Wee Leong & Yixi

It's months since I last blogged here...reason?

Only one.

The pictures are not appearing!? I've tried deleting and uploading them again, it worked but for a few weeks only. I really wonder why...

I had my first experience of communal...er...relief. I used to have recurrent dreams of looking for a toilet but only to find that all did not offer proper coverage. Alas my dream came true on that fateful day when I entered a toilet in a posh Chinese restaurant near Tiananmen Square... There were 3 squatting bowls, at arm-length intervals. I occupied the one in the middle, with one comrade on my left and another on my right...and a queue of 4 comrades in front of me, waiting...

But in my dream, there were no comrades... perhaps they too, had searched high and low before landing here. We had no choice, believe me. Now, I fully understand what it means to mind your own business. I tried very hard not to look left, right or front. Ok! Done! I stood up. Er...I don't mean to, but I accidentally saw the comrade on my right throwing the used paper into a basket. Oopsy! I had thrown mine into the bowl. 

PS In case you are worried, the good news is that the toilet in Bank of China is 6 * * * * * * =)) And there are many toilets that's much cleaner and high-tech than Singapore's!

We are missing Singapore...so much... Ha I kept dreaming about my mama, my brother, my sister and my niece Ni-er.

These were taken in July......how she must have grown by the time we are back. Indeed, I can really feel how time flies whenever I hear about the growth and development of these little ones. Recently, a friend emailed me about how her daughter was down with flu for a month, and I was thinking, "Poor baby, only a month old." Then, as I read on, my friend wrote, "She is now 4mths plus."

Gosh! So much time has slipped by me!

And I pray to God to help me understand His purpose for me in this life and lead and guide me to fulfil it. Amen...

And I miss P&W in Hope Singapore.

And I miss my Nasi-Lemak...

Very much.

Somehow, I've always associated the beautiful changing hues of autumn with Western countries like England and Canada. So I was surprised when I see them happening in Beijing. Ha ha look at how the leaves of the Ginkgo trees have turned into bright yellow fans! =)

Look at the Maple leaves too. They should have planted more of them here!

In fact, due to the coming Olympics, Beijing is slowly being transformed into a garden city. In the 1980s, there were a mere 40 parks here, but by 2008, there will be a whopping 960 parks in the city! Just look at the lush display of plants outside the commercial buildings;

and within the buildings;

and the beautiful roses by the roadside...

PS It would have been a beautiful place...If only the people do not spit...

If you don't think about the generous serving of oil and salt...and if you don't wonder about the authenticity of the ingredients, how they are washed or processed or cooked, the kind of water used, etc, etc... then eating in Beijing is truly an enjoyable luxury! For they are cheap and delicious, and lots of varieties too! Just porridge alone, there's almost 40 types! From icy-cold to boiling hot porridge in claypot. Porridge with watermelons, pears, plums, pumpkin, lily, fish, prawn, walnut, black chicken, abalone, seaweed, beef, pork, mushrooms, just to name a few, and all cooked to a consistency that I've always thought porridge should be. Not glue-y, not lumpy, but just right ;P

And we love the siew mai here hehe. And that's 8 RMB. In general, one can enjoy a simple nice meal in restaurant, but pay Singapore-foodcourt prices only.

But most of the time, we eat at home or here:

It is between 14-25 RMB for a satisfying meal for both of us ;) But despite of the cheap and tasty food, I often cook at home :) for only then you know what goes into the pot and how much of it, and hehe cooking is fun, exciting and satisfying...most of the times ;) 

This the season of 冰糖葫芦! I've seen them umpteen times in those Chinese dramas and movies set in ancient times. And I've always wondered how they taste like! And look! They are selling it everywhere in Beijing now! It's between 1.5 -3 RMB.

They are actually haws (hawthorn fruit) coated with honey (Or was it sugar :)) And look! There are actually so many varieties!

But our favourite is the orange! Take a bite, and you will first experience the sweet crispiness of the sugar, and then...a BURST! of orange juice as it gushes out into your mouth. Delicious! ;P We want more!

Know how big Beijing is compared to Singapore? 24 times! It comprises 16 districts, of which, the Haidian district is where we live in, at the northwest corner of the city.

It is also commonly known as Beijing's science, technology, and university district. The population here is largely made up of students, and you can hardly see any older folks. I would say that the average age of foreigners here is between early 20s to early 30s, and they are mostly Koreans. In fact, there are so many South Koreans here that every other person you see on the streets is one. To be exact, there are 100, 000 Koreans in Beijing, of which, 57,000 are students. And every few steps you take, is, a Korean restaurant, a Korean provision shop , a Korean fashion shop, and yes a Korean cosmetic shop too, all mostly characterized by loud Korean songs playing towards the streets. Many Chinese signboards and menus come with Korean characters too. And naturally, they top the numbers at Beijing Language and Culture University. BLCU is  where most people enrolled in to learn Chinese (it is very ex), and a walk through the university yield faces of many various shades, it almost felt like the whole world is here learning Chinese. In fact, the importance of learning the Chinese Language is keenly felt here. Whereas for the locals, learning English is of the utmost importance now. They will check with us the meaning of certain sentences, phrases, as well as seize any opportunities to practice their English. It is only when I'm here that I appreciated the compulsory learning of the English and Chinese language (for Singaporean Chinese) in Singapore.

Yesterday night, we had a rude SHOCK. When the clock struck 12, all the lights in our house went off. The TV and laptop screen went blank and we were suddenly in pitch darkness, and absolute silence. And I suddenly remembered that our Thai friend in Beijing told us that his rented apartment is haunted. But hey God is with us :)

Then we thought perhaps we had a shock circuit, but no.

Then we thought perhaps there was an electricity cut-off due to the construction works below. Afterall, our water supply gets cut off now and then too. But no. The rest of the building was still lighted.

So what's wrong? We still have 30 units left. So do they cut off at 30? Gosh! At this time? When it's 5 degrees celcius?? When my washing machine was tossing my laundry so diligently?? Ya ya I know it's strange to be washing clothes at 12 midnight but aiyah I have my reasons ;)

Oh my Gosh, a cold cold room with a cold cold bed awaited us tonight. I shuddered at that thought.

But Thank God we survived.

Early next morning, I quickly went to charge our electricity card, but to my horror, they said they only charge on Mondays and Fridays!! I asked for exception, and they calmly pointed to their pc, and said it's down today, cannot charge. Come back tmr and see if the pc is up. ??????? I can't believe this!!

THEN I had another shock. I was told the cut-off was actually a 'REMINDER'. So all we needed to do was to take any card, feed into the meter, and electricity will come back! And when the electricity goes down to 15 units, there will be another 'reminder', I was... ...flabbergasted.

What if it hits 30 at a time when I'm alone and showering or washing my hair? (Without the heater, the water is icy cold)

What if it hits 30 when it's winter? And we were not aware of this form of reminder? Ya...we will really be in deep shit then.

Thank God it's not winter yet,

and no thanks for their 'kind reminders'.

The people here loves dogs. I mean not as food (Though they wouldn't mind that too ;P). But we noticed that the dogs are all puny.

We wondered why, then we learned that a 1995 municipal law decrees that no dog taller than 35cm can be legally raised in Beijing. And each person can only have one dog. It was said that in November 2006, a dog-culling campaign began here. And it is believed to be an attempt to clean up the city before 2008 Olympics. A similar mass killing of street dogs took place prior to the Olympics in Athens in the past too. Poor doggies!

WL was going to make a namecard.

Our jaws literally dropped when we saw our address in English, directly translated from the Chinese:

Beijing Haidian District

WangZhuang Road on the 20^th hospital

800 Floor

1 unit

109 rooms

Hehe forbidden city have 9,999 rooms, and our house have 109 rooms... And since there's no lifts in our building, we have to climb 800 floors everyday. Hehehe and in case you have not guessed, we are actually the caretakers of the 20th hospital in this district. ;)P

What happened if I sweep the floor on alternate days? Ta-dah!

This is what I'll get for one room! No wonder when we first moved in, the blanket of dust under our bed was so thick that I can literally roll it up! I've never seen so much dust at one go in my life! And the previous tenant lived with all these dust for 6 months...Yuckapo!

Since mid-Sept, apart from the dust that I gathered everyday, there's soil too, on the window sills, on the floor... You will know why if you see what's surrounding my block.                                                    

Most of the days, it's like doing an obstacle course, crossing half-broken planks that are used to cover the trenches, skipping across puddles (we were told it seldom rains here, but we have experienced several morning-till-night, night-till-morning rainy days since we were here), and many a time, I had no choice but to sink my shoes into the mud. The works was stipulated to finish in a month, but it's been a month and 23 days. 

This day, we have a sumptuous dinner with a special someone at a Chinese restaurant named Quanjude. 

It is famous for its roast duck and guess what? Pumpkin Fries! Indeed, it serves the best Peking duck that we've tried so far (We've tried 2). And such unique fries! Pumpkin lightly coated with salted egg yolk! And one bite of it ... ... haha words fail me... Now I can only say MUST, MUST TRY!! They even have eggy dumplings, and hey it's goood too, in sweet abalone soup ;P So who's this special someone who recommended us these?

It's Steve! Yes, Steve from Singapore =))

In return, we brought him to a cosy cafe 'Sculpting In Time', we had good chat, good coffee.

Thanks Steve for all the goodies from Singapore.

Thank God for the great time we have together.

It sure is dusty here!! This is the amount of dirt I sweep out of one room everyday.

It reminded me of the first storybook I had, 'The Magic Porridge Pot'. Even when I swept late in the night, behold! The next morning, there's this amount of dust again!! The amazing thing is, this happens despite the fact that only 1 out of the 15 windows we have in the house is open! And it's ajar... And don't be shocked by this, I have not finished... After sweeping, take a pail of water and start mopping. You will soon have homemade ink for some Chinese Painting. 

So I seriously think that my floor is churning out dust like the pot is cooking porridge, never ending and never empty. But because of this, ahem...I have a very important job to do everyday :)  

Yixi

PS Someday I hope to clean all the stairs in my 6-storey block, and the entrance to my block...when I have a vacuum cleaner, a hose and a free water source. That will make my day ;>