Shameless

Lunch yesterday consisted of going to the "Best Buffet in Town" (TM) at the Hyatt - not remarkable in itself except for a conversation that I overheard. A plump (by Chinese standards) lady was about to help herself to something from the buffet when another woman sitting at a table nearby called out "You shouldn't have that - you're too fat!" at which point the woman stopped and walked away - to a completely different table.

I can just imagine the response in the UK to an incident like that and I'm pretty sure it would begin with the phrase "Are you talking to me?" and end much less pleasantly. The lack of embarassment about confronting complete strangers with things is quite amazing (particularly if you're English and your DNA tells you that you would be best served not risking confrontation of any sort).

After lunch we went outside to find the car only to find the dancing fountains in full swing, again. I guess we must have impeccable timing because, just like last time I was there, a song I really hate was booming out over the speakers. Thanks to the power of Google, I have just learned that this is Take Me to Your Heart by Michael Learns to Rock. I'll admit that I've never even heard of the band before this morning, which is hardly surprising as they seem to produce sappy, poppy love-songs. The reason I hate this song comes from shooting the Wedding Photographs - a 17 hours ordeal at the photographers which, except for an excursion to West Lake for some photographs on, around and occasionally in the lake, was done entirely in their studios in Hangzhou. They had one, single CD with 6 tracks that came round again, and again, and again in a kind of Chinese Pop Torture. Unfortunately that leaves me with a sort of Pavlovian conditioning that means I only need to hear "Love is now or never" and am left with the urge to rend the speakers from their mountings and hurl them into the lake.