Pooh Talk

Today is CNY Eve and all supermarkets are just overwhelmingly stuffed full of people and trolleys and kids talking louldy with clear but slightly irritating tongue-rolling slang. Everyone and everywhere, people are stocking up their fridges and cupboards with food and drinks and flowers. I couldn't find mushrooms in 3 supermarkets. Stopped by the flower market today and it was PACKED! And of course locals buy RED tulips and RED flowers and RED wrappings. Prices have also climbed and we got away with only 1.5 the usual cost. Tonight we will visit P's colleague who is cooking reunion dinner for a party and later we will set off our own fireworks!! My first time!! So anticipating it!! But it will be freezing..... temp this AFTERNOON was highest 2 deg.

Here the 'town council' (equilvalent anyway) puts up the newspapers on public boards. Yes, page by page, section by section, plus ads even, on a long row of glass panelled boards for the locals to read. The newspapers are not expensive and they are generally known as party propaganda buy yet the locals still peer intently into the tiny print under bad lighting, reading avidly, occassionally stamping their feet in the wintery cold winds. Obtained membership (not so cheap ne) at a expat-run Bookworm Club earlier due to the derth of english books here. It's a 2nd-hand book cum internet cafe and popular among expats (SMOKING ones actually hence my reluctance to stay beyond grabbing my choice books). Variety of titles are not within my list of MUST-READs but they will do for now.

No, it wasn't the Stephen Chow movie (altho tat was my first guess too). Attended this 'Kung Fu Legend' performance (by invitation only for diplomats and family) thinking I was conned into another acrobatic stone smashing on kid's chest balancing plates with sticks show. It started something to that effect: bald men with bad makeup (see photo soon) prancing around to high pitched cheena music TRYING to be Jet LI doing the ballet. It even had a Indiana Temple of Doom thing with masked man in ribbons doing the bon bon while they try to stick spears into the neck. BUT there was this one scene which struck me as actually beautiful, titled "Temptation" (of the young leading monk). The whole stage was draped with transparant plastic poles and magically lighted, with a ballerina behind a silk cloth. Later the 2 did a Cir De Solique and swung gracefully in circles in the air. And from there, I got what they tried to do: a graceful, tasteful ballet cum modern jazz dance style of kung fu moves, meshing the hard muscled martial arts with the soft robes and paper-cane backdrop lighted with vibrant colours to create a story of a young child entering kung fu Shaolin and mastering the arts. There was no dialogue and everything was expressed in music, dance moves and lighting. It was surprisingly cool even though they did include the stone smashing on chest, breaking metal and cane sticks over bald heads, lying on sharp metal pokes stuff. They tried and I can overlook the cheesy stuff to appreciate the ballet stuff and the West-Side story wannabe modern dance funk. Will upload the photos soon and you will see what I mean. You will be proud that I DID NOT take a photo with the performers after the show although almost everyone else did :)

Recently there is a new Phoenix pgm which features overseas Chinese lives and their colourful flavours. One story tells of a famous 'Aunt Agony' journalist who became a casino card dealer in LA after marrying an American. In her spare time, she provides makeup services for extra cash as her hubby couldn't take the stress of a white collar job and became a security guard officer enamoured with collecting swords. They live simply in a tiny rented room with their son and her China-born daughter who struggle with different values and viewpoints. Another Chinese in Las Vegas opened a gambling school for card dealers after quitting his gambling obession and cautions about the destructive nature of being snared by the nightmarish habit. The garish colours of LV lures the unwitting and hopeful, on which it build its city on their carcasses. I admire those who venture so far to build their lives on foreign soil....

My first attempt to balance myself on 2 metal sticks happened on Nanshan. Dressing like a yellow astronaut - baggy pants with huge ski boots that looked familarly like my roller blades back home, only bigger and heavier, I balanced HEAVY metal skis and ski poles and and scarf and gloves and cap and tottered my way out in the glorious snow!! It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Rather similar to blading and I realised I missed blading so much!! Didn't fall even once, which I am proud of :) But it is HARD exercise and by 1 hr, I was sweating in the snow, trekking up slopes. Later we tried to ski with our bums sitting on a tyre and it was grand fun to scream with the kids! Sliding down all the 'icing' and fluffy white flakes with your nose freezing up is just exhilarating even though it is tough work gearing up in your thermal wear and heavy boots and suffering the wet socks :)

"Yellow Sky Don't Disappoint Got Heart Person" :) It finally snowed today. Pls do see my photos in this blog. Drank loads of tea while admiring the scenery - very peaceful and serene. Reminds me of Hokkaido except it isn't a snowstorm here. It was like raining sugar icing on the ground and covered the bare limbs of trees like a fur cape. Very slippery to walk on the pavement so I have to change shoes soon. It wasn't very cold today since the wind was blowing at 1 to 2 levels (when it is 5 to 6 levels, we usually try to stay at home :)) so it was nice to walk in the gentle yuki slightly burning on my face as it melts. On impulse, I decided to attempt to brew bak kut teh for dinner (it was near expiry date anyway) and it wasn't as great as I wished it to be. I know it is almost idiot proof to follow instructions on a prepacked-all-in-one spice pack but I think I put too much sugar and although I threw in white pepper, it wasn't spicy. All in all, disappointing. May not try again although I have 4 other packets. Wanted to donate to the ayi but she said notherners are not into soup.... *sigh*

I cant believe that I am watching a National Geo pgm on Xiao Qiangs which contrasts 2 professors' work. One has worked with Xiao Qiangs for 14 years, breeding and studying them. It seems that they are hardy creatures who are said to be likely survivors in a nuclear explosion (supposedly the darn species has survived 300 million years and tests showed they survive twice more radiation for 2 weeks when one dose can kill a human in a day). When fallen into water, they wont drown immediately (they can swim and they can breathe air pockets through their sides). A headless Xiao Qiang can survive up to one week and dies without water. Water is very impt to Xiao Qiangs. There are 75 species in Taiwan. This guy even BURIES stray Xiao Qiangs he comes across dying in the streets. He buries them AND builds tombstones on their graves. If you are seeing my face now, it is fixed in grimacing over how he handles the icky creepy ones and allows them to crawl EVERYWHERE on his arms and body!!!! What is wrong with him?!? I feel sick...... the other professor works on how to kill of the buggers!!! My hero... not very yan tau but he knows how to TERMINATE them. Xiao Qiang can produce 10,000 other Xiao Qiangs in one lifetime...and the female only has to mate ONCE to fertilize all the eggs in her lifetime.... oh my #$%^^(&^!! The American roach is the fastest running insect on land. Now the pgm is showing exotic dish of fried Xiao Qiang.... SICK SICK SICK! Also used in TCM... I just saw some sicko tribal woman pound some Xia Qiangs into paste and used on a skin wound. One doctor believes Xiao Qiang extracts will eventually prolong human life to 120 years. I think I don't want to live so long.... I just lost my appetite for supper.... the pgm ends with a Taoist saying "One who lives without harming another species, will not be injured by them". Interesting.... perhaps they know I fear them and so they just HAPPEN to be in my path all the time. Well, if they don't fly into my hair, jump onto me and basically NEVER let me see them, they will be safe from me too.....

You know I was a little confused when my good fren commented "Oh you have 'wan tons'" (or something to the effect) when I was blowing my nose the other day. I was like 'huh?' when I realised she meant the tissue paper bundle I was creating with my icky nose discharges. Well, I have since created probably millions of those by now. Yes, I was down with some flu and now still nursing a red and painfully sore nose which isn't helped by the weather or the air I am trying to breathe with my mouth. Have you ever had a cold in winter? Don't ever try..... To think I was happily telling everyone that I am so prod of the fact I have not fallen ill for the past 4 months I was in BJ. Darn, there goes my record. I really hate the dry weather with my red red nose....... duh.....