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Tips to get ahead in Beijing - Must remember this…”A smile in China doesn’t necessarily mean the smile is happy. If someone is confused, or nervous, they may well smile.”

Ever since J bought this t-shirt (in Thailand?), I’ve always felt that my wardrobe was missing a ‘comedy t-shirt’:

But which one should I go for? I could try for maximum shock value:

Or something geeky / funny:

Or something true:

But since I’m in the UK for pleasure and not business…one really stood out:

Facebook has been redesigned, and here’s how to see the new look: go to http://www.new.facebook.com and log in with your email and password!

The immediate thing I noticed was how wide the page is now, and how much white space there is! Gone are the hundreds of applications and widgets on the front page, with the now extended wall taking pride of place.

Tabs along the top of each profile now group your different types of information - and thankfully there is one for ‘boxes’…which means that your 2,000,000 ‘buy your friend a chicken’ apps will be hidden from view! It’s like a super-Facebook-vacuum has just obliterated all the filth from everyone’s profiles…

Photo galleries have been designed to be more intuitive (no more having to click three or four times to view someone’s gallery list).

Finally, check out how nice the wall is now! Different colours for comments and ‘actions’ (like joining groups and attending events). We’ll see how fast the people at Facebook roll out this redesign to the ‘live’ audience, but for now…have a look yourself! Remember, go to:

http://www.new.facebook.com

and log in with your email and password!

When I went to pick up my stuff from Tulip’s place I didn’t imagine to find a brand new NIU NAI T-SHIRT!

Thanks so much! It’s just a shame I can’t wear it as I’m so mature now…yep…whole new lifestyle starting today…yep…

I’ve spent the day doing my taxes and website formatting…if that’s not beng responsible then I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS!

Bodean’s is my favourite restaurant in London. It offers every ingredient in my perfect meal mix…meat, cold beer and American sports. Seriously, what else could possibly improve on that? (Answer: Strippers)

So there have been some changes since last I visited: new menu items, new serving styles and I reckon they’ve opened a couple more restaurants across town. Business must be good!

I went for the KC Brisket Special, which is beef brisket (ok I admit that I thought ‘brisket’ was a reference to how it is cooked or something, but Wikipedia tells me that it’s actually a cut):

So they cook it really slowly in marinade or something…and it turns out great! So there’s a load of that, plus onion rings and cheese inside a big ass bun:

It was served in a basket as opposed to the big tray which I was expecting, and i’m not sure if I’m just resistant to change or I was genuinely disappointed to see it. It definitely didn’t feel like there was enough space to spread out the food (which I like to do there). Ok this is starting to sound a bit weird…CLOSE UP:

It was god damn amazing. One of the best bits of it was that it came ‘naked’ (without sauce), so I was able to put a bit of BBQ on it without drowning it (as they sometimes do).

J and Fiona had a full rack of ribs each (I think it’s a Deloitte thing). As I’m not a professional at eating ribs, I’ll hand over to J for his guide to ribbing:

Step 1 - Receive order

Step 2 - Preparation

Step 3 - Dexter-style OCD bone cleaning

Thankfully nobody started snapping the bones and eating the marrow, and being that I was with a Finn and a Hong-Kongolese, I think that was pretty fortunate…