Diary: July 8 to July 14, 2014

Highlights

• Andis is rather distracted these days on account of it being summer.
• He means to answer a question about television series.
• Andis downloads and watches some Seinfeld episodes.
• Andis is surprised when he reads the score of the Germany – Argentina game.
• Andis has some complaints about the bus stops near the Yanqiao Metro Station.
• Andis has complaints about WC kickball.
• Andis decides to take the 602 bus to the Xi Bei Canal Metro Station.
• Andis runs into 635 Sophia on the Wuxi Metro.
• On Monday, Andis sees some ominous things on the Wuxi Metro.
• Andis watches the 1973 movie Badlands.
• Andis expresses a great dislike of remote controlled toy cars.
• Andis spends Monday with his son Tony.
• Andis goes to the Mao Ye Mall for the first time.
• Andis decides that he will say kickball instead of soccer or football.

Tuesday [July 8]

[School Laptop]

• This week's shift: Tuesday 13:00 to 21:00, Wednesday 13:00 to 21:00, Thursday 10:00 to 21:00, Friday 11:00 to 21:00, and Saturday 10:00 to 18:00.
• Tony wanted to ride the subway today. Not to be.
• I walked to the Yanqiao Subway Station. The walking I that I had to do made another ten minutes seem not such a big deal.
• I downloaded a bunch of Seinfeld episodes (Season 2) and some movies (Ida, King's Row) on my day off.
• I suppose I should answer a question over the next week. I forgot to last week. I think I will talk about my favorite television series of all time.
• The first one is the Civilisation series done by Kenneth Clark. It was only thirteen episodes but I have watched it all at least six times. I never fail to watch it without getting something new out of it.

Wednesday [July 9]

[School Laptop]

• I didn't have my glasses on when I checked the score of the Germany – Brazil WC semifinal match. The Brazilians definitely had one goal. The German number was blurry. When I put my glasses on, it was a case of oh my!
• I don't want to run into any Germans today. They would be insufferable.
• People who annoy me. I will accuse them of being Brazilian. Oh! Want to cry! Brazil boy! He he he he he!
• If I owned a pub, I would go on an Wuxi Expat forum and tell any Brazilians in Wuxi that they could cry in beers at my pub for half price today.
• Today's shift: 13:00 to 21:00.
• I had a Chinese class this morning. The vocabulary was easy for me. However, my tones. 我的声调！不好！ 很不好！
• I took the subway this morning. For the first time, I pulled out something and tried to read it.
• One thing I really hate about the Yanqiao Subway Station is the lack of nearby bus stops. After getting off the bus 602, I have to walk about 300 meters to get to the station. After getting off the subway, I have to walk a little further to get to the nearest bus stop. Two times in the past week, I have gotten off and was making my way to the bus stop when the bus I was wanting to take would come by while I was still too far away from the bus stop to be able to try and hoof it to catch it. Hopefully, this will be rectified.
• The bank where I could usually do a quick in-and-out to put money on my bus card has had long lineups the last two times I have gone. Yesterday, the lineup was so long that I decided to put 200 rmb on my card instead of my normal 100.
• Rare readers may remember my reporting seeing a little boy, in defiance of his mother, pissing right at the top of the stairs at a Nanchan Subway Station entrance. I told my wife about this and she warned me that if I talked about the incident too much, I would have the locals thinking I was denigrating them.... Guilty as charged
• Yesterday, I published last week's blog diary using my Ipad and found it quite convenient. My VPN on my laptop needs to be updated by my tech guy. Unfortunately, I am working evenings the rest of the week.
• Study Adviser Edith has not taken the subway yet. Her attitude is that she has taken the subway in Nanjing and all subways are the same.

July 10 [Thursday]

[School Laptop]

• Last night, as I was waiting at the train station, I tried to type the characters for Yanqiao，堰桥， on my Ipod. Dumb me, I saw this: 往堰桥, and I thought the first character was “yan” when really it was “wang.” 往 means towards.
• I got this morning in time to catch the extra time and the penalty kicks in the Holland – Argentina WC semifinal. I am glad I didn't watch the game from the kickoff. From what I read, the first ninety minutes of the game had few scoring chances.
• This match shows why Americans are right to loathe soccer. In the biggest games, nothing seems to happen. I lost any interest in rooting for a team to win, and I found myself hoping that someone would score. Typically today's game was decided on penalty kicks.
• It was said the Brazilians lost the game because they were actually taking offensive initiative early in the game. But soccer typically awards the teams that counter attack well. Germany scored their first two goals because of this and Brazil folded after that. Perhaps, that is why the Dutch and Argentines played so conservatively.
• Perhaps the Dutch were unaware that the object of penalty kicks is not to hit the goalie with the ball.
• The Brazil – Holland third place match will probably be more entertaining than the final.
• I took the 602 to get to the Xibei Canal subway station, the next station down the line number one from the Yanqiao station. The 602 bus does there what I wish it would do at the Yanqiao station: it stops next to the subway entrance. At the Yanqiao, you have to walk about 300 meters from the 602 stop.
• I have watched five episodes of Seinfeld. Why? Why not? Something to do. Yada yada.
• A student tells me the following story. In 1976, friends of his mother take the train to Tang Shan at the time of the earthquake. They tried to find a hotel to stay in but they had no luck so they tried to sleep at the train station till staff kicked them out. Walking away from the station, following the tracks, they felt a great shaking. They looked back to see that the train station had collapsed.
• I am scheduled to teach a student named Orange.
• Last night, Tony was watching Seinfeld with me. He didn't care much for Kramer but he laughed aloud at something that the Elaine character was doing.

July 11 [Friday]

[School Laptop]

• I work 11:00 to 21:00 today.
• I took the 602 to Boston Glory to catch the train.
• There weren't too many passengers on the train.
• I have two classes with a student named Unicorn today.
• Outside it was very humid. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a heavy rain shower sometime this afternoon.
• Otherwise, I don't have much to say for myself today.
• Oh yeah. I did change the wallpaper on my Ipad Home Screen. A Jewish site had this photo of a man with an index finger pointed upward against his lip in a sh sound. I had to capture that image.
• David Warren's site is currently unavailable. Did he pull the plug on the site or was he the victim of malicious leftists?

Saturday [July 12]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 10:00 to 18:00.
• Humid. Humid. Humid.
• Taking the 602 to the Subway Station (Xibei), I saw the aftermath of a collision between a taxi and a motorcycle. The motorcyclist sat on the pavement, near the left-over hulk of his cycle, clutching onto his leg. In the midst of debris was the torn-off bumper of the taxi.
• I was thinking. It is only slander if it is not true....

[Home Laptop]

• At the Nanchan Subway Station I saw my former 635 bus mate Sophia. I had wondered if I would ever see her again what with the subway being so big. Last time I saw her, she told me she was pregnant. Today, I told her that she didn't look pregnant – I saw no evidence of a tummy. She told me that she had experienced morning sickness and has a craving for sour food.
• When Sophia has the baby, she will be going to Henan province (or is it Hunan) where her mother-in-law will help her look after the baby.
• Sophia and I sat together on the ride to the Yanqiao station. Currently living at the Olympic apartments, she loves the subway. It is in a perfect location for her. She wondered if it was trouble for me to walk to Casa K, it being further from the subway station than the 635 bus stop where I used to disembark.. I told her it wasn't and I needed the exercise anyway.
• Getting off the subway, passengers can either take the escalator or the stairs to go down and then out of the station. Sophia thought I was crazy to want to take the stairs. I don't like being in a crowd, do like being one of the few to take the stairs, do want some exercise, and I did in fact get downstairs faster then Sophia did. In fact, I got down stairs so much quicker than her that I had to wait a minute for her to join up with me.
• When I arrived home, Jenny was taking Tony to Tae Kwan Do class. So I eat some cold fried rice and fired up the Apple TV machine with which I finished watching this movie Badlands, a 1973 movie starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Badlands was based on the real life killing spree of one Charles Starkwater. I liked it. Its violence was subdued by 2014 standards. I loved its great scenic shots. The acting was minimal and effective. But it did seem to make mass murder seem like a fun adventure. And at the end Sheen's character was treated like a celebrity. Flown back to his native state, the movie ends in the clouds...

Sunday [July 13]

[Ipad Mini]

• No shifts today.
• The k family goes downtown for a buffet lunch at the jinling hotel.  Tony didn't like that  we had to take the 25 bus to get there.  He wanted to take the metro.
• Lunch was fine.
• Jenny said that I am eating less but getting fatter.  Happened to my Dad in his middle age too.
• We then went to the Baoli Carrefour to get some margarine.  Tony wanted to play on the kids paddle boats in the mall courtyard.  So Jenny did the shopping by herself while I watched the Tony.
• To satisfy Tony, I and he took the metro home, catching it at train station.  Walking from the bus stop to the metro stop, I noticed the walking surface around the train station had become very uneven.  Not being paved but tiled, the surface seems like a pile of slightly shaken dominoes.
• The train arrived at platform just as we did,  we got on quickly a center car, not one at the ends and had a hard time finding a seat.
• Someone we know bought Tony a remote controlled operated toy car.  If Hitler had a kid, I wouldn't buy his kid a remote control toy car.  They are the most annoying things.  This toy car hits the wall of our apartment very hard.

[Home Laptop]

• I been watching some Johnny Carson, Dean Martin and Foster Brookes videos courtesy Youtube. They were good for some chuckles.
• Why can't all drunks be like Foster Brookes? The ones I encounter in real life are always pathetic.
• Barack Obama, in a speech he made recently, tried to refute charges that he was not bi-partisan by praising some things done by Republicans Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon. So, it would seem that he only liked dead Republicans.
• Kickball is a good name for the sport that is usually called soccer or football.
• I satisfied my David Warren craving by reading his piece about the Germany – Brazil 7 – 1 match on the Catholic Thing. The Germans, said Warren, bestowed a blessing on Brazil. Perhaps the defeat will make the country less obsessed with kickball.

Monday [July 14]
[Ipad Mini]

• I have taken Tony on the train.
• On the Wuxi Metro, I saw the red hammer and sickle flag on a wall by the driver's door.
• On the Metro video screen, I saw Jimmy Kimmel hosting a kid's round table.  Why are the Chinese still harping on that?
• Anyway, two evil signs.
• I have taken Tony to the Moi Ye Department Store.  Bought him a toy.  Jenny won't be pleased.

[Home Laptop]

• No shifts today.
• I didn't hear the alarm that was to wake me so I could watch the World Cup Men's Kickball final between the Jerries and the Argies. I had predicted a zero – zero tie with penalty kicks and I was but eight minutes from being correct when Germany scored.
• Why not call Germany Germmany? The Germ-mans are full of germs. Ha ha.

• From the toy department of Moi Ye, where I typed into my Ipad, we went to Burger King to satisfy a craving I had. As soon as I satisfied my need for a Whopper, I felt guilt and remorse. For I had given in and the reward was pitiful, and now Burger King seems like an ordinary and depressing and like the Jack in the Box I once went to in Washington state.
• We wondered around Moi Ye, a cavernous mall that is still under construction and full of lots of empty store space. The only reason I would want to return to it is to try out the ice rink. Yes, it has an ice rink.
• I will say that the mall is easily accessible by the Metro and that it had a tank full of sharks.
• Then, Tony & I went to Taihu Square. The walk to it from the Mall was ghastly because of the humidity and the appalling appearance of the area which was still under construction and was thus full of trash, dirt, and musty smells.
• Like last Monday, Tony spent an hour driving the toy cars around the square. The weather was hot which meant that Tony had the square to himself. I hated the heat but I was glad to not see any other children.
• Local children, who Tony did run into today, were asking Tony if he was a foreigner.
• Tony wanted to go the Wuxi Museum where I then discovered that I had only seen half the exhibits last week. On the other wing of the building, there were technology exhibits which Tony quite liked. We spend two hours there in air-conditioned settings. Tony talked to the museum workers in Chinese while I sat mute.
• I will answer my television question next week. If I remember.

Diary: July 1 to July 7, 2014

Highlights

• Andis celebrates Dominion Day, his country's national day, by doing an English Corner about his country.

• Bemusingly, Andis observes the students lack of knowledge of his country.

• The Wuxi Metro begins operation on its first line. Andis is very excited about this.

• Andis gets emotional during a company class.

• On American Independence Day, Andis does an English Corner about America.

• Andis discovers he has been missing much by not staying up to watch the WC.

• Andis & Tony take the train to downtown Wuxi on Monday.

• Andis witnesses a particularly egregious example of a child urinating in public.

Tuesday [July 1]

[Home Laptop]

• Dominion Day. I will observe it by doing an English Corner about Canada and listening to podcasts from CJOB. I have put two Dominion Day related postings to the We Chat app. I don't think I will be talking to a single Canadian today.

• It is also the first day of operation of the Wuxi Metro. I don't plan on taking it in the morning. I will be taking it to get home tonight.

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 13:00 to 21:00.

• I took the 602支 to get to school this morning. Downtown, I saw people going into the subway stations. I was annoyed because these fences had been put up that blocked my usual path to cross Zhongshan Road. And so I had to walk a little further than had been necessary to get to where I wanted to go.

• I was thinking. If there isn't a shuttle bus to get me to the subway station, I will only be taking the subway at night.

• I am in a foul mood this morning. It was a case of damned if you do and dammed if you don't with Jenny. I would have banged my head against the wall but it wouldn't have done any good or bad.

• I just done my Canada Day English Corner. The students don't know much about Canada. The first famous Canadian to come to be mentioned by the students was Justin Bieber. To fill out a list of ten famous Canadians, one student named seven wrestlers from WWE. I thought the students could name twenty places in Canada. They told me five.

Wednesday [July 2]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 13:00 to 21:00.

• As I was getting ready to go to my Chinese class, it was raining heavily and so I decided to cancel the class. It would have been a nice day to stay home.

• I took the subway home last night. It was nice but I then have to walk twenty minutes, at a brisk pace, to get to Casa Kaulins. I do get home about twenty minutes earlier.

• I am another foul mood today. I was awoken at 4:00 AM by excruciatingly annoying whining by Tony that went on for half-an-hour.

• I had to wait thirty minutes for a bus this morning.

• There was a lineup, thirty long, of people waiting to put money on their bus and metro passes. I stood in the line.

• So far, I have had two long waits and one weak student – I haven't blown a gasket yet. I don't plan on blowing gasket. I would rather I didn't blow a gasket, but I can see a blown gasket coming today or at least a episode of being stricken with rage.

Thursday [July 3]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 10:00 to 21:00.

• I took the subway home last night. The train seemed to be more crowded than the night before. Walking from the station to Casa Kaulins, I didn't walk through the park as I had done the previous evening. I still walked down this street with many shops and businesses, and dropped in one to get something to drink.

• The subway will mean my having to walk more. But when I think of my subway experiences in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hong Kong, it was the same deal. Lots of walking done long corridors and tunnels on account of the subway. In the present case, I will have to walk five minutes from school to get on the train and then twenty minutes after I get off.

• For the first time, this morning, I took the subway to school. I took the 602 bus to the stop nearest the Yanqiao subway stop and walked for five minutes – why isn't there a bus that stops right by the station? Where is the shuttle bus someone told me about?

• I was looking forward to the ride because it was to be in daylight and because I could see from a new above perspective, the area of Wuxi I had, for five years, been riding through by bus.

• What I saw from the train was sobering. The opening of the subway and my being able to take it to work has been exhilarating for me. But looking out from the train on the portion of the route is above ground, I was struck by how so much of Wuxi is undeveloped. I saw old factories, on the verge of tumbling or being torn down, and many, many empty fields.

• I got off at the Sanyang Plaza stop. A big place and it took me a few minutes to determine what was the right exit, and a few minutes then to get to it and through it. The place seemed like it was being underutilized. I also noticed a security guard inspecting a spot where water had leaked.

• I took a lot video while on the train. Tony is jealous of my having been on it. I had promised to take some video for him and he held me to that promise last night. However, I wasn't able to take video because it was dark. This morning, I took about eight minutes of it which should satisfy Tony greatly when I see him tonight.

Friday [July 4]

[School Laptop]

• As I would tell the students, it is America's national day today. In Canada, we would say it is the fourth of July holiday in the States. In America, they also would say the same or maybe call it Independence day. They would never call it America Day. [The fact that we Canadians call our national holiday Canada Day gets my craw, as I believe the expression goes. It used to be officially known as Dominion Day and is still referred to as such by Canadians patriots who loved the Canada that existed before the 1960s.]

• Today's shift: 11:00 to 21:00.

• I am still enthralled by the novelty of taking the train to work so I haven't been studying my Chinese as much as I should if I ever want to be able to use it.

• David Warren is stopping the publishing of comments on his website. He had many good reasons to do so like it took up too much of his time. I can only envy the fact that he has such problems. I have had maybe 10 comments on my blog this year, and the only one I ever had was so rancid that I had to block him [or her].

• Tony will get his first chance to ride the subway this afternoon. Jenny will take him. Last night, he watched the video I had taken of the subway and said he wanted to ride.

Saturday [July 5]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 10:00 to 18:00.

• Raining heavily outside.

• I took the train home last night. Not so many people at the station as there had been on the previous nights. This can be attributed to the rain.

• Embarrassing moment yesterday at the Cummins company. I was doing an off-site gig for the school: a business presentation class where I get to evaluate presentations done by the students. At the end of the students presentations, I had to make a “perfect” presentation for the students. I decided to talk about how it was that I came to be in Wuxi and why it was that I was in my tenth year of living in Wuxi. I had what I thought was a stirring start. Fifteen years ago, I told the class, if you had told me that I would be spending ten years of my life in a place called Wuxi, China I would have said you were crazy. I hadn't heard of the place and couldn't pronounce its name correctly. I then went into the things that happened so that I came to be in Wuxi. At the end of the speech I made mention of my father and I was overcome with emotion that I started to cry. I couldn't hold back the tears and I was so embarrassed...

• The topic of last night's English Corner was the USA since it was fourth of July. Asking what the students didn't like about America, they told me they didn't like American foreign policy. What did they love about America? A lot of the students said technology and Hollywood movies.

• I also asked the students if they preferred America to Japan, then to Russia, then to England, and finally to Germany. America was preferred in every pairing but the last.

• I ended the Corner by asking the students if they preferred the idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to peace, order and good government. All the students choose the former. One student did say if he was older, hence more mature, he would prefer the latter.

Sunday [July 6]

[School Laptop]

• My shift today: 10:00 to 18:00.

• Someone made a comment on my blog! It wasn't at all favorable but it was a comment nonetheless and I am grateful to get it.

• I took the train to work this morning and meet up with a foreigner who works at a high school near Casa Kaulins. So far, I have seen three foreigners at or around the Yanqiao Subway station.

• Jenny kaiboshed my plan to take Tony to school this morning. It is probably just as well because Tony would have spent his time, while I was in class, playing computer games.

• I saw the one goal that was scored in the two WC quarterfinal matches played early this morning. I saw Argentina score the only goal they needed early in their match against Belgium. As the first half came to an end, I went to sleep. When I woke up, I expected to read the final results of the Holland – Costa Rica match but was pleasantly surprised to see the game was not finished. I caught the end of the extra time portion of the scoreless match, and I was disappointed to see Holland prevail on penalty kicks.

• They say that penalty kicks are a cruel way to decide a big WC match. I say that a football or soccer match itself, without the penalty kicks, is a cruel way to decide a WC match. It seems that football or soccer rarely awards offensive initiative.

• Yesterday, I got off the train at Yanqiao and was waved at by a foreigner who was going to catch a train. I walked for fifteen minutes and meet Jenny at the Wanda Plaza where we had supper. We first had to wait for a driver to pick up Tony and take him to his taekwando class. As I waited, I felt numb all over. I couldn't control my body movements fully. I had the shakes. I was feeling like an old man. [I wonder if it explains my getting emotional at Cummins.]

Monday [July 7]

[Home Laptop]

• No shift today so I got to spend a day with Tony.

• Last night, after work, I met Jenny & Tony at the Ba Bai Ban toy department. I bought Tony monster number 10 from the Baidan Ultraman figurine collection. The three of us then went to a restaurant near the school, Baishilo is its name, for supper. We then took the subway home. It would have been the first time that the three of us were together on the Wuxi Metro but we got separated as we got to the platform where the train was parked with doors open, just about to leave. Stupidly, I rushed with Tony to a door leaving Jenny behind. Jenny got our of our sight. Not seeing her, Tony didn't want to get on the train. But she in fact had gotten on the train through a door that was behind a pillar from our vantage point. I knew she had but I didn't want to argue with Tony. As the doors closed and the train sped off, I phoned Jenny and found out that she had gotten on the train. So, Tony and I met her at the Yanqiao station. The next train was only eight minutes behind hers.

• This morning, Tony & I left Casa Kaulins at ten o'clock and took the train to Taihu Square which is two stops past Nanchan Temple station. Getting out of the station it seemed that I had made a mistake in choosing to take Tony to Taihu Square. Looking around, I saw that we were not close to anything and the area was still under construction. There were no pedestrian crossings. There was lots of rubble and temporary construction barriers. After ten minutes of walking, which was making me sweat, we came upon the Wuxi Museum Building.

• I will have to go to the museum by myself. Tony was either insistently not interested or hopping around the exhibits excitedly like he was a jumping bean. I spent half my time trying to chase him and the other half bickering with him about going to an exhibit.

• What I did see at the museum was enough to make me say to any of my rare readers, who do happen to be in Wuxi, that the place is worth a one hour visit. The first floor displays and dioramas of Wuxi history seemed interesting, as did the fourth floor revolutionary displays. I say “seemed” because Tony wouldn't let me spend the time to look at anything in detail. On the fourth floor, he cried because he didn't want to look at the revolutionary displays. Maybe, he has a healthy and natural aversion to Leftism and Communism but I suspect that his real motivation was that he wanted me to take him to a toy store. I had to carry him around in order to look at the fourth floor displays. I shouldn't be carrying a six year old around but in some ways Tony is reverting to his three year old habits.

• At the museum gift shop, I bought a deck of playing cards depicting images of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. A kind of gruesome souvenir, I know.

• From the museum we walked to the nearby Taihu Square where there were children driving miniature toy cars around. There was no way that I was going to go pass this without Tony protesting. So for a hour, which set me back 20 rmb, Tony got to drive a motorcycle and then a car around. For the first half hour, he did so while there were four other boys around. This let to predictable trouble as Tony and the other boys started crashing into each other with their vehicles. Mothers of the other boys started screaming, perhaps at Tony, perhaps at the other boys, and Tony was in tears saying that an other boy was crashing into him. This wasn't quite true because I did see Tony crashing into other boys on purpose as well. Tony behaves awfully when there are other children around. But I wonder how much Tony is assaulted by other children because he is of mixed blood. The second half hour was bliss though because the other boys left and Tony was able to drive the square by himself, without being molested or molesting other boy drivers.

• Despite crying at one point, Tony was more angry when I told him his time was up. I told him we would go back one day. Though not a weekend if I can help it. The thought of him driving a car around that square with so many other children makes a weekday the best time to return.

• We took the train and then walked to the Burger King at Nanchan Jie Bar Street. Tony said he was tired and insisted on my carrying him, which I did against my better judgment. I couldn't carry him the whole way and he didn't seemed to be swayed by my insisting that I was tired as well.

• I assumed that Burger King accepted payment by credit card. But to be sure I made a point of pulling out the credit card from my wallet before I ordered. The credit card didn't slide out easily from the wallet slot it was in and I had to struggle to get it out. And thinking that the manager and the clerk were looking at me, made it all the more difficult to pull it out. But when I did, I felt assured that they would take payment by credit card. I then had to struggle to get them to understand my order. I wanted a Whopper with drink and fries, another drink for Tony as well as chicken nuggets. [There always seems to be confusion anytime I order an additional drink along with a meal deal.] Having got the order correct, I gave them my credit card to pay and was told that they didn't take payment by card, only cash. I phoned Jenny and asked if I could withdraw money using the credit card from an ATM. She said it would be awfully expensive. So, I decided that Tony & I were going to have to eat somewhere else. I first thought to go to another restaurant in the area but eventually decided to go back to the Hui Shan District and get something to eat at the Wanda Plaza.

• I was tired and annoyed as I walked back to Nanchan Temple Subway station. Tony wanted to be carried, I was sweating profusely in the hot Wuxi summertime sun, and I fumed at the stupidity of the Burger King staff who surely must have seen me pull a credit card out of my wallet right under their noses before I made the order. Not that ultimately would have made my mood better, but my hopes had been raised when they shouldn't have been.

• And then we got to the entrance of the Nanchan Temple station where I saw a child, four or five years old, his pants down to his ankles, pissing at the top of the stairs at a spot that was very high traffic. Thirty or forty people had to walk around the child as he pissed. His mother was very annoyed at him but the kid didn't seem to care and then decided to dance and try to spray his mother's leg and feet. I hope his mother beat him to a pulp. While the mother is not entirely to blame for what happened, she probably had let the child piss in public as a habit.

• Seeing children piss or shit in public is such a common thing in Wuxi that I rarely make mention of it in this blog anymore. This pissing incident rates mention, however, because of the location of it and the child's audacious behavior. I would say it was one of the top four public bathroom incidents I have ever witnessed in Wuxi. [The other three were a child being made by its mother to piss on the floor in the vegetable section of Auchan Supermarket, a child shitting like a cannon as it was being held in its mother's arms, and a boy shitting in full view of everyone who walked past the restaurant that his parents owned.]

• Tony and I ended up having a bucket at the Wanda Plaza KFC.

• In the evening, Tony & I came home and discovered that we had gotten sunburned during the day.

Diary: June 24 to June 30, 2014

Highlights

• This week, Andis tries to name seven politicians that he admires.
• Tony begins his summer vacation.
• Andis takes the 617 bus to get to school.
• Andis finishes reading a book about Chairman Deng.
• Andis discovers a new use for an umbrella in China.
• Andis notes a WWI anniversary.
• Andis watches the movie Under the Skin.
• A student tells Andis he hates the number 250.
• Andis wonders when the Wuxi Subway will begin operation.
• Andis goes to Wuxi Blue Marlin.
• Andis stays up late to watch Holland—Mexico soccer game.

Tuesday [June 24]

[Home Laptop]

• Tony has just two days more of school till his summer vacation starts. I look forward to not having, for the summer, to get up and take him to be picked up at 7:00 AM.
• Mexico advances in the WC! Hurrah!
• This week I will try to name seven politicians I admire.
• It is easy to name the first politician I admire: Preston Manning.
• For those rare readers of this blog who aren't from Canada, Preston Manning started a new party, the Reform Party, from scratch that became the official opposition in the federal parliament. The current Prime Minister of Canada was a member of that party.
• You could say the Reform Party had parallels to the Tea Party movement in the USA though it is not an exact similarity.
• Manning could have retained control of the party but choose to stand up for a leadership review which he lost. He was a Canadian Cincinnatus.

[School Laptop]

• This week's shifts: Tuesday 13:00 to 21:00, Wednesday 13:00 to 21:00, Thursday 10:00 to 21:00, Friday 11:00 to 21:00, and Saturday 10:00 to 18:00.
• I took the number 617 and number 3 bus to get to school today because I felt like looking at some scenery, or at least something different.
• Early in the 617, I was thinking how amazing it seemed that there was an area of the city with shops and businesses that I hadn't really explored but would if I had the time. [I have lived in Wuxi ten years and like to think that I have seen it all.]
• I wish I could have taken a photo of a shop sign that said Samsung and was accompanied by the famous Apple logo.
• The ride on the 617 was bumpy. The parts of Wuxi that the route took us through didn't seem to have been blessed with easy government construction money.
• The skies of Wuxi were brown with smog.
• I had to get off the 617 to catch a number 3 which would get me to school. I tried to get off at a stop that was early in the number 3 route so I could get a seat. The stop that I choose to get off the 617 was rather forlorn. It had no shelter or seats; just a dinky sign on the side of the road. The sign was placed on the side of the bicycle lane and so I was confused about whether to wait by the sign or cross the wide bicycle lane (where big trucks were being driven as well as bikes) and wait at a muddy spot between bushes on the narrow median that was between the bike lane and the main road. [The bus stopped on the road and not near the sign.]
• On the number 3 bus, I saw another massive office complex under construction. Enough already!
• Tonight, the high school students will learn the results of their university entrance examinations. If you want to pay for the phone call, they can find out at 5:00 PM. Otherwise, the results will be available on the Internet at 8:00 PM.
• I just had a student who has spent the last year studying at Kent State University. She knew about the infamous shooting of the students in 1970 and told me that she was shown a video of about the incident when she first came to the school.

Wednesday [June 25]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 13:00 to 21:00.
• I had a Chinese lesson this morning. My teacher Angel was grilling me on my tones which I haven't quite grasped. Embarrassing to say after ten years of living in China.
• Tony's summer vacation starts tomorrow. So for two months, I don't have to get up early in order to get Tony to school.
• Many students have told me that they heard that the Subway was supposed to begin operation on June 28^th. Others have told me July 1^st. So, I have no definite word about it.
• I spent an hour participating in the taping of some commercial that will be seen on the subway (whenever it opens.)
• I have downloaded Under the Skin. I have read the novel that the movie is based on.
• I have discovered another use for an umbrella in China. You can use one to whack a person who cuts in from of you in a lineup. Just now, I had a woman squeeze herself in front of me when I was standing in line waiting to order food at McDonald's. There was but a foot between me and the person in front of me when the woman budded in. So I took my umbrella and tapped her on the shoulder with it. She looked back at me and went to the back of the line. Hopefully, she was suitably chastened....

Thursday [June 26]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 10:00 to 21:00.
• Tony's summer vacation begins today. I get up at 6:30 AM – later than I would have been arising if Tony had to go to school.
• It's pissing down rain. Maybe my 10:00 student doesn't show up.
• I saw my sometime 635 bus companion Sophia this morning as I was picking up breakfast at the McDonald's that is near my school. I asked her how she was doing, and she said she wasn't well to which I quickly asked why...
• She told me she was pregnant and was experiencing morning sickness – it was an awkward way to report such news. I had to ask her if she was happy about the fact of the pregnancy to which she replied that she was and then I offered her my congratulations. She is engaged to be married and her fiancee would like to have two children.
• I will have to yield Sophia my seat on the 635 bus home for the next eight months.... But she usually goes back home in the daytime and so my chances to be gallant will be few and far between.
• I watched all of the Under the Skin film that I downloaded yesterday. Here are my thoughts about it:
• I had been waiting a long time to see the movie since I read about it in at a Catholic website. [Crisis Magazine in an article entitled life imitates art.]
• I had read the novel. It made the female alien, who was preying on male hitchhikers, seem very human or at least full of human concerns.
• The film was a very loose adaptation of the novel.
• I experienced the feeling of the novel being better than the book.
• I wonder how the film would have struck someone who hadn't read the novel. Reading the novel may have taken away some of the film's power.
• So, I did feel a let down after having wanted to see the movie since I read that article about it in Crisis magazine.
• I suppose the film couldn't be faithful to the novel because it was done on a low budget.
• A lot of the film's shots didn't really advance the story.
• The film didn't make me want to go to Scotland. The place seem damp and dank, full of people with barbaric accents.
• While the novel engrosses us in the thoughts of the female alien. The film presents us an alien who is silent and dour.
• The novel's way of trapping the hitchhikers with needles embedded in the passenger seat was better than the film's having the men follow the female alien into a pit of ooze. And there was no need for the film to show these men naked. It was gross.
• The best part of the film was its hypnotic music.
• I give the film a rating of three point five stars out of five.
• The best recent film (film made in the two years or so) that I have seen this year is the Lunchbox.
• A student tells me that a whole lot of businessmen, who were operating in the Hui Shan district, are in jail for having bribed the leader of the Hui Shan District. These businessmen are parents of his classmates so that is how he knows.
• I have just spent two hours studying Chinese.
• So give me a medal!

Friday [June 29]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 11:00 to 21:00.
• I am just about finished reading a book about Deng Xiao Peng. In the concluding chapter (I am still in the midst of its appendix mateiral), the author makes the claim that no man in history could claim responsibility for improving the lives of so many people as Deng did in his days as the supreme leader of China. I dispute that claim on many grounds. First off, all Deng did was stop his country from being so stupid – this stupidity was brought to China in the first place by his earlier efforts in working for Chairman Mao. Secondly, it was people in the West who stood up to Communism that are ultimately responsible for the rescuing of China from poverty. The real heroes stood up for a system that produced people like Edison and Brunell who really were responsible for the material betterment of people all over the world and including China. Deng was merely artful in not letting the writing on the wall stop the Communist party from existing.
• It's wet outside. Inside, I feel muggy.
• It took me three frigging hours to get my USB Wifi device to work. The device has to be put in the USB slot in just the right way. Earlier, I had the device working if I pressed down on it but as soon as I released my finger, I would lose Wife and began to screw profusely.
• Andis: The sky is black. Student: It looks like Obama. Andis: We would say it looks like rain.
• A student told me that the subway will begin operation on July 1^st. Or at least that is what she thought she heard on the local news.

Saturday [June 28]

[School Laptop]

• This morning on the bus, I saw video which seem to be saying that the subway would begin operation on July 1.
• Today's shift: 10:00 to 18:00. Afterward, I have to go to the pub with the trainers for some reason.
• Last night, I very briefly saw what appeared to be a man giving the driver of a car a piece of his mind. The car driver's door was open and the man was speaking to the driver in a very threatening tone.
• Tony wanted to make me a sandwich last night. Lord knows where he got that idea from.
• Jenny tells me that Tony will be taking karate classes.
• Good.
• I finished reading the Deng Xiao Peng book. I started reading Pilgrim, a thriller novel, and the Twilight of Abundance – a dystopian look at the rest of the 21^st century.
• I am playing that same farging game with the USB device. When you have Wifi, it is pain to lose it, like it would be a pain to lose electricity.
• Last night, a student told me that his least favorite number is 250 because it means dumb person in Chinese. That is, 250 or 二百五十，erbaiwushi in pinyin means dummy.
• Oh my God! I forgot to list the politicians I admire. I have mentioned Preston Manning. Now here are four more: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Sarah Palin, and ….

Sunday [June 29]

[Home Laptop]

• and, and and Scott Walker from the state of Wisconsin.
• I hate pubs. I hate pubs. When I go to them, I drink and I give in to the urge to smoke and feel like shit, both morally and physically. There has got to be a more civilized place to meet with people. There has got to be place, other than a bar, where civilized people can be found.
• I type these complaints because I went to the Blue Marlin last night. I had to do so for work.
• We sat on a patio next to a canal that goes through the Nanchan Temple Market area. Towards the end of the evening, the place was infested with mosquitoes.
• As I was leaving the pub, a former student, her name was Rose, came up to talk to me. I couldn't recall her and I tried to finesse the fact by being overly jocular. As I went to catch my bus, I thought about what a dipshit I had been. I then put it out of my mind and returned to thinking about my petty grievances against the world.
• Yesterday was the 100^th anniversary of Gavro Princip shooting Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. The assassination then lead to one thing which lead to another, and some parts of the world are still screwed up because of it. Anyway, when quizzing the students about the date, I found one student had a vague idea about it. Another student told me that he thought World War One was a series of sword fights and that they didn't use guns during it.
• No shifts today.
• It is muggy outside. Walking briefly in the morning, I felt sweat and saw haze, and a lazy feeling came over me so I don't want to do anything today but read.
• Because Tony hasn't been getting up early this week, I have missed making entries at TKIC Wordpress.
• I published Dispatches from Akicistan #9.
• I was crossing the street on a green light when a minivan cut a little too close when making a right turn around me. Farging ass-hat!
• The Wanda Plaza Grocery had lineups at the checkouts that were twenty five persons long so I decided that I wasn't going to buy anything. I could go tomorrow when no one would be in the store, I reasoned.
• The Twilight of Abundance book predicts that the Chinese will start a small war in their region in 2016 because they believe that Obama is weak and won't honor the mutual defense treaties that America has with some of China's neighbors. A bold prediction that I would bet against. I don't think the Chinese care so much who is the president of the USA. They are very self-centered people.
• I had no control over today. I had no plan. I now feel very unfulfilled and ineffectual.
• Chile and Brazil went to penalty kicks as I predicted.
• I am still in a bad mood from having gone to pub the night before.
• The problem with House of Cards is that all the characters are Democrats. The Republicans who do show up in the show are caricatures of what Democrats imagine Republicans to be.
• And I do have to mention a politician I admire. Today's choice Rob Ford. Bad as he may seem. He is a four in world of ones and zeroes. You have to admire a man who has the guts to not make an obligatory appearance at a Gay Pride Parade in this day and age.

Monday [June 30]

• No shifts today.
• It's the last day of June. It's the last day of June! If I don't get some, I think I'm gonna swoom!
• “Get What?” you ask.
• I watched the Mexico – Holland game last night. What a heartbreak for Mexico, but they have no one to blame but themselves. They took the 1-0 lead and proceeded to wilt or play very defensive. The Mexicans were hanging on at the end...
• I thought Robben dived at the end and got Holland the game-deciding penalty.
• I had predicted a Mexican victory in the school prediction competition. I was wrong about the first three games of the round of sixteen.
• Tony likes watching Godzilla versus the Sea Monster.
• I am making Tony lunch.
• A rare thing for me to be doing.
• One more politician whom I admire:
• I should have penultimated my answering of the question with Mayor Rob Ford but I didn't and I am not interested in changing the sequence of this diary. I can edit yesterday's entry to improve the language but I won't change the fact of the entry.
• You may also have noticed that I am trying to change penultimate into a verb.
• I am stalling because no other politicians come to mind and I am trying to penultimatize.
• I couldn't think of any and now I can think of many: George W Bush, John A. McDonald, Deborah Gray, Winston Churchill, Spiro Agnew, and John Howard.
• Bush, a decent man, did what he thought was the right thing and was utterly lambasted by the Left and by some feckless conservatives. He has not responded with any bitterness to the many cheap shots directed his way by the demonic Left. [There is an argument to made that the Left resent him because he stole their foreign policy idealism. No doubt, the idealism was naïve but it was something the Left would have stood beside if it was their guy and not a White Texas Christian who was advancing it.]
• John A was the first prime minister of Canada and a bit of drinker like Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
• Deborah Gray was the first Reform Party member to be elected to parliament.
• Churchill was Churchill. He took lickings and kept on ticking. His life story makes Barabbas Obama look like a pantywaist.
• Spiro Agnew delivered the line about the nattering nabobs of negativism.
• John Howard was an Australian admirer of the USA. Good on him!
• Tomorrow: Canada Day. Canadians are boring but delicious.

Diary: June 17 to June 23, 2014

Highlights

• Andis watches the WC.
• Andis gets Wifi in his office at school.
• Andis thinks up reasons to keep to himself.
• Andis has a thought about what is happening in Iraq.
• Andis watches the last episode of the latest season of Game of Thrones.
• Andis sees an e-biker run a red light.
• Andis has a student tell him that the high school teachers in Boston are lazy.
• Andis vows to not watch the WC anymore.
• Andis offers opinions on pragmatists.
• Andis watches the WC anyway despite his harsh thoughts about the manliness of soccer players
• Andis has a student tell him that the Chinese political system has to change.
• Andis reports a rumor that the opening of the Wuxi subway, which he hears will open on June 28, will be delayed.
• Jenny takes Tony to Hangzhou for a photo shoot.
• Andis goes to the Hui Shan Wanda Plaza on its first anniversary.
• Andis buys new glasses.
• Andis & Jenny eat at the Wuxi Blue Frog.

Tuesday [June 17]

[Home Laptop]

• Rain. And so I dread going to school for today's 13:00 to 21:00 shift.
• I read that a soccer fan in Suzhou died because of sleep deprivation brought on by watching World Cup football games.
• I haven't been able to see any WC games since the England Italy clash because of the time zone difference. All the games are being played between midnight and 8 AM Wuxi time.
• I am glad to see that the USA beat Ghana.
• These are the teams that I will cheer for in the WC: USA, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Croatia.

[School Laptop]

• I got Wifi at school! I got Wifi at school! Jenny gave me this USB device which installs in my laptop here at school and creates a Wifi signal that my Ipad and Ipod can pick up.
• The first thing I do with the Wifi is communicate with Jenny using the We Chat App.
• This week's shifts: Tuesday 13:00 to 21:00, Wednesday 13:00 to 21:00, Thursday 10:00 to 21:00, Friday 11:00 to 21:00, and Saturday 10:00 to 18:00.
• Tony & Jenny are going to Hangzhou this weekend for a photo shoot.
• Not much to say for myself. I am extremely distracted and I am finding it hard to stay focused. And my co-workers are talking shit.
• Almost forgot. What question to ask myself this week. Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible?
• Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible? I have witnessed what it is like when people get together...

Wednesday [June 18]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 13:00 to 21:00.
• Chinese lesson this morning. I still have trouble with the second and fourth tones. So I now try to raise my eyebrows when saying the second tone and stamp my foot when saying the fourth.
• What is happening in Iraq shows the tyranny of good intentions. It should be a warning to those who pat themselves on the back for believing they have good intentions. Bush's intentions in invading Iraq were good. Obama, a god to those who think they have good and noble intentions that can't be questioned, abandoned Bush's good intentions. Let that be known. Now, Barabbas may have been right to do so; for foreign Policy is a tricky thing for America, especially because it has so much power. But good intentions can also cause lots of damage in domestic affairs as well. So those Leftists who mock Bush are mocking themselves.
• If I wrote an English text book for ESL students, what would I do? Hard to say. So many factors that I would consider and so I wouldn't be able to say anything about it in one sentence. All I can say is that it really depends on the students
• Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible? I am married, I have a child, and Western culture is a cesspool.

Thursday [June 19]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 10:00 to 21:00.
• Watched most of the Holland – Australia match last night. Australia played pretty well and in the first half of the game, they seemed to control the majority of the flow of play. But Holland can score goals.
• When the Dutch scored to take a 3-2 lead in the second half, there was an half-hour to play in the match, but it was also about 1:30 AM. So, I decided to go to sleep and found out this morning that I hadn't missed any more goal-scoring.
• I watched the game on my Ipad using the C-Box app.
• I should have mentioned the following: 1) I watched the final episode of the fourth season of Game of Thrones on Tuesday. 2) On Tuesday, I also saw an e-biker run a red light while coming awfully close to me. I was crossing the intersection near Casa Kaulins on a green pedestrian signal when the e-bike, going at full speed, swerved to avoid me and raced through the intersection as cars, that had stopped for a red, were beginning to move on the green. It was a risky maneuver for the e-biker because the cars coming from opposite directions gave him an Indiana-Jones style shrinking opening to get through. I stared hard at e-biker, a man in his twenties, as he rode away from the intersection, and noticed that he seemed to look behind himself sheepishly, possibly on account of the close call he had just had. Maneuvers such as that performed by the e-biker on Tuesday are very common. If I was looking for it, I would see the maneuver every time I took the bus to school.
• Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible? I am becoming more and more of an misanthrope. Also (I say this now in case I forget to say this tomorrow.), I am nothing important, so there is no need to thrust myself on people.
• I enjoyed the fourth season of Game of Thrones. The final episode of the season was full of surprises. I am glad to see that Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf character wasn't executed. I found his murder of Tywin Lannister to not make sense. How could he get into Tywin's privy so easily? Yet, I am glad it happened, although in a way I will miss Tywin's authoritative sounding villainy.
• What do I hate about the series? The Zombies. If the writers wrote off the characters with a zombie apocalypse, it would make me happy. What appeals to most people who watch the show is its castles, knights, kings and queens aspects.
• With the Wifi at school, I couldn't get email on my devices until I realized that I could get my email using the Ipad Safari browser. Having found this out, I have just emailed some photos to my Ipad so that I can show them to students in a salon class tonight.

Friday [June 20]

[School Laptop]

• Today's shift: 11:00 to 21:00.
• I didn't watch any WC last night. Watching the Australia – Netherlands game the evening before ruined me for yesterday. I am afraid that I will be watching highlights for the rest of the tourney – live games are out of the question.
• That student who went to a Boston high school tells me that the teachers there were lazy. He told me that when he tried ask them a question at the end of the day, the teachers were already out the door. Ask me tomorrow!!! If teaching was a calling for those people, they would never be doing that. [I admit I do that all the time – go out the door to catch my bus home.]
• I finished watching Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks Western. It seemed dated to me.
• I finished reading the Shakespeare Play Coriolanus last evening. A man versus the mob play. I take the man's side.
• Next Shakespeare play that I will read: Cymbeline.
• The World Cup is just a bunch of homosexuals in shorts trying to put a ball in a net. Soccer is just a kid's game that my seven-year son would take a passing interest in for three minutes. Why do grown adults insist on turning it into an organized fetish?
• I am having an email exchange with a person who labels himself a pragmatist. A pragmatist is someone who doesn't bring a dish to a potluck. The potluck in this case being a potluck of ideas.

Saturday [June 21]

[School Laptop]

• I am in slow motion this week as can be witnessed from my paucity of blogging so far.
• Today's shift: 10:00 to 18:00.
• Classes seem to drag and so, during each one, I look at my watch at least fifteen times expecting time to go faster.
• Tony & Jenny are to spend some time in Hangzhou today. Tony is posing for some advertising. I will meet them at 7:30 tonight at the train station.
• Costa Rica beat Italy 1-0. It seemed a surprising result.
• Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible? I will have to think of two reasons today since I forgot to answer this question yesterday. 1)The world is full of pragmatists who are cool with everything no matter how messy it is and who go on happily fucking up the world. 2) People have a habit of boring each other. I bore others most certainly as they bore me.
• It is also raining today.
• I finished reading President Me by Adam Carolla. He comes across as a self-righteous libertarian. Not that there is anything completely wrong with this, for a lot of his criticisms are correct. His book is also very funny at points. Sure. Elect him president. If only he was more religious and less pornographic.

Sunday [June 22]

[Home Laptop]

• I am blogging at home which means no shift at school today.
• Yesterday at school, an adult student, who is an engineer and who frequently makes trips to Japan, told me that China needs to change its political system and its educational system. He expressed these opinions to me without fear. though we silently mentioned 6/4.
• Also yesterday at school, six students booked but only one showed up for an afternoon salon class.
• After school yesterday, I took the bus to the Baoli Starbucks where I had coffee, finished a book I was reading about Ancient Greece, worked on some exercises in an English grammar book, and just passed the time till I was to meet Jenny & Tony as they got off the train from Hangzhou.
• In Hangzhou yesterday, Tony participated in a photo shoot with three other mixed-blood children, two of whom were living in Shanghai and one who was living in Hangzhou.
• Jenny also told me the following little details about the shoot:
• One of the mixed blood children was a girl was from Denmark.
• There was a boy from England.
• Tony and these children were all wearing expensive clothes for next season.
• Tony did well posing but became bored at the end when he was forced to stay longer than the other kids who got done early and could leave.
• Tony enjoyed the four hours of train riding to and from Hangzhou and Wuxi. Jenny said he spent his time staring out the window.
• I walked from Baoli to the High Speed Train exit area. Usually I ride past the area in a bus. Yesterday's walk did nothing to disprove the adage that China doesn't look so good close up. I walked through grime, bad smells, and dilapidation. Uggh.
• Reunited at 7:30 PM, the K family took a taxi from the train station to the Wanda Plaza.
• The Plaza was very crowded for its first anniversary. For the day, the plaza offered many items at fifty percent off, had the stores open all night and held many other promotions. Funny how on the Monday, when Tony & I went to see a movie, the plaza was deserted. Yesterday, I had to hold onto Tony's hand for fear of getting separated from him.
• We were able to get seats easily enough, however, at the Mr. PIZZA. It being past the normal dinner time.
• I watched the Argentina – Iran game which was played after midnight, Wuxi time. In the scoreless first half, Argentina had the run of play and had ball possession over 70 percent of the time but couldn't get any substantial scoring chances. Iran either defended well or Argentina was lacking finish. In the second half, Iran had the majority of quality scoring chances because Argentina started to press, allowing Iran opportunities for some counter-attacks. On one of these counter-attacks, Iran could have been awarded a penalty. On another, a header sailed not too far above the bar. It looked like the game was going to end a scoreless tie because Argentina was frustratingly, to its fans, being easily thwarted by the Iranian defense. But then Messi had a brilliant kick curving the ball around the Iranian defense and away from the outstretched arms of the goalkeeper. Till then, I had been wandering what was so wonderful about this Messi. Except for some missed opportunities off set-pieces, he was invisible in the game.
• I had heard that the Subway was to begin operation on June 28th. With less than a week away from that date, I was becoming excited. But I have just heard that the opening may be delayed because of a sinking problem discovered at the end of the line near the City Hall in the south (My stop is north at the the other end of the line.). Some engineer told this to a taxi driver who in turn told it to an acquaintance of mine in Hui Shan.
• I have heard that the land in Wuxi was soft, what with its elevation, which is not too many meters above sea level, and all the canals that run through it. A few years ago in this blog, I published a rumor that the Moresky360 building had a dangerous tilting problem because of the softness of the land around its base. So the news is not quite shocking to me. It does make me wonder about the powers that be. When I first heard about the plans for a subway in Wuxi, I wondered how tunneling could take place in such a moist underground.
• Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible? I distrust mobs, crowds, and groups.

Monday [June 23]

[Home Laptop]

• In two months, it will be Tony's seventh birthday.
• In three days, Tony's summer vacation begins.
• No summer vacation for AKIC.
• No shifts today.
• Yesterday afternoon, the K family went downtown. We first went to an eyeglass seller at Houxixi. The place we went was the place where I bought my first ever pair of eyeglasses. From what I remembered, the place was a veritable eyeglass emporium. There were lots of merchants selling lots of glasses. Yesterday, the place seemed to have gone downhill. Half the stalls had been shut down and the whole building was dirty and showing signs of neglect.
• It just goes to show how development works in Wuxi. Something new shopping center is built and the old places just go to shit. The retail business is shuffled without being increased.
• The glasses I bought yesterday are great for reading. However if I am not looking at my Ipad or some book with small Chinese characters, I have to take the glasses off because everything more than a foot away becomes a blur...
• I suppose I should be wearing bifocals. My father did, I recall.
• From the glass shop, we went to the Xinhua book store so Tony could buy an Ultraman book. I was almost regretting my eyeglass purchase because I realized when perusing the shelves that my new glasses were only good for looking at things closeup. The books, the shelves and the signs were a completer blur if I wasn't reading a book.
• We then went to the Hen Long Plaza which is across the street from the Xinhua Bookstore. We had coffee at the Starbucks there. After finishing my coffee, I took Tony to the toy area where we hung out till Jenny joined up with us. Note to myself: Tony wants to buy the number two monster from the Bai Dan Ultraman toy collection. After Jenny joined her two boys, the K family wandered around the Hen Long Plaza. We saw the perfect bicycle for Tony at the Hummer shop. Unfortunately, it was 2500 rmb and very out of our budget. Tony would have to do two photo shoots before he could get that bike.
• At the end of our wanderings, we found the Blue Frog Restaurant (it is at the Hen Long plaza but not in the mall area) and had supper. Jenny really liked the place and the food, and she wants to go back. I thought she would have written the place off as too expensive.
• There was one other foreigner in the Blue Frog who kept looking our way.
• I like the food at Blue Frog. I had Grilled Salmon Sliders and two large glasses of Heineken draft. Jenny had a lamb platter. Tony had chicken fingers and chips.
• It was my second time at a Blue Frog. In 2013, Tony and I were taken to one in Shanghai by the eventual 2013 Shanghai Expat of the Year Paul Rudkin.
• We walked past some downtown metro stop entrances. Looking down the stairs, I saw dust and garbage from construction. It would seem that the Subway won't start operation on June 28.
• We took the 635 bus home.
• I phoned my mom last night. I learned that my nephew Kyle is now working in Australia for a month and that Mom may have to get cataract surgery.
• I couldn't be prouder of my nephew. The kid not even twenty yet and he is able to get a work visa in Australia. It's proof that he isn't a BC druggie.
• This morning, I saw a Wuxi Metro train running. Maybe, there is a chance that the subway will start operation on June 28. We will just have to wait and see.
• Reasons to keep to myself as much as possible? Pleasant as places like the Blue Frog can be, I have to avoid going to them. I have to think of Tony's future. Unless going out can advance Tony's cause, I shouldn't be going to pubs. They are too expensive.
• Guns and Cars, both of which kill, are apples and oranges says the Left. Well by that logic, rape and murder are apples and oranges too. Sure they are both crimes....
• I finished watching Lawrence of Arabia for the umpteenth time, and yet there are parts of it that I seemed not to have paid close attention to in the previous viewings. Usually I have watched the first half or so of the movie. The scene with the Turkish general depresses me.
• This evening, I took Tony to the Wanda Plaza. Having a late dinner at the McDonalds there is becoming a father & son tradition.
• Tony took a spill while riding his push-bike on pavement. He wailed so loud that Jenny could hear him a hundred meters away.
• I saw an ass-hat Wuxi driver take a corner,, where pedestrian traffic is heavy, near the Wanda Plaza at 60 kmh.