Back in the US, and I’m finally getting around to posting the second blog about the rest of my vacation in Australia. Although it was pretty wet down there, I can see my first blog posting was a little dry. I’ll try to make this one a bit more interesting.
After my rather miserable hiking experience on Sunday, I decided to take it a bit easy on Monday by driving down the Queensland coast. There are a number of parks south of Cairns I’d been told to visit and also a place where I could see some Cassowaries, an endangered bird. Very changeable weather – it would rain like heck for 10 minutes and then I’d need my sunglasses. The first two places I stopped were swimming areas: the Boulders and Josephine Falls. Both were running way too fast for anyone to get in but the scenery was beautiful. At Josephine, there’s a place where you can slide down a waterfall so I was disappointed I couldn’t do that. Something to file away for the next trip. I did see a small rat-kangaroo about the size of a squirrel but couldn’t get him to stay still long enough for a photo.
Further south I visited the Murdering Point Winery (what a name!) and bought a bottle of local fruit-wine to bring home to my wife. I went off the main road to a small beach community called Etty Bay where there were supposed to be Cassowaries. Quite a nice beach and swimming area and yes, there he was out at the far end of the beach. They’re a large flightless bird, smaller than an emu or ostrich but pack quite a kick, I hear. Beautiful blue neck and head area. He wasn’t too concerned with me as I was able to get to within about 15 feet, but the shadows in the mangroves prevented me from getting a good photo. (All in all, my photos from the trip are pretty disappointing. Never quite had the right light. Or maybe the right camera. Or maybe the right operator.)
My destination for the day was Mission Beach. It’s a funky beach town that’s still a little off the tourist track, and after stopping at a Cassowary habitat on the way into town (where I saw another male and his chick – the dads raise the babies) I nearly hit one driving into town! I’m sure the Queensland police would have been just thrilled had I killed one of their rare state birds. Apparently cars are the leading cause of death and that’s why the species is endangered.
At the southern part of town there’s a hiking trail that goes for several miles along the coast and around a point. It was ‘closed’ due to storm damage but typically, I decided to go for it. After a couple of miles I came out onto a long strip of beach where there was literally not another set of footprints. Amazing that you can still visit places where no one’s been all day! I proceeded a little cautiously since there were supposed to be crocodiles, but I didn’t see any. What I DID see, at the end of the beach, were four kangaroos! (I’d kind of forgotten about kangaroos since I think of those as being an outback kind of thing and not tropical.) They were on the other side of a fence and I didn’t get too close before they hopped away. Made my day, though. And as a bonus, I saw another cassowary on the way back down the beach.
On Tuesday I made connections with Adrian (whom I’d met while at the Great Barrier Reef) and we left for the outback at 7:30am. It was a long drive (by the end of the day I’d logged almost 350 miles) through a variety of different landscape. It’s the wet season in the outback too, so it wasn’t at all what I’d pictured – things were pretty green and there was quite a bit of grassy ground cover that I’m sure is gone later in the year. The road was mostly paved with a few flooded areas we had to drive through and a few stretches of graded dirt that was surprisingly in pretty good shape. Our destination was Chillagoe where there are some limestone caves and a ranger-led tour. Of course, we were the only tourists out there (it’s the off-season, as noted in my other blog) so we got a personalized tour. The caves aren’t large but the formations are quite spectacular. Nearby there was a small hike that led to a ‘balancing rock’ and various other rock formations. On our way back we stopped at an abandoned marble quarry and explored. Ginormous blocks of marble – obviously the price on the marble market must be down because this stuff looked to be worth something. I suppose transport must be expensive as it’s pretty far away from anything….
On our way back to Cairns we drove through the ‘Tablelands’ which is the plateau behind the coastal mountain range. There are a lot of creeks and places where we were supposed to see platypus, but we never found the right spot at the right time. (Dusk is supposed to be the optimal viewing time.) We did get a closeup of one of those ‘stinger trees’ that inject painful neurotoxins and I got some good photos. I guess I shoot trees better than animals.
Wednesday I was back on my own, so I drove up to the Daintree Rainforest, which is one of the oldest in the world. I had to take a car-ferry across the Daintree River and ford a few more streams before I arrived at Cape Tribulation, so named because Capt. Cook grounded his ship there in the late 1700s. The drive itself was fantastic – right along the coastline and every bit as beautiful and winding and challenging as California’s hiway 1 along Big Sur. As an added bonus there were waterfalls at every turn, some spilling out over the roadway, so it also reminded me of the Hana hiway in Maui. Every beach seemed to be totally empty. I had intended another ambitious hike up along a ridegetop, but I’d been warned that the trail might not be in good shape. As I arrived at the trailhead about 10:30am there were no cars around and there was a sign warning that the trail shouldn’t be attempted alone. I could see one of those dinner-plate-sized spiders with a web directly across the trail so I knew no one had been up the trail that morning, or even recently, so I reluctantly gave up and decided to walk the beach instead. At Cape Tribulation beach, it was low tide so I walked 2 miles up the beach and pretty soon I was completely alone. Just me and the crocs that I never saw. I slogged a little ways into a mangrove swamp (with mud over my shoe tops), just to see what was there but didn’t encounter any local fauna. On the drive back south to Cairns I stopped at another empty beach just to relax. Just amazing – here in California you’d never see an empty beach in any season, unless it was storming. I could get used to that!
Thursday was going to be my last full day in the area so I was determined to see a platypus. There was a special viewing platform just outside of a town up in the Tablelands, so I built my day around arriving at that spot in the late afternoon. First, though, I wanted to check out an aboriginal town that I’d seen on the map about 30 miles out of Cairns. The road to get there was steep, 20% grade in spots as you climb up and over a small mountain range. When I drove down to the waterline and was checking out the small inlet, an old aboriginal woman came over and started talking to me. And she talked and talked and talked, about the area, how they used to have barge deliveries, the shack down the beach that she grew up in, local croc sightings, and on and on. It was pretty interesting. I guess they don’t get too many random visitors so she was happy to have someone new to talk to. She introduced me to her grandkids who were visiting from someplace up in the Tablelands; they’d never seen the ocean or eaten saltwater fish. I stayed and talked for a while and then drove down towards a beach she’d told me about. But the road got too sandy and I was afraid I’d get stuck so I turned around. Hard to get out of the sand when you’re by yourself….
I went back to the main hiway and headed up towards the platypus area. The road that goes up and over the coastal range is locally famous for its many curves. (When Adrian and I had come down from the Tablelands on Tuesday I’d driven down this road in a driving rainstorm at night. It was pretty weird driving such a windy road on the ‘wrong’ side in some adverse elements – it almost seemed like one of those video driving simulators.) It was supposed to be a beautiful drive so I was happy to drive it during the day. And it WAS quite pretty. Just for the heck of it I decided to try to count the curves that seemed to be at least 90 degrees or more, and I counted 96 of them in stretch that’s less than 15 miles. And later on I was reading something that said there are 612 curves on that road. Not for the faint of heart (or stomach)!
I found a creek hike that I hadn’t known about and walked it, probably about 6 miles all told. That stretch of creek had been restored by students at a local Episcopal College over the previous 10 years. There were supposed to be tree kangaroos but I didn’t see any; they’re shy. As evening was approaching I walked to a little café in the town and was about to order a pizza when the power went out. Apparently it went out over a wide swath of Queensland and was out for a couple of hours. So instead I stopped at a little grocery store and bought some milk and cheese and walked over to the platypus viewing platform. It was dusk and I was in the right place so I was sure to see this odd animal. But no luck – I saw one at a distance but he never came close enough to get a good look. I walked back down the creek trail in the growing darkness thinking I’d have better luck somewhere else, but it just meant I had a long drive home in the dark again. Disappointed, but I guess that’s just one more reason I’ll have to come back to Australia….
My flight was Friday night so I still had almost a full day. I decided to hit some of the local beach towns (and swim at the beaches inside the area protected by stinger-proof netting) and generally chillax. I still got quite a bit of walking in along the beaches, saw a couple of monitor lizards, and just enjoyed the warm waters and looking at some of the more expensive beachfront homes in the area. I got to the airport in plenty of time and it wasn’t busy, so after I returned the car and checked in I walked a mile back to a nature trail I’d seen on the drive in. It took me on a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp that gets filled by a high tide only a few times a month. Reading about the mangrove ecosystem and listening to the various sounds was interesting but I couldn’t spend too much time there. I got on the flight to Melbourne and arrived an hour late at 1am. My friend and coworker Michael picked me up at the airport and I went to his house for a quick day-and-a-half visit with his family. Along with his kids we did a small hike in the Dandenongs and hand-fed the wild parrots and cockatoos. (Those darn things BITE!) That evening we went downtown Melbourne to cruise around, see the sights, mix with the tennis crowd (the Australian Open was being held nearby) and check out the casino. It was a short visit but I had never seen his kids (his wife Elke was pregnant with their first, the last time my wife and I were in Australia) so it was well worth it. On Sunday I flew from Melbourne to Sydney, got lost at the airport (didn’t realize the international terminal was 3 miles away) but found the bus and made my flight to San Francisco. Interestingly enough, the gentleman sitting next to me on the long flight was Linus Torvalds, who invented a widely-used operating system called Linux. Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to him because the flight was so empty, he found a whole row of seats and laid down and slept most of the flight. I’m not an IT geek any more but it might have been interesting to hear his take on things.
So that was the blow-by-blow description of my vacation in Australia. (I fear this blog is just as dry as the last….but it’s 1am and I’m not in the mood to re-write) Bottom line: it simply whetted my appetite for a real exploration of the country – at least 6 months with a camper-van or 4WD, which I’ll do as soon as I can re-retire.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
ahhhh. 'stralia!
G’day from tropical Australia! I’m in Cairns which is known as the ‘Wet Tropics’ and is, of course, living up to its name. January is mid-summer here and it’s rained every day since I arrived Thursday night (Sunday night as I write this). It’s pouring right now.
Fortunately I avoided the worst of it, which happened about a week ago: Typhoon Charlotte dumped 9 inches of rain in 24 hours! That unfortunate event, coupled with a ‘king tide’ (highest tide in 14 years, I heard) flooded Cairns with water up to waist-deep. According to the locals, though, it all drained off by the next day and by the time I arrived, everything looked to be normal. It was raining quite heavily and they’d had the airport shut down due to lightning strikes, so my flight was a couple of hours late. By the time I’d mastered driving on the ‘wrong side’ and got lost trying to find my hotel, it was 12:30am before I checked in. Fortunately I didn’t hit anything or drive on the US side – I’d already had a bit of practice while conducting business in Sydney the previous 4 days as I was the ‘designated driver’ one evening.
Given the late hour, I decided to make Friday a get-my-feet-on-the-ground kind of day. I hadn’t really been able to take note of my surroundings as I was driving in, so I struck out on foot from my hotel, which is about 5 miles out of the city center. (One of the reasons I got lost – wasn’t expecting it to be so far out of town. But it was cheap!) Even at 8am it was about 80 degrees with 80% humidity. Or something like that. I soaked a shirt in no time but walked about 3 miles towards town before I turned around. Got a good view of the locality (mainly restaurants – I’m not exaggerating to say that there are 2 or 3 times as many McDonald’s in Australia as in the US - and the local grocery and mall) and picked up an awesome single-serving apricot pie at a local bakery. I’m definitely going back there for more!
After reviewing the maps I’d gotten with the rent-a-car, I drove into downtown around noon and started walking some more. The main thing I hoped to accomplish was getting some information on day trips out to the Great Barrier Reef and also hiking information about the many National Parks nearby. All of the locals are very friendly and I ended up purchasing a reef trip from the outfitter a friend had recommended (only $104) and also spent an hour at the parks office. She gave me a good list of hikes she’d recommend (and had done them all) and what was closed due to damage from the typhoon. I finished the day with a short hike (about 4 miles) at a hill just outside of town. With the heat and humidity (I came from winter!), the walking I’d already done, and the fact that I’m apparently not in as good a shape as I thought I was, it was a lot harder than I expected….it rained while I was hiking but I was already pretty wet so it actually felt good.
Saturday was the realization of a life-long dream – getting to see and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef which has intrigued me since I was young. The weather was perfect and at the end of the day they said the visibility was the best they’d had all summer. I’m not much of a pray-er but on the way out to the reef I had to take a moment to thank God for letting my life work out so wonderfully that I could have this opportunity. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to see some things I’d always dreamed of, like the Everglades and the Great Wall. Some day I’ll get to Madagascar, Iceland, New Zealand, and the Norwegian fjords. But hopefully there’s plenty of time and things continue to work in my favor.
The boat ride to the first snorkeling site took just over an hour. I’d decided to rent a full-body lycra ‘stinger suit’ for about $4, and I’m glad I did. Not only did it protect me from jellyfish, of which I saw literally thousands of small ones, but I didn’t have to worry about sunburn either. (I was already a bit of a crispy critter after that first day.) We were supposed to buddy-up so I found another solo guy and we hit the water pretty quickly. He’d rented an underwater camera (I gotta see those pictures) and it was a good thing because first thing we saw was a small white-tip shark. (All the sharks we’d encounter are harmless, they said.) The coral and fish and shells were spectacularly colored – didn’t touch anything but just looked. The depth ranged from 3-20 feet or so and we spent about an hour there. At the second site we again saw a shark – a different type – and one of the crew had said there were Giant Clams so my buddy and I set off in search of one. Took a while but when we found one, it was quite a sight. Looked to be about 4 or 5 feet across with it’s shell open and the valves going. There were supposedly turtles there but we didn’t see any, nor any rays. At the third and last site there were many Giant Clams – even a couple of babies about 2 feet across – and some ginormous fish. Although I wasn’t supposed to touch anything I couldn’t resist diving down and touching the clamshell – just to say I touched one. I definitely could have spent a lot more time snorkeling. I’ll just have to come back – maybe I’ll re-retire and man one of those boats.
The boat returned about 4pm so I called my wife and talked to her for a good long time, and then wandered around down by the marina and downtown area for several hours. My snorkeling partner, Adrian Hamilton, is also on vacation and said he’d like to drive out to the outback with me, so we made arrangements to do that later this week. He has an interesting story – born in South Africa, living in London, but immigrating to eastern British Columbia to work in construction/remodeling.
Today I went hiking in Barron Gorge National Park, just 12 miles out of town. It’s got rainforest as well as some dry oak habitat at the higher elevations. The parks gal had recommended a loop hike that was about 8 miles so I thought no problem, I should be able to do that in about 3 hours. But I gotta say – this hike would make it into my top 5 all-time least-fun hikes. Not only was it exhausting but there were several moments of near-panic. First of all I got lost even trying to find the trailhead. It wasn’t well-marked so I went a mile up another trail which dead-ended. After consulting the map I figured out where I was on a different trail so I headed back and started up the real loop trail. The first thing I saw was a stupendous example of what I took to calling Arachnida dinnerus platus, which likes to spin its web right across the trail. The parks lady told me they were harmless and was quite excited that I might see one – but when I did I was excited in a different way. I think they call it ‘arachnilepsy’ – the funny dance you do when you walk through a web. He may have been harmless but had he landed on me, he’d have definitely been harmed. I love nature and all, but I prefer to admire spiders from a distance – especially ones the size of dinner plates.
Anyway, I struggled up the hill in the heat and humidity. It’s off-season (winter is their tourist season because it’s warm) and the trail was poorly-marked and poorly-maintained. (They could have used a few cairns!) I finally met another hiker near the top; she was coming from the other direction and told me to be careful of the ‘whitey wall’ plants which were growing over the path. (I looked it up, it’s actually known as “wait-a-while”.) The thorns have hooks in them and they rip your flesh, clothing, whatever they touch. When you get hooked you’re supposed to back out of it but I don’t think thast worked too well for me. There are also ‘vicious hairy mary’ vines (more thorns) and signs promoting the stinger trees which have tiny hairs and inject a neurotoxin which is quite painful and can take months to go away. I was doing OK with the wait-a-whiles until I met up with another couple coming in the opposite direction. They told me there were two tree-falls just ahead that had these things all over them, and they had the blood to show for it. Well, I struggled getting past these barriers (had to lie flat and crawl under the second obstacle) and didn’t get too ripped up – but I kept encountering these things and by the end of the hike I had wounds everywhere, head to toe, and a pair of shorts that will go in the trash. And I had to cross two streams that were running pretty fast and no marking on the other side as to where the trail picked up again. All I knew was, I wasn’t heading back through those tree-falls again! So I had to keep forging ahead. For one of the few times in my hiking career I was happy to see civilization….took me almost 5 hours to do 8 miles.
So I dropped all of my stuff at the car and headed back up this little short trail I’d been on at the beginning, which ran along one of the fast-running streams. I took my shoes off, jumped in and sat there in the running water for a good 30 minutes. The water was warm so it was quite pleasant. I decided the rest of the week I’m going to hit some of the trails that are more heavily traveled in case I need to partake of the local knowledge. I’m so tired from hiking today I think I’m going to go for a drive south the Mission Beach where I hear there are some Cassowaries – a flightless bird that’s on the endangered species list. There’s a little island called Dunk Island just offshore that you can reach by water taxi fairly cheaply, so I may go over there.
I got some information about where I might see a platypus too, so I hope I get that lucky. Mostly what I’ve seen so far are the geckos around my hotel room as well as some other types of lizards. And the spiders of course. There seem to be a million different bird calls (and they’re really noisy!) but I’m not too much of a birder.
Hopefully I’ll have time to post another blog before I get back home. We’ll see. I have quite a bit of work to do while I’m on vacation so I gotta take care of the job too.
Thanks for reading – hope you found it interesting!
Fortunately I avoided the worst of it, which happened about a week ago: Typhoon Charlotte dumped 9 inches of rain in 24 hours! That unfortunate event, coupled with a ‘king tide’ (highest tide in 14 years, I heard) flooded Cairns with water up to waist-deep. According to the locals, though, it all drained off by the next day and by the time I arrived, everything looked to be normal. It was raining quite heavily and they’d had the airport shut down due to lightning strikes, so my flight was a couple of hours late. By the time I’d mastered driving on the ‘wrong side’ and got lost trying to find my hotel, it was 12:30am before I checked in. Fortunately I didn’t hit anything or drive on the US side – I’d already had a bit of practice while conducting business in Sydney the previous 4 days as I was the ‘designated driver’ one evening.
Given the late hour, I decided to make Friday a get-my-feet-on-the-ground kind of day. I hadn’t really been able to take note of my surroundings as I was driving in, so I struck out on foot from my hotel, which is about 5 miles out of the city center. (One of the reasons I got lost – wasn’t expecting it to be so far out of town. But it was cheap!) Even at 8am it was about 80 degrees with 80% humidity. Or something like that. I soaked a shirt in no time but walked about 3 miles towards town before I turned around. Got a good view of the locality (mainly restaurants – I’m not exaggerating to say that there are 2 or 3 times as many McDonald’s in Australia as in the US - and the local grocery and mall) and picked up an awesome single-serving apricot pie at a local bakery. I’m definitely going back there for more!
After reviewing the maps I’d gotten with the rent-a-car, I drove into downtown around noon and started walking some more. The main thing I hoped to accomplish was getting some information on day trips out to the Great Barrier Reef and also hiking information about the many National Parks nearby. All of the locals are very friendly and I ended up purchasing a reef trip from the outfitter a friend had recommended (only $104) and also spent an hour at the parks office. She gave me a good list of hikes she’d recommend (and had done them all) and what was closed due to damage from the typhoon. I finished the day with a short hike (about 4 miles) at a hill just outside of town. With the heat and humidity (I came from winter!), the walking I’d already done, and the fact that I’m apparently not in as good a shape as I thought I was, it was a lot harder than I expected….it rained while I was hiking but I was already pretty wet so it actually felt good.
Saturday was the realization of a life-long dream – getting to see and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef which has intrigued me since I was young. The weather was perfect and at the end of the day they said the visibility was the best they’d had all summer. I’m not much of a pray-er but on the way out to the reef I had to take a moment to thank God for letting my life work out so wonderfully that I could have this opportunity. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to see some things I’d always dreamed of, like the Everglades and the Great Wall. Some day I’ll get to Madagascar, Iceland, New Zealand, and the Norwegian fjords. But hopefully there’s plenty of time and things continue to work in my favor.
The boat ride to the first snorkeling site took just over an hour. I’d decided to rent a full-body lycra ‘stinger suit’ for about $4, and I’m glad I did. Not only did it protect me from jellyfish, of which I saw literally thousands of small ones, but I didn’t have to worry about sunburn either. (I was already a bit of a crispy critter after that first day.) We were supposed to buddy-up so I found another solo guy and we hit the water pretty quickly. He’d rented an underwater camera (I gotta see those pictures) and it was a good thing because first thing we saw was a small white-tip shark. (All the sharks we’d encounter are harmless, they said.) The coral and fish and shells were spectacularly colored – didn’t touch anything but just looked. The depth ranged from 3-20 feet or so and we spent about an hour there. At the second site we again saw a shark – a different type – and one of the crew had said there were Giant Clams so my buddy and I set off in search of one. Took a while but when we found one, it was quite a sight. Looked to be about 4 or 5 feet across with it’s shell open and the valves going. There were supposedly turtles there but we didn’t see any, nor any rays. At the third and last site there were many Giant Clams – even a couple of babies about 2 feet across – and some ginormous fish. Although I wasn’t supposed to touch anything I couldn’t resist diving down and touching the clamshell – just to say I touched one. I definitely could have spent a lot more time snorkeling. I’ll just have to come back – maybe I’ll re-retire and man one of those boats.
The boat returned about 4pm so I called my wife and talked to her for a good long time, and then wandered around down by the marina and downtown area for several hours. My snorkeling partner, Adrian Hamilton, is also on vacation and said he’d like to drive out to the outback with me, so we made arrangements to do that later this week. He has an interesting story – born in South Africa, living in London, but immigrating to eastern British Columbia to work in construction/remodeling.
Today I went hiking in Barron Gorge National Park, just 12 miles out of town. It’s got rainforest as well as some dry oak habitat at the higher elevations. The parks gal had recommended a loop hike that was about 8 miles so I thought no problem, I should be able to do that in about 3 hours. But I gotta say – this hike would make it into my top 5 all-time least-fun hikes. Not only was it exhausting but there were several moments of near-panic. First of all I got lost even trying to find the trailhead. It wasn’t well-marked so I went a mile up another trail which dead-ended. After consulting the map I figured out where I was on a different trail so I headed back and started up the real loop trail. The first thing I saw was a stupendous example of what I took to calling Arachnida dinnerus platus, which likes to spin its web right across the trail. The parks lady told me they were harmless and was quite excited that I might see one – but when I did I was excited in a different way. I think they call it ‘arachnilepsy’ – the funny dance you do when you walk through a web. He may have been harmless but had he landed on me, he’d have definitely been harmed. I love nature and all, but I prefer to admire spiders from a distance – especially ones the size of dinner plates.
Anyway, I struggled up the hill in the heat and humidity. It’s off-season (winter is their tourist season because it’s warm) and the trail was poorly-marked and poorly-maintained. (They could have used a few cairns!) I finally met another hiker near the top; she was coming from the other direction and told me to be careful of the ‘whitey wall’ plants which were growing over the path. (I looked it up, it’s actually known as “wait-a-while”.) The thorns have hooks in them and they rip your flesh, clothing, whatever they touch. When you get hooked you’re supposed to back out of it but I don’t think thast worked too well for me. There are also ‘vicious hairy mary’ vines (more thorns) and signs promoting the stinger trees which have tiny hairs and inject a neurotoxin which is quite painful and can take months to go away. I was doing OK with the wait-a-whiles until I met up with another couple coming in the opposite direction. They told me there were two tree-falls just ahead that had these things all over them, and they had the blood to show for it. Well, I struggled getting past these barriers (had to lie flat and crawl under the second obstacle) and didn’t get too ripped up – but I kept encountering these things and by the end of the hike I had wounds everywhere, head to toe, and a pair of shorts that will go in the trash. And I had to cross two streams that were running pretty fast and no marking on the other side as to where the trail picked up again. All I knew was, I wasn’t heading back through those tree-falls again! So I had to keep forging ahead. For one of the few times in my hiking career I was happy to see civilization….took me almost 5 hours to do 8 miles.
So I dropped all of my stuff at the car and headed back up this little short trail I’d been on at the beginning, which ran along one of the fast-running streams. I took my shoes off, jumped in and sat there in the running water for a good 30 minutes. The water was warm so it was quite pleasant. I decided the rest of the week I’m going to hit some of the trails that are more heavily traveled in case I need to partake of the local knowledge. I’m so tired from hiking today I think I’m going to go for a drive south the Mission Beach where I hear there are some Cassowaries – a flightless bird that’s on the endangered species list. There’s a little island called Dunk Island just offshore that you can reach by water taxi fairly cheaply, so I may go over there.
I got some information about where I might see a platypus too, so I hope I get that lucky. Mostly what I’ve seen so far are the geckos around my hotel room as well as some other types of lizards. And the spiders of course. There seem to be a million different bird calls (and they’re really noisy!) but I’m not too much of a birder.
Hopefully I’ll have time to post another blog before I get back home. We’ll see. I have quite a bit of work to do while I’m on vacation so I gotta take care of the job too.
Thanks for reading – hope you found it interesting!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
whoooosh!
Whoooosh! That’s the sound of the fastest thing on land. At least, the fastest thing I’ve ever been in…we covered 19 miles in 7:20. That’s minutes and seconds, people.
Over the last few years, China’s been grabbing the top spot on a lot of things – biggest dam, tallest hotel, first commercially operated maglev train – and that’s the one I’m talking about. Back in 2004, right here in Shanghai, the world’s first (and maybe fastest) magnetic levitation train went into operation. Top speed during daily runs: 267mph! That’s over one-third the speed of sound – and you should see it, and feel it, when two trains pass each other. Some serious turbulence. I read that they got it up to 311mph during test runs but 267 is plenty fast enough for me! The thing floats just above the track and all of the propulsion equipment is in the track and not the train, for less weight and better acceleration. It’s a pretty cool concept although it’s apparently pretty expensive. They were considering building one from Shanghai to Beijing but I hear it costs 3x that of a ‘conventional’ high-speed train, so I don’t know if it’ll happen.
The train station is about 5 miles from the hotel so I walked down. The maglev takes you out to the airport, so I’m considering taking it again on Thursday when I fly out, although I’d need to take a taxi to the station because of all my luggage, so I may just taxi to the airport. I spent a few minutes at the airport scouting out the check-in lines before heading back on the maglev. Round trip was about $11 and I did shoot some video out the window when we were at top speed. Wow!
The station is adjacent to a subway line, so I went across and grabbed the subway up to the main part of town. Subways for me are kind of like sticking my toe in the local body of water: if I come to a new place with a subway, I just have to ride it at least once. The whole thing is pretty new (and they’re expanding like crazy) so it was nicer than, say the New York or London subways. In fact, as I was riding I was watching a video screen on the wall and a 2-minute commercial for the NFL came on! Not sure how well that sells in China, but with 1.3 billion people I guess they don’t need a high connect rate to be successful…
The only unsuccessful part of the day’s journey was my inability to find a Chairman Mao fridge magnet. I should have bought the first one I saw a couple of weeks ago but I figured I’d see more. Running out of time here, so that one may not end up on our fridge…they’ve got lots of other Mao-themed things like a wristwatch with him waving at you (that’s the second hand) and alarm clocks and other trivialities and minutiae. He must be turning over in his grave. I thought he was a reviled figure these days but I guess I don’t know my Chinese politics very well – his picture’s on every denomination. Maybe I’m thinking of his widow and the so-called ‘gang of four’.
The rest of the weekend passed relatively uneventfully. I got one last very long walk in, about 15 miles between the raindrops. It’s suddenly gotten a lot colder so even I’m carrying a light jacket, although still in shorts.
I debated about putting this in, but I’m gonna call it like I see it. I’ll go off-track here, and slightly off-colour, so skip this paragraph if you’re queasy. Many men are partial to Oriental women and of course, Shanghai’s full of Chinese women. In my personal opinion there aren’t too many pretty women here but I’m sure some men would disagree. But I got to thinking – even if you liked the women here, you’d have to ask yourself the next obvious question: “would I kiss that mouth?”. And I think the answer, 3 times out of 4, is probably ‘no’. Dental work and oral hygiene here is not a priority, or more likely, not available to most income levels. So there’s not always a lot of teeth in those mouths and the ones you see are not too clean. I hope it changes soon because they’re finding that dental health (specifically plaque buildup) is connected to overall cardio health. I think it is economically-related because all of my local co-workers have good teeth - in fact, one girl has braces.
Anyway, back to more pleasant topics. I write this blog in pieces over a few days, so my previous comment about not having the Mao fridge magnet no longer holds true. Came into work this evening and found, at my desk, a fridge magnet and a set of Chairman Mao playing cards, as well as a variety of 2008-Olympic-themed keychains. My locally-based coworkers are really being generous. Plenty of stocking stuffers for everyone. I just hope US Customs doesn’t get the wrong idea about my politics and sends me back to China. At least, not before I’ve had one good Mexican meal…I tried to get my wife to do a Mexican theme for Thanksgiving, but no go.
I’ve actually adapted pretty well to the night shift, but the weekends are tough. I remember when I was a youngster having to work on the grave shift at National Semiconductor for about 3 months when I was on a project, and I remember how difficult it was, and is, to maintain a normal lifestyle on the weekend. Unless you’re a bar-haunt, you can’t exactly enjoy weekends on grave shift, so you end up messing up your sleep pattern just to get some normalcy and daylight. Mondays are tough because you’re usually in sleep debt. This week’ll be a short week for me as I fly home Thursday afternoon, so I think I’ll just stay up after my Wednesday night shift and maybe be able to sleep on the plane for a change. Not sure how that’ll work because I’m booked in a middle seat, so it may end up being a challenge to stay awake through Thanksgiving supper as I regale everyone with tales of roast-tentacle-on-a-stick.
I just found out today that someone has requested my services so I’ll be employed a little while longer. This retirement thing is working out pretty well so far – a little job here and a little job there keeps the coffers full and keeps me from getting stale. My next trip in a couple of weeks is to the sovereign republic of Texas. Unfortunately I’ll be in the concrete portion of the state rather than the wilder areas I enjoyed on my road trip a couple of months ago. So if I post any blogs, they’ll likely be of the flavor “I can’t believe what that driver just did!”
I’ll end it here as I don’t expect anything noteworthy to happen in my last day-plus here in Shanghai. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Take care everyone!
Over the last few years, China’s been grabbing the top spot on a lot of things – biggest dam, tallest hotel, first commercially operated maglev train – and that’s the one I’m talking about. Back in 2004, right here in Shanghai, the world’s first (and maybe fastest) magnetic levitation train went into operation. Top speed during daily runs: 267mph! That’s over one-third the speed of sound – and you should see it, and feel it, when two trains pass each other. Some serious turbulence. I read that they got it up to 311mph during test runs but 267 is plenty fast enough for me! The thing floats just above the track and all of the propulsion equipment is in the track and not the train, for less weight and better acceleration. It’s a pretty cool concept although it’s apparently pretty expensive. They were considering building one from Shanghai to Beijing but I hear it costs 3x that of a ‘conventional’ high-speed train, so I don’t know if it’ll happen.
The train station is about 5 miles from the hotel so I walked down. The maglev takes you out to the airport, so I’m considering taking it again on Thursday when I fly out, although I’d need to take a taxi to the station because of all my luggage, so I may just taxi to the airport. I spent a few minutes at the airport scouting out the check-in lines before heading back on the maglev. Round trip was about $11 and I did shoot some video out the window when we were at top speed. Wow!
The station is adjacent to a subway line, so I went across and grabbed the subway up to the main part of town. Subways for me are kind of like sticking my toe in the local body of water: if I come to a new place with a subway, I just have to ride it at least once. The whole thing is pretty new (and they’re expanding like crazy) so it was nicer than, say the New York or London subways. In fact, as I was riding I was watching a video screen on the wall and a 2-minute commercial for the NFL came on! Not sure how well that sells in China, but with 1.3 billion people I guess they don’t need a high connect rate to be successful…
The only unsuccessful part of the day’s journey was my inability to find a Chairman Mao fridge magnet. I should have bought the first one I saw a couple of weeks ago but I figured I’d see more. Running out of time here, so that one may not end up on our fridge…they’ve got lots of other Mao-themed things like a wristwatch with him waving at you (that’s the second hand) and alarm clocks and other trivialities and minutiae. He must be turning over in his grave. I thought he was a reviled figure these days but I guess I don’t know my Chinese politics very well – his picture’s on every denomination. Maybe I’m thinking of his widow and the so-called ‘gang of four’.
The rest of the weekend passed relatively uneventfully. I got one last very long walk in, about 15 miles between the raindrops. It’s suddenly gotten a lot colder so even I’m carrying a light jacket, although still in shorts.
I debated about putting this in, but I’m gonna call it like I see it. I’ll go off-track here, and slightly off-colour, so skip this paragraph if you’re queasy. Many men are partial to Oriental women and of course, Shanghai’s full of Chinese women. In my personal opinion there aren’t too many pretty women here but I’m sure some men would disagree. But I got to thinking – even if you liked the women here, you’d have to ask yourself the next obvious question: “would I kiss that mouth?”. And I think the answer, 3 times out of 4, is probably ‘no’. Dental work and oral hygiene here is not a priority, or more likely, not available to most income levels. So there’s not always a lot of teeth in those mouths and the ones you see are not too clean. I hope it changes soon because they’re finding that dental health (specifically plaque buildup) is connected to overall cardio health. I think it is economically-related because all of my local co-workers have good teeth - in fact, one girl has braces.
Anyway, back to more pleasant topics. I write this blog in pieces over a few days, so my previous comment about not having the Mao fridge magnet no longer holds true. Came into work this evening and found, at my desk, a fridge magnet and a set of Chairman Mao playing cards, as well as a variety of 2008-Olympic-themed keychains. My locally-based coworkers are really being generous. Plenty of stocking stuffers for everyone. I just hope US Customs doesn’t get the wrong idea about my politics and sends me back to China. At least, not before I’ve had one good Mexican meal…I tried to get my wife to do a Mexican theme for Thanksgiving, but no go.
I’ve actually adapted pretty well to the night shift, but the weekends are tough. I remember when I was a youngster having to work on the grave shift at National Semiconductor for about 3 months when I was on a project, and I remember how difficult it was, and is, to maintain a normal lifestyle on the weekend. Unless you’re a bar-haunt, you can’t exactly enjoy weekends on grave shift, so you end up messing up your sleep pattern just to get some normalcy and daylight. Mondays are tough because you’re usually in sleep debt. This week’ll be a short week for me as I fly home Thursday afternoon, so I think I’ll just stay up after my Wednesday night shift and maybe be able to sleep on the plane for a change. Not sure how that’ll work because I’m booked in a middle seat, so it may end up being a challenge to stay awake through Thanksgiving supper as I regale everyone with tales of roast-tentacle-on-a-stick.
I just found out today that someone has requested my services so I’ll be employed a little while longer. This retirement thing is working out pretty well so far – a little job here and a little job there keeps the coffers full and keeps me from getting stale. My next trip in a couple of weeks is to the sovereign republic of Texas. Unfortunately I’ll be in the concrete portion of the state rather than the wilder areas I enjoyed on my road trip a couple of months ago. So if I post any blogs, they’ll likely be of the flavor “I can’t believe what that driver just did!”
I’ll end it here as I don’t expect anything noteworthy to happen in my last day-plus here in Shanghai. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Take care everyone!
Friday, November 16, 2007
the "rescue"...
Hello again from Shanghai! Well, I made it to the Yellow Sea (technically, the East China Sea) and dipped a toe in - but not the way I expected. Along my journey I had one of those cultural experiences that I enjoy so much. I guess it’s the reason I walk.
During the week one of my students had shown me an online map, and I knew my previous attempt had gotten me very close to the sea. So since I still didn’t have a map to carry, I retraced my steps. I was walking along a canal towards the end of my ‘known’ route when a fisherman hollered at me. Of course it was in Chinese and I didn’t understand, so I smiled and continued on my way. He and his wife and brother had finished fishing and moved alongside me in their motorized tricycle. Turned out his wife spoke some English (“as a hobby”, she said) and they asked me where I was going. I told them San Jia Gang, which is the name that the hotel concierge staff had given me. I figured it was just a little spot at the sea but it’s actually a small resort area with a golf course, amusement park, horseback riding, etc. He assumed I wanted to play golf but I communicated that I just wanted to get to the water. After walking beside him for several minutes and politely refusing his offer to give me a ride, he finally made his wife move to the back and insisted I get on. So off we went, to the amusement of just about everyone we passed – I think he was having a great time explaining to everyone why he’d picked up this Westerner who didn’t speak any Chinese. Along the way he tried to teach me some Chinese in his halting English: yes, no, apple, watermelon, and I can’t recall what else. I promptly forgot them all as I’m not very good with languages and am having trouble with just ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. Anyway, we went quite a ways, probably 3 or 4 miles, to a spot where there was a breakwater with concrete blocks. (Had I been walking I’d have stopped at the first water I saw, but he said he came out that place all the time and it turned out they lived nearby.) He was very interested in photos so we took several photos of he and his brother and I shaking hands, until the batteries on my camera died. He knew someone with email but couldn’t remember the address, so I typed my email address into his wife’s cellphone so I could send him the photos when he emailed me. Then he took me all the way out to the main road so I could flag down a taxi back to the hotel. (We were just a mile or so from the airport.) I tried to pay him but he refused. I’m sure he will enjoy telling the story, many times, of how he went out of his way to “rescue” an American who was out for a long walk with no map and no knowledge of the local language.
The walk leading up to this was pretty uneventful. I got a few more smiles out of people than I had been – still, mostly stone-face at my smile-and-nod. Different culture than India, I guess. One thing I discovered early on in my stay here is that, like most of Asia, the majority of the public toilets don’t have western-style seating. Just a virtual hole in the ground, and those that do seat you usually don’t have any place for toilet paper. I’ve gotten used to bringing my own, just in case. Years ago I realized that, when in a foreign country, the bigger hotels are a good place for a pit stop – they’re more likely to be comfortable in the various ways we spoiled westerners are used to.
The rest of the week seemed to pass pretty slowly. I think I’m ready to come home, although it’s been nice to be able to make some decent money while doing something I enjoy. I took a chance when I retired that I’d be able to provide an adequate amount of income for the household – no illusions that I’d bring in as much as I did before I retired. The timing was right from a benefits standpoint; the last opportunity I’d have to lock in retirement medical insurance, and more importantly I was burnt out and frustrated with the corporate culture. So I went for it. I may have to stay in the corporate world to leverage my value, but I’ll definitely pick my spots. To loosely quote Carolyn Hax, although I have an obligation to provide for my family, they can’t just bang their forks on the table while I grind my soul into food, shelter, and gas money…
Was thinking today - it’s been exactly 6 months since I went into the operating room not sure what my future would be, and it’s been a pretty amazing six months. I’d love to think my next half-year will be as adventurous (without the miserable first month!) as this period’s been. But that’s probably not reality. I’m not looking too far ahead; as long as the blood tests keep coming back clean I’ll play it by ear. I should make it a policy, though, to ensure I get at least some camping and hiking into every 6-month period. Gotta do that stuff while I’m still relatively young, and I’ve gotta figure out how to bring my wife, a non-camper-hiker, along.
I finally went for one of the massages that are so prevalent here – about $10 an hour for a full-body massage and about the same rate for an hour foot massage. (I’m going to try that one next.) I was hoping for some magical resolution to the neck problems that have been a constant for the last 4 months but no luck. Still, it was enjoyable and painful at the same time – she found tissues I’m sure had never been touched by human hands. I think I’ll ask one of my students whether they know of an ancient mystical acupuncturist for this sore neck. I already tried the herbal remedy they suggested, but no luck.
Heading into the weekend – I’ll post now and hope for some interesting things to write about this weekend. Take care, all!
During the week one of my students had shown me an online map, and I knew my previous attempt had gotten me very close to the sea. So since I still didn’t have a map to carry, I retraced my steps. I was walking along a canal towards the end of my ‘known’ route when a fisherman hollered at me. Of course it was in Chinese and I didn’t understand, so I smiled and continued on my way. He and his wife and brother had finished fishing and moved alongside me in their motorized tricycle. Turned out his wife spoke some English (“as a hobby”, she said) and they asked me where I was going. I told them San Jia Gang, which is the name that the hotel concierge staff had given me. I figured it was just a little spot at the sea but it’s actually a small resort area with a golf course, amusement park, horseback riding, etc. He assumed I wanted to play golf but I communicated that I just wanted to get to the water. After walking beside him for several minutes and politely refusing his offer to give me a ride, he finally made his wife move to the back and insisted I get on. So off we went, to the amusement of just about everyone we passed – I think he was having a great time explaining to everyone why he’d picked up this Westerner who didn’t speak any Chinese. Along the way he tried to teach me some Chinese in his halting English: yes, no, apple, watermelon, and I can’t recall what else. I promptly forgot them all as I’m not very good with languages and am having trouble with just ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. Anyway, we went quite a ways, probably 3 or 4 miles, to a spot where there was a breakwater with concrete blocks. (Had I been walking I’d have stopped at the first water I saw, but he said he came out that place all the time and it turned out they lived nearby.) He was very interested in photos so we took several photos of he and his brother and I shaking hands, until the batteries on my camera died. He knew someone with email but couldn’t remember the address, so I typed my email address into his wife’s cellphone so I could send him the photos when he emailed me. Then he took me all the way out to the main road so I could flag down a taxi back to the hotel. (We were just a mile or so from the airport.) I tried to pay him but he refused. I’m sure he will enjoy telling the story, many times, of how he went out of his way to “rescue” an American who was out for a long walk with no map and no knowledge of the local language.
The walk leading up to this was pretty uneventful. I got a few more smiles out of people than I had been – still, mostly stone-face at my smile-and-nod. Different culture than India, I guess. One thing I discovered early on in my stay here is that, like most of Asia, the majority of the public toilets don’t have western-style seating. Just a virtual hole in the ground, and those that do seat you usually don’t have any place for toilet paper. I’ve gotten used to bringing my own, just in case. Years ago I realized that, when in a foreign country, the bigger hotels are a good place for a pit stop – they’re more likely to be comfortable in the various ways we spoiled westerners are used to.
The rest of the week seemed to pass pretty slowly. I think I’m ready to come home, although it’s been nice to be able to make some decent money while doing something I enjoy. I took a chance when I retired that I’d be able to provide an adequate amount of income for the household – no illusions that I’d bring in as much as I did before I retired. The timing was right from a benefits standpoint; the last opportunity I’d have to lock in retirement medical insurance, and more importantly I was burnt out and frustrated with the corporate culture. So I went for it. I may have to stay in the corporate world to leverage my value, but I’ll definitely pick my spots. To loosely quote Carolyn Hax, although I have an obligation to provide for my family, they can’t just bang their forks on the table while I grind my soul into food, shelter, and gas money…
Was thinking today - it’s been exactly 6 months since I went into the operating room not sure what my future would be, and it’s been a pretty amazing six months. I’d love to think my next half-year will be as adventurous (without the miserable first month!) as this period’s been. But that’s probably not reality. I’m not looking too far ahead; as long as the blood tests keep coming back clean I’ll play it by ear. I should make it a policy, though, to ensure I get at least some camping and hiking into every 6-month period. Gotta do that stuff while I’m still relatively young, and I’ve gotta figure out how to bring my wife, a non-camper-hiker, along.
I finally went for one of the massages that are so prevalent here – about $10 an hour for a full-body massage and about the same rate for an hour foot massage. (I’m going to try that one next.) I was hoping for some magical resolution to the neck problems that have been a constant for the last 4 months but no luck. Still, it was enjoyable and painful at the same time – she found tissues I’m sure had never been touched by human hands. I think I’ll ask one of my students whether they know of an ancient mystical acupuncturist for this sore neck. I already tried the herbal remedy they suggested, but no luck.
Heading into the weekend – I’ll post now and hope for some interesting things to write about this weekend. Take care, all!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
chinese karaoke and other interesting topics...
Shorter-than-usual blog – but I’ll post now because who knows when I’ll get to it again. I tend to drag my feet a bit, or get busy, so when I’ve got something written I should put it out there.
Well, travel IS broadening - new experiences abound. I’ll start with a silly one, which I could have done anywhere (but definitely never wanted to!). Management decided to have a team-bonding exercise, which I was invited to – and it was karaoke. Now, I’ve been known, on rare occasions, to have fun with a microphone in my hand. But singing in front of people is definitely not my thing, even though I love music. I tried to protest that I didn’t know any of the songs they were doing – but then they put on The Eagles’ Hotel California and I was on the spot. After that they couldn’t stop me – Beatles, Cat Stevens, even Moon River. I made them take a picture while I was doing it, so I have proof – a rare travel photo with me in it. I think I sounded OK – but then, doesn’t everyone think that?
The weirdest/funniest part was when they rang up ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’. Most songs had their own video, many apparently made in China, and RRNR was one of them. I’d have assumed they’d do something animated or show some Santa scenes – but instead they went with a snow theme and showed shots of a Chinese ice-sculpture festival. So as RRNR is starting, the first thing you see are giant faces carved in the snow (think Mt Rushmore) of … some Communist Party heroes! (Mao was the only one I recognized, but the others had red-star military-style hats.) Then dragons and other Chinese works of ice and snow. Quite surreal -it definitely made it hard to concentrate on this light-hearted Christmas tune!
Anyway, back to reality. As the weather’s been holding up I’ve engaged in a few more walks around town. I’m running out of places I haven’t seen near the hotel, so I may have to take a taxi to another part of town (one that’s on the map!) and start walking. Today, Sunday, our hosts hired a driver to take us a couple of hours away to an historic town in the Yangtze River delta call Wu Zhen (‘Black Town’). It was pretty interesting; sort of like a small-scale Venice with boats taking you around town, although there are many footpaths as well. There were a lot of museums – one for beds, another with coins, others with clothing, woodwork, etc. I contributed heavily to the local economy by loading up on gifts from the local artisans, including a needlework tiger for $20 (pre-bargaining price: $40) that will go in my den as a reminder of my trip. I probably could have bargained another couple of bucks out of it – the strategy is to take the original price and divide by 3 and work up from there - but what’s the point. I’ve got it and they don’t, so I’ll share a little bit.
Going during the day wasn’t optimal, since we’ve been on grave shift for the past week and are acclimated to sleeping during the day, but we were able to snooze in the van on the way back to Shanghai. And yes, I did stick a toe into the Yangtze River (delta). Now if I can just make it out to the Yellow Sea – I’m going to try that one again tomorrow, while I should be sleeping, because it’s supposed to be clear and sunny with a high of 62. Could be another long Monday night…
During the drive southwest, the countryside was very flat, with a mixture of agriculture and industry. I saw a lot of smokestacks, both big and small, belching filth into the sky, as well as a couple of smoky fires where people were burning their garbage. Now I think I understand where the pollution in Shanghai comes from. Our coworker/guide told us that this was illegal but that the government either doesn’t catch or doesn’t prosecute a lot of people or small industries.
I also saw some odd vehicles. Most places I travel, I see odd vehicles, but these were really unusual – three-wheeled trucks. And I’m not talking little rickshaw-sized 3-wheelers, but full-sized-pickup three-wheelers. One even had duals on the back to carry heavy loads. They were on the surface streets and I didn’t see any on the highways; I’d have to think they don’t handle very well at high speeds. I guess they have an advantage for maneuverability or gas mileage or both.
Just took a break from writing to see the fireworks outside my 11th-floor window. There’s a casino or something directly behind the hotel that was shooting them off, probably to draw business. It’s no exaggeration to say that I hear and see fireworks every night. First night in town, a coworker asked me the next morning “did you hear that gunfire?”. But as we soon learned, they do love their fireworks around here. These ones behind the hotel tonight weren’t going up very high – about even with my window.
No interesting food consumption to report, unless you count the excellent burger I allowed myself tonight. There’s a place around the corner, an American hangout called Johnny Moo’s, that I’d been eying but hadn’t been into. Pretty authentic, I’d say. I paid for it by making myself walk the 269 stairs back up to my room…
Hope all’s well with everyone.
Well, travel IS broadening - new experiences abound. I’ll start with a silly one, which I could have done anywhere (but definitely never wanted to!). Management decided to have a team-bonding exercise, which I was invited to – and it was karaoke. Now, I’ve been known, on rare occasions, to have fun with a microphone in my hand. But singing in front of people is definitely not my thing, even though I love music. I tried to protest that I didn’t know any of the songs they were doing – but then they put on The Eagles’ Hotel California and I was on the spot. After that they couldn’t stop me – Beatles, Cat Stevens, even Moon River. I made them take a picture while I was doing it, so I have proof – a rare travel photo with me in it. I think I sounded OK – but then, doesn’t everyone think that?
The weirdest/funniest part was when they rang up ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’. Most songs had their own video, many apparently made in China, and RRNR was one of them. I’d have assumed they’d do something animated or show some Santa scenes – but instead they went with a snow theme and showed shots of a Chinese ice-sculpture festival. So as RRNR is starting, the first thing you see are giant faces carved in the snow (think Mt Rushmore) of … some Communist Party heroes! (Mao was the only one I recognized, but the others had red-star military-style hats.) Then dragons and other Chinese works of ice and snow. Quite surreal -it definitely made it hard to concentrate on this light-hearted Christmas tune!
Anyway, back to reality. As the weather’s been holding up I’ve engaged in a few more walks around town. I’m running out of places I haven’t seen near the hotel, so I may have to take a taxi to another part of town (one that’s on the map!) and start walking. Today, Sunday, our hosts hired a driver to take us a couple of hours away to an historic town in the Yangtze River delta call Wu Zhen (‘Black Town’). It was pretty interesting; sort of like a small-scale Venice with boats taking you around town, although there are many footpaths as well. There were a lot of museums – one for beds, another with coins, others with clothing, woodwork, etc. I contributed heavily to the local economy by loading up on gifts from the local artisans, including a needlework tiger for $20 (pre-bargaining price: $40) that will go in my den as a reminder of my trip. I probably could have bargained another couple of bucks out of it – the strategy is to take the original price and divide by 3 and work up from there - but what’s the point. I’ve got it and they don’t, so I’ll share a little bit.
Going during the day wasn’t optimal, since we’ve been on grave shift for the past week and are acclimated to sleeping during the day, but we were able to snooze in the van on the way back to Shanghai. And yes, I did stick a toe into the Yangtze River (delta). Now if I can just make it out to the Yellow Sea – I’m going to try that one again tomorrow, while I should be sleeping, because it’s supposed to be clear and sunny with a high of 62. Could be another long Monday night…
During the drive southwest, the countryside was very flat, with a mixture of agriculture and industry. I saw a lot of smokestacks, both big and small, belching filth into the sky, as well as a couple of smoky fires where people were burning their garbage. Now I think I understand where the pollution in Shanghai comes from. Our coworker/guide told us that this was illegal but that the government either doesn’t catch or doesn’t prosecute a lot of people or small industries.
I also saw some odd vehicles. Most places I travel, I see odd vehicles, but these were really unusual – three-wheeled trucks. And I’m not talking little rickshaw-sized 3-wheelers, but full-sized-pickup three-wheelers. One even had duals on the back to carry heavy loads. They were on the surface streets and I didn’t see any on the highways; I’d have to think they don’t handle very well at high speeds. I guess they have an advantage for maneuverability or gas mileage or both.
Just took a break from writing to see the fireworks outside my 11th-floor window. There’s a casino or something directly behind the hotel that was shooting them off, probably to draw business. It’s no exaggeration to say that I hear and see fireworks every night. First night in town, a coworker asked me the next morning “did you hear that gunfire?”. But as we soon learned, they do love their fireworks around here. These ones behind the hotel tonight weren’t going up very high – about even with my window.
No interesting food consumption to report, unless you count the excellent burger I allowed myself tonight. There’s a place around the corner, an American hangout called Johnny Moo’s, that I’d been eying but hadn’t been into. Pretty authentic, I’d say. I paid for it by making myself walk the 269 stairs back up to my room…
Hope all’s well with everyone.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
more bull...
I think there’s an old saying, “Eat a duck tongue first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you all day.” Or something like that. I found that to be inaccurate; actually the meat was pretty good – better than the day that followed. Wish they’d warned me about the bone inside…
My coworkers here in China seem to be having a good time seeing what they can get me to eat. Stuart’s figured out if the camera’s rolling, I’ll eat just about anything. So far there’s film of me eating the duck tongue and film of me eating a brained baby squid – and then another. That one may show up on “China’s Funniest Videos”. No film of me eating the cow tendon snack, or the ‘hen leg’ (oh wait, that was just a drumstick). There are always a few interesting things on the hotel’s breakfast buffet, and they often show up on my plate. One coworker noted, “if I don’t know what it is, it doesn’t go on my plate” and that’s the difference between he and I.
My first two weeks here have been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed giving the training class and, as I write this, the first three days of ‘live action’ have been relatively uneventful. Switching to grave shift (9pm to 5am) this past weekend has been a bit of a challenge but I’m surviving on a wing and a yawn. I’m sure that over the next two weeks I’ll be acclimated, just in time to fly home. Which will be OK, because we’re essentially working west-coast hours. So no jet lag for Thanksgiving…
When I last left you I was preparing for another ‘team meal’. This was at a special place in Shanghai and my hosts ordered seemingly everything on the menu. The food was excellent and I had a good time trying each thing and then asking what it was. It was much more enjoyable than our first team meal and we were having some good laughs as a team. I don’t remember anything too off-the-wall except for the ‘century eggs’. So called because some versions have allegedly been cured for 100 years. I don’t think these were like that; I was told that they were buried in mud and cooked somehow – they look like a hard-boiled egg except that these were black. The taste was a bit different but I had three slices (cleaning up the plate) so it wasn’t too bad. (I recall eating similar eggs in Beijing and Singapore, and the ‘white’ of the egg was actually translucent, so I don’t think they were cooked. Presented a bit more of a challenge than these.) Overall a fine time was had by all.
Last Saturday I attempted to walk out to the Yellow Sea. I could see that it was probably about 10-15 miles as the crow flies, but couldn’t find a map other than ones showing the city center. (As noted in the previous blog, the government apparently sets restrictions on website accessibility, and it often makes no sense. So most of the websites I’d bookmarked before I left, showing various maps of Shanghai, couldn’t be accessed. Why? Who knows…) My local coworkers were little help; they termed it a ‘crazy walk’. I managed to get the hotel concierge to show me a map of the greater area and identify a couple of street names, so off I charged. Because I’d had to work until noon, I didn’t set off until 1:40, knowing that it would get dark by 5pm and my chances of success were low. Sure enough, around 4:30 I got to a place where I would need to make one more turn – which was going to be one too many to remember, with no taxi in sight. (I was in a sort of rural-residential area of Shanghai – and just like in India, the children were fascinated by a westerner walking through their neighborhood. I got lots of ‘hello’, which seems to be the one English word everyone knows.) So I reluctantly turned around and admitted defeat. I think I was actually within a mile or so of the ocean but couldn’t take a chance. I may yet attempt this walk again before I leave. Anyway, because I was mad at myself for failing, I refused to grab a taxi once I got back to the busy roads and made myself walk back. I had turned around at about the 17km mark and then compounded my frustration by missing the turn going north (as I was returning on the other side of the road, and the northbound road changed names at that intersection). So I walked about 3km past my turn before I decided I’d missed it and had to backtrack. All told I walked 40km that day – about 25 miles – and got back about 8:30pm. I was one tired puppy…but did get to see a lot of the Shanghai area.
On Sunday our hosts offered to take the four of us foreigners out shopping. China is the land of the fake brand-name merchandise so our first stop was the fake-name mall. Talk about hard-sells: they were literally grabbing our arms and physically dragging us into their stores. Even my mild-mannered local hosts had to get a little snappy with the vendors. I only bought a couple of knickknacks, but some of my coworkers bought attire (example: two North face ski jackets for $27) and other stuff. We went to lunch at an exclusive restaurant and they let me do most of the ordering. Nothing too off-the-wall: shark fin soup, tofu with crab meat, spicy chicken and pork, braised lily with asparagus (odd but pretty good) and many shrimp with eye stalks – which is one thing I won’t touch.
More shopping and a visit to an old section of the city and even more shopping, topped off by dinner on the 10th floor of a mall by the riverside, with a beautiful view of the skyline lit up across the river. A few vignettes of the day: Stuart missing seeing a red light and knocking over a cyclist and getting cursed out in Mandarin. Joe trying to find and bargain for the right Mao-imprinted articles. Karen waiting in line to use the ladies room, only to find a hole in the floor rather than a western-style toilet – and having to get the attendant to open up the ‘staff-only’ bathroom for her. And me embarrassing one of our innocent young guides by accidentally wandering into an adult store – unaware that she was following me thinking I might get lost. (Lots of giggles as she ran back to her friend.) And then there was the squid. Stuart had ordered what he thought was just some fried rice – missing the baby squid portion of the description. He was OK with eating one or two but of course laid down the challenge (by starting the video camera) so I had to respond. For me, any kind of fishy thing already has two strikes against it, and when it has tentacles…but at least the brains had been removed so the head was just an empty bulb. I thought I’d done my duty but later in the meal it was “hey, there’s a few more, and you hate to waste food”. So I had to choke down a second one before they’d let me be. But we were having a good time…
Yesterday I engaged in another long walk – about 16 miles. It was such a beautiful day that I only slept from 9am – 2pm and then made myself get up and walk down to pick up some more gifts to take home. I paid for it as the shift ended this morning, though – a few days of 5 hours of sleep, working nights, catches up with me eventually. But it was worth it to get some exercise, and you never know about the taxis around here – we had one get lost one night – he knew the general street area near the hotel but I had to guide him the rest of the way, having walked around quite a bit.
A couple of observations about Shanghai and I’ll call it quits; getting tired and need to get to sleep. (It’s another beautiful day out there, though…) One observation: no animal noises. Don’t see any squirrels or rats or any other mammal (or reptile), and very few birds. Very weird, but I guess that’s what a big concrete city is like. But I don’t even detect animals in the green areas (cultivated or not). One of my coworkers joked that, given the menus around here, more restaurants = less local animals. Second observation is that being a pedestrian is quite an exciting experience. Nothing like india, mind you, but cars turning right and left and just plain blowing off the red lights (which I’m told are “mere suggestions”) keep me on my toes. Apparently they WILL run you over, although I haven’t seen that yet. But I’m getting used to having my head on a swivel while near any intersection.
Anyway that’s it for now; I hope everyone’s safe and well. To my family, enjoy the reunion this weekend; I’ll be sorry to miss it.
My coworkers here in China seem to be having a good time seeing what they can get me to eat. Stuart’s figured out if the camera’s rolling, I’ll eat just about anything. So far there’s film of me eating the duck tongue and film of me eating a brained baby squid – and then another. That one may show up on “China’s Funniest Videos”. No film of me eating the cow tendon snack, or the ‘hen leg’ (oh wait, that was just a drumstick). There are always a few interesting things on the hotel’s breakfast buffet, and they often show up on my plate. One coworker noted, “if I don’t know what it is, it doesn’t go on my plate” and that’s the difference between he and I.
My first two weeks here have been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed giving the training class and, as I write this, the first three days of ‘live action’ have been relatively uneventful. Switching to grave shift (9pm to 5am) this past weekend has been a bit of a challenge but I’m surviving on a wing and a yawn. I’m sure that over the next two weeks I’ll be acclimated, just in time to fly home. Which will be OK, because we’re essentially working west-coast hours. So no jet lag for Thanksgiving…
When I last left you I was preparing for another ‘team meal’. This was at a special place in Shanghai and my hosts ordered seemingly everything on the menu. The food was excellent and I had a good time trying each thing and then asking what it was. It was much more enjoyable than our first team meal and we were having some good laughs as a team. I don’t remember anything too off-the-wall except for the ‘century eggs’. So called because some versions have allegedly been cured for 100 years. I don’t think these were like that; I was told that they were buried in mud and cooked somehow – they look like a hard-boiled egg except that these were black. The taste was a bit different but I had three slices (cleaning up the plate) so it wasn’t too bad. (I recall eating similar eggs in Beijing and Singapore, and the ‘white’ of the egg was actually translucent, so I don’t think they were cooked. Presented a bit more of a challenge than these.) Overall a fine time was had by all.
Last Saturday I attempted to walk out to the Yellow Sea. I could see that it was probably about 10-15 miles as the crow flies, but couldn’t find a map other than ones showing the city center. (As noted in the previous blog, the government apparently sets restrictions on website accessibility, and it often makes no sense. So most of the websites I’d bookmarked before I left, showing various maps of Shanghai, couldn’t be accessed. Why? Who knows…) My local coworkers were little help; they termed it a ‘crazy walk’. I managed to get the hotel concierge to show me a map of the greater area and identify a couple of street names, so off I charged. Because I’d had to work until noon, I didn’t set off until 1:40, knowing that it would get dark by 5pm and my chances of success were low. Sure enough, around 4:30 I got to a place where I would need to make one more turn – which was going to be one too many to remember, with no taxi in sight. (I was in a sort of rural-residential area of Shanghai – and just like in India, the children were fascinated by a westerner walking through their neighborhood. I got lots of ‘hello’, which seems to be the one English word everyone knows.) So I reluctantly turned around and admitted defeat. I think I was actually within a mile or so of the ocean but couldn’t take a chance. I may yet attempt this walk again before I leave. Anyway, because I was mad at myself for failing, I refused to grab a taxi once I got back to the busy roads and made myself walk back. I had turned around at about the 17km mark and then compounded my frustration by missing the turn going north (as I was returning on the other side of the road, and the northbound road changed names at that intersection). So I walked about 3km past my turn before I decided I’d missed it and had to backtrack. All told I walked 40km that day – about 25 miles – and got back about 8:30pm. I was one tired puppy…but did get to see a lot of the Shanghai area.
On Sunday our hosts offered to take the four of us foreigners out shopping. China is the land of the fake brand-name merchandise so our first stop was the fake-name mall. Talk about hard-sells: they were literally grabbing our arms and physically dragging us into their stores. Even my mild-mannered local hosts had to get a little snappy with the vendors. I only bought a couple of knickknacks, but some of my coworkers bought attire (example: two North face ski jackets for $27) and other stuff. We went to lunch at an exclusive restaurant and they let me do most of the ordering. Nothing too off-the-wall: shark fin soup, tofu with crab meat, spicy chicken and pork, braised lily with asparagus (odd but pretty good) and many shrimp with eye stalks – which is one thing I won’t touch.
More shopping and a visit to an old section of the city and even more shopping, topped off by dinner on the 10th floor of a mall by the riverside, with a beautiful view of the skyline lit up across the river. A few vignettes of the day: Stuart missing seeing a red light and knocking over a cyclist and getting cursed out in Mandarin. Joe trying to find and bargain for the right Mao-imprinted articles. Karen waiting in line to use the ladies room, only to find a hole in the floor rather than a western-style toilet – and having to get the attendant to open up the ‘staff-only’ bathroom for her. And me embarrassing one of our innocent young guides by accidentally wandering into an adult store – unaware that she was following me thinking I might get lost. (Lots of giggles as she ran back to her friend.) And then there was the squid. Stuart had ordered what he thought was just some fried rice – missing the baby squid portion of the description. He was OK with eating one or two but of course laid down the challenge (by starting the video camera) so I had to respond. For me, any kind of fishy thing already has two strikes against it, and when it has tentacles…but at least the brains had been removed so the head was just an empty bulb. I thought I’d done my duty but later in the meal it was “hey, there’s a few more, and you hate to waste food”. So I had to choke down a second one before they’d let me be. But we were having a good time…
Yesterday I engaged in another long walk – about 16 miles. It was such a beautiful day that I only slept from 9am – 2pm and then made myself get up and walk down to pick up some more gifts to take home. I paid for it as the shift ended this morning, though – a few days of 5 hours of sleep, working nights, catches up with me eventually. But it was worth it to get some exercise, and you never know about the taxis around here – we had one get lost one night – he knew the general street area near the hotel but I had to guide him the rest of the way, having walked around quite a bit.
A couple of observations about Shanghai and I’ll call it quits; getting tired and need to get to sleep. (It’s another beautiful day out there, though…) One observation: no animal noises. Don’t see any squirrels or rats or any other mammal (or reptile), and very few birds. Very weird, but I guess that’s what a big concrete city is like. But I don’t even detect animals in the green areas (cultivated or not). One of my coworkers joked that, given the menus around here, more restaurants = less local animals. Second observation is that being a pedestrian is quite an exciting experience. Nothing like india, mind you, but cars turning right and left and just plain blowing off the red lights (which I’m told are “mere suggestions”) keep me on my toes. Apparently they WILL run you over, although I haven’t seen that yet. But I’m getting used to having my head on a swivel while near any intersection.
Anyway that’s it for now; I hope everyone’s safe and well. To my family, enjoy the reunion this weekend; I’ll be sorry to miss it.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
some bull from the China shop...
Hello from China! Sorry for the late posting; it has taken me a while to figure out how to get into blogspot. My initial attempts resulted in a page in Chinese that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. According to one of my students, many websites are not accessible due to government control, but using a different approach I was able to get to the familiar posting page.
I’ve been here in Shanghai for ten days, with another 3 weeks to go. For the most part I’ve enjoyed myself, although admittedly I’ve stayed away from the more challenging cuisine. The area of the city I’m in, Pudong, is a relatively new area with most of the buildings built in the last 15 years. It is south and east of the Huangpu River and is considered the financial capital of southern China. The offices I’m working in are just 1 km from my hotel and I’ve been walking there every day since the second day. The weather’s been great with just a couple of days of showers.
My job here is to help “bring to life” a new business operation for a multinational company, and it involves training, data preparation, and deployment tasks – all of which I enjoy doing. I’ve been working a lot of hours, many more than I’m being paid for, but I suppose it’s all in good fun…
I’m working with several others on this small team – two people from the east coast and one from Europe. On our first working day the local management hosted us for a team dinner. The variety of foods served went pretty far beyond my experience - squab, suckling pig, pig skin and pig knuckles, roast goose, duck soup, and chili fish just to name a few, all washed down with warm watermelon juice. Of course I tried a bit of everything and it was all fine and interesting, although one of my coworkers was a little less fortunate with his consumption…We’ll have another team dinner tomorrow night so that should, again, be interesting.
In the mean time I’ve been on my own for most dinners (breakfast at the hotel, and lunch has been catered in every day). There are quite a few restaurants within 1-2 miles of the hotel so I’ve been exploring them – many serving some combination of western and oriental dishes. Last night I made the mistake of ordering the ‘Thai-style’ chicken curry over rice. Whooo! I should have known better – a lot of Thai spicing is way too hot for me these days. Today I had a few bites of Kung Pao chicken off of someone’s plate, and that dish was only about as spicy as we’d find in the US.
There’s a Carrefour down the street (Euro-based chain; think WalMart SuperCenter) and it has a lot of restaurants downstairs. There’s a bread-making shop with a sense of humour – tonight I bought a thing called “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon” along with some Indian curry naan bread and a fruit-tart kind of thing – total 19 yuan, or about $2.60. Cheap eats…I’m nowhere near consuming my $70/day per diem guideline.
One of the tourist attractions in town is a TV tower called the Oriental Pearl (http://www.shme.com/attracti/tower/tower.htm). It’s about 1400 feet tall and one can take an elevator to the top for a view. Since it’s about 10 miles from my hotel, I walked down there so I could explore Shanghai a bit, and met my coworkers there. Unfortunately what had started out as a typical smoggy day became extremely hazy – to the point where we figured we might not even be able to see the ground from the top, much less any of the rest of Shanghai. We’ll have to try to get up top another clearer day – and maybe in the morning before the smog gets too bad. This place is worse than LA on its worst days back in the 70s.
I did enjoy the walk, and the previous day’s walk with one of my coworkers (we did about 6 miles). As you would expect in a city of 18 million, it’s very urban with huge skyscrapers – both office and residential – and a lot of small shops and alleyways in the shadow of the ‘scrapers. Many street vendors – and many very persistent “Rolex” watch salesmen. My coworker Joe seems to attract these – he apparently looks like a man in need of a watch, whereas me, with my shorts and beard, apparently look like someone who can’t afford one – even though these fake watches can be bargained down to less than $4 each. It’s pretty funny – you can always spot Joe; he’s the one trailing several watch salesmen…
I wanted to take some pictures of the more gritty areas of the city that I was walking through, but felt it would be rude – might look a little like a man taking photos at the zoo or something. So for common courtesy I didn’t, but maybe I’ll figure out how to get a few discreet shots. I’d describe it as sort of a cross between India and the west – you don’t have the variety of vehicles and rickshaws and oxen and such, but it’s not exactly downtown San Francisco either. Although there are still a lot of cars, it’s nowhere near what you’d expect from a city this size – I haven’t seen a traffic jam yet. Lots of two-wheeled vehicles, mostly non-gas-powered – either manual or electric. And it was several days of wandering around town before I spotted my first gas station. So I’m not exactly sure where all the smog’s coming from.
I could go on, but it’s approaching midnight and I have my daily 6am date with the hotel gym. And the stairs, of course: I’m on the 11th floor and it’s 169 stairs up from the 4th floor where the gym is. A good warm-down, I guess. And it’s 269 steps from the ground floor, which I’ve been trying to do once a day. Anyway, I’ll hang it up here and post something again in a few days. Assuming I survive tomorrow night’s meal…
Thanks for reading!
I’ve been here in Shanghai for ten days, with another 3 weeks to go. For the most part I’ve enjoyed myself, although admittedly I’ve stayed away from the more challenging cuisine. The area of the city I’m in, Pudong, is a relatively new area with most of the buildings built in the last 15 years. It is south and east of the Huangpu River and is considered the financial capital of southern China. The offices I’m working in are just 1 km from my hotel and I’ve been walking there every day since the second day. The weather’s been great with just a couple of days of showers.
My job here is to help “bring to life” a new business operation for a multinational company, and it involves training, data preparation, and deployment tasks – all of which I enjoy doing. I’ve been working a lot of hours, many more than I’m being paid for, but I suppose it’s all in good fun…
I’m working with several others on this small team – two people from the east coast and one from Europe. On our first working day the local management hosted us for a team dinner. The variety of foods served went pretty far beyond my experience - squab, suckling pig, pig skin and pig knuckles, roast goose, duck soup, and chili fish just to name a few, all washed down with warm watermelon juice. Of course I tried a bit of everything and it was all fine and interesting, although one of my coworkers was a little less fortunate with his consumption…We’ll have another team dinner tomorrow night so that should, again, be interesting.
In the mean time I’ve been on my own for most dinners (breakfast at the hotel, and lunch has been catered in every day). There are quite a few restaurants within 1-2 miles of the hotel so I’ve been exploring them – many serving some combination of western and oriental dishes. Last night I made the mistake of ordering the ‘Thai-style’ chicken curry over rice. Whooo! I should have known better – a lot of Thai spicing is way too hot for me these days. Today I had a few bites of Kung Pao chicken off of someone’s plate, and that dish was only about as spicy as we’d find in the US.
There’s a Carrefour down the street (Euro-based chain; think WalMart SuperCenter) and it has a lot of restaurants downstairs. There’s a bread-making shop with a sense of humour – tonight I bought a thing called “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon” along with some Indian curry naan bread and a fruit-tart kind of thing – total 19 yuan, or about $2.60. Cheap eats…I’m nowhere near consuming my $70/day per diem guideline.
One of the tourist attractions in town is a TV tower called the Oriental Pearl (http://www.shme.com/attracti/tower/tower.htm). It’s about 1400 feet tall and one can take an elevator to the top for a view. Since it’s about 10 miles from my hotel, I walked down there so I could explore Shanghai a bit, and met my coworkers there. Unfortunately what had started out as a typical smoggy day became extremely hazy – to the point where we figured we might not even be able to see the ground from the top, much less any of the rest of Shanghai. We’ll have to try to get up top another clearer day – and maybe in the morning before the smog gets too bad. This place is worse than LA on its worst days back in the 70s.
I did enjoy the walk, and the previous day’s walk with one of my coworkers (we did about 6 miles). As you would expect in a city of 18 million, it’s very urban with huge skyscrapers – both office and residential – and a lot of small shops and alleyways in the shadow of the ‘scrapers. Many street vendors – and many very persistent “Rolex” watch salesmen. My coworker Joe seems to attract these – he apparently looks like a man in need of a watch, whereas me, with my shorts and beard, apparently look like someone who can’t afford one – even though these fake watches can be bargained down to less than $4 each. It’s pretty funny – you can always spot Joe; he’s the one trailing several watch salesmen…
I wanted to take some pictures of the more gritty areas of the city that I was walking through, but felt it would be rude – might look a little like a man taking photos at the zoo or something. So for common courtesy I didn’t, but maybe I’ll figure out how to get a few discreet shots. I’d describe it as sort of a cross between India and the west – you don’t have the variety of vehicles and rickshaws and oxen and such, but it’s not exactly downtown San Francisco either. Although there are still a lot of cars, it’s nowhere near what you’d expect from a city this size – I haven’t seen a traffic jam yet. Lots of two-wheeled vehicles, mostly non-gas-powered – either manual or electric. And it was several days of wandering around town before I spotted my first gas station. So I’m not exactly sure where all the smog’s coming from.
I could go on, but it’s approaching midnight and I have my daily 6am date with the hotel gym. And the stairs, of course: I’m on the 11th floor and it’s 169 stairs up from the 4th floor where the gym is. A good warm-down, I guess. And it’s 269 steps from the ground floor, which I’ve been trying to do once a day. Anyway, I’ll hang it up here and post something again in a few days. Assuming I survive tomorrow night’s meal…
Thanks for reading!
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