The driver

I have a guy that takes me too and from work each day. A friend of mine in Beijing hooked me up with him, his company uses this guy and his friends as their drivers too.

His name is Shi (pronounced - Shir). He's a short, balding guy. He drives like a maniac and has come close to head on collisions many times, but I don't mind...he gets me where I need to go as fast as he can.

The funniest part of my day typically happens around 7am when he picks me up. Most days, he's passed out in the driver seat waiting for me. I open the back door...he whips his seat back up in place, throws the pillow to the passenger seat, starts the car and drives off. All of this before I even have the car door closed.

We gave him the nick-name, "Dale." He could probably be a pretty good race car driver. I don't know anyone who could navigate the roads of Beijing as well as this guy can.

My friend and I have been looking for a NASCAR jacket for a while now, but have yet to come across one. So, last weekend, we did come across something close. It's a Kappa jacket (Kappa - logo with two girls, back-to-back). It says "Speed Racer" on it, among other things.

My friend presented him with the jacket yesterday, and explained why we got it for him. This morning, he was all smiles...picked me up proudly sporting the new jacket. Wait...maybe he was all smiles because of the pretty girl sitting in the front seat....that's a story for another day.