Piano & Bassoon

I had been busy in building our Class Website. Now my old classmates are having fun chatting in the network. And the good news is that I found another classmate to be the main website manager.  She can share half of the workload in maintaining the website.  And I will have more of my own time to maintain my blog.

This picture was taken on June 20, the openning of Piano teacher's new music learning center.  Teacher Deng is a Bassoon teacher in Suzhou University.
 

Kindergarteners' Graduation

Last Friday was Winston's graduation date.  Richy went to work in the early morning and took few hours off work to attend the graduation ceremony.  After the ceremony, the kids performed shows to entertain parents and other kids. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class Reunion Project & Friend's Visit

These days I still suffered from Sun Skin Rashes （多型性日光型皮肤疹）.  They said once you got this allergy it will not be cured easily and the symptom will repeat often in summer whenever the skin is exposed to the sun. 

I did not have time to go out these days anyway, because I had been busy working on a Class Reunion Project: building a Class Reunion Website.  I started it two weeks ago and opened the website on June 16.  The feedback had been great. And we got so many old classmates sending their pictures for me to post and joining the talks.  It feels good to meet old friends in the web.  It was like creating another campus in the internet.

Saturday Evan & Pinting visited us.  Richy was not home. Evan graduated from the same university as I did, but he was 2 years older.  I told him about our Class Reunion Website.  He is positive about our actions. Since I could not go out in the sun, I ordered KFC takeouts and we ate and chatted in our house.   Their son Johnathan and my son Winston had great time playing together.  Johnathan also learned piano at home.  He performed 2 piano songs in our house, and Winston played some songs, too. We parents exchanged our experiences in learning with kids.  Evan and Pinting saw our new bikes on the balcony. They planed to buy one, too.  So, I tell them to buy it in the store very close to our house.  They did a quick buy in few minutes and soon went on the way to visit Pinting's father in Kun-Shan.
    After they left, I took Winston to attend the Piano teacher's new opening of another piano learning center. Winston played some song in the new center.  He met a Bason Teacher who also play Saxphone.  The teacher played Saxphone while Winston played piano.  Winston was very happy to see and hear real Saxphone the very first time.  I did not bring my camera with me, but they took pictures for us.  I will attched some pictures later.

 

 

 

 

Summer Lotus

Hello, I am back to my Google blog but it is still blocked. To tell the truth, I jumped over the Blocking Wall several times to view my own google blog and visit some friends'.

They call it " Jump over the wall" or "Cross the wall" when you break through the blocks by certain means. I tried the method offered by one website and I made it. But even I crossed the wall, I still can not do much about my blog, because the speed for each click was too slow. It may take 3 minutes for one click and sometimes it just went dead. So, I decided to just post through my e-mail again. At least I can view my own blog when I want to.

This morning, some workers were supposed to intall our balcony windows at 9:30. I sneaked out before the time and took some pictures of lotus.

Lotus in Su-Zhou are blossoming and they will continue to blossom until fall. I found some beautiful scene on the way to Winston's school. So, after I came back from Winston's school, I changed for my bike and rode out to take some pictures with the risk of getting rashes on my sensitive skin again.

回到家不久後，装窗户的工人來了，媽呀!他們的襪子真是臭氣充天啊!我顧不得他们的想法，戴上口罩，待会儿他们走了，我还得想辦法清理臭地板，拜託，别在房子里走来走去啦，戴口罩似乎也没啥作用。

Come Visit My Blog in Yam 新居落成，歡迎光临！

My dear visitors,

Thanks for visiting here.  After June 4th, the Chinese Gov still did not unblock Google.  The sensitives issues are coming up every minute in China, 2 days ago, a bus full of 100 people just burned in ShiChuan, the same place where the serious earthquake happened last year.  People blame the public communication system for not having any safety tools for the passengers to break out and they doubt why a bus can take 100 people in one ride.  Of course, there are noises and complaints in the local blogland in China.  I am sure they won't leak the news out to the rest of the world, not to say in the blog world.  Who knows what would be the next sensitive issue coming up.  So I decided to move to a new blog hosted in Taiwan, the "Yam Sky" which is one of the few not blocked by China yet.  I hope you would access it fine. 

 

At the same time I will keep and maintain my Google blog regularly, because once my Yam is blocked someday, I can still use e-mail to post to Google blog.  This is a very special part about google to use e-mail function to post. 

Thank you for your past support and I hope you would visit my new blog as often as or maybe oftener than my google blog.  And at the same time please don't abandom my Google blog.   As a blogger, you know how we feel about our own blogs.

I had been lazy in posting these days because I did not get the chance to see how my blog page look like.  It was quite disappointing. With my new blog, I hope to regain the joy in writing and  sharing. June's New Blog: http://blog.yam.com/simpletruelife

 

 

 

 

 

單車遊古城 Bike to Old Town

昨日鼓起极大的力氣和勇氣，骑着单车到古城去，本来想辦园林卡的，但资格不符，试了二个辦事点都没用，结果就骑着车到处晃晃，倒是買到了一些想卖但一直不知去哪儿買的东西。

 

这一路共花了四个小时，我全副武装，兴奋地骑上DaHon，享受夏风拂袖的速度感，遇到一个上坡，我使劲地踩，还得抬頭注意前方逆向而来的单车电动车族，不知你是否也發现，上坡时，最怕抬頭看前面了，因为看到坡度，脚就软了，利用下坡时我稍微放鬆一下，找到了辦卡的地方。看来非假日的辦卡处（干将东路）是附近居民閒晃的地方，很多中年老男人聚集在此，我的装備和单车马上成为他们的新话题，一群人围着我的车，还没问过我，就摸来摸去的，还试了我车把上的铃，接着还问我多少钱買的，我说：八百。一人看到车身的图案说：啊！这还是在美国做的。我说：这是美国牌子，是在中国做的。顿时讓周遭人产生一股以中国人为傲的气氛。不过回到正题，那位辦理园林卡的中年女人，審核证件真是不马虎的，她说，台湾“同胞”和本地人和外地人规定不一樣，居留要满二年才年辦。既然都说我是同胞了，还用不一樣的规定，我拜托她把我视同外地人处理，她说：外地人是指苏州以外的大陆人（言下之意：台湾是不属于大陆的，嗯！）我继续拜託，她開始叨着：唉呀！我会被炒鱿鱼的，我上有老母，下有幼子.....。真像电视剧，我心想算了，试试别的点吧，戴上我的安全帽准備出發，那些老男人离開我的车，还问了一句：你那帽子是買车送的吗？我说：花钱買的。

 

另一个辦事处是在苏州公园，沿着两边都是古老路树的公园路，看到悠闲的老人在树蔭下散步着，穿插着经过汽车的乱鸣声，真不协调。我试了公园辦卡处仍是无功而返，面对守法的人，真是没啥好报怨的，只是，如果大陆每个開车人都像辦卡人员那麽守规则就好了。骑去观前街附近買了小儿鼻炎片和咳丸，打算再骑去拙政园附近吃碗麵。

听说一家叫“吴门人家”的菜馆庭院深深供应道地的苏州麵，我寻着地图找着，途经一美发美容用品店，好奇地问了是否有卖电动理髮剪，还真有卖，来大陆以前Winston的頭髮都是俺剪的，Richy的頭髮常常在公司的理发厅理得怪怪的，買了工具，以後又可以自己美化家园了。想着想着，沿着临顿路找到了一条非常不起眼的小巷“潘儒巷”，正是我的目标，右转进去马上闻到一股尿骚味，显然小巷很容易成为路人处理燃眉之急的地方，这小巷没啥人氣，我还是勇敢地在小巷子里寻找，就在一旁有一户的门口，站着穿着带古味的服务人员，就是此处。

菜单上的单品价格不贵，看上去都是苏州菜，我一个人点了西芹白果、桂花糖藕、葱油拌麵。可能是天气热且刚骑脚踏车吃不太下，我吃了糖藕就半饱了，那碗葱油拌麵，好大碗，我想到了爱吃麵的Winston（真是个令人感动的妈），於是请服务员打包，这时我的背包已装的又满又重了，还得骑回家呢！

停车场旁有一条正在施工的小巷，一个小店賣着国画T-Shirt吸引了我的目光， 骑了这么久的车，是要犒赏自己一下囖！这家店很特别，老板兼画家姓趙，可以现買现画，我请老板画荷花在一纯白的T-Shirt上，效果不错，怕回到家被嫌浪费，再请老板帮我画几尾金鱼在一件XL的T-shirt上送給Rcihy，当然也買了一小件給Winston，回家後应该是皆大欢喜吧。

回家的路上，看到了一些雕像，本想拍一下，还没做好决定，就已离雕像一段距离了，後来又远远看到前方有雕像，正準備停下来拍照，才发现是真人不是雕像，看来是被太阳晒昏頭了，真假分不清。不过最後我还是拍到一个巨型弹珠手的雕像。

离家500米家的时候，我在脚踏车店停了下来，请小施（单车高手兼店员）帮忙调整一下刹车，还讓他拍下我全副武装的樣子，看了我的装備，就可以知道为什麽经过我的路人回頭率超高的。

 

 

Old Town Road 老路树

 

Pan-Ru Alley 潘儒巷

吴门人家- 庭院深深的菜馆

Restaurant in an old building

 

平日多为熟客来

 

桂花糖藕（已被吃剩半分）茶水免费

Appetitizer-Sweet Lotus Root

 

葱油拌麵，吃的时候还闻得到麵粉香

Noodle mixed with green onion and hot oil

 

Chinese Painting on T-shirt--- Gold Fish

 

Chinese Painting ---Water Lilies

 

Paintings on T-shirts

 

Do I Look like an Alien?

Hope you enjoy my trip!