Ah, like the football player

Ever since I have arrived, I have been encountering David Beckham mania. Well, considering my surname is fairly similar, most locals I have met have a lightning recognition to the fact that my name 'is' Beckham.

Making the distinction between Beck's famous handle and my not-so-famous one has been too difficult to explain, so I've tended to go with it. In Australia, this was a fairly common occurrence anyhow, but of course, much more easily corrected. I've seen my surname mangled in so many ways since I've been here, that I have decided to go with the flow.

Hence, my Chinese name, Bai Heng Tian. I have no idea how to type this out in Simplified Chinese characters (and a slightly better idea on how to annunciate it), but apparently is it quite phonetically similar to 'Beckham'. Most locals now go, "Oh, football player, are you related?". That's another kettle of fish.

David Beckham is super-popular here in China. So much so that you see his face everywhere. A certain brand of cola that he is associated with is by far the most prominent soft-drink here in Shanghai, perhaps in China too. You kind of expect to turn a corner and see Beck's face plastered on it. Usually, you're not too far away from being right.

So it wasn't really a surprise when I go to get caffeinated in the afternoon by heading downstairs to the canteen and picking up a can of his preferred cola, that you would think that, "yeah, I wonder if he is on this can...?". And correct to my assumption, he was - complete with foot/soccer ball. However, I was completely wrong in expecting he'd be on a pitch somewhere or doing some kind of fancy ball-bending trick.

Nah, he was just dribbling his ball whilst on a gnarly wave located just off a remote tropical island...

Now that was a surprise... He must be a talented guy...