Ah yes, the Dong Bei Ren (literally translated: East-North people) are the pride and joy of the the northeastern region of China where Dalian is located. Hearty as the day is long, these guys can transport anything anywhere in their donkey pulled carriages, and are never known to miss sharing a warm bottle of bijiou with their pengyou’s (friends) on a cold winter’s day. Without question, the Dong Bei Ren are a charm of living in this area.
With my holidays all done, one aspect I will truly miss will be Magnus and I’s daily visit to the newly opened Uighur restaurant for lunch. Everyday we would show up around noon, order our kebabs, naan bread, orange juice, and of course, a nice, hot, tasty dish of Ding Ding. Mmmm, a Xinjiang delight indeed.
Firecrackers subsiding, peace and harmony being reclaimed throughout the land.
Well, it’s back to school I go today - which should prove to be a fun day! Now, many people are always debating about what role school should have in our society and what we can do to make it better, and, this little clip from Ali G (aka. Sasha Cohen, or Borat) really gets to the bottom of this philosophical debate and brings to light some new ideas. Cutting edge stuff here - enjoy!
Well, tomorrow we are back to work after 5 long weeks of holidays. During this vacation it was wonderful spending time and getting to know my new daughter, Svea, and I will miss her dearly as I go back to work. The first three weeks of the holidays were very nice and relaxing and I enjoyed hanging out with the family a lot. We got into the spirit of chinese new year and caught up on all the necessary rest we needed. But, with very little to do in the winter in Dalian and not much open (due to the holidays) I found that the last two weeks of the holiday I pretty much felt like this…
After watching a BBC production about the life and times of Johnny Cash, I was enlightened to learn that the song “Hurt” and the video he made for it was, indeed, Johnny’s eulogy of himself. Both the song and video were together presented to his family as that. Johnny was in a lot of pain due to arthritis at the end of his life (as well as other complications due to his hard living early days) and this song spoke to him perfectly. The video is especially powerful and it is hard to not be moved by what, really, was his final goodbye to his family, fans and himself.
Once the varnish set, the next step was to glue the two pieces of wood together. My wood guy laid down two coats of glue (one on each board), let the glue set until dry and then placed them together. And in typical chinese fashion, to ensure that the wood was securley fastened, pieces of newspaper were laid down on the board followed by 5 minutes of walking on top of it. Perfect!
Yes, I know I should have picked her up and held her, but this just made a nice little video clip of our little functioning family - and you also have to admit, this makes a great post for the blog!
For the crokinole chips (or whatever you call them) I had the people down at the poster place burn insignias into each of the colors. The light color chips have “Hao Ren”, which means good people, and the darker colored chips have “Hui Ren”, which means bad people. So, every game will be the good people versus the bad - I like that!
In the winter months here in Dalian, this is a very common sight. Every year, this scaffolding comes up and down with the seasons to properly ensure that the trees stay warm and healthy throughout the winter. Actually, I have no idea why the chinese do this and have always found it odd that they would kill what looks like (at least) two other trees in order to save one other. Maybe my forestry buffs out there can enlighten my primitive mind.
Here’s the latest picture of Magnus and Svea. Yes, there is no question that Magnus dearly loves his little sister, but, there is also no question that this sometimes drives Svea nuts. I am sure this will subside sooner or later, so we are just trying to enjoy it while it lasts - we’ll see how Svea continues to cope.
Lest we forget those lost souls left behind from this year’s new year festivities; may their contribution always be remembered for the better cause they perished for. Our society is better off because of them - please, a minute of silence.
With the board painted and dried, two coats of varnish were spread over the playing surface to help build what should be a nice, clean surface to play some championship crokinole on. Remember, the Liaoning Crokinole Championships are going to be coming to Dalian very soon!
