Rain Day

No Preschool for Tony

Today's heavy Wuxi rain meant no preschool for Tony.  I was out early this morning and I didn't envy Jenny having to take Tony to preschool - she would have had to have carried Tony and an umbrella, as well as have had to wait for a bus, all in the rain.  But Jenny phoned the preschool to find out that all of the other parents had decided to not take their kids to school -- Tony would have been by himself, so Jenny didn't bother either.

 

Something so sensible in that -- not putting yourself through such a depressing bother.

 

Collision

I see that Xincheng Road, which runs form Yanqiao to Downtown Wuxi, has been narrowed by subway construction.  The road which is usually four lanes wide either way has been narrowed to one.  As well, they have erected these big blue metal fences all around the construction area making for many blind spots for the traffic that does go down these roads.

 

Yesterday, I saw this SUV come to a sudden stop as it was making a left turn in front of my bus.  Seeing that, I thought that was a dumb place to stop, for my bus had to make a difficult veer around the SUV.  But as the bus passed, I saw why the SUV had stopped:  it had hit a pedestrian -- an old lady.  Its' driver was trying to pick the lady up and move her out of his path. 

 

Wuxi Drivers are notorious for making turns without looking.  So this driver didn't think it was untoward to make a left turn around a blind corner

 

Street Fight

Three hours before the collision, I had an opportunity to see a street fight.  Three men had a confrontation with a traffic cop.  One man took a swing at the cop who in turn swung back.  The cop's hat fell to the ground.  Another of the three men took a flying Bruce Lee style kick at the cop which caused me to go "holy shit!".  The cop recovered his hat.  The two parties pointed at each other.  The cop danced like Bruce Lee in preparation for another assault, but the men walked away.  Or so it appeared as the car I was in drove by.

 

I assume the men were annoyed because the cop stopped them from crossing the street.  It was the second time I had seen this sort of fight.  I recall another time where a man on an electric bicycle took about nine or ten roundhouse punches at a traffic cop who had physically stopped him from crossing an intersection where a government motorcade was coming through.

 

What Tony can say

He can say "xia yu" which is Mandarin for rain.  He can also say "throw the ball".  Wow!

 

To Drive is a License.

You need a license to drive.  But it seems that once you drive, that state is a license to have no consideration for others. 

 

That is what I have come to believe living here.

 

Flaky Lands

I have often said that living in British Columbia is a good preparation for living in China.  Why?  British California is full of flakes.  China has a flaky system for doing things.