A day at Shanghai Botanical Gardens

One of those weekends where everyone is together in Shanghai, and we can take a breather. We went to Shanghai Botanical Gardens for a little relaxation and a little walk walk. Shanghai Botanical Gardens is located outside of the city at Xuhui District. We were there for like 2 hours, went a little too late. Jojo was perhaps rather unhappy that we went so late, but te good thing is that he managed to take some good pictures.

It was pretty congested in the park, with families and groups of friends taking pictures around. We avoided the ground, enjoyed the many tulips found in the garden, went a little oooh-aaah when we saw some sakura and blossoms. There were some hobbyists flying kite in some areas of the park, and some doing their little BBQ with the much-loved yang-rou-chuan (羊肉串).

Went off around 6 in the evening. Push ourselves off to this Malaysian Restraunt called Sakura in the city. Good food, a little pricy. Along the way, I was sharing a cab with Yida and Caihui. The taxi driver who took us there kept talking to us. Reason: fatigue. He was a hell driver, swearing and cursing throughout the trip as if the road only belonged to him. Occasionally, doing a couple of unnecessary and daring angry road overtaking. We smell the tyre burning, apparently he did some damages to his gear. Bad luck for us, but we arrived to whereever we want safe and sound.

We don't do much nowadays. With most of them working, and some of us never in town, Mahjong at night is just what we do nowadays. This trip happened 3 weeks ago during a shiny sunday. And yes, it is still damp and cold here in Shanghai. Where is the sun?!

Where can the Chinese find love?

In current China, many young people choose to put aside the notion of romance for the bigger picture in career building. How they go about doing it, they might choose a couple of choices: some might continue to persue a better degree in order to receive a masters or a doctorate, some might find means to jump to a good company and continue jumping till they meet what they want in their pyramid of life, while some might choose a different path in accordance with the field work set by the government.

But talking about marriage or love, the young generation of Chinese are more realistic in finding their ideal partner. Ladies would prefer to find someone who has prospects in his career, ability to own a house and car with ease, and hold certain status in the society. The men will wish to find a partner who can become a housewife, sweet natured, and look ideal to bring out for functions or gala dinner.

Yet, the young generation of young people in China face a difficult problem in finding their partner. The race to find what they want left them simply a little older than their previous generations of people who is much simpler in thinking. And because of this, with the emergence of the explosion of the internet and a less conservative society, online dating and speed dating become the ideal way for most Chinese to find their future partners.

Trudating.com is an online dating directory where one can find perhaps the ideal platform in which they can find their true love, seeking out perhaps the most intimate moments with their possible partner. It is not just an ordinary free online personals website, where people hopes to find someone who can spend their remaining life with, but rather, it offers advices and articles, and acts as a portal for anyone to find their special partner.

If you do not have the time to matchmake under the influences of your parents, as you have to spend so much going to different places globally to do businesses, perhaps it is time to slow down and take a look at what you want in life. Do you want to remain single forever? Do you wish to miss the chance and regret that perhaps the special one is somewhere out there?

In fact, here in China, with 50 over different ethinic races in such a large country, many are actually open minded and perhaps wishes for an exotic encounter. A friend of mine, who came to Shanghai to study, is now happily married to a lovely Korean lady. They are now happily residing in Singapore, contented and assured that it was fate that brought them together in Shanghai. What is amazing about love is that people are more open and vulnerable to accept new things. Online dating is perhaps what many young people do, and Trudating.com want to ensure you know what you can expect from it, and be prepared for the good moments you might encounter, and at the same time preventing yourself from besing hurt online by scams or unwanted dangers. Dating advices are provided to all with a good will.

So, Chinese out there. Let's hope you can find your dream love soon out there. And my advice is, slow down your pace and actually look at another bright side kind of life, and from there you might see the concept of your partner soon.

The Ah-gua with a heart two size smaller

Patient: I have a heart that has malfunctioned the past 6 months. You see, it has grown smaller in the past 6 months, despite much efforts with radiology and constant panicks from the monster that roams at every corner, 911 had been called, experimental threatments had been done,.even to the point as atheist I had cried out to God for help, but everything was a botch. Medically, I am suffering in a way that is beyond hope. I cannot sleep well, I hear noises that seems to be amplified a thousand fold, I even know what I did last summer perfectly.



So, what heart condition is it? Pettiness my friend.



Pettiness is a sickness that grows like wild thorns. It seeps into your life at a rate that is hard to control. You throw this condition into a enviromentally controlled position with all kinds of pesticides to control it, only to find out days later the thorn outgrew you! They actually become immune and you know somehow, something or somebody won eventually.



Pettiness makes you a loud loser where nobody takes pity on you. Rather, they laugh at you as they comfort you. Your nightmares grow, you hear doors thumping like baboons, and you hear Hecate's voices everywhere. Macbeth's condition is what you are suffering. Or rather, put it in the oriental way: Monkey God goes beg Tang-sen:"Master! Please don't preeech anymore! Wah kia liao!"



In fact, Tang-sen did not do anything. The pettiness amplify to such an extent that you grow a distain for anything that happens. Together with thickness of any possible individual being one can be, the pettiness grows to a point of growling. Welcome to my past 6 months, doc.



Who can cure me now?

On a shiny day in Shanghai in the nieghbourhood

Anytime or anywhere, if there's good sunshine, even the worst kind of camera can take a dirt in shooting some photographs. This pictures are taken in my neighborhood. It was a good day with good sunshine. Such shots are typical photos of alleys in Shanghai, most commonly known as nong-tangs by the locals. When there are good sunlight, people rushes out to dry their clothes. Similarly, locals will try to air the bed rolls to remove moisture and possible fungi attempting to grow in damp cold Shanghai.

The only thing different of this alley from most alleys in Shanghai is that there is a mixture of Spanish Architecture and Shi Ku Men existing together. Still, life goes on at it is, with no differential factor of who own which house as a tone of serenity lies around, where everyone knows each other, despite whether you are Local Chinese or Western, or mixed blood.

The area has a nice local community to ensure the safety and cleanliness of the place. Anyone who walks around the French concession area can guess where this place is?

Happy Hanukkah from Shanghai, and what we cook for the night, and some not so cool bitchings.

Nope, I am not a Jew, I just happened to pass by a house in my neighbourhood. Just beside this neighbour's door is a window in which a simple A4 size paper with a "Happy Hanukkah" was written and pasted on it, and kid drawings of symbols in crayons and colour pencils show a kind of warmth in a lack of festivals Shanghai. Yes, you can find parties every where in town, but festivals celebrated by families are really limited.

You can find about more about Hanukkah from here, and here.

So all the kids start to pop out. You got the leader, who roller blades and guide the rest of the kids around the alley in my neighbourhood. I was rather too shy to take nay photographs of them. This is a family with many kids, mix-blood origin of Chinese and Jewish ethinicity.

One of Neighbours, another Lao Wai-s, has just put up the Christmas Wreath on the door of her house. The house was a really well refurbished Villa inside the alley where I stay. The renovation has brought back a distinct Spanish baraqoue look to the architecture of the house.



It was a good day in which you can see the sunshine and a little bluish sky. Auntie Liew and I went to the market to buy off supplies for the week, or rather, food to put into our mouths. We end up spending 74 RMB on:

potatoes,
tomatoes,
rice 2.5kg,
chicken breast meat,
onions,
snacks,
peanut butter,
and some other things I cannot remember.

Basically, with the rise on petrol and the sudden inflation, one cannot buy much at all. :/



Later night time, this is what we cooked and what we ate:

1. Seafood Tomato Soup
2. Potato Stew
3. Chicken Paste Dumplings.

Coupled rice, our typical Asian staple food.

How we prepare it:

Seafood Tomato Soup



Everything throw in after water boils up.

Prawn Dumplings x 6,
Meat balls x6 ,
Xiao Bai Cai x2 ,
Onion x 1, mashed
Garlic x1 - mashed

Potato Stew



This is harder work.

Potato x 2 -3 [ cut them out into cubes ]
Ham 100 grams [ more if you like something meaty ]
Large Brown Onions [ cubed, those sweet onions ]
Xiang Cai
Garlic x1

You do the usual, golden the onions, garlic aroma thingy come out and throw in the ham and potatoes along the way. Add water. Keep mashing the potatoes occasionally and watch them with like Sauron's Eye from Lord of the Rings, just in case you didn't and burnt the stew. Keep mashing and adding water occasionally in small bits to create that thick and smooth stew.

Season with salt, sugar, and any other seasoning as you fit to your own tasting.


Chicken Paste Dumplings



This one is a little tricky.

Chicken breast meat x1
ginger and da cong paste or soup water
salt, sugar, soy sauce, seasoning you think you will like

The chicken breast meat was cut and minced and really chop chop chop continuously till you get something really pasty looking. It doesn't really look appealing and all. Next you need to add the ginger and dacong paste.. Just a little together with the chicken paste. Stir and mix the paste and chicken together till you think they mix well. Next add a little of cooking oil maybe one teaspoon to the mixture and stir again till well mixed. Lastly, add one egg into the mixture and stir again till thickened. Put into the fridge to harden.

Next you need to prepare and boil some water. Take out the chicken mixture when water is ready. Take a spoon, slowly scoop out the chicken paste mixture and make the shape look like some dumplings and drop into the boiling water. Keep doing it till you run out of the mixture. Let the dumplings cook till ready.

Take them out and cool while you prepare the finale sauce. Using some soup from our tomato soup, we take out a few spoonfuls and add heat it up. After which we add in the remaining ginger sauce and dacong sauce and simmer with salt, sugar, and thickening powder. We pour it on top of the Dumplings and Viola.



Dinner and today would have been superb if not for the fact I dislike my housemate totally. Maybe it's her, maybe its me. It all came from a series of events in which lead to the dislike, the disgusts and give up feeling.

Few months back, when we decided to move house, just auntie liew and I, somehow end up with this new monster who resides with us currently. A couple and a monster makes up a lightbulb and a couple. Suddenly, A couple and a lightbulb plus another equal to "shit i need to find a 3 room apartment". Its really hard enough to find an apartment in the city, of which 3 room apartment that is cheap, you don';t even need to think further. And the funny part is, everyone just want to pay 900rmb for a room, which is totally impossible in Shanghai city, heart of the city, somewhere in the middle of Line 1 metro. After being stubborn and going through a series and hack and tear to find the desired housing, it came back to square 2: monster lightbulb and couple.

At that time, the search for an apartment ended up halfway for me. I went to Northern China with a Chinese sworn brother. The trip was good. You go to somewhere where you don't have electricity, no bathing amenities, simple life with daily sunshine and starry nights, with nothing to worry about cept for the hundreds of mosquitoes during the night, it was a good trip at a period in which i need to escape from lack of money. Every meal was well-fed with every meal at least enough Chinese White wine to make you feel like shit. It could have been the wine that start it all. When I heard from a long distance call from Auntie Liew on her hardship in finding a 2 room apartment at a good deal, where 2 of us and a monster will be satisfied, how she ended up finding the ideal apartment alone on a rainy day while the monster goes about doing her own thing, and the fucking fact in which an apartment was found but we have to pay so much more as a couple, I sort of lose my coolness about the whole damn thing living with a lightbulb.

Okay, so how was was the rental for a 2 room apartment? 3200 rmb. Some of you foreigner might have thought as dirt cheap or reasonable. Apparently, 3 of us are south east asians, who don;t really want to depends on our parents for money, and we don't really have too much to load off or jerk off every month. So when I heard the monster came along and paid 1300rmb a month for her room, and we need to pay 1900 rmb a month for ours, I grew fucking off by her standards of democracy and fairness. I was in Hei Long Jiang that period. Away and cannot stop any decisions, and knowing Auntie Liew already looked through and had a hard time FINDING a two room apartment, i resented and gave in.

So when I was back in Shanghai, I was feeling like shit about the whole thing. Even during the moving house period a lot of pattern choot power come out. The Fat monster, maybe knowing she got so little things and maybe because she cannot moved so many things at one time, and the fact that the combinged stuffs of auntie liew and I exceeded her by a lot, she decided that when we move, we should call someone to help us carry the load to 2nd floor. good choice for her, she only pay a small sum cause everything from now on she just needs to pay 1/3 of it. auntie liew and I was against the idea, but she insisted and auntie liew being the simple don't want any trouble kind of girl, end up giving in.

You know what's the problem? I don't like someone who is so calculative, thinks so much, so selfish and all. Everything end up I think so much and makes me so wary of her, that I myself picked up so many habits that she has: aka CALCULATIVE but continue playing her game let her eat us

so we moved in, My face very black. I see the house for the first time. Chao Cheebye lor. You know a queen size bed area is how big? thats the size we pay more for and ah fat went off paying lesser. If she really think twice before saying she pay 1300(in the end she say she pay1400) and we end up paying 1900(in the end 1800), I think i won;t be so angry with her. Whats more, she got the television in her room, her room is definitely more refurbished and looks better, better lighting, no cracks at her room. For us, we pay 1800 for a cracked room, poor lighting, and not so nice feeling, you think I will like? In the first place, she was the one who want to bunk in with us, she act so pitiful and wept in auntie liew's face to soften everything her way to living with us, why the fuck she still can so thick and selfish to pay lesser? okay even if you don;t want to pay equal aka 1600 for a room, knowing well better, at least pay something like 1500 and we pay 1700. Your earnings equals we dulan and we in the end have to pay more.

I found a 1500rmb house in which i have a much better liking to. Some more I got a super security guard in front of the house. National WU JING guarding the American Embassy. So why would I want to end up paying more to stay with someone I don't like and in fact I still don't like and getting even more don't like?

Throughout the months, I had been trying to push off the idea that she is not really that bad. But even when I try not to, just by hearing her voice each time make me sian ji buah already. her high pitch voice is not the ideal kind you really want to hear, making her sight rather unbearable. she walks loud, she bangs her fucking door loud, really very loud. that was the first thing that she did that really fuck me upside down. imagine you everyday hear her bang bang bang her door.. she really bangs lor.. but not like ricky martin. then simply, living room and toilet she don't ever wash one.

When i cook, i don't ask her to pay for expense..she eat she eat lor.. but slowly, i think it becomes a habit. she don't say but she let me feel if auntie liew come homes.. she will also be fed.. thats okay actually.. but she only cleans her own bowl after eating.. meaning.. nabehz.. i cook.. i still have to wash the dishes.. clever lor.. you wash your own bowl and spoon.. but knn i spend hours cooking you just eat.. at least clean up the bloody dishes also leh...

i tried a couple of times.. i dunno is i bunk chance give chance or i am just curious how far can it go.. sometimes i cook.. i don't wash.. the best record is any dishes can be left off not washed for up to 4 days. i dunno what to say.. so i cook.. i also need to wash the pans.. and all.. i need to empty the rubbish myself... and everything..the whole thing is okay.. i JUST DUNNO WHY SHE can LEECH!

i believe if i buy anything, including what we use like washing powder, food blah yadayada.. and dun tell her, she will NEVER ask and pay one. But her from her side, anything she calculate, she will always ask us to fork out. That's why auntie liew throw her all the bills to keep track. she so calculative. i think this one suit her best anyway. cannot be eaten. only know how eat people. this one not call monster call what.

back to the months of agony i felt. I tried to think less angry of her. at first, i started thinking she is calculative.. and selfish.. in the end.. my conclusion is this: THICK. basically, although her means are usually calculative.. the main reason is she is thick.. meaning she cannot think one. her head is very thick.. if no one tell her, she will never know. she can continue bang and take advantage of things because it never occured to her to be anything wrong. just like every morning she wakes up she go bang the door. its ok. because she woke up liao. the rest sleeping nevermind.

Thick. similarly. her high pitch loud voice every morning is much better than negaraku and marjula singapura. confirm one i hear liao will wake up.

thick. as long no nails she step on. she comfortable. everything okay one. so if lightbulb is ok. couple not ok. nevermind one.

like this evening, when auntie liew never managed to make it go church with her[again], she asked me too cook rice and prepare the last dish, chicken paste dumplings. Maybe i was lazy, but the first thing that came into my mind and i said to her "that one only know how to eat issit? dunno help issit? "

I just hope this light bulb is not those kind like philips, energy savings and can last 5 years with warranty. i sure confirm will die.

The traffic jaguars shows their spots again

After months of good manners, Shanghai motorists shows their leapord spots again. What? For those who have no idea what's going on, Shanghai roads are always filled with road bashing and angry horns until the Shanghai government decide to imply laws down on June 1 2007 to stop the angry motorists from using their horns readily.

Violators who keep beeping their horns will be fine up to 200 yuan (bah), and thats for 4 wheel vehicles. Two wheels can get away with a ticket of 5 - 50 yuan -.-

Traffic police were stationed everywhere around the city to curb the usage of angry horns. It seemed to worked well for a couple of months. But as the situations get better and the security checks toned down, the horns are back again! Traffic polices decided to have a new round of combat with the daily users of the roads soon.

A famous rumour of a chinese caught spitting and fined 5 yuan only had 10 yuan when fined. As there was no change given by the police in action, the one caught decided to spit one more time to make up the extra 5 yuan.

Looks like the city will ever need Traffic police around to catch the law breakers. No cane, no pain.


photograph by Justin O'Connor