Chinese people LOVE me! (17)

"Chinese people love me because..... well, I'm not sure exactly; I guess it's just because I'm such a great guy."

Yep, I don't know quite what it is, but people keep seem to be offering their unwanted Olympic tickets to me for free: handball on Saturday, judo and weightlifting on Sunday.

Of course, it all tends to be rather last-minute - so finding someone to go with, picking up the tickets, locating the venue, etc. is all a bit fraught. I turned down the handball offer on Saturday because none of my buddies were available to go with me. (I slightly regretted this afterwards since, although I know absolutely bugger-all about the game, I did find it quite exciting to watch on TV later in the evening. And it would have been an interesting test of the sportsmanship of the Chinese spectators, since their ladies' team took a bit of a spanking - from Norway, I think it was.)

It's been quite a while since we had one of these Chinese people LOVE me! entries. The main reason for this is that I had been planning to turn it into a photo portrait series of various Chinese friends and acquaintances who, despite my notorious curmudgeonliness and occasional propensity to "China-bashing", do seem remarkably well-disposed towards me (my avaricious landlord gleefully counting his quarter's rent money, the lady in the xiaomaibu next to the Bell Tower rummaging in the bottom of her freezer for her coldest bottle of beer....); and, unfortunately, my happy-snapper camera is broken, my expensive digital SLR has proven to be a complete piece of shit, and I no longer have a functional version of Photoshop on either of my computers.

So, I may just have to forge ahead on this series pictureless. Now seems to be quite a good time to revive it.