A tale of two beds

I mentioned in my last blog that we had two new queen sized beds leaned up against a wall in our guest bedroom.  We've been trying to get rid of them for a while now.  Actually we came close a few times to finding them a new home but in the end no real success .  I had posted advertisements on both Chinese and English websites here and almost sold one to a talkative Australian man.  He was quite a character.  He came, looked at the bed, talked for a long time about everything from world politics to how I should paint the exposed pipes in our bedroom fire engine red, and then he gave us 100rmb as a deposit.  He said he would come back the next day to pick it up.  But the next day he sent me a message saying that his landlord changed their mind about taking away his current bed and so he no longer needed ours.  He was very apologetic and even let us keep the deposit.  Sure an extra 100rmb in our pocket was nice but what we really wanted was to get rid of those beds.  I complained about it to everyone that I could and finally one of my English student's mom told me I should just have someone come and haul them away.  It sounded easy enough but I didn't even know where to find someone who does that sort of thing.  She said she knew someone and called them on my behalf.  They said they would give me 100rmb for each bed.  That was okay by me and when I told Sam about it he agreed.  We made the arrangements for them to pick it up on Saturday sometime in the afternoon.

Then on Saturday afternoon I got a call from my student's parent.  She said the people who were coming to pick up the beds could not give me any money for them but they would still come and pick them up if I wanted.  At this point I really didn't care about the money so I said it was fine.  Sam was working but I knew he would be okay with it too.  About dinner time there was a knock at my door.  I opened it to find, not someone who hauls away garbage, but the man who cooks dinner for my student's family.  He was accompanied by his wife.  This man is a good two inches shorter than me and probably weighs ten pounds lighter as well.  His wife is maybe even a little smaller.  I was a bit surprised and said "Are you two going to move these two beds down three flights of stairs?"  He smiled and said it was no problem.  He was right there was no problem.....well except for one problem. 

They moved the bed frames and mattresses carefully one piece at a time and I held the door open for them.  When he came to get the last piece I asked him what kind of car they were driving to move the beds and he replied he had a 三轮车 (San lun che).  A 三轮车 is basically a big tricycle with a small metal bed in the back.  (See the above picture.)  Naturally I was shocked that he would be attempting to move two big beds and their frames on such a small contraption.  I figured I should take a picture of it so I grabbed my camera and ran downstairs.  I watched them load it in disbelief and took a few pictures.  But just as he loaded the second mattress the tricycle fell forward and hit my neighbor's van.  My neighbor just so happened to be watching the whole thing and he wasn't too happy about the small dent in his hood.  He immediately started arguing with the owner of the tricycle and demanding that he give him 600rmb for the damage.  The tricycle owner's reply was that he was just
here to help me and that the dent was really small and probably easy to fix.  The argument started to get a little heated and I was getting worried.  It was a tiny dent and clearly not my fault but if my neighbor was unhappy about something connected to me that couldn't be a good thing. I also knew that both men were waiting to see what my reaction would be. Since Sam wasn't home yet I tried calling him for advice but he didn't answer.  I finally got a hold of another friend who advised that I talk the man down from 600rmb and offer to chip in some money myself but not to take any of the blame.  After hanging up the phone I casually walked over to the van, looked at the dent, looked at my neighbor, and then said "Look here, he's going to give you 100rmb and I'll give you 100rmb too, okay?"  He looked at me and said it was okay.  By the time I came back with the money they had reloaded the tricycle with both beds and were on their way.   I gave my neighbor the money and breathed an inner sigh of relief.

 I didn't get a picture of the finished project but the one you see above was taken just before they put on the second mattress which made it fall forward.

Words to remember:

sān­lún­chē (三轮车)=tricycle; pedicab

chuáng (床)= bed

It's been awhile

I can't believe its been three months since my last post.  So to any of you who are still reading this blog I apologize.  I have not dropped off the face of the earth but I have been busy.  Here's a brief synopsis:  We went to California for just under a month, then spent almost a week in Hong Kong, then back to China only to be told by our landlords that we had to find a new place to live as soon as possible.  I have many blogs about the last three months all stored in my head but at this point I think its best to move forward.  Its September and a new school year has started so we are busy teaching and also still settling into our new apartment.  Our new place is just a few blocks from our apartment so its not a huge adjustment but when you walk to get groceries even moving a few blocks can change where you shop and eat.  Also our new place is in a small building which means no elevator and even nosier neighbors.  But being on the third floor isn't a tough stair climb and we have a good view of the trees and street below.  I would like to include some pics from our new place but its not quite up to my standards yet.  For one thing we have two queen beds that are leaned up against the window in our living room/second bedroom.  The landlord didn't want to get rid of the beds for us so we are trying to find a good home for them.  I may just break down and find someone to come and haul them away.  Oh yes, did you notice I said living room/second bedroom?  Technically our new place doesn't have a living room.  Its a two bedroom, one kitchen, one bathroom, and no living room.  Its not a strange thing for apartments here to not have a living room.  On the bright side both bedrooms are roomy.  The bigger room is what we are using as a living room and guest room.  It was important for me to have a place for guests and this was really the best we could do.  Prices are getting higher every year here, we basically pay over 100 US dollars more a month now for a smaller place.  But its definitely cozier than our last place.  (If cozy-ness carries any weight with you this is a huge plus.)  I will try and include pics as soon as we get rid of those extra beds.  For now, here's a couple pics of our old view.