After living in South Florida for 5 years, I knew Shanghai would seem cold in the Winter, but this is just not fair!
SHANGHAI -- East China's business hub Shanghai reported a temperature of minus 5.9 degrees Celsius in its downtown Saturday, the lowest for 18 years, as a cold snap swept China from north to south, the municipal meteorological observatory said.
The temperature in the Xujiahui area in downtown Shanghai reached minus 5.9 degrees Celsius early Saturday, the lowest since1992, the city's Central Meteorological Observatory said.
Records show the lowest temperature in downtown Shanghai was minus 8 degrees Celsius in 1991.
The observatory said the city's temperatures would also be below minus 5 degrees Celsius Sunday, the eve of Chinese New Year. But it forecast the city's temperatures would rise from Monday.
China Central Meteorological Observatory forecast the cold snap, which has caused a temperature drop of about 15 degrees Celsius in parts of east and south China, would end Sunday.
(Xinhua) Updated: 2009-01-25 16:46
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Shock & Awe!
Those are the words that come to mind when trying to describe the events of last night.
As I mentioned earlier, we had been hearing fireworks on and off all evening and as it got later and closer to midnight the noise and frequency just kept increasing. However, nothing could have prepared us for volume and spectacle that greeted us at midnight. I have never seen or heard anything like it in my life. It sounded like we were in a war zone, but thankfully the gunfire was just huge fireworks lighting the sky. In every direction, all you could see was the beautiful colors and patterns of the many different fireworks. I tried to video and take photos to be able to share, but honestly on looking at them this morning, they pale into comparison of the real thing. You just don’t get the ear-splitting noise or see how many fireworks were going off at the same time. I was really disappointed with the video and pictures, but I will certainly never forget living the moment. It will be one of my favorites for years to come.
Around 11.45pm, as the noise was getting really loud, poor Cadence came wandering into our room. She was scared of the noise (she does not like any loud noises ever) and was looking for a hug. Richard lay down with her and put an Oswald dvd on for her to watch. I have to say Oswald sends me to sleep in minutes, but poor old Cade stayed awake until I finally went to bed around 1am. Lying in our bed, she was more than happy to let her Dad and I continue to enjoy the CNY show outside. Richard called his brother in California from our balcony and I tried to Skype some friends in Florida, but fortunately for them they did not answer so they did not have to suffer the noise. Richard and I continued to run around the house looking out of the various windows for about an hour marveling at the seemingly never-ending display. At one point the guards in our street let of some huge fireworks just up from our house – they were deafening, but awesome. As it got to around 12.30-12.45am, things began to quiet back down, at which point I went to bed to grab a snuggle with my Cady. She has to be on of the snuggliest bugs in the world and I never pass up the opportunity to cuddle with her. We settled down and turned off the light and within minutes both of us were fast asleep. I cannot believe that after being told we would not get any sleep for at least a week, I was finally woken up at around 9am by Hansen coming to look for Cady. Richard got up and took the kids downstairs for some noodles (long noodles for long life) and I continued to snooze. I was rudely awakened at 9.45am by what sounded like machine gunfire outside my bedroom window. On closer inspection it turned out to be our neighbors and the biggest batch of firecrackers I will probably ever see.
As I mentioned earlier, we had been hearing fireworks on and off all evening and as it got later and closer to midnight the noise and frequency just kept increasing. However, nothing could have prepared us for volume and spectacle that greeted us at midnight. I have never seen or heard anything like it in my life. It sounded like we were in a war zone, but thankfully the gunfire was just huge fireworks lighting the sky. In every direction, all you could see was the beautiful colors and patterns of the many different fireworks. I tried to video and take photos to be able to share, but honestly on looking at them this morning, they pale into comparison of the real thing. You just don’t get the ear-splitting noise or see how many fireworks were going off at the same time. I was really disappointed with the video and pictures, but I will certainly never forget living the moment. It will be one of my favorites for years to come.
Around 11.45pm, as the noise was getting really loud, poor Cadence came wandering into our room. She was scared of the noise (she does not like any loud noises ever) and was looking for a hug. Richard lay down with her and put an Oswald dvd on for her to watch. I have to say Oswald sends me to sleep in minutes, but poor old Cade stayed awake until I finally went to bed around 1am. Lying in our bed, she was more than happy to let her Dad and I continue to enjoy the CNY show outside. Richard called his brother in California from our balcony and I tried to Skype some friends in Florida, but fortunately for them they did not answer so they did not have to suffer the noise. Richard and I continued to run around the house looking out of the various windows for about an hour marveling at the seemingly never-ending display. At one point the guards in our street let of some huge fireworks just up from our house – they were deafening, but awesome. As it got to around 12.30-12.45am, things began to quiet back down, at which point I went to bed to grab a snuggle with my Cady. She has to be on of the snuggliest bugs in the world and I never pass up the opportunity to cuddle with her. We settled down and turned off the light and within minutes both of us were fast asleep. I cannot believe that after being told we would not get any sleep for at least a week, I was finally woken up at around 9am by Hansen coming to look for Cady. Richard got up and took the kids downstairs for some noodles (long noodles for long life) and I continued to snooze. I was rudely awakened at 9.45am by what sounded like machine gunfire outside my bedroom window. On closer inspection it turned out to be our neighbors and the biggest batch of firecrackers I will probably ever see.
Xin Nian Kuai Le! - Happy New Year! 新年快樂
---
I am never going to be able to fully describe how it feels to be in China for our first Chinese New Year.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! – Congratulations and Be Prosperous
For those of you who don’t know, tonight is New Year’s Eve in China. This is the biggest holiday and celebration of the year. It starts tonight and last for 15 days. Here in China the holiday is called Spring Festival and it marks the start of the new lunar year. This coming year will be the Year of the Ox, an animal that symbolizes calm, hard work, resolve and tenacity. Based on 2008, I think the Ox has arrived at the right time. For the past few weeks, all over China everyone has been preparing for this holiday. Traditionally, families will clean their homes thoroughly to remove all the bad luck from the old year and to make room for the good luck of the coming year. Everyone will wear new clothes and get a haircut. New Year’s Eve is spent having dinner with family and watching fireworks. Many millions of Chinese will travel back to their hometowns to spend the Spring Festival with their families. For many this is the only time of year they can spend together since they have often traveled hundreds or thousands of miles from the birthplace to find work.
After decorating our front door with the traditional red couplets and donning our finest Chinese clothes, we spent this evening with members of our local FCC (Families with Chinese Children) family at a local restaurant. The restaurant was completely booked and aside from our FCC group, there were also a number of Chinese families from grandparents to small grandkids. The dinner started with making our own dumplings, which were then cooked for us, and was followed by so many dishes I can’t begin to list them. There were more plates of food than we could possibly eat and we spent the night juggling the plates to make enough room on the table for everything. In between courses the restaurant had activities for all the kids – they included small hand-held sparklers (which Aimee managed to burn herself on!), various types of fireworks and firecrackers, which never seemed to stop coming and the finale was a Pinata! I was quite surprised by this one, but hey the kids loved it. I have since learned that like most other great inventions, the Pinata is thought to have originated from China… When the last tiny little girl took her best swing and burst it, sending candy flying over the floor, the kids went wild. It was a free for all as the kids scrabbled to get loot. It was the perfect end to a great evening. The thing I was most surprised at was the price of all this entertainment. The dinner was 50rmb ($7) per adult and kids were free. We just paid for our drinks, which were 18rmb each. So basically, the 5 of us were entertained and fed non-stop for 4 hours for less than 300rmb ($40). What a great evening. We had a blast. The owner and staff at the restaurant were so nice and so happy to share their culture with us all. We promised to go back after the holidays to sample their regular menu and to thank them for such a great time.
Hansen and his girls - You would think all those beauties would put a smile on his face...
The Choi family celebrating their first New Year in China
Hansen tries his luck on the pinata
Check out Cady's technique - she bagged a ton of candy
My handsome boys - aren't they gorgeous?
Pretty Girl Cady
Adorable Aimee
Hansen finally smiling since he knows the food is coming
On leaving the restaurant it was strange coming home since the streets were pretty much deserted. Normally 9.30pm on any night would see crowds of people wandering the streets and shops, but tonight everyone was already home with their families. Everywhere you looked the sky was being lit with fireworks. It is an incredible sight to see and words will never do it justice.
Right now the kids are tucked up in bed (with ear plugs) and Richard and I are waiting to see the spectacle the stroke of midnight will bring. Huge, loud fireworks have been going off continually since around 5pm this evening, but we are told that the sky and the city will erupt at midnight. The past 30 minutes has seen the number of fireworks increase and I can only imagine what is going to happen in 15 minutes time....
Making the dumplings
Fireworks in the plaza outside the restaurant
Pinata fun
I am never going to be able to fully describe how it feels to be in China for our first Chinese New Year.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! – Congratulations and Be Prosperous
For those of you who don’t know, tonight is New Year’s Eve in China. This is the biggest holiday and celebration of the year. It starts tonight and last for 15 days. Here in China the holiday is called Spring Festival and it marks the start of the new lunar year. This coming year will be the Year of the Ox, an animal that symbolizes calm, hard work, resolve and tenacity. Based on 2008, I think the Ox has arrived at the right time. For the past few weeks, all over China everyone has been preparing for this holiday. Traditionally, families will clean their homes thoroughly to remove all the bad luck from the old year and to make room for the good luck of the coming year. Everyone will wear new clothes and get a haircut. New Year’s Eve is spent having dinner with family and watching fireworks. Many millions of Chinese will travel back to their hometowns to spend the Spring Festival with their families. For many this is the only time of year they can spend together since they have often traveled hundreds or thousands of miles from the birthplace to find work.
After decorating our front door with the traditional red couplets and donning our finest Chinese clothes, we spent this evening with members of our local FCC (Families with Chinese Children) family at a local restaurant. The restaurant was completely booked and aside from our FCC group, there were also a number of Chinese families from grandparents to small grandkids. The dinner started with making our own dumplings, which were then cooked for us, and was followed by so many dishes I can’t begin to list them. There were more plates of food than we could possibly eat and we spent the night juggling the plates to make enough room on the table for everything. In between courses the restaurant had activities for all the kids – they included small hand-held sparklers (which Aimee managed to burn herself on!), various types of fireworks and firecrackers, which never seemed to stop coming and the finale was a Pinata! I was quite surprised by this one, but hey the kids loved it. I have since learned that like most other great inventions, the Pinata is thought to have originated from China… When the last tiny little girl took her best swing and burst it, sending candy flying over the floor, the kids went wild. It was a free for all as the kids scrabbled to get loot. It was the perfect end to a great evening. The thing I was most surprised at was the price of all this entertainment. The dinner was 50rmb ($7) per adult and kids were free. We just paid for our drinks, which were 18rmb each. So basically, the 5 of us were entertained and fed non-stop for 4 hours for less than 300rmb ($40). What a great evening. We had a blast. The owner and staff at the restaurant were so nice and so happy to share their culture with us all. We promised to go back after the holidays to sample their regular menu and to thank them for such a great time.
Hansen and his girls - You would think all those beauties would put a smile on his face...
The Choi family celebrating their first New Year in China
Hansen tries his luck on the pinata
Check out Cady's technique - she bagged a ton of candy
My handsome boys - aren't they gorgeous?
Pretty Girl Cady
Adorable Aimee
Hansen finally smiling since he knows the food is coming
On leaving the restaurant it was strange coming home since the streets were pretty much deserted. Normally 9.30pm on any night would see crowds of people wandering the streets and shops, but tonight everyone was already home with their families. Everywhere you looked the sky was being lit with fireworks. It is an incredible sight to see and words will never do it justice.
Right now the kids are tucked up in bed (with ear plugs) and Richard and I are waiting to see the spectacle the stroke of midnight will bring. Huge, loud fireworks have been going off continually since around 5pm this evening, but we are told that the sky and the city will erupt at midnight. The past 30 minutes has seen the number of fireworks increase and I can only imagine what is going to happen in 15 minutes time....
Making the dumplings
Fireworks in the plaza outside the restaurant
Pinata fun
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Installing a Husband
INSTALLING A HUSBAND
Dear Tech Support ,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0 .
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as:
· Romance 9.5 and
· Personal Attention 6.5,
and then installed undesirable programs such as :
· NBA 5.0,
· NFL 3.0 and
· Golf Clubs 4..1 ..
Also Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2. 6 simply crashes the system.
· Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.
What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate.
DEAR DESPERATE ,
First, keep in mind,
· Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while
· Husband 1.0 is an operating system.
Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.
· If that application works as designed , Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.
However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5 , Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1 ..
· Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)
In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 -program These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0 .
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend
· Cooking 3.0 and
· Hot Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck!
Tech Support
Dear Tech Support ,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0 .
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as:
· Romance 9.5 and
· Personal Attention 6.5,
and then installed undesirable programs such as :
· NBA 5.0,
· NFL 3.0 and
· Golf Clubs 4..1 ..
Also Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2. 6 simply crashes the system.
· Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.
What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate.
DEAR DESPERATE ,
First, keep in mind,
· Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while
· Husband 1.0 is an operating system.
Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.
· If that application works as designed , Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.
However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5 , Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1 ..
· Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)
In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 -program These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0 .
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend
· Cooking 3.0 and
· Hot Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck!
Tech Support
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