So, italy had this tiny little tradeshow...

in the TINY little town of PanYu (which is the district of Guangzhou in which we live).. to have this "Italy Comes To China" thing going on for their business of importing non-chinese-made Italian Furniture and other delicacies (such as Cheese!) to China...
(hey! how'd that chinese girl get in on the action? I think someone told her "David" was hangin' out with his willy flying in the wind and she made tracks...)

ANYhoo.. so, what would you think Italy would do with the World Cup after their recent win?

yes folks, they must have been told PanYu was a veritable MECCA of international trading - a hot-spot of capitalism, a tourist-trap of outstanding proportions... for here lies the World Cup in all its splendor!

Complete with guns of mighty protection, of course... (which aren't so common here like they are in good ole' TEXAS,) YEEEAAAAAA-HHHHAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!


I wonder how they felt after actually arriving in PanYu.. i'll have to take some pics next time i'm down there.. i'd liken it more to the Gaza Strip than i would to.. well, you know.. some place you'd actually prefer to visit if you had a choice.

Another day in Paradise..

More food.. more beer... *sigh* life is, indeed, as poor and horrible as they say it is in china.

*grin*

In other news, we went out walking the other day and it was with a gaggle of women..

they were obviously having a great time with the sun! you know how it goes.. more time in the sun=more gooey awful sticky pus-filled bags of ugliness (otherwise known as freckles..)..

for the record, freckles are neither filled with pus nor ugly - but maybe that's just my aussie taste for ya.

well they can't have ALL the fun now can they...

ooh.. S.E.X.Y.

rant rant rant...

in an order to keep the peace (and also to provide ongoing entertainment services on this blog for ppl of all ages - hello Maddie!) i've started my new tirade blog "Futhermuckers!" - link off to the side. It'll be about all kinds of stuff, not likely to be pulling any punches on what I think about that particular topic ;)

Also in the works is ROFLOPHAGUS, i'll provide a link when that's ready...

cheerio now!

Arctic Ice reserves dwindling now in the winters, too..

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/09/15/arctic.ice.reut/index.html

"interesting times" ahead.

the chinese abortion..

tonight on the news, an 18y/o chinese girl decided the best way to abort her new baby was to take the newborn and simply thow her off the 3rd-storey verandah... umbilical still attached.

nice.

Busy week! No time to post though

We've been scrambling and sorting to work out everything needed for Siyu's migration visa to Australia - that's an adventure unto itself! The biggest issue was getting fingerprints done.. of course, they don't DO fingerprinting out here unless you're going to jail.. and the good old USA is the ONLY country that requires fingerprints if you want a background check...

meh, we got lucky - 5 phone numbers led us to a fax number, which then resulted in a letter landing in the hands of the NEW Consulate General (1 week into his tenure) and he decided "screw the rules" and got Siyu in.

Otherwise, I've been eating and drinking under close supervision from the in-laws (as usual, they want to be sure this weight-gain continues) - we scored some badminton raquets so that'll be on the list of activities this weekend...

Apparently the in-law's new house is nearing completion, I imagine we'll take a trip out there in October & czech it out - it's another one of these crazy-huge estates that are more like resorts than suburbs..

Just got done with Deadwood Season III (for those not in the know, it's a pretty good series about life in a prospecting community as it struggles under the weight of its own growth in the 1800's), and caught up on the latest Prison Break and, of course, Weeds. Good times.

K, that's enough for now - lata!

Skin and goo...

That pretty much sums up today's culinary adventure... we went out with a pack of chinese women (ever heard a field of ducks squabbling? yeah..) and they took us to a local cantonese restaurant... no pics unfortunately (and let's face it, there are some things you don't need to see) but let's just say i DID almost gag when amongst the skin and goo that i was eating i was able to identify an eye...

I always DID feel more comfy inna dress...

And here're the bloody photos to prove it! Yes folks, the deed is, in fact, done - and we the unsuspecting were just thinking it'd be a matter of running in there dressed up like a couple of stuffed ducks & putting pen to paper... but no, they had to shove us off in a side room, play some fancy music, dress us up like stuffed ducks, and give us the blah-de-blah (well that's about what I was able to understand, my cantonese is somewhat wanting).. I did get the points at which to say "uh, sure" though, and they had me read a pretty hilarious paragraph about how I would abide by the chinwa laws of betrothal...

of course, it was in that horrible chinese-english (hereafter referred to as Chinglish) that we've come to love and expect in such situations... I swear I said a few words that were just so NOT part of the english language that I had trouble working out how to say them...

We'll be having a bigger ceremony with family & friends later in the year, but this certainly was a nice surprise!

































































aint she PURDY?























awww the coupling couple... i like my hat :P
































































during the deed...


















I think she was saying "I hereby declare that I am a Chinese female, and by Chinese law this human male is now my property. First order of business is the removal of all basic human rights and the prisoner will be transported immediately to the mine"



















The paragraph I read sounded like something out of a Teletubbies episode.


















Look at that evil grin on her face ;)


















Then she put her finger on my ring... no, wait.. hang on. what?


















And after much finger-ringery... alas the pic of me putting my finger on her ring didn't come out too well, we'll scan the one that the pro took during the ceremony.


















And look, our little certificates look just like passports! Aww, like little passports of love that let us into loveland for many years of blissful travel together down love lane...

*smirk*


















of course, the NON AMERICAN way of writing this date is 6/9/6 - which suits us JUUUUUST fine :)

Death of Steve Irwin today...

Holy shit! I just heard about it, what a damn shame.. as strange as many people found him, I reckon he was a trooper - did what he loved to do, and had a great time doing it.

During his time he was one who actually made a positive impact to the world around him - more than can be said for most people. Well, I suppose the warrior's place is to die on the battlefield.

Raise a glass in honor of the boofhead crocodile hunter!

Fishin!

Sunday mornin, 8am! We're out to go fishing in a Fish Pond (basically like sticking your hand in a bucket of fish and pulling one out.. except the bucket is really big, and your hands are really small)

It started with us driving out to her dad's PanYu Headquarters - pic below.Siyu was obviously impressed with how the morning was progressing..
Here's the path to the fishing pond - love the bridge..
So did she hehe - i stepped on one part that felt like it was going to collapse under my weight.

Nice little fishin chair!
Uncle was over in the bushes - he actually ended up catching the biggest fish of the day!
And there's me.. I caught 5 fishies, but sent 1 back as it was too small..
Far from civilization, as you can tell...
Papa showing Siyu how to put the bait onto the hook

Castin' foolery! I didn't have a reel, so I had to learn the old-school technique which took a few tries but in the end I was improving.
Below, he's turning the flour & whatever else concoction into the bait by mixing in a little water. The fish were all over it - in fact it smelled so good that Siyu was trying to get in on the action!
We then would fashion the bait into little balls on the hooks - make sure you cover the metal!

Fish action! This was the only pic we got of any fishiness - a thunderstorm rolled in and we weren't into taking the camera out... but at the end of the day, fish head & fish soup with fish was on the menu that night!!

Tea Master!

This guy came out and served up a show that would put tom cruise to shame - it was more like something out of TAPS than what you'd expect for your tea! (this was for the 8-star tea mentioned in the Si Chuan Cuisine post)

Si Chuan cuisine!

After the day at the Ancient Gardens we were treated to some authentic Si Chuan Cuisine (thanks to Mama-san's friend Show Yen - her and her husband are the ones who gave me my jade necklace) and it was nothing short of outstanding!

DUCK BLOOD!!! this was actually REALLY GOOOOOOOD - gets 2 thumbs up!

This was the hottest dish, a 3 on the richtor scale - tofu in chilli.

mmm Goose Heads...

These were, hands down, the best ribs I've ever had. And they were spicy! 2 stars on the Si Chuan scale.. next time i'll give 3 a whirl...

Mmmmm 8 Star Tea... Filled with all manner of herbs, tastes kinda sweet, flowery.

Probably cause of all the damn flowers in it, eh?