A China Experience (Beijing part 2)

We started Day 3 with a visit to the Summer Palace which was just minutes from our hotel. This was where the emperor and his royal household would head for during the hot summer months. It's an enormous walled park covering more than 700 acres with a large lake as it's centrepiece. There are paths all around and among the buildings and palaces. The Summer Palace in particular was a favourite of the Dowager Empress Cixi who 'ruled' over the empire from 1861 to her death in 1908. She joined the royal household at age 15 as a Concubine and quickly became a favourite and bore a son. When that emperor died her infant son was too young to rule so she became regent, ruling in place of her son. Except it seems that she carried on ruling for the next 35 years (I'm thinking he wasn't still infant and incapable at that point?). Stories about her that our guide told us sounded like she was a bit of a nut - extravagant and misguided. Linking lots of the buildings along the lake shore is a 700m covered corridor (supposed to be the longest in the world or something, but then we thought the network in Mount Pleasant in the Falklands had that claim so who knows?! - ....I've just checked Wikipedia and it appears WE DO know best!!) I have to say, having visited both, the Summer Palace is a heck of a lot prettier! We also had time to stop by the Marble Boat - another of Cixi's indulgences - it's one heck of a lakeside pavilion....and it doesn't even float! This was the first time on the tour that I felt a little pushed for time. Whilst I think we saw a lot of the 'key sights' it's the sort of place I would have liked to spend less time 'box-ticking' and more time soaking up the atmosphere - a walk around the lake and a picnic here would have been a peachy way to spend the morning. But for us it was time to move on...

The Summer Palace: There was this delightful little old man writing Chinese Calligraphy across the pathway inside the palace (apparently - according to a sign he had, practicing Calligraphy helps prevent senile dementia!). The architecture in the Palace was so full of colour - the reds, blues, greens and golds made for such a pretty sight wandering around.

To the old neighbourhoods of Beijing - those that so far have escaped the demolitions and will now probably be preserved as part of old Beijing. The Hutongs are the traditional courtyard style housing and are narrow alleys full of single storey housing that to us now appears very cramped and dirty. The houses have little or no plumbing so every couple of hundred yards there are public washrooms which are for the residents to wash and toilet! - eewh! We rode around the area by cycle rickshaw which was fun! - our guide spend a fair amount of time sizing us all up to match us to a suitable peddler! We also had lunch in a family home inside the Hutong. Not sure how 'legit the whole family home thing was - it's a tour group after all and I'm ever the cynic. But I have to say it certainly appeared that we were dining in someones bedroom! The food was a refreshing change - slightly different dishes to all the restaurant meals we had and looking a lot more natural and dare I say it, even MSG-free?! (Surely not?!) It was good and a surprising highlight.

The Hutong Neighourhood: A peaceful street scene with our rickshaws waiting for us during lunch. The doorway was into the family home where we had lunch! Such a great way to travel - slow enough to enjoy the view but snuggly enough under our blanket to stay warm and cosy!

To work off the lunch we all took in a quick Tai Chi class in the grounds of the Temple of Heaven. I think this was more for the entertainment of the locals rather than us - a bunch of Westerners doing Tai-Chi in the middle of the park worked up quite the crowd - we even had a video-photographer stopping by! We then had plenty of free time to wander the Temple of Heaven. It was Sunday so there were crowds of locals out - playing checkers, mah-jong and hacky-sack. Hacky-Sack was quite the game for all ages and we were mesmerized by some seriously groovy moves. We succumbed to buying a few ourselves and set up an impromptu game though we've got a long way to go with our moves! The hacky-sacks are different to what we're used to. These are a bunch of feathers attached to some discs of old aluminum cans and a bit of plastic (OK - that's a fairly dire description but they work sweetly!) And finally, a day wouldn't be complete without a quick visit to some shop or factory now would it?! - Today's offering being a Silk Factory where even we nearly suckered ourselves into buying a silk duvet (the last minute thought better of it which was just as well as we couldn't remember the size of our bedding and would have bought the wrong size!)

Temple of Heaven: Checkers Players and some silly-looking Western tourists attempting Tai Chi

Day 4 was originally a free day on our itinerary but group consensus was that we all wanted to do the same thing - SHOP! And so for a few extra Yuans we 'bought' a guide and bus driver for the day and set off to the markets. Specifically we wanted fakes - and lots of them. These markets are crazy and not for the faint-hearted. The Silk Market was six stories of goods and hundreds of different stalls all inside one giant building. The basement alone was just handbags and shoes and is where we headed for my 'top-notch' Mulberry and Tod's handbags - fake as heck but at $15 a pop I'm not really too bothered! Bargaining is all part of the fun - the seller started at 800RMB for each bag and after a brief interchange of way too high prices, followed by us walking away with her calling out ever-lower prices she eventually shouted out 100RMB we turned around and sealed the deal! We resisted the watches and outdoor clothing but did buy a few art items, some silk table runners and a mah-jong set - real ivory I'm sure ;-) We worked a steal of deal for the set only to discover there were no instructions so she managed to sting us an extra 10RMB for those - overall the set was still just $6!! Now we just need to figure out how to play it because the instructions are quality Chinglish and seriously complicated - anyone? anyone?

After all the shopping a little refreshment was in order and so we headed to Xiaochi Jie or 'Little Eats Street'. This was an alley full of food stalls. But not your run-of-the-mill food stalls. Oh no. Pick a beast, any crazy-assed beast - preferably with numerous legs, spikes, scales and/or wings, fry it up in a bit of 3-month old oil and stuff it on a skewer and sell it to a foreigner. THAT kind of food stall. Locusts, Silk Worms, Centipedes, Scorpions (either the fresh, smaller still-wriggling variety or the giant black 'run-like-heck' variety), Starfish, Seahorse, cat, goats balls and things that to date I'm really not sure about. As a group we tried pretty much everything on offer. Obviously Chris is much more robust than me and was suffering from a severe bout of male bravado so was game for most of it. I just sampled the Starfish (which was crispy and tasted like 3-month old cooking oil). Certainly an entertaining afternoon and great fun to be with a group at times like this! Our final night as a group we had a great dim sum and dumplings meal in downtown with a few beers followed by a major session back at the hotel. We were still going after the bar staff went home for the night evidenced by the beer bottles still on the lobby bar tables when we went crawled down to breakfast the next morning. We 'broke' our young tour guide well and truly - he arrived to meet us in the lobby the next morning with an emergency sick bag in his pocket and excuses about not being able to take us to the airport so he'd managed to arrange a favour for someone else to escort us!!- too funny!

Xiaochi Jie: 'Small Eats Street' In the top left pic are the mini scropions stuck into the cabbage - these are still alive and wriggling - they 'lightly peirce their bellies with the skewer then fry them up super fresh from wriggle status. As opposed to the Scorpion in the top middle picture that Chris is clearly eager to devour! Starfish was my bravest (only) effort I admit!!- yum, yum!

Beijing was brilliant. And after having always snubbed the whole 'tour' thing in the past I have to say it was an excellent way to see much in a city like Beijing with such radically different culture and language. I would highly recommend it and SNA tours in particular were awesome. We were fortunate to have such a fun bunch of fellow tourers (I think the age range of our group had to do with the Groupon offer - after all not so many blue-rinsers groupon now do they?!) We were able to do and see so much with the convenience of our own driver and tour guide and that alone was a huge plus.

Next stop Macau...

A China Experience (Beijing part 1)

So the tour was called 'A China Experience' and who am I to disagree?! It really was an amazing experience and an amazing vacation. This all started out after purchasing a bargain-priced Groupon for a 5 day tour to Beijing, and in the end we added time in Macau and Hong Kong for a total of 2 weeks. At times it seemed like a fabulous long holiday, in other ways it shot by in a flash. I know though that it was brilliant, and just the right length of time away.I've spent the last 3 nights sorting through our photos and sifting the original 1400 or so down to around 900 (that was just 'phase 1' - I normally do a couple of rounds of delete button action!) But I don't want to put off blogging too much longer, I want to record these great memories. And so...

I think this is the first time Chris and I have crossed the international date line. Although I'd been to Hong Kong before, since we lived in Europe we would've travelled the other way round the globe. Talk about messing with your brain (and sleep pattern!) We arrived in Beijing on a Thursday evening and got met and ferried straight to our hotel in the north west part of the city. We were delighted to find we were in a really great Four Points Sheraton (rather more plush than our usual lodging budget allows!). After a long day of travel we weren't really up for any food adventures the first night and just grabbed a 'western' meal in the hotel and called it a night.

Bright and breezy Friday morning we met the rest of our tour group - 18 of us in total from various parts of Canada and the US. We were surprised to discover that, bar 3, Chris and I were probably the oldest there! I think when we'd booked 'a tour' we had resigned ourselves to touring with the blue rinse brigade, instead the average age I would say was around 30 - a pleasant and welcome surprise. With no time to waste we headed off on our small tour bus with our young guide Ba-yong (excuse my spelling I'm sure - this is just how we pronounced it!) and our driver Sexy-Don (I think his name was probably something like SeSe-Dong - phonetically but you can see where we were coming from with the nickname!) First stop the Capital Museum with heaps of displays (and plenty of English signage) on Jade, City History, Traditions, Artifacts etc. After our first fabulous* authentic Chinese lunch (it was fabulous the first time, the third, fourth, fifth....not so much - it got a little 'samey' shall we say!!) We headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was bitterly cold and hanging out around the square was tough going. I was actually surprised that it didn't seem as BIG as I thought it would be. But still very imposing nevertheless, especially with the portrait of Mao staring down over everything and everyone. Having read a few books about the Chinese Great Famine, and crazy-assed ideas he had (Red Guards etc) I just don't 'get' how this guy is still so revered in the eyes of so many Chinese, but he certainly seems to be...

The Forbidden City was full of wonderful buildings and doors and gates, leading to more gates and doors and buildings - it's like a maze. A very beautiful, ornate maze of a city - just check out the middle picture - that's a just a lil' old rooftop decoration!

We went through the city gate into the Forbidden City. And then through another gate. And then another gate. And then I think we may actually have entered THE Forbidden City (the first gates just being 'on the way' apparently) After all those big walls and big gates it really is another world once truly inside. You'd never imagine there's this crazy bustling city of 20 million people buzzing around just outside - it's so peaceful and serene. It's times like this having a tour guide is awesome. Not only so he can direct us toward the 2-star graded toilets (Yes - the Beijing Tourism association rates their toilets - we saw as high as 4-star, and sadly all too many unrated ones. Lets just say you should be looking for 2-star and up!! - you can sit instead of squat and you should have toilet paper at your disposal! - you can also see that the porcelain is in fact, white), but also he was able to give us plenty of running commentary and history about the various dynasties that ruled China, and stories of the Emperors and households that lived there. We followed him through the city for the most part, but then also had some free time to wander off on our own. Its such an amazing place to wander around - it's just SO BIG!

Olympic Park Birds Nest Stadium, Water Cube and the funky 'dragon' building to the left of the Cube is apparently an uber-expensive building. Plus the wonderful kite sellers pestering us.

Day 2 we headed out first thing to the 2008 Olympic Park where the Birds Nest Stadium and Water Cube are. It's an enormous open, pedestrianized space - great for wandering. I loved the architecture of the stadium - so funky. We had plenty of free time to wander the sites in this area. The afternoon was the 'biggy' - the Great Wall of China! We had a few hours here - plenty of time to go hike...after watching a romantic proposal of marriage from one of the guys in our group to his girlfriend we set off on a mission. I think we climbed about 1000ft up the section of the wall to the highest point and a dead end at a watch-tower. We could see for miles back down into the valley where we'd started and way off in the distance the suburbs of the city. It was a tough climb - the steps are so uneven. One minute they are barely more than a few inches high and the next they are taller than my knees - it was a tough slog up not being able to get into a rhythm, but it was tougher down - at times it felt like suicide it was so steep (and my ankle was getting fed up with the strain!). I'm so happy to have finally got to see one of the greatest wonders of the world - THE great wall of China (GWOC) Incredible!

Our tour group, plus various pictures showing you just how far we hiked up. If you look on the bottom left picture you'll see the valley floor and the winding road to the left of the wall - that's where we started! And you don't mess with Mao Zedong - 'He who doesn't reach the Great Wall isn't a true man' - thankfully my husband is (now) ALL MAN!

As with any tour I've had the misfortune of partaking in, there will be the obligatory visit to 'the shops' Ah Yes. "Ok, we'll spend 10 mins at the GWOC followed by 2 hours at the local [insert drossy shop/factory of choice here]". It was to be expected, and thankfully wasn't quite as excruciating as it could have been because for the most part I felt like we'd had plenty of time at the 'real' attractions. Stops at the factory shops generally meant clean toilets and a small bar whilst others would shop till they dropped at super inflated prices!! After the GWOC we had a stop at a Chinese Tea House and took part in a traditional tea ceremony where we sampled about 5 different types of teas which was great - really. (it was the half hour for shopping after that gets me - $20 for a box of tea - seriously?!) Dinner on our second night was another of those meals I was looking forward to. REAL Peking Duck from Peking (And lets just talk identity crisis here for a moment - this city has had more name changes than you can shake a stick at over the past 3000 years - Nanjing, Peiping, Zhongdu, Beiping, Peking (this is not a complete list!) and finally Beijing (again - it had been Beijing back in the 1400's) in 1949 seems to have stuck (for now)

Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki

This one is good and oh so simple...!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Water 
• Cooked brown rice

Directions

1. Add the chicken thighs to the Crockpot
2. Mix together the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic and pepper in a bowl, then add to the Crockpot
3. Cook on low for 3-4 hours
4. Remove chicken from Crockpot and keep warm
5. Pour the remaining fluid from the Crockpot into a saucepan, bring to a boil
6. Combine the cornstarch and water to a smooth paste, then add the cornstarch mixture gradually to the cooking sauce until it thickens
7. Serve chicken on a bed of brown rice and top with the sauce.

I'd like to credit this fabulous recipe to Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen. I made very little changes. I did cook up some red bell pepper and green onions to add to our dish which complimented it nicely.

Project Life weeks 5 & 6

Still loving this project. I had a drama with week 5, not thinking I had enough content to pull together a double page spread so rather than finish it up on the weekend I was planning on extending my date range to include a few extra days to fill out a spread. But it's funny how things come together after all! I didn't finish it up until I was well into the next week, which wasn't ideal cause I was getting confused working on 2 weeks at the same time! But as you can see I did get a double page spread for each week after all. I also used Design D page protectors which gave me new spaces to play with. I like that it works for one week. But then of course you're committed to using the back side for the next week as well then - not always so great. Anyways....here is my week 5...

And week 6...

One thing that this project is really highlighting to me is how quickly this year is moving by! I've never counted the weeks before. It's early Feb right? - to me that sounds like we've barely kicked off the year. But when I realise that we're 6 weeks down and currently living in week 7 of this year - now that seems fast!

Raring to run

This ankle injury really knocked me for six. I'm currently undergoing physiotherapy for a sprained ankle, but mostly it seems to be a waiting game. Seriously 'a sprained ankle' sounds so pathetic and un-serious! But 2 months on and I have a new appreciation of how serious it can be. And reading Wikipedia and hearing stories of people were weren't fully back to normal until 6-12 months kind of freaks me out!

According to my physiotherapist I'm doing well since I've been walking with ease and without pain for a few weeks now. But as soon as I do anything beyond that - even just 'running' to the door to greet Chris when he comes home, or rush to grab a pan that's bubbled over I'm reminded that all is not right. Right now walking is great and I'm really trying to get out there more for a walk after work or on the weekends.

So with all that I was incredibly nervous about signing up for any races this year. I am the Queen of procrastination when it comes to registering for races at the best of times. I'll train for them, with the full plan and intention to do them but I'm not great at signing my life and my money away until the last minute.

However my hand was forced this week. Twice!*

One of the items on my manifesto that you may or may not have noticed I'd snuck in at #15 there was the intention to run a marathon. Yes. The FULL 26.2 mile marathon - Yikes. I'd already decided that this is something I want to do just once. I LOVE the half marathon distance. For me it's the perfect balance, requiring commitment but without obsessing about the training hours required. The Full marathon is a whole other ball game. It's more than I want to do, more than I want to commit my life to. But I'm in a great place right now, mentally and physically when it comes to my running. And if I don't do it now, I may never do it. So.....

It had to be a big one. It had to be the main event (not an event where there's a Half or Full option, because the big event in those cases is always the Half) and it to be a 'destination' race for me. So the Chicago Marathon it was!! I follow a few blogs of people who'd run last year and it sounded awesome. I also love the fact its pretty flat (because I'm quite happy to take anything that will make this ordeal experience easier!). Registration opened on the 1st February but after reading around on the interwebs it appeared that whilst it did sell out, it wasn't too quick, which sounded great it my books. I could mince and generally procrastinate as is my way. Truth be told I wanted to know I was running again before I forked out my $175 non-refundable registration fee. But Facebook told me it wasn't to be. Just 6 days after registration opened they announced they would be selling out the 40,000 spots later that morning and for me, sat at work (did I say work? - surely I would never be looking at Facebook at work?!?!...uhumm) it was crunch time. Chris started quoting Nike ads (just do it!) and so I DID IT! Less than an hour later they posted it was sold out!

And so now, with poorly ankle still bugging me I sit with green-eyed longing at the other runners buzzing by my window and desperately want to get out there and remind myself I can still do it, and more to the point that I will survive 26.2 miles on October 7, 2012.

*more on the second 'race' soon!

1 down, 9 to go!

Another item on this years manifesto was to make 10 washi tape projects. It's another one of those trends thats exploded this year, and with heaps of the scrapbooking companies bringing out more and more cute designs it's hard to resist. Most of my tape came direct from Japan (a great Etsy seller with very reasonable prices)

My first project was a little home decorating. I had Chris put up this shelf above the printer, close and accessible to my desk. Nice. Functional. But a little drab!

So I decided to add a little decoration to my shelf!

This took me about 30 seconds...seriously! I just ran a strip of washi tape along the front of the shelf for a bit of added colour and decor. And the great thing about washi tape is that'll peel straight off with no stickiness left behind. So I can change out my shelf colour over and over whenever I want a change!

Project Life weeks 3 & 4

Scrapbooking with Project Life seems to have exploded this year! It's everywhere! Like me, so many people are saying how it's driven their creativity, and yet there's no rules or pressures - you really can make it as dressed up as you want. It's been said by countless others....but I'm still Loving It!

I've been keeping up with a double page spread per week. I'm traditionally a 'week starts on Monday' kind of girl but because the 1st was a Sunday so far I've just rolled with that being the beginnging of the week as far as Project Life goes. It's also suiting my creative playtime...I normally get busy on Saturday's whilst Chris is at work - since Sunday's are our only day off together I certainly don't want to encroach on that precious time.

So without further ado here are my Week 3 and Week 4 spreads;

Week 3 Spread

Week 4 Spread