Sunday, November 21, 2010

People In My Neighbourhood: wanna buy a cricket?

If you were an old man in China, you might wander up to Wuyi Lu (three blocks away) to check out the cricket vendor's latest offerings.  For anywhere from 1 RMB (17 cents), you can own a tiny pet that you keep in a tiny box designed specifically for crickets.  You can feed your cricket leaves, bring it out for a cricket walk around the neighbourhood in the morning (still in its box, sadly, not on a tiny leash), and, on Saturdays, you can bring it to a local market for the weekly cricket fights, in which one cricket emerges victorious, having ripped the limbs from all other crickets.

Finding this cricket stand explained why one of my neighbours' blue toque always seems to be cheeping.  He keeps his cricket and its cage tucked into the brim.

I dream of purchasing my own cricket and training it to play Debussy, a la Chester in The Cricket in Times Square.  But what should I NAME it?  Prize for the best cricket moniker.



Thursday, November 4, 2010

The only way to eat French toast

People, I've invented something wonderful.  You know when you crave French toast 'cause it's comforting and also reasonably protein-rich, but you also crave reading time, 'cause it's comforting and you've recently overdone it with America's Next Top Model?

Well.

Gone are the days when your reading is interrupted by toast-cutting, and syrup gets all over your fork when you flip the page.  Behold: the French Toast Stick.  Simply stack yo' toast and hack it into strips.  Pour maple syrup into a wee dipping bowl, and SHAZAM!  You're ready to read and dip, read and dip.  You can even work the couch into the equation.  At the end, you're full of comfort food for your tummy AND your brain.  Now, that's just efficient.


My powdered sugar went moldy, but just use your imagination.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Melissa visited!

Before last week, the last time I'd seen Melissa was when I was about twelve.  We went to Sunday School together at the wonderful Garneau United Church in Edmonton, the most welcoming and diverse church community I've ever known, and where Grandma played the organ. 
So.  When Grandma and Melissa's mom discovered we're both living in China, we all made short work of planning for Melissa to come up from Macau - I'll go down there when it's time for a visa run in a few months.  It was a reunion with funness of epic proportions, and between reminisces of hymnals and Christmas pageants, we tore up the town.  Art supply shopping, gallery browsing, Bund strolling, Expo adventuring, dignitary meeting, fancy dinner eating, wine sipping, trendy bar going* - two days?  No problem. 

Highlights included:
  • Me getting attacked by a Japanese toilet in a very fancy art gallery (I admit I shouldn't have pressed all those buttons)
  • Skipping the four-hour line to the French Expo Pavilion by flashing our Canadian passports and walking haughtily through the VIP entrance
  • Narrowly missing being lit on fire along with the bar at Bar Rouge - those bartenders are showy buggers

Thanks for the good times, Melissa!  Can't wait to hit the slots in Macau.  Just kidding, Grandma.



*Cute stuff in the mail to whoever can tell me where the heck I should put dashes in that sentence.


Oh haiii, Pearl Tower

Let the Expo shenanigans begin!  That's the China pavilion behind us.
*Sip* You were saying, Minister?  
Expo is culture-sensitive.
There is a Hershey's store.  And they have Reese's.  EEE!!!  *Wiping chocolate peanut butter off face*
Vino at Glamour Bar - a definite thighlight