Things I saw and did on Boxing Day.

• I had three days off.  The Kaulins family has spent most of it indoors.  Today, it is raining.
• The wife wants me to help her as she plans to take Tony to a public bathhouse for bathing.  Public bathhouses are popular in Wuxi because most private bathrooms are cold in winter due to lack of central heating.  I have yet to go to one.
• I see that Dairy Queen has opened in the basement of Parkson's.  A small Blizzard will cost you 16 rmb.  The addition of DQ to the Parkson's basement is part of a recent renovation.  Parkson's Supermarket has wider aisles but its selection hasn't changed at all.
• As we walked to the Carrefour Baoli, I saw a man get beaten and thrown about like he was a rag doll.  Just before seeing the incident, my wife decided to buy some bananas off a street vendor.  She gave me one.  I looked down to peel it and then up to see a man stomping on a prone man's stomach about twenty feet or so ahead of me.  The sight was enough to make me feel awkward eating the banana.  For there I was snacking away like I was watching WWF wrestling on the television, except that what I was seeing was real and pathetic.   I then quickly finished off the banana wondering what do with the peel.  It was about then that I saw the man, whose stomach had been stomped on, get picked up and slammed down on the pavement, again like in WWF.  But this sad fellow was getting thrown down on hard asphalt.  The last I saw of him, he was sitting on a curb, his head resting in his arms as he quietly sobbed.  His assailant stood nearby talking to some companions.  One of the companions had held the assailant's jacket so he could administer the beating.  The beating was witnessed by many passers-by.  I asked the wife what had happened, she told me that the man was drunk.  I assumed she meant the victim.  This was not the first street fight I had witnessed in Wuxi, but it was the most WWF-like.  I threw the banana peel on the street on the wife's suggestion.  She said not to worry because someone would pick it up.
• I finished the second season of The Wire.  Still high quality stuff.  As I watched, I never had the sensation of getting bored with it.  I watched four straight one-hour episodes on Wednesday night and couldn't turn it off.
• I saw one third of WuxiLife, the Danish part, at Baoli Carrefour.  He told me that Tony looks like the wife.  I don't see Niels much these days but he was looking good.
• The wife made some great mashed potatoes Wednesday evening.  The second best thing she has done for me other than having Tony.
• We are looking for a babysitter for Tony.  Anyone interested?  Anyone know where I can find one?  He would be a joy and pure ease to look after.
• We need the babysitter so the wife can supervise the decoration of our new apartment.
• Meanwhile in Canada, my nephew and niece got Ipods for Christmas for which they are very excited.  It only seems like yesterday that they were as small as little Tony. 
• Following the U.S presidential election can be dizzying.  Rudy G was up; now he is going down.  John McCain is now a rising star when before he was going no where.  Huckabee was last week's star but now people realize he is from the same state as Bill Clinton (so he can't be trusted).  Fred Thompson's entry was a splash but nothing else happened for him.  Romney and Edwards are the Hair guys.  They could go up the middle and win.  Hilary was supposed to be dead certain.  But then I heard talk that Obama will overtake.  But then someone says don't count Hilary out just yet.  Meanwhile, Ron Paul and Mike Bloomberg (another NYC mayor) are maybe going to make third party runs.  All this talk and speculation only shows what can happen when an election is too long as this presidential election is.  I believe the length is an unforeseen result of the Election Campaign spending laws that instead of curtailing spending only made it the campaign longer.  Candidates now have to spend more time canvassing donors instead of canvassing voters.
• I bought a copy of 21st Century, an English language  publication, at a newsstand for 2 rmb.  21st Century is put out by the China Daily, the government newspaper.  It is geared towards teens and young twenty something's.  Leafing through the issue, there is a lot of fluff about fashion and sports and lifestyle.  However, some of the political stuff is scary.  Putin's successor is described as a bookish former academic.  The sinisterness of what Putin is doing in making this bookish lapdog his presidential successor while he takes on the PM is not discussed.  Four or five pages of the publication are devoted to Green issues.  The Nanjing massacres, said 21st century, were so traumatic that they merit being told about again and again and again. (so as to be able to gloss over the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.)