Gong Xi Fa Cai

Seasons Greetings to all my fellow Chinese friends and readers, may the year of the rabbit bring you all much peace, joy, happiness and prosperity.....the year of the rabbit is supposed to be a lucky and peaceful one, one of negotiations and fulfilment of wishes. Here's a synopsis I found from http://www.stanssewingsupplies.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=253080

THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT, 2011

02/03/2011 - 01/22/2012 (Metal)

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2011 is the Year of the Golden Rabbit, which begins on February 3, 2011 and ends on January 22, 2012.  The Rabbit is the fourth sign of the Chinese Zodiac, which consists of 12 animals signs.  The Rabbit is a lucky sign.  Rabbits are private individuals and a bit introverted.  People born in the Year of the Rabbit are reasonably friendly individuals who enjoy the company of a group of good friends.  They are good teachers, counselors and communicators, but also need their own space.

According to Chinese tradition, the Rabbit brings a year in which you can catch your breath and calm your nerves.  It is a time for negotiation.  Don't try to force issues, because if you do you will ultimately fail.  To gain the greatest benefits from this time, focus on home, family, security, diplomacy, and your relationships with women and children.   Make it a goal to create a safe, peaceful lifestyle, so you will be able to calmly deal with any problem that may arise.

Not many people know that the Rabbit is the symbol of the Moon, while the Peacock is the symbol of the Sun, and that together, these two animal signs signify the start of day and night, represent the Yin and Yang of life.  It is said that anyone making supplications for wishes to be fulfilled are certain to get what they want... and in the Year of the Rabbit, the wish-granting aspect of the Sun and the Moon combined is multiplied.  The Moon is YIN and this is the Yin of Heaven, signifying magic.  Thus on each of the Full Moon nights of this year, go out into your garden to gaze into the Full Moon and visualize plenty of Moon dust and Moon glow flowing into you, filling your whole body with bright white light and granting you fearlessness, love and courage.  This will not only strengthen your inner "Chi" energy, it will also bring wisdom into your life.

I love the use of Yin here, as you all know my name has Yin in it!!! I am the moon, heaven and magic!

Another interesting thing that happened was that I received an email from the Malaysian Prime Minister and his family wishing me Happy Chinese New Year. Obviously I know he did not send this personally, it's his public relations department that have sent it. What's puzzling is how he got hold of my email address and knew I was a Malaysian Chinese?  The start of my email address reads suyincj... is it that obvious?

Anyhow, I was wondering if my fellow Malaysian friends had been sent a similar email.... here is a copy of that said email to prove I did actually receive one, for all my cynical readers out there, LOL

Salam 1Malaysia! Saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Tahun BaruCina buat seluruh rakyat Malaysia, khususnya bagi mereka yang akan menyambut perayaan yang penuh dengan kemeriahan ini. Setiap kali tibanya perayaan ini, saya masih terbayang kemeriahan dan keceriaan yang saya lalui semasa kecil. Sudah pasti saya tidak akan ketinggalan mengikut ibu bapasaya menziarahi rakan-rakan beliau yang berketurunan Cina. Makanan kegemaran semasa musim perayaan ini semestinya kuih kapit, kuih bangkit, tat nanas, kerepek "ngaku" manakala limau Mandarin sering menjadi pilihan utama. Teringat juga, sewaktu kecil adakalanya saya dihampiri oleh rakan-rakan ibu bapa yang menghulurkan angpow. Tetapi sekarang, suasana sudah berbeza. Hidangan sudah berubah, pelbagai juadah seperti sate, ais kacang, mi rebus dan maruku juga disediakan. Semoga di Tahun Arnab ini, kita akan sentiasa berada dalam suasana penuh kemakmuran, kebahagiaan dan juga dianugerahkan kesihatan yang sempurna. Selamat Tahun Baru Cina, Gong Xi Fa Cai! Ikhlas daripada Najib Razak & Keluarga Salam 1Malaysia! Happy Chinese New Year to all Malaysians who celebrate this auspicious event. Each year as the season draws near I am reminded of the excitement and merriment I experienced as a child duringChinese New Year. Mum and dad would visit our Chinese friends, and I would always tag along. I always look forward to savouring the many delicacies, favorites being kuih kapit, kuih bangkit, pineapple tarts and "ngaku" crackers, with Mandarin oranges always on top of the list. A wide smile would cross my face when I received "angpows" from my parents' friends. Today, the celebrations have grown to include sate, ais kacang, mi rebus and maruku even! May the Year of the Rabbit bring blessings of much happiness, good health and prosperity always. With new beginnings comes new opportunities and as we usher in the Lunar New Year, it is my sincere hope that you achieve success and satisfaction in all your undertakings. Your accomplishments are reflective of our nation's triumphs, and may we always excel beyond expectations! Gong Xi Fa Cai! From Najib Razak & Family

So, there you have it, I am special, or is he trying to get my vote? I have never voted at any elections in Malaysia, having left when I was 23... internet voting? Is this what this is all about, or is it just a Prime Minister aware that there are Malaysians that have left and would appreciate a friendly, warm greeting from him? Hahahaha, I'm too cynical for that.  I am more concerned about how he got my email address!!!! I will end with an image of the Canadian CNY stamp for this year.

PS Make sure you all have a great time, like the Prime Minister I remember all the great food available at this time of year, no pineapple tarts, kuih kapit or kuih bangkit to be had here, so eat up, drink up and sup a bit for me too.....will be celebrating with you all in spirit!

Not much peace within myself...

Just looking at the brief description of myself on the top of the blog page, I pondered over the Peace within oneself being the best answer bit.... it's been a challenging week with a reply from the Ontario College of Nurses (CNO) requesting more information after having received my application 12 weeks ago.  So, no license just as yet. No probs, not really sure I want a nursing job yet, so what's the rush? I have 40 days to decide whether to continue with the application or withdraw. Continuing means I have to get a whole load of information and references they need, ok, fair enough, they don't know me from Adam or Eve or Suyin for that matter. I also have to complete a grid of some sort, that mirrors what their baccalaureate nurses achieve at the end of their nursing degree. It's a 4 year degree course here.

Withdraw?? I have already paid out for my transcripts to be posted from the UK, and they have arrives, the CNO has received them, yippeee. The application fee for this was CAD 600 plus tax, so something like CAD 678, about £500+ in total already spent!! So, even if I don't eventually work as a nurse, it's good to have this as a plan B option.

Then, we had news that our prospective tenant was deemed unacceptable by the letting agency, undisclosed adverse credit ratings etc.  Alarm bells rang for me, when I was told he earned £25K a year and was going to rent our house for £550/month, with utilities and poll tax, his monthly outgoings would hit nearly $800, how ever was he going to afford that?? Then we find out that his wages are only about £21K, confirmed by his HR dept where he was working.  He was single, wanting to rent a 3 bedroom house. I was thinking he would secretly sublet the other rooms without informing us. So, perhaps a blessing in disguise. Trouble is, still no tenant and this means that we're paying rent here and also servicing our mortgage back home. With me not working, things were looking tight..... the vice in my head cranking up another notch.

The 3rd and final blow came when I enquired about becoming a British Citizen, why now, after all these years, why not before??? After all, I had lived in the UK for 19 years before I left for Trinidad. I had been married to Dave 14 years by then too.  I was still Malaysian. I always used the excuse of my parents still being in Malaysia and if they needed me to return for an extended stay, it would be no hassle. Truth be known, I did not want anyone to think or say that I have married Dave for a British Passport. In doing so, I have bitten off my nose to spite my face.. I have missed the boat, having been away from the UK for more than 450 days in the last 5 years has scuppered my chances.. I can apply again when I return to the UK and live there with no absences for 3 years.... Dave says it's not the UK Border Agency's fault, it was mine for not applying sooner... maybe he thinks I married him to get a British Passport too? It just amazed me a bit that all those years I had lived in the UK counted for not a lot if I no longer continued to live there for a period of time. The fact that the rest of my family are British accounts for nothing, the fact that the majority of my estate is still back there, again, accounts for nothing, the fact that I have worked for the NHS for 19 years accounts for not much either, never mind anything else.

I have not rambled here for a while as my brain was rather preoccupied with all the above... so, there it is...when life serves you lemons, make lemonade, be sure to add some sugar in case the lemons are so acerbic you feel yourself being eaten inside out by all that organic acid.

On a brighter note, Sana my neighbour downstairs is due to have her twins by C/S on the 28th. I have been knitting for the twins a bit, so I had better hurry. The scans show them both in a breech position. They are supposed to be 7lbs 6oz and 6lbs 4 oz, so one is bullying the other already!  Sana, knowing about my nursing and midwifery background has asked if I would help see her through the first few weeks. I was honoured and I will be rewarded of course, but I would have done it for nothing. So, I will be getting some pocket money soon, depending on how many hours she needs me for.  Perhaps this will give me some peace of mind?

Remember my Domo? Well, the mums I have been teaching to make him are incredibly talented, Lynsey has made 2 of them in a week, with only the finishing touches left to do. I have now moved on to making sack boys at the request of Mitch and Jas , as they love playing on the Little Big Planet, even though they are currently stuck on a level they cannot seem to beat.  So here is a picture of the 1st sack boy I made. The kids in school loved him, my kids were more critical, what's up with the mouth mum? Gratitude, eh?

Finally, did I mention that we bought a lotto ticket with some change that we had after I'd been out with the Dragon Ladies a few weeks ago? Well, we bought a lotto 6/49 ticket and an encore ticket, costing $3.  We won $5 from that draw. After consulting the other 5, I bought  Lotto Max ticket for last week's jackpot of $46 million. We won! We won again, it wasn't the jackpot, no one got that, but we won $40. More discussion and the consensus was to purchase 2 Lotto Max this week, at $5 a go, then the remaining $30 was divided between all of us, $5 each. So, for a 50 cents stake each at the very start, we are now $4.50 up each and have two potential wins this Friday...how nice it would be to have some money to share again....I can dream, can't I?

Cranking the levels up

I experimented at the gym yesterday. The only machine I use is the X-trainer and I am not sure how it calculates all it does apart from where is measures your pulse, that works by you gripping the handlebars firmly. These handlebars have a metal plate on them, so I presume some current of some sort passes through from our hands and it enables it to determine the pulse.

So, from my determined effort over the last few days of hot yoga and X-training, I have lost a grand total of 1 lb in weight, not bad for 3 days exercising.... I punch in my weight as usual, 1 tonne plus 1 lb, and this time I cranked the level up to 12, been working at about level 9 previously. 40 minutes was the workout time I chose, off I went. It felt a bit harder, more effort needed to get to 60 rpm, and the calories were burning quicker. Previously it averaged at 100/ 9 minutes, at level 12, I had burned off 200 just over 16 minutes, woo hoo, 1 minute per 100 cals shorter than previously.

This is what I look like now ! LOL

I was pedalling happily, working up a bit of a sweat and at 77rpm, it said I was burning 987 calories/hour! If only I could pedal at 77rpm for a whole hour lol.  Being the nosey so and so that I am, I was looking at my neighbour's treadmill, she was a lovely slim Chinese girl, size 0 at a guess, tallish, slim legs, hate her already! Anyway, she was running, only 4mph but running none the less. But guess what? She was only burning 234 calories/hour! Huh! That's being slim for you, but then I suppose she doesn't need to burn off that many calories as she was already slim and had no weight to lose.

I then had this mad thought, she was burning 234 cals/hour, and there I was burning 937 cal/hr, hmmm, burning more than 3 times what she's burning, does that mean I weigh 3x more than her?  Well, weighing more burns more calories right? Is it like for like comparison or an exponential type of calculation..... hahaha, was thinking too much, the X-trainer was obviously not at a level high enough to grab all my attention. This time round, I also had some music in my ears, was listening Kiss 92.5 FM which played the hits over and over again, Rihanna, Katey Perry, Usher, Pink  all making my workout so much easier... before I knew it, I'd been on the machine for 37 minutes, I didn't want to stop, calories burned over 500 by now. Cool down for 2 minutes and I was done.

To increase my workout, I then ran back upstairs, only 5 flights, but I was puffed when I got back to the apartment. I was going to get my swimsuit and return to the pool, where earlier I had seen a rather fit chap swimming and practising with his polo ball, his physique was superb, not sure about the looks, as I didn't have my glasses on. He was in the pool faffing about with this ball, tossing it, chasing it, twirling it. With him was his girl/woman, she too looked fit in her bikini.... sigh, beautiful people.  They were leaving the pool, so I thought I could do some lengths and then soak in the hot tub...bliss. I saw Dave just as I opened the fire exit staircase door, said to him, come for a swim... he wasn't keen, but said ok.  We got ready, then faffed around, and it was 8pm, so I said, let's not go now, it's too late as we still had to have dinner. I offered to cook, but Dave was hankering after some sushi, namely an Ottawa roll, so that's what we did, I got showered and then we walked to our local sushi restaurant... Gal Sushi...

Ottawa roll

I had had a good day yesterday, I was at school, packing bananas for the Healthy Schools programme, bananas were ordered for this week. They were lovely, just the right ripeness and I went about packing the boxes for the classes, 26 in all.

I then waited for the kids to come and collect the baskets and chased the classes that had come to collect their fruit. I left at 11am, promising Lynsey to have a look at her Domo that she was making, as she had got stuck reading the pattern instructions. She kindly picked me up from school and took me to hers. She offered me some food and a cup of tea too! Too kind. She and her husband Kevin are so lovely. After a brief crochet lesson, I left for my facial.

Domo Suyin eating rice!

I fell asleep for once during the facial. It was incredible, I could hear myself snoring at one point, lol. I slept through having my eyebrows plucked and shaped! That is truly incredible. She also came back and did the most amazing shoulder and upper back massage, with me lying supine. All the tension I was holding in my upper back yielded to her kneading and hard strokes..... I left the salon not noticing my upper back for once. Before I left though, I was asked if I would like to purchase a further course of 10 sessions as I only had 3 sessions left and she wasn't sure when the price would increase. I did not give her an answer, though I wanted to say, no way! I said I had to ask the man at home.. and left it at that.

Beyonce

All in all, a good day was had and I felt almost human..the snow is still on the ground, with more falling,  sushi, yoga and the salon of hard sell at my doorstep, new friends, what more could a girl want, I ask you, what more??? A body like Beyonce's? Her money too? Hahahahahhahaha

The Bigger You Are, the MORE Calories You Burn

That's a good piece of news for me! I had decided to give yoga a break this morning,as I awoke with a very stiff and painful upper back, yet again. I had done an Iyengar class yesterday, it was twists and forward bends, with an emphasis on contracting deltoids, to fix the shoulder joint for balances and also squeezing of shoulder blades together for the forward bends, to protect the lower back..... gosh, my deltoids, trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles had their work cut out for them and this morning they were telling me off, loudly and painfully. See, I still remember my anatomy, nothing wasted from leaving the MSc, I can name the muscles that are troubling me! The deltoids are divided into anterior, posterior and lateral, there you go, you always wanted to know that didn't you? Intramuscular injections are normally given in the anterior deltoid. Maybe I should post some images, what say you? hehehee

One on trapezius and latissimus dorsi would be great as well, just to show exactly where I'm hurting.

 From doing too much of this

Parivrttartrikonasana

And this, this and this....

Half spinal twist

Prasarita-Padottanasana-Wide-Leg-Forward-Bend

Not to mention this..

Paschimottanasana (Forward Bend Pose)

I ask my teachers about this pain and tightness I am experiencing and one thought is that I am holding too much tension in my neck, the other is I am squishing my muscles in my back too tightly when doing the forward bends, so as to bend from the hips, thereby creating tension and strain in the trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles... what do I do about it?? Don't forget to lengthen the spine, is what I get back again and again, right who has a rack that I can strap myself to, in order to pull my head away from my feet, thereby lengthening my spine?

 I digress, what has the title got anything to do with yoga? I am getting to that bit now.  I had a lunch date with Claire today, she's a friend I made in Trinidad and is now living in Aurora, about 20 minutes from me. As I was not going to yoga, I had to try to burn some calories as I am in constant battle with my weight. My love for food, forbids dieting, so, I have to be sensible, and increase my activity level, basically, get off my big, if rather firm ass and do some exercise. I decided I was going to use the cross trainer at the gym, and then a few lengths in the pool, followed by the hot tub, to soothe my aching upper back muscles. That was the plan.

The thing about dieting is that if you diet and do not exercise, then your basal metabolic rate may decrease as your body is conserving its energy as you're not feeding it. There is also the thought that if your body thinks you are in starvation mode, as you are denying it calories, then when you do eat, it quickly converts all the food into glycogen for storage in case that is the last meal you ever ate. This was quoted in Paul McKenna's weight loss book. I have not done any literature search of my own for the thoughts that I have quoted above, so please do not take it as completely accurate. This is anecdotal, ok?

I love this machine

I get to the gym, and weigh myself, shoes off, a hefty tonne plus 2 lbs. I get off the scales, approach the cross trainer, put my trainers back on, start the kinda running in air type motion and all the pretty lights come on. First I have to enter my weight, which I do, it says enter weight, 1lb to 350lbs. Right. Who weighs 1lb, I ask you? And I weighed 1 tonne and 2 lbs, so I entered that, the max it allowed, 350lbs, haha. It then asks what programme I want- Xtrain, that's good, instructions to use arms, legs, reverse and I like being told what to do, as it gets boring otherwise. Then I had to enter how long I wanted to exercise, options, 10-60 minutes, being the ever hopeful I am and wanting to shed as many calories as possible I went for 60 mins, optimist or what. Muscles all achy but still hoping to get 60 mins use out of my body, lol. Oh, I had to pick a level to train at, so I pick 9, out of levels 1-20. Not quite pushing myself so hard. ( I entered my actual weight, not 350lbs!)

I start, and it's great, warm up at 30-40 something or rather. Then it says concentrate on pushing arms, then pulling arms, then revs up to 60, then legs only at my own pace then run in the opposite direction, all these were in intervals of 1-2 minutes, with a little slowing down of pace every now and then. It was great, it shows me how many watts I'm working at, how many calories I'll burn per hour, how far I've run and so on and so forth. I got to 15 mins, and it was easy peasy, but I was getting bored. The view of snow falling outside through the window was not making it any easier. Plus I could see some people swimming in the pool and that was pulling me as well, and the hot tub was beckoning me as well.... grrrrrr temptations. 

20 minutes came and went, just over 200 calories burned. I said, ok, I'll aim to work off 400 calories and I was using about 100 cals/9 minutes, or so the machine said. A fellow condo resident, a slim man came to use the treadmill beside me, walking then running.  I was really bored by now and was looking at the dashboard of my neighbours treadmill. He was running full pelt now, 12 minutes had passed and he only burned 90 calories, for what looked far harder work than I was doing. Soooo, I was happy I was burning more calories, weighing a tonne, but not happy weighing a tonne!

If I look at things simplistically, and not consider a person's basal metabolic rate, it stands to reason that a bigger person would use more calories to do things than a smaller person, basically, more mass to move, so more calories needed.

The reality though, in order for me to shed the extra padding, I have to burn 3500 extra calories than what my body normally burns going about it's own business to lose 1lb in weight. Does that mean that I have consumed 3500 extra calories to put on that pound, extra calories that my body did not need? Eeeek, so I am like 30 lbs overweight, and over the years have consumed 30x3500 extra calories...not going write it down, the mental total is scary enough.

Oh well, back to my cross training, nearly there I hit 500 calories at 41 minutes, this is getting good, am going to be guilt free at lunch. I surpassed the 400 target, but still had 19 minutes to go, shall I stop? Nah, my arms, as tired as they are are flabby, so let's do a couple more rounds, and then 60 minutes will be up. Run, run, push, pull, legs only, arms only, reverse, on and on it goes..... 58 minutes... 2 minutes cool down, but I am still pedalling at a pace, burn till the end. Beeeeeep beeeeeep, workout completed, calories 790! wow, how nice if it were true, 6.4miles run, not bad.....

I hobble off the machine, feeling good, and get into the pool via the changing room and getting my swimsuit on, I only did 4 lengths, wanted to do more, but was conscious of the time and the pool closes for cleaning at 11am for an hour, and it was 10.45. The pool was far too warm anyhow for longer swimming, they must have cranked the temp up as the temp outside was about -14C! I climbed out, got in the jacuzzi and sighed a huge AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Bliss. Was surreal though, sitting there in a hot tub, watching the snow falling through the huge glass windows.  

After 10 minutes soaking it was time to get out, as Claire was arriving at 11.30.  I weighed myself again as I am crazy, and guess what? I now weigh 1 tonne. It seems I shed 2 lbs on that machine, so, it was wrong, I had burned at least 7000 calories and not just 790! Hahahahahaha. What a great feeling for my soul and motivation though. It will be back to yoga tomorrow, I will ask Karin, super yoga teacher what else I can do about my back!

Sushi

And lunch? We went to Sushi Tei, Japanese/Korean restaurant and shared a sushi plate and katsu dong (some rice with pork cutlet and fried egg).  Salad, pickles and some edamame, and miso of course, washed down with lovely green tea. Had to have a doggy bag too, Claire doesn't eat a lot, and I didn't want to look piggy! Actually, I had had enough, perhaps exercise is an appetite suppressant? Pigs might fly, right ? I thought so.....

Snow, I just LOVE it..

Nothing new to report apart from it's been snowing here and about 7 cms was said to have fallen. I just love the white stuff. I love it because I get to walk in it, play in it and not drive in it! LOL. Snow is wonderful until you have to get somewhere and the roads are all snowy, slushy and you haven't got snow tires.

Yucky slush

We've had about 3-4 snowfalls since the fall and it's not snowed that much really. Today was the most at 7 cms. The snow has stayed though as temperatures are not rising above 0C. The kids love the snow too, Mitch terrorising Jasmine with humongous snowballs every time we we have to walk somewhere.

The trail I made walking back from yoga to the condo

My walk to yoga has been difficult, my snow boots completely submerged in the snow, so I guess there's about 5-7 inches of snow on the ground, and I sink right in, my weight and gravity making me sink deep in the snow...I guess I am using more calories walking in boot depth snow, it is hard work!  Must check out snow shoes, see if it's worth me getting some especially for the walks to school, but I hope the pavements will be ploughed by Wednesday.

where have my feet gone

There are different sizes of snow ploughs here, there are small ones that are pavement width, they are cute, like a mini toy bulldozer, their wheels make track marks in the snow on the pavements when they've been. Then there are SUV type ploughs, that plough the plaza parking lots and residential drives, they are like small trucks with a plough attached to the front of the truck, some spread salt too, and it's green salt here, large crystals bigger than marble size, they look quite attractive, and best of all, they do the job, snow melts. The slush is pretty horrible on the roads, dirty looking and just yucky, some got splashed onto my coat as I waited by Highway 7 to cross the other side on my way back from yoga, horrid car, splashing me with dirty slush, how very dare you. The last kind of plough I have seen are huge things that clear the highway roads, they have flashing lights, spread salt and are the bees knees.  Once the ploughs have been though, there are banks of snow everywhere, and this is where Mitch gets his huge snowballs from.

Highway 7, between Bayview and Leslie

Despite all these ploughs,  they get overwhelmed sometimes and so the roads remain treacherous for a few hours before the ploughs get to work. Last Wednesday, there was an unexpected fall of snow and so, the roads in the morning were crawling with traffic, and Dave's journey to work after dropping me off at school took him 1.5 hours, for a 15km journey. Usually, it takes him 20 minutes.  School buses and teachers were late to school too, so attendence was not taken until the last school bus arrived.

Roads before they get ploughed

It has not been too cold either, been around -8C to -3C with wind chill making it slightly colder. Was talking to a friend in Calgary and she said it was -33C! So, we're pretty lucky. It's really strange, even at -4C, it doesn't really feel all that cold. I remember being absolutely frozen in England at temperatures above 0C. Weird, perhaps because it's really dry cold here. The snow is all powdery and dry and you could not have a snow ball fight or build a snowman, can't get the snow to roll into a big ball. Odd huh? I have only seen 1 snowman so far, and have not been able to build any ourselves.

the snow angel I made, I got up as I had a wet bum!

I love how pretty snow makes everything, the snow on bare trees, on the fir trees  and bushes. I have taken several photos whilst I have been walking to places and just wanted to post them on here...the snow angel I made above on Boxing Day, it was getting dark, and I asked Dave to take the photo as I have always wanted to make a snow angel and never have, I wasn't appropriately dressed, had jeans on, and he took so long taking the photo, my ass got soaked and it was freezing, hence I got up and it's just the impression I made.

conservation area next to the school

Iced bushes with non fat frosting

Iced bushes

Owner of tree was shovelling snow when I asked his permission to photograph it

Virgin snow

On my walk to yoga

Our condo

back of condo, leading to back door

Plants by the back door

No dog pee as yet!

Sunset as snow was falling and settling

PS.  We went to a dance performance by the Shen Yun performing arts group today at the Sony Centre for Performing Arts.  We had reasonably good seats. The show was ok, but I had a strange feeling it was a vehicle of the Fa Lun Da Fa movement, and it's oppression in mainland china was mentioned several times.  When I was sold the tickets, I was not made aware of this, it was sold as a spectacular show, telling the history of China through the centuries, through dance and amazing back drops, usage of projected scenes and animation which then became part of the performance. To then have the Fa Lun Da Fa story Incorporated seemed odd. They did touch a bit on the terracotta army, but that really was about it.

The costumes were colourful and made of materials that made the dancers looked like they were floating on air in some of the dances set in heaven.  The dancing was of great quality and even Mitch was impressed by some of the moves the male dancers did.  There was a live orchestra, but I find some Chinese music too grating to my ears. The Chinese opera singers were powerful, not really needing the micophone they had.  Overall, it was a very good performance if a tad too long. There was also a solo er hu performance, the chinese 2 string violin, this was excellent.

This was the soloist, but I can't remember her name

A traditional Chinese dance troupe that was founded in New York City, USA, how sad is that??? The emcees said that these performances would not be possible in China today, but I suspect that is because quite a bit of content was given to the struggle of the Falun Dafa in China.... What a difficult world we live in.