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?

The Bunny tooth Barber Haircut

I was walking along with Auntie Liew around my area last weekend. Nothing much, just a casual walk to pass time and get familiar with the neighbourhood we are staying in. Located in the heart of Xuhui District, Luwan and Jingan District, our area is basically where the French Concession lies.

We managed to find a couple of grocery stores and mini-marts, wine stores along the way, meaning we need not go to far away Carrefour and Walmarts to do our groceries anymore. Things are a little more expensive in the area, but taking a long trip in cab or metro basically means up-ping the costs anyway.

When we are about to leave, Auntie Liew decided to do her haircut in this Chinese Barber Shop in our district. I seriously have no idea where her courage come from. This barber was attending to her needs. I guess she resented her idea at that moment.

The Barber was serious and rather stressful being taken pictures off. He tried to looked professional. I can feel he was extremely uneasy throughout the 10 minute haircut sesssion.

So I decide to give him free publicity. If anyone is looking for a buck tooth barber in old Shanghai district, here's one for you. You can find him in Anfu road. Haicut costs 10Rmb and shampooing your hair another 10. Have fun messing around his bunny teeth!

For Song Bai Hua and his sourcing

This is what I read up when I popped into Shanghaiist.com today:

Want your 6min 40sec of fame? Have some interesting ideas that you've been dying to share with the world? Then put together 12 powerpoint slides of 20 seconds each (no boring lectures or grandmother's tales please), and get in touch with the organisers of Pecha Kucha Night volume 8 at info@far-china.net.

From the organisers:

Pecha Kucha Night is for designers, architects, photographers, architects, interior designers, graphical designers, game designers, artists, fashion designers, inventors, creative students or anyone else with ideas the world needs to know about. If you want to present a new building, furniture, book, add campaign, fashion line, gadgets or any other idea or design come and share it with us!

Pecha Kucha Night volume 8 will take place on the 16th of November as part of the Shanghai International Creative Industry Week. The location this time is the main auditorium of building "1933" in Hongkou. The doors will open at 19:00, the presentations will kick off at 19:33 sharp.

This might be good information for a friend of mine who is currently having his own company in relation to such industries.

Recently, I had been helping out with a friend from Dongbei region. He is dealing with 3D-animation effects for architecture. It is a customer service related after effects product in which I found most of the time he and his company don't end up having any stable office life. Work work work... Anyway, I got him a Mexican student as an Intern in his office currently. Basically area of work as an Intern is to help him source for opportunities overseas and see if he can bring in any projects. If there are anyone interested in such, he is still looking for foreigner who can speak both Mandrin and a Native language. Just comment here and let me know, I try to get back to you as soon as possible. Intern stipends is 800RMB a month, flexible working hours. Just need to produce something out of your Internship and not end up everyday watch Korean movies in the office or surf porn please.

And from Sinocities.net this is what I read up:

It took a while again but we are happy to announce that Pecha Kucha Night volume 8 will take place on the 16th of November as part of the Shanghai International Creative Industry Week! The location this time is the main auditorium of the former slaughterhouse called “1933″ in Hongkou. The doors will open at 19:00, the presentations will kick off at 19:33 sharp. We still have a few speaker slots open, if you want to one of the presenters, better hurry up, we are almost full. Send us an email with your personal details and what you want to present, to info(AT)far-china.net and we will let you know asap if you’re in! For more details see the special Pecha Kucha page on this site.

Guess what fruit is in abundance and cheap in Shanghai now?

Tangerine! I see Lots of them by the road stalls and vendors, in super markets like Carrefour, Wallmart, Emart and all!

They are going for a price like RMB 1.50 per 500 grams currently. Its a good deal. Big harvest from nearby I guess. Eat and enjoy. However, there is a saying in Chinese, don't eat too much. This fruit can be a little heaty.

You can cook good and delicious meals using Tangerine. It mixes well with pork and beef as a side dish. I seen it as side dish in fusion cuisine onboard Lufthansa Airlines. And for the health conscious and cancer patients, read below.

quoted from China Daily:

Tangerine peel could help in the fight against certain cancers. Human cancer cells, which contain an enzyme called P450 CYP1B1, were destroyed by a compound contained in tangerine peel, Salvestrol Q40, scientists at Leicester School of Pharmacy found.

The findings may offer a new approach to uncovering a treatment for cancers such as breast, lung, prostrate and ovarian cancer, the scientists said. Medicinal chemist Dr. Hoon L. Tan said: "It is very exciting to find a compound in food that can target cancers specifically. "Salvestrols may offer a new mechanism of dietary anti-cancer action

What I cooked yesterday - Dinner for 3

I made soup yesterday.

I have no name for it but this are the ingredients and steps:

pork minced meat 50 grams
garlic x 1, chopped finely
small onions x 3, chopped finely
melon x 1 (mao gua), cubed
small potato x 1, cubed
soya sauce
sasame oil
pepper
sugar
salt
black beans 50 grams
peanuts 50 grams
egg x 1
Gou qi, a little bit

1.heat up 1 litre of water in a pot.
2. slice up the melon into cubes and toss in when water is hot
3. next, golden fry the onions and throw into the soup. It gives off a nice aroma. Chinese style
4. let the content boil for a while. Meanwhile, you can chop up your garlic and throw it in
5. prepared your minced pork. add soya sauce, peppar and sasame oil to your liking with the minced pork. Add an extra egg to it if you have nothing to do and maybe a few more calories to make you feel better in this cold Shanghai weather.
6. toss it in into the soup
7. add peanuts and black beans. make sure wash them first!
8. add cubed potatos in
9. season to taste with gou qi, salt, sugar
10. let soup boil for 2 hours

Its good and sweet, though it doesn't really look appetizing :)

food that goes along well with it:
fried pork sticks - bought from the road side at 6rmb
friend duck meat - bought from the road side at 6rmb

What's for dinner for tonight?

Cooking today! And I have no idea whether it will turn out fine. Perhaps there might extra food cooked, lack of giving face perhaps? But by all means, I cannot possibly make everyone happy anyway.

Tonight's Dinner Menu:

1. Curry Chicken, south east Asian style, oooyeah.
2. Ginger with Pork slices in Mushroom sauced garnish
3. Fish Ball Soup
4. Friend Long Beans with dried shrimps
5. Mesh Potato with finely chopped German sausages

and beer, and time spending with lovely people.
Cheers to this long lovely holiday presented by the PRC.

School Term started; will I be able to graduate on time?

School started for a week.

What did I do during these holidays?

No work. No job.

I went to Guangzhou. Took a bus down with Teng to HongKong.

When I got back, Mid August went down to Hei Long Jiang with Song Bai Hua

I moved house. I am living in the city now. French concession Area. Its a lovely district. Just somehow, you start to realise you dun belong really in here. Everyone looks rich and properly civalised. I look more like some beggar who somehow got himself into Sunset Boulevard.

I did not manage to go to Greece as planned.

My Star Alliance Gold Card will expire Feb 2008. There was no imput of any mileage since October 2006.

Guess I will lose the Card soon no matter what.

Meanwhile I hope those points i accumulated will still be on time for a trip next year to Greece. I will take a gamble, and book 2 tickets there. Whether a not, I am going, that is another story.

About the trip to Hong Kong and Harbin, I will write about it when I am more clear-headed. I am depressed. Somehow.

Edgar might be coming to Shanghai this October/November. He will not be coming in for the Special Olympics as planned. I wonder whether he will be comfortable sleeping on the couch in my living room. Bad ventilation, and most probably a cold period as Autumn breaks into Winter. Shanghai is a bloody cold place. No central heating system. We all just freeze like chickens in freezers.

Star Alliance Gold: Will you be able to choke out 50,000 mileage points before Feb 2008 miraculously? o.O