This day was fairly unplanned, as I had been hunting a Swedish guy that had recently started a company in Beijing, (a coffee shop named Ciao) for days without getting close to a confirmed interview.

But, when I called this morning he agreed to meet me at the sassy Hyatt hotel at Oriental Plaza. I arrived in time, and waited for a polite 10 minutes (I knew he was having lunch with some investors) before I called. An extraordinarily happy man answered the phone and asked me to join him at the restaurant where he was having duck with some ppl. I hesitated for a short moment (don't like barking in on other ppl's lunches?!) but decided to go as the thought of duck was really tempting.

Now, there are 4 restaurants in Hyatt, each one one more exclusive than the last. After some primal searching I located a table for six (gulp!) at the most swiss one. Grande. Jonna and her camera. Oh here we come! (why don't I ever pick a suit for those moments?!)

The whole table stood up as I approached, and I must say it surprised me when one of the guys greeted me with... a hug?! Yes, you read me right. He hugged me, although we had never before met (Swedish ppl are becoming close and friendly over night? What is going on?!) However, when I glanced at the table and saw several empty wine bottles things became more clear to me.

'Take a seat'! The guys roared. 'Have some duck and wine!'

Well, drinking at 12 pm has never really been my cup of tea, but what don't you do to be 'one of the gang'?! I had time to scope in two delicious pieces of duck and gulp half a glass of wine before I was asked to stand up and tell about myself. (Anyone else than me sensing this was going a bit too far?!)

Luckily the least 'happy' guy saved the moment and said it was probably time for the interview now, and we escaped to the Hyatt lobby. The talk went really well (freshly made coffee and water made us both very straight to the point!) and I stayed on for a bit of a chat even after the interview. Ok, yeah, I will admit it. I had to suck in some more of the rich- and glam-atmosphere of Hyatt, before I returned to my more humble, everyday life.

I had no more interviews booked for this day, however, some CRI peopled had promised to take me for dinner, so I only had a couple of hours to check out the infamous silk market, before I needed to head off. However, that was more than enough as the market was one ocean of aggressive Chinese trying to sell me fake Gucci and LV. Yikes. I was over it before it even started!

The day finished with dinner in the Shi Cha Hai Lake area (why do ppl love to take me there?!) with CRI 'celeb' Paul Young, who once interviewed me for his CRI radio talk show 'People in the Know' (Yes that's right -for a brief 20 minutes -I was a person in the KNOW!) and his producer Lin Lin. We had a great time before heading off to the Blue Bar at Tiananmen square, where Paul's friend was having a going-away. I met some more CRI and CCTV-workers (it seems like every foreign expat that are in the media business works for either CRI or CCTV. Or both!) and got the chance to enjoy the night-life atmosphere of Beijing! Since I had a very early start the next morning, I couldn't stay for long though. But it was fun to be out in the buzz. Beijing is a truly amazing place with so much diversity!