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IN THIS ISSUE

• Kate Brookfield continues her story of a visit to Shanghai
• Stan French remembers a boarding house in Calgary
• Margaret Manning begins her story of an unforgettable holiday
• Dick Monaghan comments on a popular Christmas movie
• Rafiki sends a poem about winter in Ontario
• Gerrit de Leeuw forwards a report of an emergency in Victoria
• Peter Rollo tells about a recycled parrot
• Carol Hansen, Gerrit, and Tom Telfer suggest websites

Kate Brookfield takes up the tale of her recent visit to

SHANGHAI

We were up bright and early to catch the fast train to Hangzhou. The MRT journey was hell. The empty train pulled in and as soon as the doors opened, everyone pushed and shoved to get on the train and in seconds all seats were take - mainly by men, I might add. The people kept pushing into the carriage when there was literally no space left for another body. A young professional woman strap hanging next to me asked in a critical manner why we were taking the commuter train. I told her we would have preferred not to experience their rush hour travel, but we had a train to catch and had no choice. I said if I lived and worked in Shanghai, I would be asking why they do not put more carriages on the rush-hour trains. The trains were very short compared with the length of Taipei MRT trains at all times of day.

Fortunately, we only had to go two stops, but it was just as hard to get out as to get on. People getting on the train made no effort to let people off. After that, the rest of our journey was pleasant. We had reserved seats on the fast train and in no time at all, we were in the city of Hangzhou, 112 miles south-west of Shanghai.

By Chinese standards this is a small city, but its urban population is over three million. The city is steeped in history, founded over 2000 years ago and listed as one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China, but the cultural history of the surrounding area goes back more than 7000 years to the first rice growers. Also an ancient jade carving culture known as the Liangzhu civilization, named from a city of the same name, thrived in this area over 5000 years ago. We did not have time in two days to do justice to all the history of this city.

Although it was very busy around the train station, we had no problem getting a bus to the tourist area of West Lake. Not surprisingly, the lake is west of the city and in a short time, we were out of the city pollution and driving along the side of the large lake surrounded on three sides by hills. A short walk from the bus stop brought us to our hotel on the lake front.

I hope my pictures on Picasa will show you better than my words the scenic beauty of lake area, particularly the changing light which makes the natural scenery look like the paintings we often see of Chinese landscapes. There are three causeways dividing the lake into five areas and in the middle of the lake are some natural and some man-made islands.

It was still only midday by the time we had booked into our room and made arrangements to get our tickets for the water show in the evening, so we strolled along the lakeside walkway to the area where there were many restaurants and food stalls and had our lunch enjoying the view. After lunch we walked the full circumference of the lake across the two causeways. It was so nice to have a leisurely walk enjoying the many floral displays.

There were several choices of boats that would take tourists to the islands. I liked the gondolas which took only two people, but Alice, who does not swim, said they were not safe and she had heard that they often capsize. She wanted to go on one of the larger ferries that carries two levels of tourists, but the cacophony of noise from the passengers coming across the water did not appeal to me at all. In the end, we did not bother to take a boat to the islands as we discovered they charged to take you to one island, then the same amount again to go to the next island, and again to get back. There wasn´t much more to see on the islands than what we could enjoy from the causeway walks.

Soon it was time to go and eat an evening meal and make our way to the location for the water show. Around the area for the performance there were many little stores selling "silk" items, although the little dress I got for my granddaughter had "polyester" on the label when it was removed from its cellophane wrap. Alice bought a lot of items, but I only bought two pairs of silk pyjamas for Michael. I had to take them back the next morning as the label said large XX, but when I unpacked them, they were about size 10 Canadian. I would have needed large XXXXXXXX for me!

There is no doubt that the water show was well worth the overnight stay. The performance, called "Impression West Lake", was drawing huge crowds every night. Three directors with international reputations were credited, but Zhang Yimou, who directed the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics this year, is probably the most well known. This is the third of his "Impression" series and he has apparently started a trend for this kind of performance in scenic settings. The music was composed by Kitaro and the female lead singer was Zhang Liangying. Full details of the production can be found at the official web site: http://www.hzyxxh.com/en/index.htm, and for videos on YouTube, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEcPJRiRaT4 and related videos.. If you Google the title you will find many videos on YouTube of the show.

I cannot do justice to the show by describing it in detail. There is a basic simple story of lovers meeting, falling in love, being separated through death, and finally meeting again in the afterlife. Gasps and clapping broke the spell as one surprise after another amazes and enthralled the audience.

A large cast and the use of simple props gave spectacular effects. For example at one point, each performer carried what looked like two large feathers to give the impression of swans and moments later, winged angels. In another scene the performers seemed to have a small bucket which they dipped into the lake and then in perfect synchronized timing they scooped up the water and threw it up in the air to give the effect of a storm at sea. Music and the dramatic use of lighting completed the effects. The use of board walks just below the surface of the lake made it appear as if the performers were walking on water. In another scene, a floating palace suddenly appeared out of the dark with a burst of colour and light.

To complete the effects, completely without the help of human artistry, a full moon low in the sky shed its light on the water. And best of all we finished our first day in China without any rain! In case you haven´t gathered, I enjoyed the show immensely. And just to complete the evening of surprises, a couple from Calgary were sitting next to us.

To be continued.

ED. NOTE: To see Kate's pictures of Hangzhou, go to http://arunaurl.com/2m30; For her pictures of the light show, see http://arunaurl.com/2m2m

Stan French writes: I came across this in a letters-home diary my mother kept for me so I would have a journal of my adventures in Calgary from the summer of 1951 to early fall in 1953. The first year I had my first experience as a renter of a suite in the basement of a private home. I had to cook meals for myself for the first time, but fortunately I had a very helpful landlady. After a trip home in the late fall of 1952, I decided to find a boarding house, and this was my story home about it:

THE SCHOOF BOARDING HOUSE

When I was looking for a place to stay in early December 1952, I answered an ad in the paper and since it was a telephone number, I looked up the address in the telephone numerical index to make sure the location was suitable for travel to and from my workplace in the Burns Building in downtown Calgary. I visited in person to enquire about the room.

The room had already been taken at noon, but the gentleman, Mr. Schoof, a very large red-headed man with a big smile, said he was impressed by my resourcefulness and showed me the room.

It was a small room in the basement of his large home, one of five similar rooms for boarders. It was furnished with a new wine-colour chesterfield suite, a dresser, a torchiere floor lamp, and a large closet. It had a small space heater.

"You´ll notice we have this large torchiere 300-watt floor lamp, not like most boarding houses that supply you with a tiny little wee 25- watt bulb that will cause eyestrain. You have a lovely little room here in which to entertain your friends or lounge around in. At night you simply make it up into a bedroom. Nice, isn´t it? You will notice the room is brightly decorated, and you have a large window for lots of daylight and it will open and give you plenty of fresh air.

"Now, the price is $19 a week for this lovely little room. You´ll notice this is slightly higher than most ordinary boarding houses charge, but we do this for two reasons. The meals here are delicious. You get three meals each day: a large breakfast with plenty of variety, a large wholesome lunch, and a delicious evening meal. On Saturday night, for instance, we serve a big, thick one-inch juicy T- bone steak. Other nights we serve roast beef, southern fried chicken, and so on. We serve appetizers with all meals, salads, soups, and relishes. You couldn´t buy better meals downtown at any price. Second, the higher price eliminates the troublesome element."

Well, the room had already been taken so I left and soon afterwards got settled temporarily to board at the Gittle residence. It would cost just $60 a month.

On the day I was told about the relatives coming to the Gittle residence, Mr. Schoof phoned to say he had a vacancy (the same room I had been shown). I paid a dollar in advance. This took a little selling on my part - Mr. Schoof thought it was a joke when I suggested such a small deposit. I had no more.

When I moved in on the Saturday I discovered that breakfast was served whenever you wanted it. The cereals and juices and so forth were placed on the table and there was an electric cup, a kettle, and a toaster, and you made your own delicious variety of breakfast.

Lunch was carried. "How many sandwiches would you like? Two is the most we make."

On Monday morning I had my first meal. I tried to make breakfast in the wake of five other people who were not noticeably tidy. Monday night the "delicious" evening meal was soup, ham, salad, and warmed- over potatoes. Someone said, "That must have been a large ham; we had it Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and again today."

On Tuesday night we had wieners and beans; on Wednesday we had a good chicken dinner; and the next night, a mediocre stew.

The Schoof boarding house was an experience for me unlike any I had had before.

Margaret Manning begins her account of

A TRIP TO REMEMBER

In early 2008 we thought we might make the trip from New Zealand to England to see the sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, their spouses, and the younger generation. At first we had grand ideas about going via Vancouver, crossing Canada by train, and visiting Niagara Falls, and returning via Cape Town and Perth. Well it was a lovely idea, but....

One of our nephews and his wife came to live in N.Z. in 2007, had a work visa, job, somewhere to live and, after a period, entitlement to apply for residency. But their residency application took longer than expected and we wondered if we might be required to assist them in some way to hasten their application, so we couldn´t do much about the trip except check on some prices. By the time their good news came through to us in late April: "Got residency this morning," our travel plans had drastically changed.

We shelved the idea of the huge trip, partly because of the huge cost, and thought simply about just getting to England and back. Finding flights to suit us perfectly was impossible as many flights to the Northern Hemisphere for its summer are booked months ahead, and returning to N.Z. clashed with the Beijing Olympics. So we took what we could find, but luckily with our favourite airline, Qantas. We expected to arrive on time at Heathrow at 7 a.m. on the 1st of July, when we would make our own way to our holiday base in Suffolk, a few hours further travelling by underground and train. Or so we thought.

We were woken in our Auckland hotel at 4:30 a.m. on Monday, June 30, for our early flight to Sydney. Eric, as usual, had something that made the security device "buzz" and I thought he might be strip searched. But, also as usual, it was the zipper on his pants. I was randomly selected for a new security check on hand baggage and person and was told it was for explosives. Of course the gadget showed "Negative".

Once we reached Sydney - 10 a.m. their time - we had seven hours to fill in before the London flight departed at 5 o´clock. No worries - we´d look at the glittery stuff in the shops, have a sit down, have a walk about, have another sit down, and a meal, and before we knew it, it would be time to check in for London.

At lunchtime we noticed our flight number was not on the display screen. So we checked with the airline and were told the flight would be delayed until 9 p.m. due to a maintenance requirement, but we could go into the Qantas transit lounge and have refreshments and later on would be supplied with a meal voucher. That sounded okay and as the transit lounge was very comfortable and well equipped and not very busy, we enjoyed being there. It started to fill up about 4 p.m. and the large range of refreshments soon disappeared. At 6:40 p.m. we were told our flight was not leaving that night and we would be staying in a hotel.

It appeared that several other flights were similarly affected. As we had not officially entered Australia, being in transit all day, we all had to collect our luggage, go to Immigration and Customs, and then outside for the bus to take us to our hotel. This procedure did not take very long actually and after lining up again to check in and be handed a letter of instructions, we were in our room by 8 p.m. We were allowed one phone call, an evening meal, and breakfast. We rang our nephew Chris in N.Z. to ask him to let his brother Steve in England know we would be late arriving..

The sumptuous meal at the luxury hotel would have been lovely under different circumstances but we ate little and went to bed. We had another very early call the next morning as we had to check out, have breakfast, and be back on the bus by 6:30 a.m. for the 10 a.m. departure.

The plane got to the end of the runway when the pilot announced a leak of some sort had been spotted, so he had to go back to the terminal building for inspection - about 17 minutes away. There was no problem and off we went again. The flight to Bangkok was full but pleasant enough, although sleep was difficult. We were on the ground for 37 minutes at Bangkok and many of us did not get off the aircraft. We watched fascinated as the army of Thai cleaners went busily about their job, recreating a perfectly clean aircraft for the next leg. A violent thunderstorm prevented the aircraft from taking off for about 20 minutes, after which the crew did a zig-zag route around the many thunderstoms.

We had a 12-hour flight to London. About four hours out of Bangkok I passed out. I remember reaching for my "No Jet Lag" pills as I felt a little bit woozy. Next thing I heard was a male Aussie voice saying, "Can you hear me, darling?" I thought I was dreaming. But it was all on with the crew around me and oxygen being administered. Apparently I passed out twice and had more oxygen. Anyway, the very efficient steward decided to shift us into business class where the seat opened out into a bed. We spent the rest of the journey being pampered and fussed over and attended to, although we couldn´t face the smoked salmon sandwiches offered during the night.

The lovely steward asked us if we were being met as it would be midnight when we got to Heathrow. We had managed to contact Steve at Sydney airport, and he said he´d be waiting for us. Otherwise the airline would put us into a hotel near Heathrow.

Once we landed, the captain announced that the automatic staircase was not working and somebody had to go and find steps for us to exit the aircraft. After that, my suitcase didn´t appear on the carousel, so I asked someone to help. He kindly disappeared and came back and said, "Yes, it will be here shortly," and there it was.

And there he was, our wonderful nephew Steve, waiting for us at 12:40 a.m. on July 2nd. What a trip! And that was just the beginning.

To be continued.

Dick Monaghan writes:

YOU WANT TO TALK BAILOUTS?

If you watched "It´s a Wonderful Life" and hissed at Mr. Potter, please note that George Bailey was engaged in sub-prime loans and mortgages: the cab driver, the immigrant family and the blonde were not high-quality borrowers. Furthermore, it took a bailout of public funds - all those donations at the end of the movie - to keep George out of jail.

I became suspicious of George when we were told the institution of which he was CEO built a subdivision in which the homes were "worth twice what it cost the savings and loan to build them," while George´s salary was $45 per week, or $180 per month. (My father was a railroad conductor, and his salary was about $350 a month roughly at the time depicted in the movie.) Ol´ George must have had some horrendously large benefits in addition to that piddling salary.

Mr. Potter was right, after all.

ED. NOTE: Perhaps George received generous yearly bonuses. Is that not usual for CEOs?

Rafiki explains

WHY I LOVE ONTARIO

When it´s winter time in Ontario
And the gentle breezes blow,
About sixty miles an hour
And it´s twenty-five below,
You can tell you´re in Ontario
´Cause the snow´s up to your butt,
And you take a breath of winter air
And your nostrils both freeze shut.
The weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I´ll hang around.
I could NEVER leave Ontario:
My feet are frozen to the ground!

And from the other side of Canada, we have this disturbing news sent by Gerrit de Leeuw:

VANCOUVER ISLAND DECLARES CIVIL EMERGENCY

For all you non-Islanders, we have had about 55.5 cm in last week. The snow is not an issue for most of us, but it fell on the golf courses too, which is a very serious problem.

The following is a minute-by-minute report of the current extreme weather conditions on Vancouver Island, BC:

6:22 a.m. Temperature plunges to -5 C. Word spreads that a Comox resident finds ice on his windshield! Curious neighbours gather to watch him scrape it off with a credit card. One motorist, a former Albertan, claims use of mysterious "defrost" switch on dashboard can aid in process.

9:30 a.m. Hardware stores sell both of their snow shovels. Islanders begin cobbling together implements made from kayak paddles, umbrellas, plywood, cookie sheets, and boogie boards.

10 a.m. Golfers switch to orange balls. In Victoria, Beacon Hill Park cricket players, anxious not to repeat the ugly "snow blower incident" of the Blizzard of ´96, switch to orange uniforms.

Noon: Word of impending West Coast snowfall tops newscasts across Canada. Edmonton hospitals report epidemic of sprained wrists related to viewers high-fiving one another. BC residents not worriedas welfare bums will move back to Alberta.

1:20 p.m. Elementary schools call in grief counsellors. Grief counsellors refuse to go, citing lack of snow tires.

2:30 p.m. Rush hour begins an hour early as office workers come down with mysterious illness and bolt for home. Usual traffic snarl is compounded by large number of SUV four-wheel-drives abandoned by side of road.

2:50 p.m. Airplanes are grounded and ferries docked. No way to travel between Island and rest of the world. Times Colonist headline: "Mainland cut off from Civilization."

3:22 p.m. Prime Minister Harper announces Canada´s DART rapid- response team can be on the ground within six months. "We can´t leave the Ottawa area to deal with a mere 225 centimetres of snow," he tells the new Mayor of Comox. "Um, that´s two to five centimeters, not two-two-five," replies the Mayor. The Prime Minister hangs up.

3:33 p.m. Provincial government responds to crisis by installing slot machines in Nanaimo homeless shelters.

4:10 p.m. At behest of Provincial Emergency Program, authorities begin adding Prozac to drinking water.

4:15 p.m. Fears of food shortages lead to alarming scenes of violence and looting. Grocery shoppers riot in Victoria, except in Oak Bay, where residents hire caterers to do rioting for them.

4:30 p.m. Bracing for the arrival of snow, the Island is gripped by an eerie stillness reminiscent of Baghdad on the eve of the invasion. Searchlights comb darkening sky for first sign of precipitation.

4:48 p.m. Panic ripples across the region as words come in that the first flakes of snow have fallen on the Malahat. False alarm! "Flakes" turn out to be nothing more than anthrax spores released by terrorists. An uneasy calm returns to the area.

5:40 p.m. Television reporter, Ed Bain, shaking uncontrollably, tells viewers that snow warnings have been extended. This weather pattern could go on for days. Mercury plummets to Calgary-in-August temperatures. Martial law is declared. Victoria-area politicians announce plans to establish an emergency command centre aboard HMCS Regina once it reaches Oahu.

NOTE: We are now accepting CARE packages. Donations are encouraged and much appreciated.

Peter Rollo sends this story of

THE RECYCLED PARROT

A woman went to a pet shop and spotted a large, beautiful parrot. There was a sign on the cage that said $50.

"Why so little?" she asked the pet store owner.

The owner looked at her and said, "Look, I should tell you that this bird used to live in a house of prostitution and sometimes it says some pretty vulgar stuff.´"

The woman thought about this, but decided she had to have the bird anyway.

She took it home and hung the bird´s cage up in her living room and waited for it to say something. The bird looked around the room, then at her, and said, "New house, new madam."

The woman was a bit shocked at the implication, but then thought, "That´s really not so bad."

When her two teenage daughters returned from school the bird saw them and said, "New house, new madam, new girls."

The girls and the woman were a bit offended, but then began to laugh about the situation, considering how and where the parrot had been raised.

Moments later, the woman´s husband Keith came home from work.

The bird looked at him and said, "Hi, Keith."

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

For a rapid wrap-up of last year´s news, Carol Hansen suggests this site:

http://www.unclejayexplains.com/media/UJ%2012-22-08.wmv

I don´t remember if we had this one before, but in any case, it is well worth watching again. Gerrit sends the URL for an incredible performance on the Russian bar recorded for Chinese TV at the Circus Festival of Monte Carlo:

http://amazingacts.blogspot.com/2008/07/dont-try-this-at-home.html

Tom Telfer suggests this site for news of interest to PC users:

http://www.google.com/chrome