Morning Statues

There are hundreds of statues in Su-Zhou Industrial Park.  I only got to see some of them. I enjoy recording my life with my camera even on my bike. This morning I rode my bike out and found some more.

The picture of a dog pulling a boy's pants looked familiar.  Some of the pictures posted before were pictures of samples displayed in Su-Zhou Art and Science Museum.  This time the picture was taken in a park.  Look at the deer family, you may feel the morning mist in the woods.

 

 Statue in the Park

 vs.

Sample Statute in Museum

 

 

Good Day!
----------------------------------

寻友启事：Richy的高中同学Ted立仁，June的大学同学小锺，你们的e-mail没有在身边（有一个好像停用了），请e-mail June (junecyut@gmail.com）. 或留言栏留下您的e-mail address. 

非常端午 Stand Bike

 

以前的人習惯在端午节以艾草沐浴、抹雄黄酒以避邪，我想是有道理的，这个节氣正直季节交换，氣候湿热，百花齐放，杂草邪氣叢生。

我就是没做好防範的受害者之一，也不知为何，最近常常眼下脸部肿胀（红痒刺痛），疑是花粉过敏，还是风吹日照（但我很少出门），也可能是糯米竹叶过敏（才吃一个就..），总之，今年的第一次在苏州的端午节，很特别。

端午节当日近午时，我们带着Winston到楼下练习骑脚踏车，很奇怪，他一下子就能放手了，從買车至今练了五次，都需要人扶，突然可以自己平衡，对运动细胞不是太好的他，算是近步神速，我们不得不联想

到端午立蛋的習俗，原来端午的正午是地心引力最强也是立脚踏车的最佳时机，下一次的端午，我打算练倒立，讓地心引力将我的脸部皱纹上提。

 

Many discuss about why there is a tradition to stand eggs at noon, on Dragon Boat Festival.  That afternoon, instead of standing eggs, we let Wisnton ride on the bike to "Stand his bike". As Wisnton learned how to ride on the bike all by himself the first time.  We proved that the gravitation was strongest that afternoon.

 

 

Dragon Boat Festival 粽子来啦！

Some call it Dragon Boat Festival, some say Zong-Zi Festival, and in Taiwan we call it Duan-Wu Festival.  The day was to memorize one great man Qu-Yuan in old time. He commited suicide in a lake as a way to protest justice. People threw rice-wrapped by bamboo leaves to feed fish and keep fish away from eating Qu-Yuan's body.  For more information click here: Duan-Wu festival.  Nowadays, many people eat Zong-Zi but do not know the story.  Many young people do not make Zong-Zi now, because Zong-Zi are availabe in supermarket any time of the year.  I still like to eat Zong-Zi at this special day to keep the tradition so Winston will remember it when he grows up.

 

As I had posted earlier, it was not easy to find all related materials for making Zong-Zi in Su-Zhou.  Someone told me that I may find the materials at traditional market in Old Town District. But "traditional market" and "Old town" seemed so unfamiliar.  So I just used what I had to make Zong-Zi.  The string I used to tie Zong-Zi was my cotton ball used to knead a shirt which is still in process.  

Here are the materials and the Finished Goods.  They looked fine but the taste would again depend on what month they feed.

 

 

 

Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

No Trash, No Cash

To my visitors:

It is hard to remote-control a screen without seeing it, but I still enjoy writing and feel good about talking to someone in my blog.

Sometimes you see my post doubled or removed, that is because I could not review my own blog while editing.

----------------------------------

Thanks for all comments.  I can read them in my mail.  Sorry that I could not answer your comments in my blog.

----------------------------------

No Trash, No Cash

That day I rode my new bike on the street in the early morning at 6：00.  The street cleaning workers were preparing for work.  One old woman worker threw a white broken plastic bag into the sky. The bag flew with the wind and landed on a green plain. She checked around to see if anyone noticed it.  She must have treated me as no-body.  Littering is not such a big deal here.  But, the picture of a cleaning worker throwing trash looked very "unique" to me.  I was curious about her motive. Maybe she wanted to create more trash so she would not lose the job? Maybe she was doing it as a voiceless protest about her extremely low wage. Or, before putting on her work robe, she was just one of the walkers littering for others to clean up.  

The other day, I was on my bike in the early morning again.  This time I rode to a different place.  On the way back, I saw the same cleaning worker on the street corner waiting for the traffice lights.  Then I realized that the workers changed work robe and got all tools in one place and rode the tricycles to their designated work areas afterwards. That day, when I saw her throwing a plastic bag, she was just getting ready.  She threw trash because that area was not her business.  That is why we see, and we need cleaning workers every minute everwhere in Su-Zhou. 

 

What Keep Men Away?

That afternoon I was on my bike.  On the sidewalk, a pretty lady (looked pretty on the back with long hair, wearing lady-dress) holding an unbrella, walking and carrying a bag.  On the way toward her, slowly walked a handsome young man.  Then I started my imagination about the young man picking up a conversation with the young lady. As three of us got closer and closer, the young man.... did not do anything but walk away.  And I looked at the lady's bag.  She was carring Bampers, diapers for babies. I realized why my imagination did not come true.  Diapers or babies always keep men away,even at home. 

Morning Tranquility

I woke up at 5:30 am and rode my bike around North Gold Chicken Lake. Sun was still hesitating to show up.  I took some pictures on the road. Here are some more pictures to share.  The most impressing one is the Water Drops.  If you watch it with eyes half opened, you would find them so real. 

 

Now inhale... exhale... slowly, and enjoy the morning tranquility!

 

Sun is hiding in the earling morning.

 

Water Drops

 

  Water drops on lily leaves

 

 

吸氣..吐氣..不要憋氣!

Jessie's Garden 夏日花園

Jessie's parents were staying with her this month.  She invited us to have lunch together. Last time when I saw her parents, it was on her wedding.  After 10 years, her parents did not change much, only that her father dyed his hair white. We ate in a new fine Chinese restaurant（玬桂軒酒楼). Jessie's husband, Peter ordered food enough for 2 meals. Look at the table full of Hong-Kong tea style dishes. The picture was taken when we were 80% full. I did not know the price. It was Peter's treat. 

 

 

We chatted in their house after lunch while kids were playing upstairs. Sitting in the living room, we saw their summer garden full of surprises. 

There was a small pool with little water lilies just waking up from their winter long sleep, and under the shade of the siderock and leaves we saw gold fish chasing around. Peter said, sometimes cats caught fish from the pool. Standing by the side door, we witnessed one cat approaching slowly toward a piegon walking in the garden.  It was very close but the cat missed the catch. 

In the yard, there were maples, fruit trees, roses, herbs, and "Vegetables". It was hard to imagine that someone can put so many things in the yard without ruining the look and feel of a Garden.  After visiting this garden several times, we realized that good hands and seasons bring surprises to the gardens.

        

  Water lilies and gold fish

 

Cumcumber Vines.

 

 

 

Former Korean President, Lu 悼韩国前总统卢武铉

上次才表揚他認错的精神，现在他为了怕连累更多人而自杀，言词中充满道歉，他的举动是对是错，留给後人评断，我尊敬他的为人。

谁能无过？知错認错最可敬。

默哀....

 

His act may seemed to be a bad example or irresponsible to the society. Right  or Wrong? I don't want to comment.  But he earned my respect. He admited his fault. He suicided not because he wanted to escape from his penalties but to protect the ones involved in the scandal.

 

Change 全副武装

Richy's Bike Debut to Yang-Cheng Lake
今晨Richy起得比平常早，上班还会赖床，今天没有，周日还第一次见他比我早起。

昨晚我们把Richy的铁马装備都買得差不多了，只剩下車的前後灯太贵没買。 

早上他6：30出發到阳澄湖与同事車友隊会合，环绕湖景后返回，这可是他的处女作 Bike Trip Debut。

因为是第一次，他忘东忘西的，我帮他上下来回两次拿了手套和水壶，当然第一次也是要拍照留念地！

 

看了照片，上次下注的答案也出现了，你猜对了吗？ 这台法拉利红是Pro级的，我那台灰色的才是物超所值吧？

 

他变了 He Changed.

平常周日都比我和Winston起得晚，太早起还被他嫌吵，平日回家第一件事是陪Winston玩。现在，为了他的新歡，周日一早就带她出游，平常回家就先摸摸看看她。

失寵的我们还是很支持Richy的健身活动，生活需要变化，多一辆爱车，比多一个爱妾好，Enjoy the Fun！

Now, bike is the first thing Richy touches after work. Biking is the first thing he does on early Sunday morning.

Winston and I are very supportive to his changes.  To a family, a man falling in love with a bike is better than falling in love with another woman.
 

New Bike （II）

That day I was really a Mrs. Rich(y).  I bought "3" DaHon bikes in 30 mins, one for Richy, one for me, and one for Richy's colleage.

My money provider and his colleague were at work, and it was the last day for discounts, so there I was.  
The bike for me is not a professional bike, but enough for me and it was a good buy with big discount.

Richy and his colleague's bikes are of the same model and the price is four times of mine.

Here are the two models.  And I encourage you to guess on which one is more expensive than the other. 

You can bet on it with your partner, kids or friends. Let the loser do housework for you, or buy you a free lunch.

Hint: Don't judge by the outfit.

I will give you the answer next time.

 

Hope you win the bet! Have a nice weekend. Answer will come soon.

 

鹹蛋妈妈，前進超市

天气变暖以来，超市人群好像过完冬眠一樣重现江湖，我非常不爱逛这人挤人的超市，但有些东西非得在超市才買得到，今天我要去找做粽子的材料。

昨天在邻里中心買了粽叶，今天買米、香菇、和肉，好不容易穿出重重人群，看到另一群人正抢购着某种宝贝，挤入人群瞄了一眼，哦！是咸蛋，心想原来苏粽和台粽一樣也放咸蛋啊，我也来试试吧！人太多挤不进，只能把购物车停一旁，伸手随便抓四把，反正都是真空包装一贯作业，品质应该没太大差異，共拿到11个蛋。一群人还挤在那儿东挑西拣的，工作人员不停开箱補货，很多咸蛋阿姨、阿婆们拣了整蓝的咸蛋，我问了一位咸蛋太太：你也要做粽子啊？ 她说：不的，我们咸蛋是要配粥的(註)。这下子我可能是凑错热闹了，做粽子的咸蛋可能不是酱買的，管他的，人那么多也不知從何找起，而且在这儿，询问工作人员通常是等於白问。

 

一旁有摊位正边做边賣着肉粽，他们的线是一般缝衣线，挺怪的。我鼓起勇气问了工作人员那儿可買到绑粽子的绳线，他说：没賣。看吧,问了也没用。

一位热心的阿姨说：你用工作手套绑粽子(註)不就行了？

啊!我洗马桶的塑胶手套，她没聽错我的意思吧？我一脸茫然：我是说绑粽子的线。

热心的阿姨说：是啊！你把手套拆開，慢慢把棉线抽出来不就行了。

原来她是说農用、工用手套，真是聪明加勁爆，但...那是能溶入食品的棉线吗？我当然不会这么做的，再说粽子也不是只給Richy一个人吃的，我们还要命啊！

 

已放弃找粽绳的想法，去结账时经过药局，看到医疗用品部，晃了一下，看到"绷帶"马上联想到....,

是的，買下了，如果在我做粽子前，还是没找到适当的粽绳，那就期待在我的Blog欣赏绑"绷帶"的粽子吧！

 

后来终於晃到了结帐柜台，排在我后面的老兄看到我蓝子里的咸蛋说：啊！你这几个蛋太小啦，那个还比较大。

原来那些三挑四拣的咸蛋妈妈们是在挑大小(註)的，下次如果我做的粽子有人吃、如果我挤得進人群，再来給它挑特大的，反正也不是按重计价的。

 

 

憶往惜福 

註: 这些经验不由讓人想起早期的台湾，记得小时候爸爸的汗衫就是阿嫲用麵粉袋拆缝做成的，小时候妈妈也常煎一个咸翻了的菜ㄅㄡ蛋 、很稀的蒸蛋、或咸蛋讓我们配饭，

買东西时也要花上一堆时间講价才成交。 现在的苏州是一个外观富裕的现代城市，很难想像其中很多人还是过着斤斤计较的苦日子，贫富差距之大，可见。

 

 

New Bike Take Me Out 鐵馬行空

New Spirit

My friends, thanks for your supportive comments and mails. Still in jail but I can read your comments in my gmail-box through the Blog's comment mailing function (my brother-in-law in Taiwan had reset it for me).  I decide to let my spirit walk out of the jail and move on.

Forget the hands that set all the barriers in the "Blocked Land", I want to share the good side about life in Su-zhou(China), fun and joy.

-------------------------------------------------------

The Bicycle Team

Some of Richy's Taiwanese colleagues formed a group call ABC Kun-Shan Bicycle Team. They schedule different routes for bike lovers to choose from for Sundays.  Last Sunday we happened to meet the bike riders who chose Su-Zhou route having breakfast in McDonald on their way toward Su-Zhou while we were on our way to Chong-Yuan Temple. Look at the handsome picture of them wearing Bicycle Man's costumes.

--------------------------------------------
Our 1st Adjustable Bike, DaHon ,Model: Gemini Mu 410, US brand, China made

We bought a new bike for Winston. He is still learning how to ride on a bike without 2 supporting side wheels. The bike was adjustable and packable but still a bit big for Winston. If he were 3 cm taller, it would be easier for him to ride. We just wanted to invest in one bike that would fit him through his teenage.  Richy and I both tried the bike for a while, and we felt great to exercise through real bikes instead of bike-machine in the Gym.  So, do expect 2 more new bikes on the way. Coming soon~

 

-----------------------------------------------------------
Mosquito Net

 

It was such a torture to sleep with mosquitoes in the same room.  The weather was getting hot and some mosquitoes sneaked to our house through the elevator.  I used to be good at finding and killing them, but not in China.  They are smarter here.  I was mostly up one night to trap and look for the mosquitoes but in vain.  The next morning with my swollen panda eyes, I went to the mart to buy one net. The whole set did not have any illustration slip in the pack, so it took me some brain and effort to set every thing right.  Now our bed looked like a pig house. We played 3 little pigs before bedtime. 

                                              

 

Hell in Jail

It is hell for google bloggers in China.
Yesterday I tried to register and write in Sina Blog hosted by the local server in China.

I wrote 2 posts: first one was to say hello and tell my visitors why I moved to Sina Blog Land; the second one I just cut and paste my last post about my visit to Chong Yuan Temple from my original document which I had posted in this blogspot to Sina blog.

Guess what happened?

 

One hour later, when I entered my Sina blog, my first post was removed without any notice and explanation while the second one remained there. 

 

You know why? Because in the first posting, I said "My Google Blogspot was Blocked so I moved to Sina Blog."

 

With the sensitive key word " Google Blog is blocked", then my post is gone.  My precious human right was spotted by a dirty hand.

 

So I decided not to use Sina Blog anymore. But there was no function or option for me to delete my website.  I felt ashamed that I was registered to a blog spied and controlled by someone not myself.

I will still use my mail to post to my web site although I can not open it and see the page in China. At least my blog is still there. One day when they reopen it or when I go back to my free country I can see it. That would be a special precious reunion moment.  

Budda Temple & Farm Visit

 

As I had told you in my previous post, my blog in China is currently in jail. I think they would not re-open it until the end of 20th memorial date of XXX.  Fortunately, I found one way to sneak out. But now I can only post to my blog through mail and still can not view my blog or others' blogs.  But I am satisfied now.  At least I can still write and share now.  Although I can not respond to your comments, they are very welcomed and treasured by me and will be read after the ban for sure.  

 

 

 

 

 

Today We went to Chong Yuan Temple, a famous Budda Temple  and visited Yang-Cheng Farm.

There were many big statutes for visitors to pay respect or worship.  The biggest one was made of 33 tons of copper with height 26 meters. 

One of the small temple allow people to pay and hit the big bell on the penthouse of temple.

The Yang-Cheng district is very close to Industrial Park.  We took only 20 minutes to get there.  The lakes and gardens in that area were very beautiful. It is still a new place for sightseeing and leisure.  Not many visitors were there today. I enjoyed the beauty and peace in that place.  

At noon time,  we went to a resturant in Yang-Cheng Farm next to Chong-Yuan Temple.  The food was fresh but a bit salty.  The price and service were fair. 

 

 

 

I am sending this text through my gmail.  I hope this one will go to my blog.  I don't know how this would look in my blog.  I just like to write and post when I like. It is such a habbit to me now. Let me know if you can read this. 

如果这次Post成功了，那还真是不经一事不长一智呢！

Bad News: Blogs in Jail, Censorship 资讯控管 in China

To my Dear Visitors:

 

You would not believe this.  The google blogger in China was completely blocked from the outer world.  Since last month, I could not check any Press News from Taiwan on line.  Now the blogger is blocked.  Many users complained but could not do anything to protest.  Why they do this? I can think of 2 things: 1) the coming protest by the opposing party in Taiwan on May 17. China's gov doesn't want anything about "protest" especially in the free country Taiwan to be seen by its people.  2) the 20th memorial date of June 4th.    I heard that the blogspot was blocked for 2 months during the Olympic Game.  Now I don't know when they would release it. 

Treasure the freedom you have now.

 

My blog in China is currently in jail.  I could not access any of  your blogspots either.  I am considering using Chinese local blog server for a temporary shift and will switch back to Google (because I love it)  when the ban is released. My brother-in-law, Hank will post this message to my blog for me.  I will tell you my new back-up blog soon.  If you want to leave message, you can use my e-mail:  junecyut@gmail.com 

I hope to see you in blog land soon.

Learned some tricks for blog template

If you ever stopped by my page, you may have experienced the weird changes in my blog in just a few minutes. Yes, it was under re-construction these 2 days.
I spent quite long hours figuring out how to change the format of my blog outlook. The sample templates are great but I always feel I need something in between the samples. So, I do some search in the website and got some useful tips. However, the default tips did not fit my blog template. So I tried errors many times with my own edition and here is my current blog outlook. I feel it is spacious for both the main content and the side bar now, and at the same time I can keep the same background wall paper. I am quite a computer idiot. And I am very happy that I have done some changes on my own to my blog.
My conclusion after this silly move is: always use the sample templates or apply the ready-made templates in the websites, if you don't want to waste life.

The useful tips are from 綸太郎 . Sorry, only the ones who read Chinese can benefit form it. I hope more of my friends can start building their blogs to share their life and views with me.

Next time I want to learn how to make my own background wall paper.

Flower-decorated Art Pieces

Everyday on the way to Winston's school, I enjoy the arts on the side way, but also watch out for the distraction.

The art pieces are decorated with variety of real flowers with roots on them.

They were recently placed in some areas in Su-Zhou Industrial Park to attract more foreign inverstment and also more visitors.


Beside the Masks are the Golden Pig Family, which have been there for some years.

Do I look More Organized, Now?

Feel good about putting my past diaries into catergories. Still need to work some more. Enough for a blog day. I must have clicked 100 times on my visitor meter. Time to go back to my housework duties.

Cover girl: Lily's daughter

Statues

Here are some of the pictures of statutes to share. It was weird that none of the statues had names of artists, signatures, or dates on the display. So I can not provide enough information about these art pieces. I only know that most of the large version of these statutes were placed around Gold Chicken Lake and the Industrial Park. And even in their located places, I still did not see the names of the artists on the statutes. I hope someday they will put artists' names on the art pieces.

Have a great day!

East Gold Chicken Lake, An Easy Fun Day

Yesterday is the first Mother's Day for 3 of us celebrating together and also is the first time in China.

Morning we went to the Science and Art museum to see the display of small samples of all the statues in Su-Zhou Industrial Park. Some of the statues I had already seen and recorded them with my camera, but some I still need to find out where they were located. They have two live statues displayed by real human dressed in white and Golden suits. I was annoyed when I saw visitors or kids trying to touch the live statues. Some parents even told their kids to joke on the statues. I told the visitors not to touch the human statues because it was very tough for them to stay still while people touching or pulling their clothes or hats. I could not understand why the museum workers could ignore those mischievous behaviors. Richy was afraid that somebody might punch me when I step out of the museum door. Anyway I walked out safely.

Winston pretended to be one of the live statues in display.

-------------------------

Since it was hot now, we stayed home in the afternoon doing what need to be done. Then we went out to the east side of Gold Chicken Lake for a walk in the evening. The east side is not as crowded as the west side of the lake. However, I am afraid this peace may not last longer because the Ferris Wheel Fun Land would soon open and draw noisy crowds. The Fun Land was definitely not my favorite place to visit. However it was so close and I could not help but take a few pictures of it. It was really huge. They also had roller coaster and kids' bumping cars on the ground.

We walked until sun set. Took some more pictures and enjoyed the summer evening breeze along the walk. Then we saw water dance in a plaza surrounded by exotic restaurants. The water danced along with lovely music. Some kids ran in and out of the water, and so did we. Winston and I tried the outer circle and got out dry and safe.

Richy observed the water moves and thought the very center of the water fountain was the safest place to stay dry. So he ran in, but just after he ran in the water changed its dancing moves. He was stuck by the water wall. We could hardly saw him and when he got out he was completely wet. Fortunately, he could get in my extra-large long- sleeve shirt for a warm change.

To me, this was a very precious moment to see the change in Richy who jumpped into something without thinking at least 3 times (no matter at work or for leisure) . He used to be the one who stopped us doing something crazy, silly, and funny like this. Although he got out wet, I was happy to Richy so relaxed and having fun.

On the way home, Richy saw a Mexico Food Restaurant and we checked in. We ordered Fajita and assorted BBQ. The food was fresh and tasty but a bit greasy. We took a feast and ended our Happy mother's day.

After our stomachs were all full, we saw a Korean restaurant full of eaters. We supposed it to be a good one and checked the menu at their door. I sighed at the expensive menu but Richy said that was not so expensive. Ha, I giggled in mind with the thought that we might have the chance to sit inside next time.