Monday, June 27, 2005

Possible Posting Hiatus Notice

For the regular visitors here ( you, roughly, 9 folks know who you are :-), I've not only been really busy this past month, but also stuck with arrangements made months ago for going out of town. First family stop, a major university in northwest Indiana to get my son registered and signed up for courses. It will be whirlwind trip, unfortunately. Drive out all night, spend the day running, a short overnight and trip back the next day.

We will then get a full day to recover before boarding a plane for a 3 week trip to China. First stop, of course, is HK, where we will take no tours (been there, done that) but ride the subway straight to Shenzhen to settle in on the Mrs. R's palatial estate, dizzingly near the top a really nice condo building. (I hate heights and approach the windows and balcony railing with much caution.)

Visiting with relatives and friends will be primary order of the stay. Eating, shopping, swimming, and more eating will take up most of the other free time. (Oh yeah, the footrubs, too, but I don't know why -- it's like having a vice massage your feet for 45 minutes.)

I'm looking forward to the hotpots, soups, XO fried rice, seafood, (shrimp at 25 cents a pound.) The chickens are scrawny. Our chickens are like turkeys here compared to their chickens, but their's have much more flavor than here They get much of their beef from the Aussies, and I don't like the taste as much, but the lamb is excellent. Oh, and the tea. I like going to buy it at the small shops. The owner will sit you down as though you're at your (friendly) neighbor's and make you a pot to try of whatever you want before you decide to buy.

I'm also looking forward to the hawkers; sometimes it's like being a magnet amongst iron filings. Some are funny, some are cute, and a lot are sad situations. Each take's a different number of "Bu shi's" to fend off.

It is possible we will venture to Henan to see Waipo, if she does not travel to Shenzhen. On the whole, I'd much rather she did, and so would she. It is too long story to relate now. It would be nice to see Henan, however, and also take the 14 hour train ride, if only so I can put more the country on the "BTDT" list as well as have more to post about.

I hope to get something on here while in China. Unfortunately, I don't have a laptop and I doubt we will subscribe to DSL during the visit. Anything coming out from me will be via a netbar and I will have to fight with the Counter-strikers, et al, for the 15 or 20 computers in the netbar at street level. I'm going to try to arrange a surrogate since access to Blogger is banned there. The problem is that those likely grunts have no clue about how to do it.

I'll be able to get to those blogs that aren't banned and those have IP addresses for. Last time there, I could get several claiming they were caught up in the banned list by using the IP address but I had limited luck and range within their sites unless I played with the site address. I will see how well that works this time. But Blogger is out and I think Typepad is out because the ones I have tried here don't respond with the IP address they are listed for.

If I get through, expect some pics. If not, you will have to wait until I get back. I'll be sure to record any events I have remotely resembling a 'Fatina Abdrabboh' moment sans the 'I feel sorry for myself' attitude. (Actually, when I was there right after the intel plane takedown, discussion with strangers where cordial and unoffensive. More animated were discussions in the Clinton vs. Bush arena and even those were with smiles always in place, in spite of my being way to the opposite corner.)

Anyway, even if all posts wait until I get back, it will be a over a period of time as I will be busy mucking my way out of the work swamp I'll be in. If you don't see any posts by August 7, I'd appreciate it if you started working on some "Free Dusty" posts. :-)


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