Lemons, dvds, tea, salmon ravioli and dominos
Lemons and limes
I think lemons might be considered to be a Luxury Fruit in China. My flu while not awful has also developed into a slightly sore throat so I went in search of lemons today. I had bought a few from Carrefour but having used one on my pancakes yesterday, I thought I'd better top up the supply and so that I could make lemon juice mixed with hot water for my throat. None of the fruit sellers sell them so I think I might have to go to Walmart or Carrefour I think. I love lemons - perhaps it's because I'm a sour person.
I bought some beautiful looking peaches in the meanwhile. Peaches in Beijing really are beautiful - large, blush pink, unblemished. They almost look too good to eat!
I remember a funny discussion I had with dad once about lemons and Vietnamese. I don't think there are lemons in Vietnam - just limes. So it seems that if you ask for lemons you'll just get limes. The word for lemon in Vietnamese seems to be the word for lime although perhaps there actually isn't any word for lemon and they just call it a lime. I'll never resolve this issue! At any rate, I always love putting lemon/lime in the yummy beef pho my mum makes.
It's very telling that when I have food cravings, it's always for Western food. I like Asian food but never have cravings for it - it's always Western food I crave, but I DO crave mum's cooking all the time. Mmmmmmm. Bro's a pretty good cook too. My memories of dad's cooking I fear are not quite so good. Fortunately dad has other talents ;)
Errands
I hadn't really wanted to go out today, but I was running a few errands today. Mum said she wanted the dragonball jasmine tea that she likes so much so I went in search of that. I bought two types and will post it in the next few days. Bro mentioned he might be interested in watching a series called "Dead Like Me" which sounds quite interesting. The slightly annoying thing was although I used to see the series everywhere, when I specifically went looking for it today, all the shops only had season 2 of the series. Oh well, I'll keep looking.
To be honest, I think I overestimated how much better I was feeling because my flu felt rather worse when I returned home.
TV series
I watched the first season of a medical drama (yeah yeah I know) called "Scrubs" and it was actually really, really cute and heartwarming. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about a medical comedy. None of the characters are drop dead gorgeous or glamorous but they're all really quite lovable or at least funny and the situations are really heart-warming.
I'm going to send my set to bro although if anyone wants to have a laugh (and has seen "West Side Story"), then download episode 20 of seasons 1 called "My way or the highway". I laughed so hard. The series is also very touching in places. I looked it up on the net and saw that it's actually up to its fourth season in the US so I'm downloading season 2. I have 4130 hours to go according to bittorrent ;) I guess I like the fact that the show relies on humour and strong acting rather than movie star pretty boys and girls - it's very novel.
A few other series sitting around waiting to be watched are "Medium" - presumably psychic surving crimes. I think it stars an Arquette.
"Veronica Mars" - I will be very, very interested to know if this show lives up to the rabid fan hype I see on the Internet. Some people have said it's the best show they have ever seen in their life. The blurb sounds a bit weird:
Veronica Mars had the perfect life at 17, a boyfriend, popularity, and a great family. But it all came crashing down when her best friend, Lilly Kane, was murdered and her dad, the sheriff, accused Lilly's father of the crime. His accusation cost her dad his job and wife and soon Veronica became an outcast. Now with her dad working as a private investigator, Veronica tries to uncover Neptune's darkest secrets and who murdered Lilly Kane.
To be honest it doesn't sound very good - but I'm going to give it a shot despite my doubts.
I absolutely couldn't resist a series I saw today in the shop called "Into the West" which was showed on TNT and produced by Spielberg and DreamWorks Television. I am an absolute sucker for stories of Native Americans and the American West. I loved the documentary series "The West" and dad bought me the giant coffeetable book. I have that book too and the dvd set and even have a collection of photographs of Native Americans kind of like the ones you can see here. I know that "Into the West" is kinda PC and probably a bit touchie feelie but I don't care, I'm sure I'll like it anyway. This is the blurb I found:
"Into the West," a six-week television event, explores one of the most powerful and defining chapters in American history. As the desire for adventure, wealth and a better life inspires thousands to risk their lives traveling across the vast western territories, the inhabitants of this land see their way of life being destroyed. Set against a backdrop of major historical events, the Gold Rush, Pony Express, Transcontinental Railroad, the Indian Wars, this powerful epic adventure unfolds as told through the struggles, triumphs and heartaches of two families as they journey in search of the American dream.
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television, "Into the West" features the talents of six of directors hand-picked by Steven Spielberg and stars an starring Sean Astin, Simon R. Baker, Irene Bedard, Tom Berenger, Gil Birmingham, Beau Bridges, Josh Brolin, Gary Busey, Jessica Capshaw, Tonantzin Carmelo, Keith Carradine, Tyler Christopher, Rachael Leigh Cook, Derek DeLint, Balthazar Getty, Daniel Gillies, Joanna Going, Graham Greene, Lance Henriksen, Christian Kane, Warren Kole, George Leach, Joseph M. Marshall III, Zahn McClarnon, Russell Means, Matthew Modine, Will Patton, David Paymer, Tyler Posey, Judge Reinhold, Keri Russell, Elizabeth Sage, Jonathan Scarfe, Craig Sheffer, Eric Schweig, Matthew Settle, Michael Spears, Chaske Spencer, Wes Studi, Jay Tavare, John Terry, Gordon Tootoosis, Sheila Tousey, Alan Tudyk and Skeet Ulrich.
I'm reminded me that I also loved the Ken Burns series "The Civil War". I really loved the soundtrack so here is the mp3 of Letter from Sullivan Ballou which I always found very touching with the Ashokan Farewell in the background. Dad used to mock this song - said it was a bit spooky but I always found it heartbreaking :'( Dad preferred this version of Yellow Rose of Texas and also Kathy Mattea's version of Vacant Chair - both songs that I always enjoyed very much.
[Note from Koala: All right, 3 episodes later I can confess that this series is the first absolute stinker I have bought since coming to China - and I really wanted to like it! It's not godawful but just look at the official episode guide and you will see that this series borders on being the "Forrest Gump" of the American West. Think Forrest Gump, think "How the West Was Won", "A Woman of Substance", "North and South" and every other "sweeping epic" that spanned generations and made you feel absolutely exhausted by the end of viewing as if you yourself had aged several generations.
The story focus on the two families (one Virginian and one Lakotan), the plot takes the most ridiculous twists and turns, concidences abound, people age (ie different actors play the characters) abruptly without sufficient transition, we do not really get to know or care about any of the characters etc. Keep an eye out for a truly ghastly scene between Keri Russell's character Naomi and her new Native American captor husband - it comes straight from the pages of a really bad, trashy romance.
Worse still, in the old days the whites were the good guys and the Indians were the bad guys but the stereotype has reversed now and the bad guys are - almost without exception - greedy, ravaging, rapacious, materialistic murderers (watch Disney's Pocahontas) and the Native Americans are seen as the kind of peaceful, innocent, earth-loving love children of the world. Surely there has to be a balanced perspective to this whole set-up. We all know the tragic history of the Native Americans but I cannot believe that they were cute, fluffy wuffy little. mystical, environmentally friendly creatures given that they were warrior cultures. Don't get me wrong, there are depictions of Native American violence, but it's always justified and in self-defence. Among the whites there are good and bad but among the Native Americans there are only victims. Also, why are Crow Indians always portrayed as the bad guys???? There seems to be a lot of sympathy for the Lakota.
I don't think I can finish the series but did I like anything? Sure. I loved the scenery shots, the scenes of bison running - the American must have been an amazing place when the bison ran wild across the plains. I loved hearing the Native American actors speaking their language, although a few sounded very stilted and Loved By the Buffalo was particularly bad, which meant that it was easy to focus on his incredibly large nostrils. I loved what the series attempted to do as this is a period of American history which I really find particularly fascinating but the "blink and you'll miss a famous actor in a pivotal moment of historical significance" grew annoying after a while. Really disappointing given that it covered some fascinating times - Gold Rush, Abolutionism, Pony Express etc etc. Yes, I loved that show the The Young Riders. Will someone please, please PLEASE release that series on dvd???? :)
A sad thought, I was looking at a list of some of the actors who played the Native Americans. Are there any pure-blooded Native Americans left? It's a different form of extinction I guess and really sad.
Back Lakes
I couldn't resist the siren song of salmon ravioli so after I bought the tea I went for some pasta. By the lake, people were playing cards and mahjong. Also, funnily enough there were old people playing what looked like dominos. I think they were also breaking the law and gambling because I saw money on the table. How do you gamble on dominos? If my domino has dots I give you money and if it doesn't, then I don't?
It reminds me of something dad said about how Vietnamese (or Chinese?) love gambling so much that if there's nothing to gamble on they'll even bet on whether it is going to rain or not.
I kept having discussions with people as I was travelling. A lot of people criticised me for living in Beijing but as I pointed out, in places like Kunming, Nanjing, Sichuan, Shanghai, the everyday language is not Mandarin. They all speak their own dialect. In Beijing, everywhere I go, people speak Mandarin. As I walked along the street today, I heard fragments of conversations:
"I wasn't feeling well, but I think I'm getting better now...." (a little old lady talking to a group of other little old ladies).
"Come on.... come out ... emerge ...." (a mother to her little toddler who was taking very, very wobbley uncertain steps out of the gateway of her hutong).
"I know exactly what you mean, I feel the same way too." (an old man wearing a single chatting to another old man wearing a singlet).
If it was any other city, it would just be a blur and I wouldn't be able to hear what people were saying and then their words would become white noise. I think that would be a real shame. I can understand why a lot of people don't like Beijing, but as I said, I think there are some reasons why I think it's better to be here than in any other cities from a language-learning perspective.
As I was walking around, I saw tourists beyond carted around in "hutong pedicabs", looking at the local people who were going about their daily business. It reminded me of how when I was in Yunnan people like me were there staring at Naxi tribespeople going about their daily business. It made me giggle as I thought, what if when I was small, dad had made me dress up in a weird costume and tourists had come down to Canberra to see the koala family "in their natural setting".
"This is koala mowing the lawn". Yeah yeah, I can hear dad saying - "Definitely take a photo for posterity because such occurrences are rare". :)
I think lemons might be considered to be a Luxury Fruit in China. My flu while not awful has also developed into a slightly sore throat so I went in search of lemons today. I had bought a few from Carrefour but having used one on my pancakes yesterday, I thought I'd better top up the supply and so that I could make lemon juice mixed with hot water for my throat. None of the fruit sellers sell them so I think I might have to go to Walmart or Carrefour I think. I love lemons - perhaps it's because I'm a sour person.
I bought some beautiful looking peaches in the meanwhile. Peaches in Beijing really are beautiful - large, blush pink, unblemished. They almost look too good to eat!
I remember a funny discussion I had with dad once about lemons and Vietnamese. I don't think there are lemons in Vietnam - just limes. So it seems that if you ask for lemons you'll just get limes. The word for lemon in Vietnamese seems to be the word for lime although perhaps there actually isn't any word for lemon and they just call it a lime. I'll never resolve this issue! At any rate, I always love putting lemon/lime in the yummy beef pho my mum makes.
It's very telling that when I have food cravings, it's always for Western food. I like Asian food but never have cravings for it - it's always Western food I crave, but I DO crave mum's cooking all the time. Mmmmmmm. Bro's a pretty good cook too. My memories of dad's cooking I fear are not quite so good. Fortunately dad has other talents ;)
Errands
I hadn't really wanted to go out today, but I was running a few errands today. Mum said she wanted the dragonball jasmine tea that she likes so much so I went in search of that. I bought two types and will post it in the next few days. Bro mentioned he might be interested in watching a series called "Dead Like Me" which sounds quite interesting. The slightly annoying thing was although I used to see the series everywhere, when I specifically went looking for it today, all the shops only had season 2 of the series. Oh well, I'll keep looking.
To be honest, I think I overestimated how much better I was feeling because my flu felt rather worse when I returned home.
TV series
I watched the first season of a medical drama (yeah yeah I know) called "Scrubs" and it was actually really, really cute and heartwarming. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about a medical comedy. None of the characters are drop dead gorgeous or glamorous but they're all really quite lovable or at least funny and the situations are really heart-warming.
I'm going to send my set to bro although if anyone wants to have a laugh (and has seen "West Side Story"), then download episode 20 of seasons 1 called "My way or the highway". I laughed so hard. The series is also very touching in places. I looked it up on the net and saw that it's actually up to its fourth season in the US so I'm downloading season 2. I have 4130 hours to go according to bittorrent ;) I guess I like the fact that the show relies on humour and strong acting rather than movie star pretty boys and girls - it's very novel.
A few other series sitting around waiting to be watched are "Medium" - presumably psychic surving crimes. I think it stars an Arquette.
"Veronica Mars" - I will be very, very interested to know if this show lives up to the rabid fan hype I see on the Internet. Some people have said it's the best show they have ever seen in their life. The blurb sounds a bit weird:
Veronica Mars had the perfect life at 17, a boyfriend, popularity, and a great family. But it all came crashing down when her best friend, Lilly Kane, was murdered and her dad, the sheriff, accused Lilly's father of the crime. His accusation cost her dad his job and wife and soon Veronica became an outcast. Now with her dad working as a private investigator, Veronica tries to uncover Neptune's darkest secrets and who murdered Lilly Kane.
To be honest it doesn't sound very good - but I'm going to give it a shot despite my doubts.
I absolutely couldn't resist a series I saw today in the shop called "Into the West" which was showed on TNT and produced by Spielberg and DreamWorks Television. I am an absolute sucker for stories of Native Americans and the American West. I loved the documentary series "The West" and dad bought me the giant coffeetable book. I have that book too and the dvd set and even have a collection of photographs of Native Americans kind of like the ones you can see here. I know that "Into the West" is kinda PC and probably a bit touchie feelie but I don't care, I'm sure I'll like it anyway. This is the blurb I found:
"Into the West," a six-week television event, explores one of the most powerful and defining chapters in American history. As the desire for adventure, wealth and a better life inspires thousands to risk their lives traveling across the vast western territories, the inhabitants of this land see their way of life being destroyed. Set against a backdrop of major historical events, the Gold Rush, Pony Express, Transcontinental Railroad, the Indian Wars, this powerful epic adventure unfolds as told through the struggles, triumphs and heartaches of two families as they journey in search of the American dream.
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television, "Into the West" features the talents of six of directors hand-picked by Steven Spielberg and stars an starring Sean Astin, Simon R. Baker, Irene Bedard, Tom Berenger, Gil Birmingham, Beau Bridges, Josh Brolin, Gary Busey, Jessica Capshaw, Tonantzin Carmelo, Keith Carradine, Tyler Christopher, Rachael Leigh Cook, Derek DeLint, Balthazar Getty, Daniel Gillies, Joanna Going, Graham Greene, Lance Henriksen, Christian Kane, Warren Kole, George Leach, Joseph M. Marshall III, Zahn McClarnon, Russell Means, Matthew Modine, Will Patton, David Paymer, Tyler Posey, Judge Reinhold, Keri Russell, Elizabeth Sage, Jonathan Scarfe, Craig Sheffer, Eric Schweig, Matthew Settle, Michael Spears, Chaske Spencer, Wes Studi, Jay Tavare, John Terry, Gordon Tootoosis, Sheila Tousey, Alan Tudyk and Skeet Ulrich.
I'm reminded me that I also loved the Ken Burns series "The Civil War". I really loved the soundtrack so here is the mp3 of Letter from Sullivan Ballou which I always found very touching with the Ashokan Farewell in the background. Dad used to mock this song - said it was a bit spooky but I always found it heartbreaking :'( Dad preferred this version of Yellow Rose of Texas and also Kathy Mattea's version of Vacant Chair - both songs that I always enjoyed very much.
[Note from Koala: All right, 3 episodes later I can confess that this series is the first absolute stinker I have bought since coming to China - and I really wanted to like it! It's not godawful but just look at the official episode guide and you will see that this series borders on being the "Forrest Gump" of the American West. Think Forrest Gump, think "How the West Was Won", "A Woman of Substance", "North and South" and every other "sweeping epic" that spanned generations and made you feel absolutely exhausted by the end of viewing as if you yourself had aged several generations.
The story focus on the two families (one Virginian and one Lakotan), the plot takes the most ridiculous twists and turns, concidences abound, people age (ie different actors play the characters) abruptly without sufficient transition, we do not really get to know or care about any of the characters etc. Keep an eye out for a truly ghastly scene between Keri Russell's character Naomi and her new Native American captor husband - it comes straight from the pages of a really bad, trashy romance.
Worse still, in the old days the whites were the good guys and the Indians were the bad guys but the stereotype has reversed now and the bad guys are - almost without exception - greedy, ravaging, rapacious, materialistic murderers (watch Disney's Pocahontas) and the Native Americans are seen as the kind of peaceful, innocent, earth-loving love children of the world. Surely there has to be a balanced perspective to this whole set-up. We all know the tragic history of the Native Americans but I cannot believe that they were cute, fluffy wuffy little. mystical, environmentally friendly creatures given that they were warrior cultures. Don't get me wrong, there are depictions of Native American violence, but it's always justified and in self-defence. Among the whites there are good and bad but among the Native Americans there are only victims. Also, why are Crow Indians always portrayed as the bad guys???? There seems to be a lot of sympathy for the Lakota.
I don't think I can finish the series but did I like anything? Sure. I loved the scenery shots, the scenes of bison running - the American must have been an amazing place when the bison ran wild across the plains. I loved hearing the Native American actors speaking their language, although a few sounded very stilted and Loved By the Buffalo was particularly bad, which meant that it was easy to focus on his incredibly large nostrils. I loved what the series attempted to do as this is a period of American history which I really find particularly fascinating but the "blink and you'll miss a famous actor in a pivotal moment of historical significance" grew annoying after a while. Really disappointing given that it covered some fascinating times - Gold Rush, Abolutionism, Pony Express etc etc. Yes, I loved that show the The Young Riders. Will someone please, please PLEASE release that series on dvd???? :)
A sad thought, I was looking at a list of some of the actors who played the Native Americans. Are there any pure-blooded Native Americans left? It's a different form of extinction I guess and really sad.
Back Lakes
I couldn't resist the siren song of salmon ravioli so after I bought the tea I went for some pasta. By the lake, people were playing cards and mahjong. Also, funnily enough there were old people playing what looked like dominos. I think they were also breaking the law and gambling because I saw money on the table. How do you gamble on dominos? If my domino has dots I give you money and if it doesn't, then I don't?
It reminds me of something dad said about how Vietnamese (or Chinese?) love gambling so much that if there's nothing to gamble on they'll even bet on whether it is going to rain or not.
I kept having discussions with people as I was travelling. A lot of people criticised me for living in Beijing but as I pointed out, in places like Kunming, Nanjing, Sichuan, Shanghai, the everyday language is not Mandarin. They all speak their own dialect. In Beijing, everywhere I go, people speak Mandarin. As I walked along the street today, I heard fragments of conversations:
"I wasn't feeling well, but I think I'm getting better now...." (a little old lady talking to a group of other little old ladies).
"Come on.... come out ... emerge ...." (a mother to her little toddler who was taking very, very wobbley uncertain steps out of the gateway of her hutong).
"I know exactly what you mean, I feel the same way too." (an old man wearing a single chatting to another old man wearing a singlet).
If it was any other city, it would just be a blur and I wouldn't be able to hear what people were saying and then their words would become white noise. I think that would be a real shame. I can understand why a lot of people don't like Beijing, but as I said, I think there are some reasons why I think it's better to be here than in any other cities from a language-learning perspective.
As I was walking around, I saw tourists beyond carted around in "hutong pedicabs", looking at the local people who were going about their daily business. It reminded me of how when I was in Yunnan people like me were there staring at Naxi tribespeople going about their daily business. It made me giggle as I thought, what if when I was small, dad had made me dress up in a weird costume and tourists had come down to Canberra to see the koala family "in their natural setting".
"This is koala mowing the lawn". Yeah yeah, I can hear dad saying - "Definitely take a photo for posterity because such occurrences are rare". :)