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Published: October 6th 2011
Hank and Diane Prepping
The 2 cooks wash and prepare for our hot-pot (fondue) in Diane's little kitchen. *Note--I have been trying to publish this blog for about 3 days but the Travel Blog server and our Chinese internet have NOT cooperate. I have not been successful in removing some pictures that double downloaded either. ARGH. Just sayin'.
Whew! The weather Gods are teasing me. And not in a good way, either. The last 2 days have been cooler and oh-so-crazy windy. I am not talking slight breeze here. I am talking GALE force howling winds! The kind of wind which blows doors shut with loud crashes and rattles the screens and single panes perilously. The kind of wind which dances the curtains round wildly and the kind created to wreak havoc with your "hair-don't" and you don't mind cuz it never looked good to begin with! LOL With those more normal temps of about 23 degrees, and feeling so much cooler, I wore my Lulu long yoga pants (!! A first for pants since I've come) and a t-shirt out to walk in. It was blissful. A slight exertion sweat on the upper lip, but no drenching sweat. Make-up? Well, the little I wore, stayed put. OMG. I smiled the whole walk! LOL Sort of a crazy
Happy BIrthday!
Charles, left, is 75 and this is his party. I'm yakking in the chair behind Olga, Hank's co-worker at Dell. This is Diane and Rich's place. Very nice apartment. Cozy and clean and well furnished. smile. Maybe that is why I didn't have many interactions today--LOL--Since Saturday, we've been enjoying days off for Chinese National Day--which should really be Chinese National Week, cuz the do it over a week--really their Canada Day celebrations! LOL We went to a party at Diane and Rich's apartment and had a yummy hot-pot supper. Hank, former Tianjiao employee and a friend of his, Olga, and Diane dutifully washed and chopped and set up a hot plate in the centre of the table along with all the veggies and meats to cook in the boiling broth. Basically, it's a fondue! We cooked mushrooms, lamb, beef, pork, fishballs (don't ask....even less appetizing than they sound, if that's even possible! LMAO) spinach, tarot, carrot, bitter melon (no takers on that one either....awful, awful stuff, to be sure), baby bok chois--tres popular here. We made rice, and I made a stir fry of 'cabbage on fire' with broccoli and red peppers. We ate and ate and ate. Diane made us cake and dragon fruit and yogurt for dessert. Mmmmmmm! Delish! Dragon fruit is this funny looking fruit that is white and seedy on the inside and tastes a lot like kiwi fruits, really.
Hank fussing
Hanks setting up the electic burner and readying the table with all we required. Charles is supervising. LOL I have taken some pictures of it to show you. It is really, really a good eat! Wished they grew closer to home. We sang Happy 75th Birthday to our friend and colleague Charles in 3 languages, English, Chinese and French! LOL Talk about an international supper! I had brought a bottle of Chinese red wine, which was decent, definately not French Merlot, but hey, we can't live like queens EVERY day, now can we? Charles brought a bottle of okay white and voila, we had a fabulous time. We sang some songs while Alan played his guitar, and Hank not only cooked for us, but got a guitar lesson! Olga, his lovely colleague at Dell won the dice game "GREED" we played after dessert, which actually caused me to laugh so much I cried and had a sore stomach after! Joyce and me actually, got the giggles. Are you surprised? LOL NOPE! We stayed out till almost midnight and then Joyce and Charles and I hopped into a cab and got home safely. Man, I do love a great party!
Last week, I received my provincial election ballot by mail. It only took 2 weeks to get here!
More Hank fussing
Hank again, readying the broth for the veggies! Let the games begin! (I am being sarcastic, ONLY 2 weeks? Pffft!) I immediately filled it out and re-posted it back to Canada the very same hour and it costed something crazy like 40 Yuan for regular mail back home. I know it's never gonna make it back in time, so sorry Steve Ashton....I did vote for you....but it ain't gonna count! LOL I had to fill in the ballot and then put an envelope into an envelope into another envelope and finally another. How many trees did we kill for this? Terrible. But it's done and I did my civic duty and my assistant Sarah was very interested that I was voting by mail. I tried to do my civic duty and I suppose that should count for something, right? I appalls me when people don't vote. They are so lucky. Cast a vote if you have the privilige. Just sayin'.
Yesterday, I got beat up again in the massage parlour! LOL Diane and Rich and I went back to the massage parlour for deep-tissue massages and I am SO sore today, even my head is sore from that little masseuse, yikes! They feel so good but also bad at the same
Ballot Envelope
Envelope after I received it at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 28th. Oops, NOT gonna get back to be counted on time, is it? I still completed my voting. *sigh* time. Some of my muscles, especially my legs were sore because I had done walk/run the day before and so there was definately some lactic acid build up there! Well, she found it! OH, did she find it and it hurt SO GOOD, to paraphrase John Couger (Who'd'a thunk it, eh? LOL) at various stages I did howl, grimace and squirm to be sure. Rich and I had the great fun of listening to Diane yowl and seeing her biting her hands, wrestling various body parts away from her masseuse and the 3 girls masaging us found it immensely funny! And it was! Sorry Diane, but it so was! Someone else's pain is funny. Yup, I'm a sadist, I guess. LOL We went out for a nice supper last night post-massage and Joyce and I watched 4 episodes of "Weeds" that I had bought earlier in the month for like $8 Cdn for the complete set. Then, it was off the bed where I was lucky to SKYPE with my bff Debs, and finally after listening to the noisy teenagers in the courtyard, I finally drifted off sometime after 1:30 am here.
Today is a bit of prep for
teaching this Thursday and Friday, we have a bit of a wonky schedule for this week due to the holidays, but it's back to our usual teaching schedule on Monday. I am heading to the gym and then Joyce and I are meeting to buy a few groceries. Tomorrow is going to be a really interesting and long day...we are going for a whole day bus tour to the Hakka Tulou...a world heritage site of rolling farmland and hills outside of Xiamen. The Toulou is a big round house, made of earth and 30,000 of them still exist today in China and they are still inhabited. I cannot wait to see these and have laid into a big supply of batteries for my camera and another memory card to ensure I miss nothing! Stay tuned for the adventure sure to follow tomorrow.
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Debbie Doucette
non-member comment
What??? You voted NDP!!! Well, fyi, Steve won by a landslide, as did all the other NDP candidates in the North! And they took majority in the Province. hmmmm.... Liberals shockingly only took one seat...my riding! So aside from voting,sounds like another great party! Food (mostly) sounds delish... You wouldn\'t believe the awesome stir fry I cooked this eve! Spectacular, esp considering I cooked it! By the time you get back to Canada I\'ll be cooking gourmet meals daily! Believe it??!! :) Happy you continue to find time to skype your bff Debs!!! She\'s a lucky bff.... hehe. Take Care. Keep sharing your adventures!