So had a nice talk with Obama today. We talked about going bodysurfing at Sandy’s and I told him where his golf ball landed. Spent a good long time talking with the secret service guys before that. Invited them over for new years after they got off work. You know, just a normal day in Kailua.

Nothing makes Christmas feel like it used to quite like a 3 year old. Luke really got the idea of Santa this year and so he got into writing a card to Santa and leaving out cookies and milk for him. It was really quite cute and he was so excited.
So this morning when he woke up and there were new prsents under the tree he knew right away they hadn’t been there before.
Of course his new bike would have been hard to miss. Luke was so excited to get to open new thongs and help others, his sister, grandma and grandpa, uncle Scott to open them!
We were really happy that he liked his new bike too he took right to it without any of the fear or worry that he has shown in the past. We ended up taking him to a park this afternoon so he could practice riding all over the place.
It was a great day with lots of fun for evryone and a looknat what our life will be like as evelyn gets older and begins to be interested in Christmas and gifts as well.
I hope all of you had as enjoable a time as we did.
Merry Christmas or to those of you who don’t celebrate it Happy Friday!

Anyone who knows me will know that I am almost never at a loss for words.
Yesterday we decided to head off to the area of The Chonq called Foreigner’s Street. It was set up to encourage foreign investment and we had heard that there were some good restaurants. Unfortunately Luke has been pretty sick with a fever and we ended up leaving without eating. However, the short time we were there left both linds and I absolutely gobsmacked.
The first thing we saw as we drove in was model of the great wall. That in and of itself is not that strange. There seem go be replicas in a lot of places. We should start taking pictures on them. Anyway, beyond that was some crazy looking fun house, a model of the NY skyline, a church, a sphinx and a couple of small amusement parks. The whole place it turns out is an amusement park. Despite it’s name the only other foreigners we saw were the Indian guy selling pancakes and a couple of Africans on horses. I know!
Had Luke not been so sick I think it could have been a lot of fun, or at least really interesting. As it was, w everytime we turned a corner I would find myself absolutely unable to understand the why of most of what I saw. I don’t think the pictures do it justice. Linds and I kept saying that there was just no way to capture it on film. Guess you will just have to see for yourself. As for the last pic, I know there is a guy here from Hawaii but I have not met him yet. He works in a club in downtown and his name is Cliff. I will have to find out more.

I looked out the window today at lunchtime to see if it was raining and realised with a shock that the building next to ours was missing.  I know it was there last week, I’m sure of it. Today there is nothing but a path running through an empty site, and some piles of boards near the street.   

What the view looked like just last week…

What the view looks like today

Shocked, I looked down in front of our building to a fascinating little courtyard that I enjoy watching from time to time.  Where narrow alleyways snake behind the booming music shops and pirated DVD vendors, to a little community I have often thought of venturing into, but have always been too uncertain.  Instead I watch from above as grandmothers sit and chat while toddlers play.  Women stand selling noodles to construction workers, who come together to sit on plastic stools at lunchtime.  Bang-bang men carry bamboo poles dangling bags of chicken or fish up the narrow stairwells on a shortcut from Wu Yi Road to Xinhua street.  Today that courtyard is empty, but for a few men in yellow construction jackets carting out the first few pieces of lumber.  It appears the landscape will change again soon.  Sadly, this fascinating little hutong is also being torn down.  Down on the street it appears they are already erecting a wall around the front of the building.  It will probably be completely gone by next week, dismantled with pick-axes, the pieces carried away by those same bang-bang men.  

This week’s view of the building right in front of the Consulate, and the courtyard in behind.

I have only spent three months looking out this office window.  It feels incredible to realise that my view has already changed so drastically. Bit by bit, Chongqing is moving to destroy the “old” hutongs, the mazes of little alleys, shops and markets that make China “China” – to many of us foreigners – and in their place to erect gleaming high-rises full of Western amenities. Every day I walk past buildings marked with this character: Chai. 

Chai is short for “chai diao”, and means demolish.  Every day I stare with fascination out the windows of taxis at dusty old buildings, their shopfronts teeming with Chongqing life.  Some people serving food, others selling sweaters or rice-cookers, colorful clothing hung up to dry in a first floor apartment window.   All of this bustle of life taking place in front of huge red spray painted CHAI characters on the walls.  That’s what the building next to us looked like, just a week ago.  I can’t help but wonder where all those people have gone, the ones who lived there, whose families owned those little food stalls for decades.

The street scene in front of the former building next door.  Life goes on, but the landscape has changed.

My beautiful wife is celebrating a birthday today and I have to admit that for the first time in my life I was scrambling like mad to come up with something to do to surprise her. This no doubt is due to the fact that last week i realized that I had also forgotten about her birthday. Yes, I know, I have now blown my perfect record and reputation for remembering important dates.
The moral of the story is that the heat has been on for me to come up with something to get/do for the girl who does everything for me.
Well shopping was pretty much out. Beyond not needing anything, or at least not telling me, The Chonq is not exactly a shopping mecca.
What to do, what to do. . .
Then it came to me.
All Linds really want these days is western food. So along with a spectacular bunch of flowers that a nice little man down the street made up for me for the cost of a cab ride I did my best to make fun western foods.
Linds suggested that she would like choclate cupcakes, so yesterday Luke and I made those. Today we made to frosting for them. You can see that Evelyn really liked learning about licking the spoon! We also made hummus for appy’s/pupu’s. Today I was also going to make bagels but with Luke being sick I didn’t have enough time. Instead I made chocolate dipped strawberries. Not sure why the white chocolate didn’t come out like the picture on the recipe but it still looks pretty good.
The final piece? I told her the ayi was cooking up something for dinner but in reality I am making her favorite, chicken fajitas.
I am pretty sure she will be surprised.

How often do we eat lunch and not even think for a moment about what we are eating or remember when we are done. Since moving here I have been forced to think about what I eating, often just to be able to ask for it, or not, another day.
To that end I thought I should catalogue some of my regular, at home lunches, prepared by our ayi.
Today was a special day for lunch as Zhu Ayi discovered that I liked a certain dish and so made it today. Liang mian, or cold noodles was lunch. Normally it has more veggies in it but it was still pretty good. It is also cold so something that probably keeps or makes a good food for travelling.
By far the staple of our lunches is jaozi. A kind of boiled rice dumpling filled with pork, mushrooms and green onions. It is really spectacular and I would say that we eat it 3-4 times a week. It also normally has blanched lettuce in it. I know, who eats blanched lettuce? I do, have come to quite enjoy it. Both Evelyn and Luke like jaozi a lot and E has been known to eat as many as 7 at a go.
The last of our “normal” meals is another noodle dish that I don’t know the name for. It uses a flat, wide noodle rather than the skinny chow mian style of liang mian. This is normally a veggie heavy dish but sometimes has strips of meat in it as well.
All of these are made “bu la” or not spicey, useful phrase that, for the kids and then hotted up for the ayi and myself. FYI, hot here really means hot. Not that sissy hot of Texas, but the full blown “I can’t feel my lips” hot and she still takes it easy on me I am told. The normal hot stuff for me is a dose of sichuan pepper oil followed by a hot chile paste, the ma and la of local food. It as an awesome sensory combination leaving your mouth both on fire and numb at the same time.
So, for those of you who have been sitting on the fence as to whether you are coming to visit or not, hopefully this helps. Did I mention that it is all locally grown and nothing, except the hot sauces is processed.
And if all that isn’t enough to convince you to come, the sight of how much Evelyn enjoyed her liang mian today should be!

Being the budding socialites that we are we decided that going out to the Christmas pageant on Friday wasn’t enough adventure for one weekend. So we took up the invitation to go to a birthday party on Saturday as well. It was held at a hostel that was run by the girl whose birthday it was, in and older part of downtown Chonq. As we walked down the little alley into the hutongs Linds and I realized that we were in for a neat cultural experience. The hostel is pretty nice as hostels go. Clean and it has a reputation for excellent food, both local and western. I can attest to both as the mala chicken skin skewers were great and so was the pizza!
Now when I say this place was in the hutong I am being serious. The surrounding buildings were all built right on top of each other. As you can see from the pictures we could look right into peoples kitchens from the deck at the hostel. This was my first experience with this and served to remind me that China is not all highrise towers and rapid expansion. Much of the city is very old and the area has had people living in it for thousands of years.
Once the food came out it was time to eat and being some of the only white folk there, and the one willing to eat anything, almost, I was offered some good old spicey
Chicken skin as well as lamb, squid, lotus root and of course pizza. Once the eating had slowed the entertainment began. Folks had been asked to perform something of they were comfortable with it. The performances ranged from magic shows to break dancing to traditional dance and singing accompanied by harmonica. It was such a cool experience and I will try to upload the video of the traditional dance. We had a lot of fun and were thankful to have been invited.

No, not that Luke is the only white kid, look at what everyone is wearing. For the record it was 13C (57F) outside and we wore a jacket to go to school. However, inside, it was in the high teens or 20s C and they had the heaters on.
Of course I am the neglectful one whose kid is underdressed. Not all the grandma’s whose kids are sweating so much they have to wipe their backs off with towels. Heaven forbid they take off a layer. I’ve gotten used to it though and just argue that it’s not cold here, Canada is much colder and that Luke is much tougher because he is Canadian. I think the message is lost though because I say it in English, which no one speaks, or broken Chinese, where I might telling them their duck is cute! Honestly though, they all think I am nuts but we get along and slowly a few of the grandma’s have started to accept me and some even take one of their kids 4 ( no joke) layers off.

So some of you may remember my FB post on the candle at Luke’s school. Here are some pictures to give it perspective. Each day one kid gets to hold the box of matches, take one out, and hand I too the teacher. Then at the end of the class one kid carries the tray with lit candle back to the circle where they all count to 20 and then lean in to blow it out. No one has lost an eyebrow yet, but it has been a near thing. Of course it is everyone’s favorite part of the class and they all fight for the prime seats. Just another snapshot of life in China.