Laborers

I saw these pictures on a website today. They are day laborers working in the Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen. They haul bricks for a living... some of them have been hauling bricks for decades. They probably make no more than US$100 a month, if that. The glittery buildings in China are literally built on their backs.


The temperature is over 100 degrees ... or 41 Celcius.

Drenched in sweat...

Most laborers live far away from their families in shabby dorms and they go home only once a year for the Spring Festival.

Tour de France Update

Week 2 of my Tour de France training went something like this:

Pedal pedal pedal... Yay, I know how to ride a bicycle now... the wind feels so good in my hair, yipeeeee, go Cat! Eh, curb in front, need to turn, not enough time, brake, brake, ahhhhhh!!! Crash. Bang. Splat. Waaahhhhhh! Sigh. No pain, no gain.

Anyhoo, tks C and D for letting me borrow your spare bike... here is the little rubber squeaky whale on the handlebar.

Tomato, Seaweed and Eggdrop Soup

Here is a simple Chinese home-style soup... In Chinese tomatoes are called either 番茄 (Fan Eggplant) or 西紅柿 (West Red Persimmon). As you can tell, the Chinese couldn't decide on whether tomatoes were more eggplant-like or persimmon-like so both names stuck. Regardless, based on the names, most likely tomatoes were introduced to the Chinese by foreign traders via the Silk Road as the word 番人(Fan People) is often used during ancient times to describe Caucasian people who traveled to China along the Silk Road. The second name, West Red Persimmon, is pretty self explanatory...

The ingredients are simple: White People Eggplant, Purple Veggies (the Chinese actually divide seaweed into two categories: seabelt (海带in Chinese, is a tougher and thicker type of seaweed) and purple veggie (紫菜 in Chinese, is a softer type of seaweed with a purple hue), a few eggs, a little bit of dried shrimp (didn't have it today) and a little bit of chopped spring onions (didn't have it either)...

Chop the tomatoes into large chunks, beat the eggs and shred the seaweed.. When water is boiled, put in tomatoes, seaweed and dried shrimp, when it comes to boil, let it cook for a minute or two, then toss in the egg batter and stir well... add chopped spring onions and turn off heat. Season it with salt and a little bit of sesame oil. Here it is: tomato, seaweed and eggdrop soup.

Summer Day...

Another beautiful summer day in LA... Hmmm, not much is going on, but here are some flowers for you! I saw them at the Farmer's Market in Century City.

Cat vs. the Kiddies

So I began my Tour de France training in earnest this weekend. Thank you D for kindly agreeing to be my coach! First, we had to pick a suitable locale for a bicycle novice. There happen to be an elementary school close to C and D's place so we went there... but to my consternation three kiddies were also there learning to ride bicycle.

The good news is I am able to get on the bicycle and pedal in straight lines, the bad news is, the kiddies were obviously more advanced than me and they were doing all these fancy turns and stuff, showoffs! Wait until next week, Auntie Cat is gonna channel her inner Chinese acrobat and do a handstand on her beach cruiser, we'll see who is cooler then :-P

Romeo and Juliet

A pair of star-cross'd lovers....ahhh, poor Romeo and poor Juliet, only if they had Blackberry back then, this tragedy would not have happened... sniff sniff. Just came back from watching American Ballet Theater's Romeo and Juliet with Roberto Bolle as Romeo and Irina Dvorovenko as Juliet. They were sooo good! I thought I'd be cheesed out by the final double suicide scene, but I was actually very moved. Ahh, the power of love.

She is a lovely ballerina and he is, well, let's just say female members of the audience screamed a lot!

Bargain 101

I recently moved to a new apt and I was going to purchase a new dining set and other miscellaneous stuff from places like Macy's and Crate & Barrel... but alas, given the state of the economy, I've decided to start with the Salvation Army. Here are a few more bargaining tips:

1. Never accept initial offers, especially on big ticket items, even at places that you normally would never bargain. For example, I was browsing for a new coffee table at Macy's. When the sales associate told me the price, I let out a frown, and nodded ... he then immediately said he could give me additional ten percent off.

2. Always google for coupons when you do online shopping. Alright, I confess, I spent $$$ at jcrew.com today, bad bad Cat. But at least I got free shipping. I googled jcrew coupons, and voila, the coupon popped up. Also, I was purchasing tickets to see Romeo and Juliet at the Dorothy Chandler, and I googled for coupon, and got premier tickets for less than the price of second tier tix.

3. Shop for groceries (veggies, meats and seafood) at Asian markets (Chinese and Korean, not Japanese which tend to be more expensive). Never ever shop at Costco's unless you are the Octo-mom! They make you buy so much, I usually end up throwing away stuff or get tired of it before I finish. What a waste.

K, happy bargain hunting! As for myself, need to go patch some worn out clothes now!