Kunming for private tutoring. A foreign teacher there had approached her and offered private classes away from the school (I guess work ethics weren't present and I won't name the school or the teacher),, anyway the thing is that he wanted 300 kuai an hour and she agreed. After a year of private tutoring with this clown she could barely speak a word, didn't know the colours and could hardly say "Hello". Yeah you numbnut,, you know who you are. If you are charging the ridiculous sum of 300 kuai an hour at least take some pride in your job and be good at it.