One more day before I have to go back to work.

I will use the other blog (http://andiskaulins.spaces.live.com) to show the photos I took last week. I will publish my thoughts about last week in this blog in no particular order.

Today, we will sit about the apartment, rest, relax and make love. I will try to read through all the entries Seablogger made in the past week.

Last week, the wife advised me to not complain. She did not make any effort to sell me on her plans for the week.

As soon as we passed the gates to the Dinosaur Park in Changzhou on May 1, we saw a near fight. One of the visitors was trying to attack a Park staff member who was wearing a teal Park jacket. Five of his co-workers, also wearing teal jackets, were needed to fend off the irate visitor who wanted to have a go at the particular staff member. Eventually, the irate visitor was subdued enough that the targeted worker could be taken away. Thinking of the tour group that took the wife and me to the Great Wall, I yearned to see the visitor get at the worker. But of course he didn't. This was the defining moment of my week.

I was so bored that I was actually looking forward to watching a NBA basketball game. The NBA is big in China. In the countryside I could see images of NBA players (not just Yao Ming) everywhere. In Huangqiao, a sports shoe shop had a huge picture of Shane Battier on its walls.

I had to watch a lot of Chinese TV to pass the time. There is one English language television channel in China CCTV9 or CCTV International as it calls itself. When it came to Wuxi, it was exciting for one day. Foreigners instead try to watch Satellite TV. CCTV9 news lead story is almost always about some country's leaders visiting China. Then there is aways video of the foreign leader meeting a Chinese leader accompanied by an announcer telling us that both leaders pledged to improve their countries' relations and that the visiting leader affirmed the One China policy. There is a vague anti-American slant to everything. (because of this, I have had the anti-American expats tell me that CCTV9 is more balanced than Fox News. Seriously) I watched reports of a World Wildlife Federation conference where America was declared the most guilty on Global Warming and that China was passing legislation and enacting programs to reduce CO2 emissions. CCTV9 also gives lead coverage to any inter-governmental or U.N. conference imaginable. Last week, there was an ASEAN meeting of finance ministers.

Countryside drivers are more daring and reckless than City Drivers. Trucks attempting to pass other trucks on the freeway must be careful of cars passing on the right and then attempting to cut in between the closing gap between the two trucks. A ballsy maneuver that one would never see in Canada, I saw done in Changzhou four times. A driver, approaching a line up of cars stopped at a red light, instead of stopping will pass all the cars on the left and then enter an intersection. Medians on countryside streets do nothing to separate traffic going in opposite directions. If a driver sees a delay ahead on his side of the street he will simply go on the other side of the median.

It was a shame to learn about Manchester United losing to AC Milan, The Canucks being eliminated by the Ducks and the Rockets losing to the Jazz. But at least the Conservatives won in France. I will give a mild Vive Le France!! Unfortunately, this Sarkozy is a little soft-headed on issues of importance like Global Warming and Iraq. But the alternative, the candidate Royal was singing right out of the Left Wing handbook.

I spent six days without talking to a foreigner. Last night, I went to Ronnie's Australian Pub with the King of Wuxi. Many of the King's subjects complained of the crowds everywhere during the May holiday making it impossible to enjoy anything.

The Chinese countryside seems a squalid place to Western eyes. The only thing comparable to the squalor you find in the countryside can be found in Canadian Indian Reserves (where of course you will also find the greatest concentration of government social bureaucracies). My in laws have no hot water, no garbage collection, no theatres, no Internet, no sanitation, no culture and no civic pride. And yet, they are happier than pigs in shit because their life has improved, thanks to market forces, since 1980. More and more of the basic necessities are available. Too bad I don't know enough Chinese to ask the countrysiders how ownership of farm land works.

CCTV7 has a military show where the studio hosts are wearing military uniforms. The military are shown training, having fun on the many trips the military allows them to have and helping the populace like social workers. During the May holiday, soldiers were acting as guides in some national parks. Furthermore, I saw video of soldiers feeding monkeys and picking oranges.

Nary a week goes for me where I don't see a vehicle accident. At Beixing, I saw a motorcycle with just one driver get rear ended by a motorcycle carrying a family of three. I saw the little boy on his side on the pavement with his shoe knocked off by the force of the collision. I had to look away when I saw he was about to cry. I saw another accident where a little girl fell off an electric bike head first into the pavement. Her father was trying to drive fast on a street crowded with pedestrians. An unexpected obstacle caused him to stop quickly and the girl, who was standing the floorboard in front of her father, was propelled onto the pavement. I have been told that the Chinese idea of a good driver is someone who can drive like he is in a computer driving game with obstacles.

A bus we took from Beixing to Taixing was overloaded. What was like a mini-bus (capacity 20 persons seated) had 15 persons standing in the aisles. At one point, the ticket taker and attendant (driver is another job) told the standing passengers to kneel and duck. I asked the wife why this was being done and she told me that the bus operators were avoiding being fined.

I saw a funeral procession cross a highway. No cars stopped to let it cross. Instead, the cars simply swerved to avoid mourners.

If you are in a an irritiable mood, you want to punch people who say hello to you because you are a laowei. What at most times is cute becomes stupid when seen in another light. Uncharitiable and mean thoughts? Yes. But there it is. It would be a lie to say you don't have these thoughts.

Being an expectant father, I look at the children more critically. I see what happens to all those Chinese only children who are treated with indulgence by their parents: their grossest and basest characteristics prosper. Too many times, I find myself telling the wife no child of mine is going to act like that!!.