Like last April, we had an opportunity to spend a lovely Saturday evening at the AmCham charity event with some colleagues and spouses. This year the proceeds went to benefit the rebuilding of schools in the Sichuan province that was devastated by major earthquakes.

The event was held at the Shanghai Shangrila hotel and guests were invited to participate in the silent auction, charity casino and finally, a live auctioning of some higher end items.

Holding the Tennant tradition, the expat crowd from David's work gathered at the event and we all placed some bids on the silent auction items that included hotel weekend packages, Chinese furniture, jewelry and paintings among others. We also saw that one of the items up for the live auction was "THE heavenly bed".

The story behind the heavenly bed is that a couple of years ago, I was traveling through Amsterdam and stayed at a hotel near the airport. I thought I must have been extremely tired as I laid down on the bed and thought it was the most comfortable bed ever. Seriously. Hotel beds are never comfortable. So when a few months later David was going to go through Amsterdam and stay overnight there, I told him to stay in the same hotel to "try out the most comfortable bed in the world". And you know what, he called me from his room and agreed that it was the best bed ever.

So when David called the Amsterdam hotel concierge to ask information about the mattress, he was told it went by the brand name of "heavenly bed" and it was only available by special order from that hotel chain. We considered it for a moment but it was quite a bit of money and an ocean freight away, so in the end we decided to forget about it.

Until that fateful Saturday night at the Shangrila. There it was right in front of our eyes, donated to the live auction by the same hotel chain as in Amsterdam. I told David how it was meant to be. It was mine. Or at least we should try to make it mine, half joking, half serious.

The evening continued with a four course meal and some more casino games. The guys enjoyed playing much more than the women did and when the live auction begun, they were still at the blackjack table. First up was a 42" flat screen TV donated by Best Buy. Us women, we kept our heads down eating our desserts. Next up, a Harley Davidson leather jacket. Us women, we moved on to our husband's desserts. But when they announced that they were auctioning off "The Heavenly Bed" next, I perked up.

The first bid was two thousand. Next, twenty five hundred. Seconds later, twenty eight hundred. Ah, going too cheap I thought. That's only around $400 bucks! A boxspring, a mattress and all the bedding for a king size bed. And not just for any bed, for THE BEST BED in the world! There was a lull in the bidding so I thought I'd try to find David with my eyes to see if he'd be interested in placing a bid for me. I couldn't see him at the back of the room and when the people in our table started wondering out loud why no one was bidding on the lovely bed going so cheap, I got up to find him.

As soon as I got up, the bidding started again, now up to three thousand, next thirty five hundred. And when I finally made it to the blackjack table where the guys were sitting, I realized that one of the bidders was David! Oh, what a sweetheart! And just as I started dreaming about the soft, luxurious bed that would soon be mine, I had a flashback that a sign on the bed (on display before the auction begun) stated that the bidding for the bed would start at two thousand.

$2,000 U.S. DOLLARS! NOT Chinese Yuan! Holy hell.

And that's exactly on the same moment when David called out three thousand eight hundred. I just about threw up on his lap.

-Sweetheart, I so much appreciate you bidding for that bed for me, but you have to stop. Do you know it's in U.S. dollars, not in Yuan.

-Oh, right. But you'll love it

-Yes, but I don't want it for that much money. Please don't bid for it anymore

-But I already have the highest bid

[Crap!]

The cameras were all focused on him, the MC was calling out for any final bids, going once, going twice...

Four thousand dollars. A bid from the front of the room. And it became the final bid for the evening.

Pheeeew

So we came this close to owning THE heavenly bed. It was undoubtedly me who chickened out in the end. But I figured one more year on the hard-as-a-rock bamboo mattress here in China and neither will I care whether it's dollars, yuan or pesos.

And since David went off to win the entire table at the blackjack after the auction died down, the evening did end with a bang. With or without THE heavenly bed.