Letter from Qingdao- An Irish Perspective - 3

by Denis Kiely on 7 Sep 2008
It occurs to me that by the time most of you read this a few days will have passed and we will in fact be well into or maybe even have finished our first day's racing - and that may change the atmosphere/style of these mails quite a bit - I don't know.

Saturday - Shopping Expedition

Last free day so I summoned up my driver [I thought I could get used to this if I persevered], and in company with Maria and Rhino went on a little shopping spree to a local market in the old part of town. When we were here earlier the whole place was a chaotic building site - with all the commercial activity still going on - roads like tracks in the jungle, traffic stuck in the mud, workmen laying kerb and paving stones, gangplanks to wobble over into the shops, cars trying to drive through the street, shoppers walking over the workers - no separation or control whatsoever.

If you had such a system for the repaving of Patrick St it wouldn't have been completed in a 100 yrs - or ever. When we arrived this morning the whole place was like some place in Switzerland - work finished, neatly paved, whole place beautiful decorated - outstanding!

This market is mostly for fake brands - watches, bags, clothes, shoes, etc. My thing is watches so first item of business was to take back my Rolex that I had bought in June [I doubt if it's a place that people return items too often - consumer protection legislation is unlikely to extend this far] and ask the girl to take a link out of the strap - which she does - expertly - and after a bit of a struggle we get the it to close on my hand.

As a timepiece its a load of rubbish but as a piece of jewellery it was good enough to fool somebody at the ICRA Nationals in Howth Yacht Club 'god, I didn't think teachers could afford a Submariner' as he flashed his own Rolex at me.

Cocky bastard - doesn't he know the expenses were on - and the long holidays! Why shouldn't we be able to afford a top of the range Rolex - well a fake one at least? I hadn't the nerve to ask the girl to take it back and give me something that would tell the time, if only occasionally - there is only so far you can push your luck.

I then moved on to another stall that I remembered from the last visit and started checking the stock. Out comes the glossy but well thumbed catalogue of perhaps all the leading brands, Panerai, Rolex, Breuget, Audemars, Cartier, etc., [hundreds of models!]

A small young girl appeared at my elbow to assist?

[you never know how much English they have - it comes and goes, good now, bad again] plus the two ladies behind the counter, we began the process. I had an idea of what I wanted and they were undoubtedly totting up the potential margin - how gullible is this fat foreigner?

He's wearing a Rolex - is it fake? He might be good for the deposit on a house - well small apartment anyhow? There seems to be no limit to the different brands and models. Box after box is dragged out from under the counter and watch after watch is laid out for inspection. We sorted them into two groups, battery based and automatic.

The battery ones are more likely to tell the time - for a few days at least - and the automatics are the big clunky macho ones, Breitling, Tag Heuer, Rolex etc. Eventually, having been advised by my consultants Maria and Rhino I settle on two battery ones, a beautiful understated Patek Phillipe 'you merely look after it for the next generation' and a classy Vacheron Constantin - I'm wearing it now - and it's still keeping the time!

The price?? I must confess the haggling process is exactly like settling a personal injuries case! My little assistant? had by now assumed the role of counsel for the injured party and I must further confess she beat me hands down - probably by 100%!

She opened high - calculator out and tapped in the opening bid - and I made the fatal mistake of not coming in low enough - game over. It went on for a good while after that but from that point on I was on a loser. Once you tap in your first response you must keep going - whatever will happen a deal must be done, a sale must be closed - so she kept insisting I come back with a counter bid.

Hers were expert - came down in small increments - mine were sloppy - without Rhino playing a blinder as backstop [and laughing himself silly at my predicament] I would have lost a fortune! As it was I ended up paying 400 yuan - about 40 euro for the two watches. But what the hell, as I said, the expenses are good - and you don't meet a cocky northside Dub every day who'd have the nerve to ask you was it real - bastard!

After all that excitement off we went to a 'proper' department store - where there's no haggling, they just rob you blind up front - well I mean there are no fantastic bargains to be had. Prices are comparable with home, as expensive or maybe even slightly more expensive.

The range of goods, electrical, household, clothing - men and women, the choice, is just as extensive or more so as home. I bought a nice sleeveless pullover - hard to get at home - for 50 euro. The consumer demon being satisfied by this stage the driver was summoned up once more and we headed back to camp. Party over - serious business all the way from here on.

Sail Racing - resumed

I know I said the next mail but if you've got this far I would like to get a little bit more down the road in this session if we could - so attention again class please. I just want to introduce some further basic ideas and vocabulary and then we will leave it at that for today and take it on from there the next day. I had hoped to be able to put in some graphics - well a circle, but this online outlook does not seem to have such support.

My Vacheron C says its 05.30 am approx, Sunday morning, 7th - insomnia/jetlag back - practice race later today, launching ceremony this evening - guys will be up in a few hrs - might get a cup of coffee upstairs.

Good night.

Denis.

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Subject: China Weekly - Qingdao Report No 2



Sailing Stuff

What we're here for, so 1st things etc. Sonar on the water yesterday - very light wind, maybe 2-3 knots [3.5 to 5.5 Km/h]. Hot, and we baked! Very strong tides - maybe 3 Kts +. The fear about Qingdao was/is that it would be so light that races would not be started [Min 4 kts are required to start a race]. But most days we have had good wind and today again there was a steady 8Kts on the water - so we keep our fingers crossed for next week when the racing begins. The Sonar was hauled today for measurement, weighing etc. - all the bits of string had to be undone and the mast taken out - and then put back in again - and all the bits of string tied up again. Maria was out at 8,00am under the boat polishing the hull - and had the whole job done when we arrived down at 10 - 10.30. Someone passed the remark ' a woman's work ...' but being a reformed - well partially reformed - MCP I immediately stopped him and instead explained what had kept us busy and unable to arrive any earlier. That seemed to diffuse the situation??? We also promised to do better in future!

The Skud hit the water for the first time today. Amy and John were out with about 7/8 other boats. Conditions were idyllic and they had a very satisfactory first sail pacing and practising with the others. The usual teething problems - maybe a shorter bit of string here, longer there, etc., but nothing major. A great feeling to be on the water sailing after the initial trauma of discovering the badly damaged boat in the delivery container.

3 days left to competition time and things tightening up a bit - so we went out of the village last evening for a meal - and to restore our blood alcohol levels - moderately - really! Mac regaled us with tales from earlier days which included characters such as 'fi