The Engleson Files

Last night Kristin, Magnus and I were very fortunate to be asked over to dinner at the Conradi’s house; we had a wonderful night and had great conversation with them and the Colorado’s. Now, one bizarre topic that came up was the astonishing claim by Adrian that Queen Elizabeth II (while back in her prime) was, and I quote, “hot.” Many of us were dumbfounded to the comment and, really, struggled to get the evening back on track after that. Is this the same queen that I have known all my life? Now, I defeinitely have my opinion, but, I figured I would throw it to all of you…was Queen Elizabeth II, back in her day, hot?

Leave a comment with your answer…

Here’s a picture of my chinese buddy who lives in Jinzhou (15 minute drive away from Kaifaqu). Now, Leon is a bit of a cheeky fellow and has jokingly tried to model his personality after Daniel Day Lewis’s character in the movie “Gang’s of New York.” He is a character, alright, and it seemed to have got him into big trouble a few days ago. Right now Leon is in the hospital because last week he got attacked by a group middle school students. The story, from what I understand, goes something like this: after work one day last week Leon passed by this group of kids, one of the kids looked at him improperly (the nerve), Leon told him to go “f” himself, and then the kids jumped him and proceeded to pound his head in with large rocks. Leon was in a slight coma for two days, has a cracked skull and will be out of commission for quite some time. I went to visit him yesterday, and while he is doing better and is expected to make a full recovery, he still has a long way to go. His hospital bill will be huge, which will be very taxing on the family and, basically, he doesn’t have any clue who did this to him, so the kids are going to get away scott free. Get well Leon.

With all the construction going on around here (Kaifaqu is absolutely exploding right now!!), our beloved Uighur restaurant has taken a fatal hit. Gone! The building where the restaurant was situated is coming down and it really looks as though the entire block right across from McDonald’s is getting demolished and rebuilt. Now, the Uighurs are a scheeming bunch with many shady connections (that’s why we love them) and I know they will pop up again somewhere, but where and when is anybody’s guess. I miss my char sticks and naan bread already.

Last night Magnus had his first experience of licking the spoons and bowls clean from Mom’s brownies. It was tough duty for Dad who had to teach Magnus all of the finer points of how it should be done.

Got word of this neat little site from my cousin’s blog at Yes, you should see this, and, you can plainly see where my handsome good looks have placed me if I were in Tinsletown. Not too sure what, or how many, parts I would get, but very, very elite company indeed! Click Here to see what your photo turns up.

One aspect of chinese society that I find absolutely fascinating is the bathhouse culture. From what I can gather, the chinese bathhouse has been around for a long, long time and it doesn’t look to be going anywhere soon. Bathhouses range from completely scuzzy to extremely elaborate, and basically every city up in the north-eastern region of China has thousands of them. A bathhouse usually consists of a communal shower area, hot tubs, massage rooms, KTV night clubs, and many may have a little “red-light” zone up on the higher levels. One bathhouse in Kaifaqu is definitely on the higher end, and Magnus and I are regular visitors come the fall and winter time. Last night, the two guys went back for our first time since coming home and, let me tell you, it was wonderful to be back! Now, there is a strange on-going saga that follows us whenever Magnus and I frequent this particular establishment. Many times now (6-8 times), complete strangers (men) will walk up to Magnus, grab him by the family jewels (everyone is naked in the shower area), give his little guys a tug and then proceed to give Magnus a hearty thumbs up. It is truly bizarre and I can’t for the life of me understand why they do it, or, why they feel they can do it. I mean, if this happened in Canada think about what would happen. I try not to freak out in my intervention, because really, I just find it so interesting. A strange experience only in a chinese bathhouse, I suppose.

To wrap up this ridiculous little section (I’m sorry, I don’t even know why I did it!), the snow monkey comes in at a very close third place on my all-time favorite animals list. These guys are great! I mean, how can you not love a species whose entire existence consists of chilling out in natural hot tubs all day and night - they definitely have life figured out! Now, a friend of mine, Adrian Conradi, thinks I am a fool for this pick, but, Conradi’s a chump so we here at The Engleson Files keep it in at a strong #3. Cheers to the snow monkey, and jeers to Conradi!

Here in China, the noise pollution is absolutely insane (especially on the weekends). Between dynamite explosions, firecrackers, car horns, people yelling on their cell phones, and speakers crying for you to shop at their store, we are all absolutely bombarded with noise on a daily basis. Ah, the peace and serenity of Kaifaqu!

This is a picture of the road just out in front of our housing complex at Song Hai Li. For the past couple of months, they (people) have been using dynamite on an almost daily occurance to build a train tunnel below our homes. Some bombings scare the crap out of us, others just shimmer and become a part of our daily routine. But the other day, the entire road out front collapsed due to all this work, and when you look at the size of the hole created, it just makes you think, and worry a little, about the workmanship of chinese contstruction. “No need to worry people, everything is just fine!”

Now, I have NO idea how you are supposed to train children to do this, but Kristin and I have officially begun the process and we figured the best way to begin was to capture it on film and then broadcast it over the internet to see what happens from there. So, here we go! Don’t worry, I will spare you all of regular updates…

Yes, the progress in Kaifaqu just does not seem to be slowing down at all. For those of you who know this area, the building right across from Cheng Lin (with the nice restaurant on the second floor) is now a heaping pile of rubble. So, to keep track, this is now the 4th section (at this one intersection) in the past two years that has been completely demolished and then rebuilt. Geez, I hope they put in another mall!!

Here’s a little secret for all of you who live in China, or are considering coming over here sometime soon to visit. If you happen to be in a place where the Uighurs hang out (which is pretty much everywhere), get down to their restaurant(s) early in the morning (8-8:30′ish) and go and watch the guys make the naan bread: a) it’s quite interesting, and b) you will be able to enjoy some fresh naan bread right out of the tandori oven, which is worth its weight in gold! (see out of focus picture below of tandori oven). For the longest time here in Kaifaqu, naan bread was the only good bread you can buy (1 naan = 2 RMB, or $.28 CDN). Now, things have changed, but naan is still king around this household. You can dress it up for Uighur pizza, or dress it down for hummus dip, garlic bread, whatever - you name it and the naan is always there.

Coming in at number 2 on the all-time favorite animals list is a very, very strong contender: the mountain goat. Now, first off, how could you not love an animal that looks as cool as this guy. I mean, c’mon, these guys scale cliffs, are brilliant at outwitting their opponents, and, have the coolest beards in town! An easy selection for my #2!