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We drove from Brisbane to the Gold Coast (Surfer’s Paradise.) Dan and I took a dip in the ocean and then he dipped Alex’s feet in. He didn’t really like it and pulled his feet up. We also held hands with Wendy’s mom and walked out a little so the waves could splash up to her knees.
We ate at the Kurrawa Surf Club. It was awesome to sit outside, have a beer and enjoy the view!
I was holding a sleepy Alex while Wendy ate (and the girls at the next table oohh and ahhed all over).
He was not so thrilled when I shifted positions on him. (Notice his little finger.)
Tags: Australia, beach, dan & wendy & alex
by emily on February 9, 2010
Lost Heaven is a well-known restaurant that serves food from the Yunnan province. We’d never been so I suggested we go there.
We had a bottle of wine and some drinks at the bar on the top floor. There was a nice roof top bar that would be amazing in the summer. (We all are wearing the new glasses we’d gotten that day.)
Hanna mentioned something about singing, and we decided to go to karaoke around 2 AM. Really, it is a totally Chinese cultural experience! Here they are rocking out to Queen.
Tags: bar, hanna & henrik, Lost Heaven
by emily on January 31, 2010
Hanna and Henrik stayed with us for a week in January, after three weeks in New Zealand for their honeymoon. All of these photos are from their travel blog. Here is their Shanghai entry.
Hanna’s post about the week:
Having a wonderful time with Jon and Emily. Daily schedule:
Wake up
Eating
Shopping
Eating
Shopping
Eating
Drinking
Sleeping
= Vacation i Shanghai.
They went on a shopping tour I lead, along with 3 people from Spain.
We’re really stylin’ at the glasses market.
Jon finally bought a remote control helicopter like he’s wanted for 2 years (which is now broken.)
Tags: hanna & henrik, Shopping, shopping tours
by emily on January 30, 2010
Two British friends and two Australian friends decided to go out for Thanksgiving dinner, so they thought they’d better invite me. I mean, how can you celebrate an American holiday without an American present?
Thanksgiving dinner – a cold oyster, turkey, potatoes, broccoli, and “stuffing” which was a bit of gravy with chunks of things like nuts in it. Stuffing? Really?
“Pumpkin Pie” – everyone was disappointed in this and hardly ate any. It taste like pureed nothing. And it wasn’t even a PIE!!!
After the meal, we stuck around for quiz night. We didn’t do too bad – the bonus round question was “What is this a picture of and where is it?” It was Carhenge in Nebraska!! We got it right, but even doubling our points didn’t let us win.
I also showed the non-American’s how to draw a turkey using your hand and what a Turducken is.
Tags: Casey, Thanksgiving
by emily on December 14, 2009
A highlight of the trip was Brad and Sarah’s wedding! They held a big reception, buffet and dance in Brad’s parents’ huge machine shed. It was a lot of fun! (As you can see from the above photo) I was their photographer. All photos can be seen here.
(Just because I hardly have any photos of myself here!)
Jon was talking to someone who was shocked to hear he was from Nisland. (Local town, population about 150.) She said he was the last person at the reception that she thought would be from there. I guess it must be his dashing good looks, tailored cashmere coat and scarf that makes him look so urban? When she found out he lived in China, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Sorry for what? Getting out of the state to see the world a bit? I’m sorry for people that don’t realize that there is something outside of their own little bubble.
Tags: sarah & brad, wedding
by emily on November 7, 2009
Johnna brought her whole family to the BBQ. Almost-two-year-old N was quite the cutie. She can speak Chinese just as well as English. She always calls Suzy by her Chinese name – Sushi. Too cute.
Tags: BBQ, kids, suzy
by emily on September 1, 2009
Our friends Casey “Any Excuse to Party” and Mike “My Future Wife is a Crazy Cat Lady” threw a big BBQ a couple weekends ago. The occasion was Picasso (their foster cat) turned one. Picasso’s favorite toy is corks from wine bottles, so we needed to consume wine in large quantities as our gift to him. It was a lot of fun – and made me miss doing this back home! Our couchsurfers, Kelly and Ellie, came too and we had a great time hanging out.
Tags: BBQ, couch surfers, mike & casey
by emily on August 31, 2009
Daft Punk came to play Shanghai!
Actually, #14 welding glass is an approved method of looking at the sun. Steve got the whole mask to be extra safe. :-)
Steve, Jon, Dan and Wendy watching as the eclipse starts.
Mid-eclipse
Tags: dan & wendy, Weather
by emily on July 22, 2009
Bonnie took a professional cake-decorating course in the US, and Claire and I wanted to learn, so she put on a little class for us. I’ve decorated several things before, but knowing the proper way to do it makes it a lot easier! We only learned a few basic things so I think we’ll have more classes later.
My roses look more like cabbage….
Tags: bonnie, frosting
by emily on July 7, 2009
| Steve graciously hosted Bonnie’s birthday party at his house. She made her own cake since she didn’t trust anyone else to do it! It was 3 layers of chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and covered in chocolate chips. It was the richest cake I’ve ever had!
We played Twister and Wii most of the night, with a couple rounds of Mahjong and Mexican Train Dominoes. That was the latest I’ve stayed up in a VERY long time.
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by emily on June 7, 2009
| Last Saturday 12 girls went to the Polo matches and celebrated Casey’s upcoming wedding. We all dressed up and had a marvelous time in the VIP tent!
Jo won the “best hat” contest with her cute little feathery thing.
Alicia had some guanxi – a friend with a few bottles of champagne after everything else ran out, and another friend doing a documentary on first time Polo spectators in China (the photos of me being interviewed).
And we all had a blast!
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by emily on June 2, 2009
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Bonnie has a custom baking business, and has learned where to get the supplies cheaply. (All of the foreign stores are NOT cheap.) We went to a market with at least 20 huge halls of vendors. The vendors live above the stalls. The stalls are filled with massive sacks of mushrooms, flour, rice, nuts, peppers, dried fish, cinnamon sticks, and all kinds of other things.
We bought cream cheese, butter, almonds, pistachios, cashews, walnuts, canned peaches, flour, corn meal, evaporated milk… and maybe a few other things I’m forgetting about!
The address is 1255 Lianhua Lu.
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Tags: Food
by emily on May 28, 2009
| Last week, Steve and Sylvia, Shane and Bonnie, Amy and Casey, and Jon and I all went to DaMarco for supper. We had a drink at the little bar close to it, and then went to play some more Guitar Hero. |
by emily on
Tags: bar
by emily on April 15, 2009
Yvonne invited us all to her hometown for dumplings, to wander in the park, and dinner with her parents. It was a great day!
I’ve only seen the dishes piled on top of each other a couple times. Usually there is tons of food, but not piles and piles of it!
Tags: Food
by emily on April 13, 2009
by emily on March 29, 2009
After the concert, we went to check out a little bar near Da Marco. It’s just through an alley from our apartment. It’s small, dark, and wasn’t busy. Perfect.
Tags: bar
by emily on March 28, 2009
Last Friday, Steve, Jon and I meant to go to a jazz concert at
twocities, an art gallery where a few of our friends work. Jon had just gotten back from Guangzhou, and when we arrived our friends Eva and Chelsea were just finishing cleaning up. This week we decided to be less fashionably late, though we were still quite late after waiting 40 minutes in the rain for a taxi.
The concert featured American fiddler Hanneke Cassel, who played with two Chinese men named Tom and Jerry. They played a blend of bluegrass/Americana and Scottish music stylings. (from the twocities website.)
Chelsea and I at the gallery. They showcase mostly glass work, which is a fairly new medium in China. They have some very beautiful pieces.
by emily on
Recently when Jon was in Guangzhou, along with Aileen, Dan, Geoffrey, and Larry, a guy selling sketches approached them. They decided to see just what it would turn out like, fulling knowing this guy probably couldn’t really draw. (He also couldn’t spell the name of the restaurant they were at, even though it was right in front of him.)
Any guesses as to who is who? Put your answer in the comments below! (Hint: See the “women” on the far right? That’s actually a man.)
by emily on March 24, 2009
Dan turned a year older on the 21st, so a group of friends went to dinner at DeMarco and then to
People 6 to celebrate.
Probably the scariest photo of Dan ever…. BTW, he’s not 18. But perhaps he wishes he were.
What is a birthday without shots? The bar had a huge selection of bottles… unfortunately, they were all empty bottles for show! It took Mark over 30 minutes to come back with a shot of something, which turned out to be tequila. Someone decided Wendy needed to learn the American college party way of shooting tequila.
It started pouring rain. Steam was rising from the lights in the bamboo. Try clicking on the photo to see a little detail. It looked cool.
Tags: bar
by emily on March 22, 2009
My friend Bonnie hangs out with some of other
American expat women and was given tickets to one of their events. It was a Las Vegas-style poker night, complete with costume contest, black jack and unlimited wine and beer. Her husband wasn’t too kneen on going, so we made it a girls night out.
We spent most of the night playing Black Jack. It was amazing… everyone kept winning! (Apparently the dealers weren’t so skilled.) We got free chips as part of the entrance and just expected to lose those quickly. Bonnie won a few bottles of wine after cashing in her big pile of chips.
After it was over, we followed a small group of new friends to Lane 274, a bar which one of them owned. The husbands and Steve (who’d been playing pool) met us there. We stayed out entirely too late, but had a great time.
by emily on
At the grocery store today, Steve wanted to get a bottle of wine just because it had a cool bag covering it. Jon commented that he wanted to try a bunch of wines, but he was afraid he had too much against some of the Chinese wines. We noted the huge price difference in foreign wines, local wines, and the high end Chinese wines.
We decided to do a taste test.
We bought four bottles of wine, as pictured below.
We bought the lowest cost wine we could find – a bottle of Tesco “dry red wine.” It says “Imported From Spain.” Dragon Seal and Great Wall are Chinese wines – not known to be that great, but we wanted to give it a chance. Also, the Great Wall was expensive and a 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon. Lindemans is an Australian wine, a 2007 Shiraz Cabernet.
I printed out a wine tasting scoring sheet, and served, in random order, the wine to Jon and Steve for a blind taste test.
They both wanted to pour out the Dragon Seal wine with the bag Steve had liked.
Jon thought the Tesco tasted best, while Steve liked the most expensive one best (which Jon placed 3rd). Steve had placed the Tesco brand second. We agreed that for 15.5 RMB, the Tecso one was the best value and very drinkable. We were a bit surprised at that.
Final Placing – Jon
#1 Tesco
#2 Lindemans
#3 Great Wall
#4 Dragon Seal
Final Placing – Steve
#1 Great Wall
#2 Tesco
#3 Lindemans
#4 Dragon Seal
Tags: Food
by emily on March 7, 2009
My friend Dan rocks! He let me use his server space so I should be up and running in China again. If you do happen to get a strange error, or you can’t see the photos, or something, please let me know!!!
Update: Yes, I know you can’t see the photos. I don’t know what’s going on with that. I’m working on it. Please stand by.
by emily on March 5, 2009
Our friend Inge sent us a couple home-made, reusable shopping bags, some chocolate and Christmas ornaments that she made. This year China banned giving out free plastic grocery bags – now you need to pay if you want one. China used 3 billion bags per DAY. We’re glad they are able to act so quickly on certain issues!
by emily on January 15, 2009
Tags: bar
by emily on January 4, 2009
A shrine by Adam’s apartment.
A cute little cupcake shop – with yummy cupcakes. We’re wondering how such a specialty shop can stay in business.
Jon doing fancy fingerwork playing Liar’s Dice.
Adam & Angela at the Irish Bar
Tags: bar
by emily on January 3, 2009
The View is the VIP lounge at the Sands Casino. Adam got a VIP card from a client, so we went there to hang out one night.
I had a strawberry margarita with chocolate. Yum.
We played Liar’s Dice most of the night.
Tags: bar
by emily on January 2, 2009
by emily on January 1, 2009
On Christmas Day, we took the day off work and went to a Christmas party held by a couple of friends I know through book club. A couple husbands are professional chefs at major hotels here, and they cooked for us!
There were actually 2 huge turkeys! Plus lamb and pork.
Rito and Rolf.
Stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy….
Alicia, Jo and Suzy making a special Australian (New Zealand, really) dessert. The crust was baked meringue!
We did a Secret Santa gift exchange and also donated money to an organization that provides disabled people with wheelchairs who can’t afford to buy one. We were able to purchase 10 wheelchairs.
It was a great time. The holidays have been hard for all of my family members; it just reminds you of what is missing.
Tags: Food
by emily on December 27, 2008
Jon and Megan invited us to Bridgewater to sit by the fire and drink beer.
I definitely was missing America….
And what will they think of next? Budweiser came out with lime-flavored beer. Maybe they are trying to compete with Corona (which is the beer that should always have a lime in it.)
This is Blaze – she’s a really sweet Rottweiler.
Jon got a new camera, the SD1100IS. It has a pretty good macro mode and also takes time lapse videos. (I will post some eventually.)
John and Megs
Tags: home
by emily on December 16, 2008
We ate at the Kurrawa Surf Club. It was awesome to sit outside, have a beer and enjoy the view!
I was holding a sleepy Alex while Wendy ate (and the girls at the next table oohh and ahhed all over).
He was not so thrilled when I shifted positions on him. (Notice his little finger.)
