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Xiamen Vacation, Part Two

Then I went to check into Desti Youth Park Hostel. There was some sort of mess-up with my reservation, which was a mystery to me. The hostel said I had two rooms reserved. However, I’d received an email which said my reservation had been cancelled. I worked with a staff member trying to log into my Google Gmail account to see if I could bring up the email. But two-step authentication was driving me nuts. It said to type in the code on my Galaxy S10. However, I couldn’t find the damn code. It turns out the text was being sent on my Galaxy 7. I finally figured this out, but the reservation kerfuffle, which wasn’t Desti’s fault, got resolved.

My room was fabulous! For a $34 dollar room, it was extremely nice. I opted for a queen deluxe room. I’ve shared rooms with strangers before, but I didn’t want to this time.

I popped back out again to go to the amusement park at the beach.

I was in for a surprise. The park looked like it had been shut down for years. I was able to get into a part of the park, but not all of it. I got a few pictures, but I wasn’t about to trespass, even though abandoned ANYTHING fascinates me. I made my way toward Black Sheep, for a terrific steak dinner.

And it was.

I talked to Lulu, one of the managers there. It was nice to see her, as I hadn’t seen her in quite some time. I needed some ice, and asked if she could sell me some. She gave me some ice, and I took it back to the hostel. The hostel was really nice, it even had a bar, a pool table, a Foosball table, and plenty of places to sit, but I wasn’t sure if they would have ice. Ice really isn’t a thing in China. It exists, but as for ice machines in hotels/hostels? I’ve yet to see one.

It was Heaven to get back to my room and have a nice hot shower. The sheets must have been a high thread count, because they were soooo nice. However, I realized I forgot my sleeping pills. Even so, all the walking I did must have helped, because I was able to sleep anyway.

I figured I’d check out the 24 hour spa if it wasn’t raining. The forecast called for a 75 percent chance of rain. But part of me really wanted to go swimming out in the sunshine. And I kind of wanted to relax anyway, but didn’t want to go to a mall. So I decided to take a chance and go to Riyuegu Hot Springs.

It was a great call. I didn’t get a chance to lay out in the sun and read, but that’s because I was checking out some of the offerings at the springs. I didn’t get to all of them, but I got to the ones I really wanted to experience. A hot tub, for starters. The fish spa, where I had my feet nibbled on for a half hour (a weird, ticklish feeling, which takes some getting used to) swimming in a wonderfully deep, mostly kid-free swimming pool, and doing hydrotherapy. My entrance fee also got me a massage, and that was the last thing I did before heading to Ole for potato chips for my supper. I made it to Subway at Robinson’s Galleria, got my sandwich, then crossed the street to the train station. I was so happy I made it in plenty of time.

I unpacked my supper in the train, and it was delicious.

I was very happy with how my mini vacation turned out. It wasn’t too much, and any little glitches I could deal with.

It gave me hope for the future.

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Xiamen Vacation All I Ever Wanted

So a couple days ago I took a brief trip to Xiamen. Someone who has a gelato and coffee shop invited me to check it out, and so I did. I also wanted to go to an amusement park that I’d never been to, and the next day, well, I wasn’t sure about that.

But the closer I got to my date of departure, I decided I’d check out a 24-hour spa someone had mentioned on WeChat.

The train ride down only took around two hours, because it’s high speed. I love traveling by train.

I wasn’t exactly sure where to stay, but I went to Agoda.com and see if I could stay at a hostel. Ashoka is where I stay when I go to Hong Kong. It suits me.

But I found Desti Youth Park Hostel. I reserved a queen deluxe room for around $34 USD. The last time I stayed in Xiamen, it was at Marco Polo, and it was around $75 a night. It was nice, but I really don’t like spending a lot of money on hotel rooms. I’m usually out exploring. I just want someplace relatively safe to clean up and sleep. I mean, I love Hong Kong so much, I’d get a tent and sleep in a park if I could. But I haven’t had to do that. Yet.

Anyway, I got a Didi and went to Banyan Gelato and Coffee. I’m still a member of Xiamen Foodies on WeChat, and the guy who runs it got to talking with me. So I got there in time for lunch.

One thing I need to warn people about is that Banyan Gelato is not visible from the street. There’s a sort of tunnel that leads to a courtyard behind some buildings. Banyan is just on the right once you exit the tunnel.

The shop is both cozy and airy. Made from shipping containers, there’s a first-floor open air dining room, and areas upstairs. Another part of the building on the main floor is the place you order. Desserts and drinks are on display in the case. The menu is on the counter and features a variety of sandwiches, desserts, gelato, drinks, and pizza. I placed my order then sat down in the nearby dining area.

My sandwich, ham on stracciatella cheese with arugula on focaccia bread, and it was delicious. I also ordered some chocolate gelato, and a mini apple pie for takeaway. The pie is a bit bigger than an egg tart, a very popular treat here. The apple pie crust even had lattice work! I took a bite, then saved it for breakfast the next day. It was wonderful. I haven’t had apple pie in years. Please check out Banyan Gelato and Coffee. It’s at 151 Yuehua Road, L101, Huli District, Xiamen. Remember, you can’t see it from the street. Just walk into the little tunnel, and you’ll find the green and gold buildings on the right. I think they are open 10 to 9 p.m. daily. The phone number is 1-575-927-1738.

Part Two coming soon!

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Return to Kuliang

This is my third trip to Kuliang Resort.

It’s on the east side of Fuzhou, up in the mountains. Missionaries and college profs got places up there because it really is very, very pleasant. Not just because of the scenery, but the temperature. It’s about ten degrees cooler up there, and the breezes make it ideal.

The big story about Kuliang is Milton Gardner, who was a baby, a son of missionaries who spent the first ten years of his life there. He always wanted to go back, but didn’t get a chance. Muttering, “Kuliang, Kuliang” on his deathbed, his wife wanted to fulfill his wish to return.

Except she didn’t know EXACTLY where he was referring to.

Decades and several trips later, she finally discovered, with the help of a Chinese exchange student and Xi Jinping (yes, China’s president) figured out it was Kuliang in Fuzhou.

She was able to return and meet her husband’s childhood companions, then in their 90s.

There was a newspaper story about Mrs. Gardner’s trip.

He wasn’t the only foreign inhabitant. There are others whose descendants have also visited and kept in touch with this little slice of Heaven in the mountains.

What gets me is that people still live there. It’s a resort, but plenty of ordinary people live there. Sometimes it’s hard to discern private from public property. A lot of the locals have businesses like tea stalls, food stalls, they sell veggies, fish food, and even restaurants. I packed a picnic for myself, but I had such a big lunch, I saved my packed lunch for dinner.

Anyway, if you’re in Fuzhou and want some serenity and cool breezes, check out Kuliang Resort. It’s free to walk around, but parking isn’t very much. Avoid that by taking a Didi there and back.

Pictures!

Lots of these little guys up here. They’re so pretty!
Milton Gardner, an important figure in recent Fuzhou history.
Old Kuliang Street. It reminds me of Old San Juan.
Cute little bridge over a pond.
Resort decor.
A brief history of Kuliang.

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My Ambivalent Feelings about Madonna

Madonna is 68 years old today.

I wasn’t always a fan.

When I first heard about her in 1984, I thought she was a slut. I didn’t like the way she dressed and the overt sexuality. I’m fucked up, so my views about sex and sexuality are a bit different from other people. I know people have sex and it’s healthy and natural, but so is taking a shit. I don’t want to see that either.

Then, I saw Desperately Seeking Susan and heard “Into the Groove” and really liked it. Okay. I started learning more about her. The hits kept coming, to me at least. I collected biographies of her and read everything I could find about her.

Didn’t really watch her movies after DSS, because well, because. Watching Who’s That Girl was pretty cringey and I can’t even remember the plot. I didn’t even bother with Shanghai Surprise.

Big fan of True Blue and Like a Prayer, but when “Justify My Love” came out, it was like throwing a bucket of cold water on an early morning erection. Total turn-off. The meandering melody sounded super staticky and haunting. Cue the drum machine, and it sounded like a nightmare.

The video I didn’t see until much later. I broke down and bought it, but I can’t remember if I paid full price for it, or if I got it at a garage sale. What made this different from porn? It was more artistic, I’ll give it that. But to me, it was the same thing, in a slightly better dress.

And just like that, I was ruined for Madonna.

That was the beginning of her 24/7/365 era of sex. It was enough to be provocative with what she was wearing, but it was getting annoying. I was aware of Madonna, but didn’t pay too much attention to her music. I just wondered why she was still acting like a spoiled brat. I call it Bobby Knight Syndrome.

Those of you of a certain age remembered when Knight threw a chair across the basketball court in a game against Purdue. He also punched someone in Puerto Rico. But he got away with being an asshole because he got results. Madonna was acting the diva even as an unknown, but I guess if you are a gorgeous known, you can get away with a lot. Prove you’ve got talent, and you can just get away with more. Knight always looked like a typical middle-aged Midwestern hothead piece of shit, but he got results.

And speaking of Puerto Rico, I wasn’t too thrilled when she pulled the Puerto Rican flag through her crotch. Neither was my dad, who was a native.

I don’t know. She can do what she wants, as can anyone. But I always sort of thought that she would have eased off on the overt sexuality, the constant offending behavior. She can do it to others, but no one would dare do it to her.

And why does she need to act that way? I would have thought she’d have more class by now, but I guess when you spend that much on your body, you’ve got to show it off.

I envy her and admire her, but I also feel sorry for her. I’m sorry she lost her mom at a young age. Sorry she got sexually assaulted after moving to NYC. Sorry that she treated people in a not-so-nice way.

This isn’t to say that I don’t like ANYTHING after “Justify My Love.” It took me years, but I came to like “Ray of Light” “Hung” up, and “Jump.”

But it seems like she’s never given up her Mean Girl persona. She might have been a volunteer for certain things in high school, and maybe she was a nice person, but her push for loving one another and acceptance is kind of hard to reconcile with how she’s treated people.

I know a lot of people were furious at Christopher Ciccone for writing “Life With My Sister Madonna”, but I believed him. I don’t believe he was as much of a druggie as Madonna claimed he was. And when he bought some paintings at an auction and changed her mind and didn’t want him, it threw him into financial hardship. You can’t just sell them back to the auction house, and he couldn’t really afford them. This callous treatment was way out of line.

Also callous was when one of her dancers begged her to take the gay kiss out of Truth or Dare because he wasn’t ready to come out. You’d think being so friendly to the gay community, she would understand that, but she kept it in.

Yes, she changed a lot of people’s lives. Those super close to her and millions of people who don’t know her, but because of her, they changed things about their lives, because she made it okay. That’s a good thing.

But you know how you shouldn’t meet your heroes? I am in no danger of meeting her, but I’d be scared if I did. I dealt with enough Mean Girls at school.

So Happy Birthday, Madonna. Hopefully, you’ll have a long, happy life. And no doubt continue to confound, confuse, infuriate, and entertain.

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Boogie Nights Review, Part Two

The 1980s is when it turns. First off, Horner is reluctant to embrace VHS, but its invention means film is out. He meets with executive Floyd Gondolli at his New Year’s party, who brought along a group of barely legal youngsters he proclaims are “the real people in the world.” They are amateurs, which Floyd Gondolli claims are the future of porn films. Horner is insulted by what Gondolli is saying, and walks out on the meeting.

Then the most shocking scene of the film shows up. Little Bill, played by William H. Macy, has a cheating wife who just doesn’t give a damn. Finally fed up with it, he gets a gun from his car and shoots, his wife, her lover, and himself. Director Paul Thomas Anderson was concerned at the laughter Little Bill was getting at seeing his wife fucking a guy who wasn’t him, but relieved that when Little Bill ate the gun, everyone in the theater shut up.

The 1980s turn out to be not so totally awesome for everyone in this film. Horner is disgusted with the films he’s making, one of his actors is rejected for a loan to open a stereo store because the banker claims he is a “pornographer”, Amber Waves is accused of being a porn-making junkie by her ex-husband, Dirk gets more and more into drugs and hooks up with a male exotic dancer who really gets him and fellow actor Reed Rothschild (played by John C. Reilly) in a terrible situation. Even the Colonel, played by Robert Ridgely, Horner’s friend who bankrolls all the films, is caught with kiddie porn.

The film shows us how everyone is doing. There seem to be new beginnings for everyone (except the Colonel, shown in a prison cell getting slapped by his bunkmate) all set to “God Only Knows.”

The soundtrack is 1970s gold, and that alone is worth a view. But it’s a great film, perhaps a masterpiece. It’s more than just a film about the porn industry. It’s a film about people, and the families they form when their original ones drop the ball.

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Boogie Nights Review, Part One

I bought Boogie Nights on Google Play several weeks ago and after I got it, I was watching it on repeat. Not sure why exactly, but it was comforting.

It’s a great movie. Some people are turned off by the subject matter, the “glory days of the porn industry” which was in the late 1970s. But really, there’s maybe just three sex scenes which I don’t think were, in Dirk Diggler’s words, “sexy.”

The film is actually about family, in a warped way. The film humanizes the porn industry, showing the actors ARE real people with hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

The casting was just perfect, despite Burt Reynolds reluctance in taking the role of Jack Horner, pornographer auteur. It’s rumored that not helping to promote the movie hurt him when it came to the Academy Awards. He DID pick up a Golden Globe. Well deserved, because he was perfect in that movie. He actually comes off as sympathetic, as someone who makes porn, but wants it to mean something. He feels he’s making art. Which is why it’s sort of heartbreaking to see the transition to VHS cassette tapes later on in the film.

Dirk Diggler, of course, is Marky Mark himself, Mark Wahlberg. He works at a car wash and as a bus boy far away from his California home. Jack Horner notices him in a club, and goes to the kitchen to chat him up. He’s surprised when Diggler offers to show him his penis, or jack off for him for $10. Horner declines, but instead sends porn actress Rollergirl, played by Heather Graham to see if he “measures up.” She checks him out in a back room of the club.

It’s a long-ass movie, but you never feel bored because something is always happening. And depending on who you are, you just might shed a tear at the end, a montage of scenes as to what happened to our little “family” set to “God Only Knows” one of the Beach Boys finest songs.

Our boy starts out as Eddie Adams, from Torrence, California, but at a party Horner throws, becomes Dirk Diggler. Shortly after, we see the first porn movie scene, which seems awfully corny, and as I mentioned prior, isn’t very sexy. Dirk stuns everyone when he says he can provide a money shot if needed (Horner’s girlfriend, Amber Waves, played by Julie Moore, urged Dirk to come inside her. That line would be used to humorous effect at the end of the movie.)

The scene cuts to a smaller gathering at Horner’s house surrounded by his film regulars, with him reading an article singing the praises of Diggler. Life seems good for Eddie Adams, burdened with parents who just don’t understand, who is reborn as Dirk Diggler.

The movie hits all the angles of southern California decadence, 1970s style. The music, the drugs, and the general style is all there.

Part Two is coming, and coming, and coming… 😉

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An Online Library, and it’s FREE!

I took some books with me to China, have purchased books while in China, but I’m trying not to spend money or clutter up my place even more. A decades-long search for a favorite book from my teen years ended here in China. I went on Facebook to one of my groups, and said I was looking for a book that I read when I was in high school. Couldn’t remember the title, I thought the author’s first name was William, and I remembered the plot, as well as some character names.

Within hours, I had my answer. I profusely thanked the person who came up with the title, The Launching of Linda Bell, by William Hallstead. I think it was published in the very early 1980s, and I remember reading and re-reading it. It’s a really good young adult book. I’ve been a young adult book junkie for years, especially for stuff written in the late 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

So when I had the title, I searched online. Wasn’t sure I wanted to spend money on it, because getting packages from outside of China is a bit tricky. I hadn’t been successful with it.

But I somehow found Internet Archive. It has all sorts of goodies online, and books are just one of them. They have access to different libraries, so I typed in The Launching of Linda Bell.

And I got it.

I remember it was the first book I read on my summer vacation one year. I’d turned my grades in, I was DONE, and I had several weeks ahead of me to do whatever the hell I wanted.

And I read The Launching of Linda Bell on my first night of vacation. In one setting. It was absolutely wonderful to stay up all night reading and then be able to go to sleep. It’s how I imagine retirement to be. No schedules. The only reason to pay attention to a clock is to wake up on time, or to check to see if it’s time for your favorite show to come on.

It’s really nice to read “fresh” stuff even if I’ve read it several times years ago. I recently looked up Mannequin: My Life as a Model. It’s an interesting read about a New York model in the late 1960s. Carolyn Kenmore wrote it. She has a very candid style. I enjoyed reading about how she finally broke into the industry, but she started really late. She talks about ageism and how for several professions, the time is ticking. And people want to know what you want to do when it’s over. She was already a college graduate when she started, and later, when she was looking for another agency, when they asked her age. She said 26, and the woman told her they usually don’t look at girls over 25.

Let that sink in.

She was invited to come in anyway, but they didn’t take her.

I am thankful for Internet Archive. If there’s an old book you are curious about reading, try looking it up. I will say that IA can be a bit frustrating. I think some of the more popular, well-known books are for some reason “borrow unavailable.” I’m sort of lucky that the two books I really wanted to read were available.

But some of my other YA favorites, as well as The Devil Wears Prada had a bunch of copies listed, but all were “borrow unavailable.”

Even so, it’s nice to know I can check out two of my favorite books of all time. They don’t take up any space, and I don’t have to spend any money either. Remember this the next time you’re out and about, and really need/want something to read, and you have an internet connection. If you’re lucky, you might be able to read an old favorite, and that annoying wait instead becomes a step back in time to visit with a friend.

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A Glass Half Full, a Glass Half Empty Kind of Day

Today was a glass half full, glass half empty kind of day.

My glasses broke. I haven’t had them for a month and both sidepieces broke. I went to the eyeglass place to get another pair, but they didn’t have a duplicate pair of those glasses.

I hate buying glasses because the frames are so boring anyway. I either want a statement pair, or something unobtrusive. And it doesn’t matter how much I pay. The last time I bought glasses in China, I dropped $1400 USD on some Prada frames and fairly thick lenses. They started breaking down six months later.

I’ve repaired them dozens of times since. I bought glasses again about two years ago, both pairs (regular and prescription sunglasses) and both of those broke too. Back to the Prada frames and Arnold Palmer prescription shades.

I saved up for a while, and bought a regular pair and prescription sunglasses a few weeks ago. The shades are still working, but the regular ones broke. I superglued them. All seemed well until I tried them on today. And it isn’t just the right earpiece. They also cracked where the lens is.

So I went most of the day without glasses, unless I was outside. There I used my wannabe Ray Bans. But those don’t help at night.

I went to the fancy grocery store to get sunflower kernels. Here in China, they come in the shell. So it’s rare to see sunflower kernels, roasted and salted, ready to go. I pounced on them when I first saw them, and went back to get some more today. I planned to buy my veggies for juicing at Young Hui, instead of Ole. But I checked out the produce section and was pleasantly surprised to find spinach and carrots on sale. The Granny Smiths weren’t discounted, but two out of three ain’t bad. I got some other stuff too, and the final tab was less than $28.

I felt pretty good (the juicing is helping) so I decided to go swimming.

The health club where I swim is about a half hour’s walk from my apartment. They’ve upgraded the lockers, which were rather janky and rusty. Plus, you had to bring your own lock. That’s fine, I have plenty of them. But now the lockers are nice and new, but you need a phone to operate them. You scan the QR code and press a few prompts, and a door opens.

The issue with this is you have to take your phone with you if you want to be able to open the locker back up. The pool area has only two benches and no cubby holes or shelves or compartments to put you phone or towel in. So I wrap it up in my towel, put on the bench, and hope for the best.

I went swimming last Thursday, and the water was cloudy. I thought since the pool is part of a gym, that the pool would be adults only. I’ve swam in “adults only” pools and never had problems. It’s only when the pools are open to kids that I’ve gotten sick. This one’s open to kids. Going on a weekday doesn’t help.

Also, the pool seems a bit chaotic. I don’t know if they have designated lap lanes, but they do have three lanes roped off for lap swimming, presumably. The problem is, some people hang out in these lanes and they don’t actually swim. Or if they do, they swim a few laps, stop, then stand there for a few seconds before taking a few strokes, then stopping and standing there again. There are little kids who just show up in the “lap” lanes with their arm floaties, pool noodles, and kickboards and cross lanes back and forth willy nilly. Sometimes couples will just park themselves in the middle of a lane, chattering away.

And it drives me nuts.

Then there are people who swim right up on you, and you risk kicking someone in the face because they followed you too closely. Or else they pass you but cut it so close they sideswipe you or kick your arm.

The pool seemed cloudy again today, so that plus the crowdedness meant I did 24 lengths of the pool today. I swam 36 on Thursday.

But I’d had it, dodging pool noodles and kickboards.

It’s a shame, because I LOVE swimming. It’s the only exercise that really relaxes me and makes me feel good. I was thinking about my brother last night, and I was getting infuriated by my history with him. So I figured today was the day to swim.

But that’s becoming stressful too.

Then, I couldn’t get my locker open. I don’t know if I pushed something prematurely or what, but I couldn’t get it open. So I walked out in my bathing suit, to the front desk and said via translator, I couldn’t get my locker open. The desk attendant comes in with a key. The locker pops open. I grab my bag, and a giant cockroach zips from the back of the locker to the left front side and disappears. Was this thing crawling around in my bag? I didn’t zip it up when I put it in.

Yuck.

I rarely drink, but on the way home I picked up some orange juice. I had some Absolut Citron at home, and I’m sipping on a mixture of that now. Yum.

I attempted to repair my glasses again, only to superglue my fingers to my glasses frames. Luckily I had just enough nail polish remover to unstick myself, but I’m not touching that superglue again until I have a full bottle of Cutex or similar at my disposal.

And I poured more vodka and orange juice.

By the way, this is post number 666. A.k.a. the number of the beast! Beware!

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And Windy Has Stormy Eyes…

Yesterday, the wind kicked up and then unleashed a hell of a rainstorm. No thunder that I could hear, no lightning, just wind and rain. It was one of those days you’re glad to be inside with either a good book or lots of videos to watch.

But it did clear up and I walked to the grocery store to stock up on greens for juicing. I’m trying to clean up my diet a bit. I can see some improvements even with one day of juicing.

Plus, I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos from Sean of Steel. Sean used to weigh more than 600 pounds. And what he does is reaction videos of My 600 Pound Life. I was surprised to learn that for a lot of these people, they turned to food when things got bad. If they were bullied, abused by their parents, chaotic homelife, whatever, they turned to food. I realized I do that too, but I’ve never gotten over 200 pounds. For most of these people, going from 600 pounds to 400 pounds is a victory. As I type this, this is the video that’s playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug1-4NSZqfM

And also I’ve noticed that when I juice, I feel calmer. It’s crazy to think that sugar can make you anxious, but I think it works that way for me.

If you want to know about juicing, check out https://www.rebootwithjoe.com/. Joe Cross is an Australian who decided he could cure himself–from the inside. He’s got some bucks, and in 2010 he released a movie he made himself called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. It’s a funny documentary about Joe’s journey across the United States (he’s visited it several times and really enjoys it) and talked to people about their eating habits and how long they think they would live. He would make them juice and tell them what exactly he was doing. For two months, he consumed nothing but juice. But it was juice that was healthy, not Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry (YUM!). He lost like 80 pounds and was able to get off his meds for urticaria.

Diet has such a huge impact on us, we don’t even really know. I highly recommend this movie. It’s really well done. You can watch the movie for free if you join his mailing list. If you go to https://www.rebootwithjoe.com/joes-films/ you can see other places to watch the movie.

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Sad China Horse for the Win!

So I went back to Fuzhou Zoo because I didn’t get to see everything.

And I’m glad I went back.

I don’t usually stop to buy souvenirs, but I noticed one of the stalls had Sad China Horse, the viral Chinese New Year sensation.

I’m not a smiler. So for me, the Sad China Horse was like Grumpy Cat reborn. I loved that Grumpy Cat looked the way I felt most of the time. So the Sad China Horse struck a chord with me. Of course I couldn’t find one.

But then I glanced over at the stall on the way back from the big cat area (only the leopards were doing anything, everyone else was in their caves) and what do I see but Viral Sensation Sad China Horse!

Sad China Horse, looking none too happy at the bird exhibit at Fuzhou Zoo.

So I bought one. It’s rare that I really, REALLY want something, and at a mere $2.80, how could I pass that up?

Yes, I also bought a smiley face horse too. Always look on the bright side of life…

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Going to the Zoo!

I haven’t been to a zoo in years, so I went to Fuzhou Zoo today. I saw almost everything, and I’m going to go back to see what I missed (big cats/elephants).

The zoo is really pretty, but not exactly wheelchair friendly. I saw some elevators, but it seemed like quite a few exhibits you had to climb stairs for. Especially for the parrot exhibit, but it was worth it as they had a Myna bird that said “hello” and “nihao.”

The zoo is built into the side of a mountain, hence the steps. But it was really nicely laid out. It gave the impression one was in the jungle while at the zoo. Lots of vegetation, and shaded walking paths, which was nice, since it was a bright sunny day today. I expected the zoo to be packed, but it wasn’t.

There was a map, but I pretty much just started walking once I got in. It was 30 yuan, which is basically $4.20 or so.

The first exhibit was on a pond, and I saw a pelican and a turtle. I saw just about everything except the big cats and the elephants.

Pelican and turtle stand off. When I got closer, the turtle looked plenty mad.

The reptile building was pretty impressive, as was the bird display. I was afraid after climbing probably 50 steps that it wouldn’t, but they had some beautiful birds and the talking Myna was amusing.

The Myna was saying “nihao” and “hello.”

There’s interactive stuff like a petting zoo with llamas and bunnies, you can feed giraffes if you want, and I got a kick out of feeding the fish. The fish food was laying in bags in a plastic container well away from the fish action. If you hadn’t climbed up there, you wouldn’t know it was there. And it was on the honor system, with a QR code to scan. The price was pretty cheap, I thought. $1.40 for a small bag of pellets. I fed the koi fish in the lower pond, as well as the big gray fish in the upper pond.

Fish pellet soon to be gone.
I don’t THINK this is a blobfish, but then again…

There are a few food kiosks along the way, with places to sit. The water I bought was on the honor system. The coolers are locked. You scan the QR code, and then tap the photo of what you want. You type in your payment code, and the cooler door unlocks and you grab what it is you want. I’m always surprised at how many of these “honor coolers” there are in China. But I guess with security cameras everywhere, it keeps people honest. But it would NEVER go over in the states. It saves on having some minimum wage employee standing or sitting there all day, but at the same time, I do wonder how much food they lose.

Not even worth of a minimum-wage fish food seller!

It was nice to get some pictures of wildlife without having to risk my life on a safari. And I’m so glad the zoo wasn’t busy.

On the way back, I didn’t want to go down all those steps I climbed up to see the birds. So I took a meandering road down. At least they had that for wheelchair-bound people. But overall, unless there were some secret roads I didn’t know about, I wouldn’t say this is a very wheelchair friendly venue. But they do have those elongated golf cart/open air buses that you can ride. A driver asked me if I wanted a ride, and I did. Ten yuan ($1.40) for a very pleasant ride back to the front gate.

There looked to be some sort of carnival/amusement park place across the street, but I don’t think it was open. Maybe it’s a night thing, since the zoo is open until 6 p.m.

I’m glad I went and I felt it was well worth the money. Families might want to make a day of it, but if you’re by yourself you could probably see everything in about four hours time. Maybe longer if you decide to feed a few critters.

Fuzhou Zoo Entrance. The first exhibits are fish in giant aquariums.
I thought this fence was awfully low for a lion… but I guess they wanted the turtle to be more intimidating or something.
Chinese alligator. I was shocked at how close I was able to get.
White Rhino.
The majority of the animals chose their left profile, for some odd reason.
Meerkat on guard duty.
Doesn’this turtle look PISSED???

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Movie Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Yeah, I know. I’m late to the party. But this was one of the DVDS I thought I’d get around to watching years ago.

During Covid, I had a chance to get a bunch of DVDs for basically free. I insisted on giving the couple who were moving back to France $14 USD to take two big boxes of DVDs. Some of them didn’t work, some of them I weren’t interested in, but there were quite a few that I thought worth saving.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower wasn’t one of them. I tried it tonight, and I just couldn’t get excited about it. Normally, I like underdog movies where the character who is spat upon and mock rises up. But this wasn’t doing it for me.

Charlie is facing his first day as a high school freshman. I’m not sure what his prior story is, but we get glimmers of it, but not enough for me to put it together. There’s something up with his Aunt Helen, and I think it has to do with her molesting him, but I’m not sure. I think she’s dead.

Charlie copes by writing letters (to Aunt Helen?) as he deals with his new hell, er I mean high school. His English teacher doesn’t seem too bad, and they form a bond.

Anyway, Charlie goes to a high school football game and runs into seniors and stepsiblings Patrick and, oh, what is her name? Hold on. Oh！It’s Sam, played by Emma “Hermione” Watson.

IMDB says Charlie was played by Logan Lerman and Patrick was played by Ezra Miller.

Patrick and Sam are seniors, and of course as it always happens in high school, take Charlie under their wings and introduce them to drinking, drugs, and what seems to be 1980s music. Makes sense, since Stephen Chbosky, the writer of the novel the movie is based on, is a GenXer. I’ve noticed that teen movies that have taken place in the 2010s seem to have a LOT of 1980s songs, or influences. I taught a class the novel Hard Wired, and his teenage protagonist had an ear for 1980s music. When I contacted the author for a Zoom call with my class, he confessed to being a GenXer.

People, the music you listened to in your youth and in your 20s until about 33 or so, is the stuff that you will measure all music that comes after it. Everything after whatever you listened to during the time of your youth will be crap. Scientific studies have been done on that. So if I meet a teenager who just happens to like Culture Club and Tears for Fears, I’m gonna bet that he has GenX parents that played nothing else. Just like I wasn’t fond of music of the 1940s and 1950s, my parents were fond of Wham, Journey, or the Pet Shop Boys.

Music influences aside, this movie was rather meh. There’s the whole “I’m gonna kill myself if I don’t get into the college of my choice” trope, the “secretly gay couple” trope, the “the girl I really like is involved with a jerk” trope, and having unsupervised parties in impossbily huge houses trope.

Charlie keeps hinting about being “bad” and we’re left to wonder if it’s his best friend’s suicide that messed him up or his Aunt Helen’s fatal car accident that he thinks he caused. These hints are sprinkled in the movie, and I suppose if you read the book you’d be in the know, but as Cinema Sins says, “the books. do. not. matter.”

Nothing really dramatic happens in this movie. I kept wondering when this movie was supposed to be happening. Was it in 2011, or 1981?

I’ll admit the friendship between Charlie and his older friends is sweet, but is that the way kids act? Did 2011 kids actually make CASSETTE mix tapes? A few years prior to that, my niece and nephew made me a mix CD (of songs THEY liked, not surprisingly). They probably didn’t know what a cassette tape looked like.

So is there a happy ending? Sort of. Nobody commits suicide or dies, so that’s a win.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m too old to appreciate teenage movies made way after I graduated, but I don’t think so. I loved Mean Girls, and really enjoyed Ten Things I Hate about You. But having grown up in the John Hughes era of teenage movies, maybe I’ll be forever scarred. I’ll be that annoying adult who says, “they just don’t make teenage movies like they used to anymore. Same with the music.” TPOBAW just didn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s a bit too idealistic for my tastes. I stuck with it.

But I got rid of it. Hopefully one of the trash picker residents can find something useful to do with it.

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I Miss You, Dad

Twenty-six years ago today, my father died.

Nothing prepares you for that, even though I knew it was coming.

I remember being afraid when he died. Even though he couldn’t have possibly fended off an attacker, he had lived in the living room for months. Not having him there was scary.

We went to Applebee’s that afternoon. There was a thunderstorm, and as I heard the thunder, I liked to think it was my Dad, arguing with God, about something.

It took me a very long time to mature as an adult. And as happens when you get older, you understand your parents just a little bit more. Or you think you do.

I miss my Dad. There are questions I would have liked to ask him. It’s strange how there are things you feel like you don’t dare discuss with your parents. I remember breaking into tears, when I found out something about his health that he accepted stoically. There were spots on his liver and lung. They never got biopsied, because they weren’t sure he’d survive the surgery. He opted to do nothing. I remember kneeling by his bed, crying, and saying how sorry I was this was happening to him.

His response: “These things happen, in life.”

I wonder if he was scared. I wonder how he felt when he lost his job and he was in his 50s. I remember him typing his resume on this Spanish-language Underwood. I remember him starting to cry and smashing his fist on the table. I’d never seen him so upset. He eventually got a job, and things went back to normal.

But I wonder how happy he was. It’s not something I spent a lot of time thinking about; chalk it up to self-centeredness and immaturity. Now I wonder. He didn’t seem to have a lot of friends. I remember him confessing he felt there was a “vendetta” against him at work. I wonder how he dealt with the pressure. But when I was around 10, he had a heart attack. He lived, and eventually had a triple-bypass in his 70s.

But like most men of his era, he didn’t really talk about things. I know he probably put up with racism. I wonder how much of that he dealt with that at work, but kept going.

I can’t imagine the pressure. He had a family and a mortgage. I had only myself, and a dog.

Yet as unhappy as I imagine him to be, far away from the culture he grew up in and his first language, he must have been very, very strong. I wonder how much of those naps he took when he got home from work were a way of coping with depression.

He had the occasional beer, but that was it.

We did stuff together, backyard games of catch, the weekend Komets games, the Sunday morning trips to Ohio to buy lottery tickets. The first single lens reflex he ever bought me. Encouraging my interest in photography.

I wish I could have, would have, talked to him more. To say that I think I get it now. I don’t have kids and never will, but by presenting a rock-solid face to the world even though I think he was hiding an unhappiness that never occurred to me until several years ago.

Or maybe I’m imagining it.

I’m sorry Dad. Sorry if I ever let you down, as I’m sure I did. I miss you. I wish I had you and Mom to talk to about the craziness of the world. How you keep going. How you find the answers.

I hope you are happy now. I have a hard time believing in the afterlife, but I hope there is one for you and Mom.

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Going to the Dentist in China

I’m in the vicinity, but WHERE?

I went to the dentist today. I hadn’t been in years. I don’t enjoy going to the dentist, but it’s not for the usual reasons. My mouth isn’t very big, so it’s uncomfortable. Secondly, I take really good care of my teeth. Back in the day, dad dropped a few thousand on my braces. Probably around $9,643 in today’s dollars. When I saw the horror story slide show they forced me to watch to emphasize the importance of dental hygiene, they didn’t have to make me watch it twice. I brushed after everything I ate. Dad bought the WaterPik Dr. Eugene Dellinger suggested I use. I was known for having the cleanest teeth among his patients. I took that shit seriously.

It was just another thing to get out of the way this summer. I asked someone for recommendations, and so I went today.

There’s nothing about this that says, “dental services.”

I had an address, but wasn’t expecting the facility to be in a mall. In Guangzhou, the dentist was on a quiet street. This place was in a mall. A sign on the outside told me I was in the right place, but I wasn’t sure where exactly in the mall it was. I went inside. I asked a couple of people.

Hallway to…not the dentist’s.

One guy took me down a long hallway, only for me to exit with no dentist in sight. I went back inside and asked someone who looked like a cop. He walked away, not wanting to deal with someone not fluent in Chinese.

I finally went back to a couple of guys standing inside the door of the main mall entrance. They pointed me upstairs, to a store with a sign that said, “Makeup.”

Ooooooookay. As I got closer, I saw something that said, “AngelAlign” and figured I was in the right place. I went inside and they had my phone number. I went back to a bench and sat down.

Shortly I was ushered into a typical dental office cubicle, with the giant light, and a computer monitor in my face. The table was on the right, the little sink on the left. The chair was unusually comfortable.

The dental technician and I used translation apps to communicate. They said my teeth were in very good shape and she got on with her work.

That’s about it. A cleaning went for 238 Renminbi, or less than $34.

The mall goes by two names: the “Eternal Center” and Times Square.
The view from the chair.

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Thanks for the Warning

Someone I haven’t spoken to in years sent me a Facebook message warning me about my house being in the county delinquent tax sale.

I thought it might be a scam, so I didn’t click on the link. Instead I went through an alternative route. Saw the listing for someone with my name, but the address was different.

I thought it was strange, him tipping me off like that. I thanked him for the warning, but I’d paid this spring’s property tax.

And I checked my mail; I never got a letter saying it was up for sale. That’s how they do it. I think you have three tax cycles before they put it up for sale. Taxes are due fall and spring. So you have around a year and a half before they put it in the tax sale. And even so, they send out a letter to warn you. Usually it lists the full amount due, then there’s the amount that keeps it from going in the sale. That amount isn’t too bad. I have had that happen before, and I’ve paid the minimum.

I hope I’m never that poor again.

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An Unexamined Life IS Worth Living

I haven’t been posting a lot recently. Things have been going pretty well for me. Which makes me wonder.

I think part of how I cope is that I share, or rather overshare, way too much. Trauma dumping, I think they call it.

But I’m on summer vacation, or holiday as they call it here. I usually make a list of things I want to do. Fun stuff, chores, things like that. If I do something that’s not on the list, I usually write it down anyway.

I’ve been relaxing. Watching lots and lots of YouTube. Having some really good sleep. Reading books I’ve read as a teen.

So things are okay right now.

I organized my closet last night. I also submitted a piece to a publication. I plan to do more of that stuff.

I still keep my daily journal. I may look through some past journal entries and post them online. Not everything, of course. There’s a lot that I would like to say, but won’t. Those are other stories for other times.

I just went out on my balcony a few minutes ago and watched the mountains to the southwest. They were an interesting shade of light gray, and darker gray. I knew that it would be raining very soon, and I was right. It’s raining right now. There’s a typhoon, Noul, and that’s what it probably is. I’m not near Guangdong, or Hong Kong, but they’ve been hit hard. We’re probably getting some of it.

So tonight I’ll probably start supper soon and maybe sort through some stuff in my “junk” room. I’ve always been a bit of a clutterbug, and I’m not sure why. I don’t like this particular aspect of my personality. I suspect part of it is whenever I’ve gotten rid of something, that’s when I find out I need it. There’s always an element of “I might need it” that I can’t seem to get over. Someone made a post somewhere, I’m not sure where I saw it, that said that people who save everything are too poor to replace that thing, which is why they hold on to it.

It makes sense. I still have my mother’s sewing machine, even though the last time she used it was in 1984 to make an outfit for my brother’s wedding. It’s still at home. I’ve made and fixed stuff with it, which is why it’s nice to have something like that around.

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2026 FIFA World Cup!

Well, watching the 2026 FIFA World Cup Finals wasn’t on my bingo card for this year, but I did it.

I was sort of half-assedly following who was doing well. But I hadn’t really watched any of the games. The Jumbotron screen on the mall on the corner was showing games, but I wasn’t really invested in any of the teams. I wanted Cape Verde to win. But when Spain made it, I wanted to watch the game.

I wasn’t about to pay for streaming, and I don’t own a television right now. So I found out that despite the hideous time difference (3 p.m. east coast time means 3 a.m. in allllll of China since Beijing calls the shots) I wanted to watch it. And La Mesca, my favorite Mexican food place in Fuzhou, was going to be open. I didn’t even have to reserve a table! There were maybe a maximum of 10 people in the place total, at any given time. And I didn’t want to watch the game alone.  It was nice and intimate, almost like having a private screening room, er, restaurant.

So I showed up and I met some new people. The owner wanted to watch the game, and stopped serving food right around the time I got there. But an acquaintance had ordered some chips and salsa, and said I was welcome to that. I’d brought my own Coke just to be on the safe side, and with a glass of ice, I was set.

I was surprised at how vocal I got. I was swearing and shouting and going “ohhhhhhhhhhhhh” whenever Spain missed a shot. I hardly ever watch football (see, I’m even sounding like a woman of the world) but it looked like Argentina was taking some tips from the NFL and knocking the fuck out of any Spanish player nearest the ball. The obviously biased Eastern European ref (probably paid for by Putin) and Argentina’s body slamming tactics were pissing me off.

I missed the halftime show because it wasn’t broadcast in China. No, we got treated to a very boring, minutes long car commercial. And you know how in the Super Bowl, the commercials are great because the advertising cost so much they have to come up with something memorable? The car commercial was like a boring Ted talk. One of the guys watching dialed up Bohemian Rhapsody first, then turned up YMCA.

And that’s when yours truly got up to give a show. Yes, I danced and sang throughout the whole bloody song. Sadly (or maybe thankfully) no record of it exists anywhere, except in the memories of the unfortunate people who got to see it. But, no one was paying me, so sorry, you aren’t getting Fosse-level choreography and prime vocals.

I was a bit surprised when the first 90 minutes seemed to fly by with no score. I actually enjoyed myself a lot more than I expected to, which was really, really nice. I was glad I ended up at La Mesca. The American who asked if I was going to come and watch didn’t really care who won (but low key, I think he did) and there were a couple of Chinese folks who came in who seemed to be pulling for Argentina, but we gently kidded them. Foki Foki, a nearby place, seemed to be all Chinese pulling for Argentina. For the most part, we were rooting for Spain. And I felt I was the most vocal.

When Spain finally scored (for real, offside my ASS!) I let loose my best Andres Cantor imitation. I’ve watched hockey for years, and sort of know what “offside” means, but I’m lost when it comes to football offside. It WAS entertaining to see Argentina body-check everyone out of their way, then claim innocence. Entertaining in a furious way. I got madder and madder. I saw so much touching, I finally shouted out, “just kiss him already!” or words to that effect. Yet if Argentina fell on their own accord, they went batshit, looking for someone to blame.

And it was funny to see a young Argentina supporter, comically, dramatically gesturing with his hands about the unfairness of it all. I wish I’d taken a picture of him with my smartphone. Listen you little bitch, YOUR team resorts to physical violence because Messi is nearly 40, and it takes 11 to make up a team, not just one. Spain, despite the crappy referee and constant physical mauling, responded with never giving up or giving in to the nonsense.

And after the game was over, I finally saw the punch thrown by Molina, and the shove by Paredes that China didn’t air as it was happening. After the game, there were many hugs. But Argentina wasn’t happy with their hockey game on ice and resorted to (what else) physical violence.

So yeah, I had a really great time. I thanked the owner of La Mesca, and slowly walked up the main road of Three Lanes, Seven Alleys. It was weird to see it at that time of the morning, deserted except for a few walkers and a street sweeper. It reminds me of Zhongshan Road, with the type of shops and restaurants that are there.

Spain’s win made my proud of my heritage, which is Spanish by way of Puerto Rico. Spain’s back to ruling the world again.

Very early in the game. My German neighbor said it wasn’t a good game, but how would I know the difference? I’m American.

The following are some random memes I thought amusing.

Not nearly as good as the kid in the stands I mentioned. I’ll kick myself for not getting that picture.

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This Weekend

So this weekend turned out really well. English corner was canceled Friday night, so I went swimming. The water seemed a bit cold at first, but I got used to it. It definitely had warmed up a bit, which is nice. Back in March, the water was really cold.

I was able to do 30 lengths of the pool. Definitely rebuilding my stamina.

I had dinner and walked home. I did a bit of grading and then relaxed. Need to redo that process though. If I can swim Fridays, I need to not grade later that night. It was so nice to swim, eat, and then go home. But grading was easy because it was a short quiz.

Saturday was nice too. I stayed home until I went out to have dinner with some new people I met. We had a great time eating and talking about her fingerprinting experience. I had to do that in Xiamen, and I did it by myself. However, this person went to a notary office, who charged her 400 yuan, or $56. She didn’t need her prints notarized, she just needed to get some clean prints to send them to the FBI for a background check. You’d think in China, all that would be computerized, but it isn’t. You download the form from the website, print it off on cardstock (several copies; you’ll need to practice) and then do the fingerprints. It’s hard to do by yourself. Plus, you get ink all over your fingers.

Then, we walked around. The restaurant is located in Three Lanes, Seven Alleys, a place where some important people lived a long time ago. The area is now a cultural area with museums, and lots of little shops. I found the handbag shop I’d seen many months ago. I restrained myself; I didn’t buy anything. But boy, what a great shop. If you have a handbag fetish like I do, it was paradise. And the prices really didn’t seem that bad for genuine leather.

We walked some more and checked out a donut shop, but since it was nearly closing time, they didn’t have a huge selection. I didn’t even know they had that. I’d been to that mall, but only the first floor. My new friends were familiar with the shop, which I will definitely have to check out. I’m not really a donut person, but lately, I’ve been craving them.

We also found another handbag shop, and I think they sold pre-owned designer bags. It was a much bigger shop than I expected it to be. It was nice to walk around and check out what they had, which was a lot. It sort of reminded me of Second Hand, which is a resale shop in Hong Kong, except this store didn’t sell clothes, just handbags.

The weather was absolutely perfect for once—nice and warm, clear skies, full moon.

We finally got tired out and took a Didi back to campus. I ended up getting another snack, because I was hungry.

Sunday, I spent quite a bit of time prepping. Prior to doing that, I went into town to get lunch. I have been having some cravings for forbidden food. I also stopped to look at glasses. I’ve repaired my Prada frames so much, it’s depressing. But I’ve been saving up money for a while, and I think I have more than enough money to get regular prescription glasses and prescriptions sunglasses as well.

I’m lucky enough to have a three day weekend because of my schedule. So today, I slept late like I usually do when I have the day off, then had my nice long walk. Ate lunch, then I got some food for the week. I usually bring my lunch for my long day on Tuesdays. But sometimes, I don’t feel like eating too much, so I just pack a little bit. I got some little tubs of flavored cream cheese, some Greek yogurt, and some fruit. On a low-carb diet, you shouldn’t eat fruit, but last week, I tried to eat bacon and some tomatoes, and ended up throwing quite a bit of the bacon away. It just didn’t taste good to me.

I picked up some more tomatoes today, and also sweet potatoes, which I’ve developed a taste for. I also walked home, and I was proud of that. I hit over 11,500 steps today. Trying to hit 10,000+ steps per day five days a week. Need to get back to my core workouts as well.

I know I feel better when I eat better. It’s depressing to eat carbs and feel sleepy, but if I don’t want to feel sleepy, I know what I need to do.

And this evening, I worked some more on prepping and grading.

So it was very satisfying, this weekend. I wish my new friends would stick around, but they are leaving in a month. It figures.

But things seem to be good for once. I’m happy about that.

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Timmy Hortons and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Seven

Simple. Calm. Not hostile. For all I know, they just had a baby and didn’t get any sleep last night and they don’t have the luxury of maternity leave. Or maybe they just suffer from insomnia and are a bit foggy. Or maybe they are having a day when nothing seems to go right. It doesn’t ruin my day if they mess up my order. I just calmly tell them what went wrong, and they fix it. (Why don’t I go inside? Because the weather might be absolute balls, or I’m feeling particularly lazy.)

And then there’s the dreaded “clopens.” Anyone who works retail knows what I mean, but for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, that’s when you are scheduled to open maybe two or three days in a row. Then, you have to close. Goodbye regular sleep schedule! Then there was the time I worked nine days in a row without a break. No overtime pay, either. I got off at 3:30 p.m. or so, and was asleep by 6.

There’s also people saying that Tim Horton’s is not a safe place and should be closed down. Rick from Pawn Stars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2kchnK4J3Y) said so himself.

And there’s a relative of Anita Grayson who had this to say on Facebook:

“The mask has finally slipped, and the truth is out for everyone to see. ​For years, my mom and my auntie talked about the aggression, the abuse, and the mistreatment they endured when they lived with Anita Grayson. And what did the Graysons do? They tried to cover it up. They denied it. They tried to paint this public picture of a helpless, weak, 75-year-old woman with congestive heart failure who wouldn’t hurt a fly. They wanted everyone to think she was too brittle to do anything….. This video from the Fort Wayne Tim Hortons shows exactly who she really is. That is NOT a weak, fragile woman. That is the exact same aggression she took out on my mom and my aunt for years. The only difference is, my mom and my auntie were defenseless and vulnerable.”

There’s also speculation that the woman had dementia, or some sort of psychosis, low blood pressure, low blood sugar, or had something going on to put her on blast. Having an incorrect order just sent her over the edge.

So who was right and who was wrong?

This case has it all.

Read part six here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/27/timmy-hortons-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-six/

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Timmy Hortons and the Badly Handled Drive-thru Coffee Order, Part Six

So yeah, mistakes were made. I’m thinking with incidents like this nearly a daily occurrence, corporate America really needs to have de-escalation training, pronto. And yeah, perhaps this sounds sexist of me, but maybe hire some tall, solidly built men for shift manager/general manager positions. Because if working retail or a customer service job means you have to deal with customers willing to throw punches, I’d much rather call a manager who is 6’5” and a solid 250 or so, than someone who is maybe 5’5” and 130. Either that, or teach them martial arts or something. But if you look like you can kick someone’s ass without really trying, I’d rather have that as my managerial backup. The 20-year-old shift manager was maybe a third of the size of the customer, but she came out swinging.

After I was hit twice, I started dressing like a punk/goth. Hair ratted out, black eye shadow, chains for jewelry, and I think I stuck safety pins in my ears. It wasn’t really my style, but people seemed to be more polite when talking to me, and I was never hit again.

I haven’t been this invested in a case since Luigi Mangione. I got obsessed over that, and I’ll probably be obsessed over this one too.

So who is at fault? It’s a bizarre case. For one thing, we don’t know what happened in the drive-thru. Who showed attitude? Or was ANY attitude shown? What was ordered? Was it a case of not hearing the customer clearly, or was the customer confused as to what exactly she wanted to order?

When I go to McDonald’s and order chicken nuggets, my go-to dip is honey. NOT honey mustard, but honey. When the drive-thru employee repeats my order, it seems like they always say, “one McNugget meal, with honey mustard sauce. I always calmly repeat my order, emphasizing, I want HONEY. NOT honey mustard, but honey.” Usually, this does the trick. I check my bag before pulling out. If something is wrong, I just circle around to the drive-thru again and say, “yeah, I was just in the drive-thru, you got my order wrong, I ordered blah blah, blah…” and they usually say okay and to pull forward.

Read part five here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/26/timmy-hortons-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-five/

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Timmy Hortons and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Five

Customers laid hands on me, but I never touched anyone. Even in my current job, I try NEVER to touch anyone. For starters, I hate being touched. Secondly, you never know how someone will interpret your touch. A gentle, encouraging pat on the shoulder can be twisted into an “inappropriate massage” and mess you up. The 20-year-old employee never should have touched the woman. I understand what she was trying to do, but no matter how gently you touch a person during an altercation, some people will scream that the older woman was “shoved” by the younger employee.

To me, it was just a gentle hand on the woman’s upper chest near her shoulder. I’m surprised no one has claimed sexual harassment.

So yeah, the Tim Horton’s employee never should have touched the woman. Mistake number one.

The elderly woman shoved the 20-year-old in a not-so-gentle way after she was touched. Mistake number two.

Immediately after being shoved, the 20-year-old leaned right up in the older woman’s face. Mistake number three.

Older woman punches 20-year-old employee. Mistake number four.

The 20-year-old comes charging out of the swinging door, with a series of punches. Both she and the customer end up on the floor. Mistake number five.

After the 20-year-old is pulled away by the combined efforts of two employees, the woman gets up under her own power and sits down at a booth.

Supposedly, one of the employees brings the woman some water. The video doesn’t show that part.

Read part one here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

Read part two here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

Read part three here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/24/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-three/

Read part four here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/25/timmy-hortons-and-the-badly-handled-coffee-order-part-four/

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Timmy Horton’s and the Badly Handled Coffee Order, Part Four

I hate to see anyone die in fast food altercation, and I didn’t expect to see it in my hometown. This incident seems like Detroit-level shit. But as someone who has worked retail, things could have been handled better, but they weren’t. So we have a dead woman, two very young employees who probably are too young to exercise impulse control (a 20-year-old shift manager? Are you fucking kidding me?), and Tim Horton’s, who probably didn’t bother with any training as to how to deal with these situations, should they come up. Usually, the only training is, “call the manager.” Well, when the manager is 20 years old, that doesn’t make me feel very confident.

When I worked at Lowe’s, I was hit TWICE by customers. Not in the face, but I got whacked in the shoulder by someone upset that the coupon we found in a box of trash bags happened to be expired. I also got swatted by someone wielding a set of temporary blinds.

And I can’t forget about the various men/little boys who have barged behind the paint desk, or the woman who accused me of not sealing the paint can lids on properly. Lady, that wasn’t me. I hammed those suckers ON. I always wanted management to put small doors that could LOCK on the little pass-throughs that split the paint desk into four sections. Frequently, the little plastic chains were never hooked, and anyone could unhook it even if they were hooked.

Read part three here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/24/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-three/

Read part two here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/23/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-two/

Read part one here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

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Timmy Horton and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Three

What’s wild is that there’s no statements or anything from the staff at Tim Horton’s. It’s very possible they were told not to talk to the press.

But the customer died, and no one has been charged. The coroner is supposedly doing his thing. Apparently the woman had heart problems. And the city is divided.

The case has many interesting aspects, I think. The woman’s heart condition. The ages of the staff involved. The videos that have been circulating. Claims of racial discrimination (the customer was a 75-year-old black female.) The Go Fund Me for Anita Grayson’s family. A family member claiming that Ms. Grayson was an actual terrible person, and was abusive. Customer service. And the fact that so many different people have so many different interpretations of what went down.

There’s also claims of false narratives, anger at Tim Horton’s employees, anger at the woman herself, notes of “FAFO” criticisms of Baby Boomers, and also, “all this for a cup of coffee?” And as one of my friends on Facebook said, “and the coffee ain’t that good.”

So WHO WAS at fault?

Read part two here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/23/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-two/

Read part one here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

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Timmy Horton and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Two

The 20-year-old then goes after the customer, and they end up on the dining room floor. The 17-year-old and another employee (could be male, not sure) walk out into the dining room and attempt to pull the 20-year-old off the customer. There is a fourth employee who appears behind the counter, as well as a customer on a cell phone.

The 20-year-old is dragged behind the counter, and the 17-year-old takes what looks like the customer’s bag (looked like a small lunch cooler-type bag) and sort of tosses it toward the front door, but didn’t quite make it. The 17-year-old, now behind the counter, yells one last thing at the woman, who is still on the floor. The woman gets up on her own, and grabs something on the floor. Reports say it was a fistful of hair pulled out of the 20-year-old’s scalp. The video stops with the woman now seated, but her feet and legs are the only things visible in the camera frame. The male customer is still there at the counter, probably 20 feet away, on the phone. The video source I used is visible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6uu7aJM2U. It was posted by the Fort Wayne Police Department, with a pinned comment saying, “This is store security video. There is no audio.”

A few minutes later the woman died.

Missed the first post? Read it here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

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Timmy Horton and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order

So my hometown made the news, and is it ever a juicy story.

Tim Horton’s is a Canadian coffee shop chain that made its way into Fort Wayne several years ago. I guess there were a few locations around the city, but there’s just one now. It’s near the ice rink built on the north side of the city.

I remember eating at that location, I think, a couple of times. I love ham and cheese sandwiches, especially if the cheese is Swiss. I’d get a sandwich, warm potato chips, and a Coke. Maybe some Tim Bits as well.

Anyway, about a couple weeks ago, an older woman went into the shop because staff had incorrectly made her order. She’d ordered something in the drive through, but went into the shop to correct it.

That’s when things went south. Some videos claims she “stormed” into the shop, but the footage I saw shows a woman just walking into the shop. She went to the counter, then waited at the part of the counter that had one of those little swinging doors that silently say, “Employees only beyond this point.” The woman (reports say she was 75 with a heart condition) was right in front of the door when she began gesticulating in a manner that suggests she was monumentally pissed her order was wrong. There’s no audio—the footage is supposedly from the one camera posted in the dining area—but the position of her right hand and the pointing finger would indicate she wasn’t politely asking for her order to be corrected.

The footage isn’t exactly top quality. There’s only one camera in the dining room, and it shows the woman’s left side. Anita Grayson was her name. An employee, supposedly 17 years old, moves a bit closer to explain the situation, and her body language indicates she wasn’t responding in the most calm way either. Here’s where it gets a bit confusing.

It’s Okay, the Kids are Minding the Store

The 17-year-old employee, who had dark hair, was talking to the woman from behind the counter and the little door I told you about previously. Another employee, supposedly a 20-year-old shift manager, comes to try and deescalate the situation. Looks like she has red hair. She steps in between the 17-year-old and the customer, and starts communicating with her. The 17-year-old backs away. The 17-year-old returns on the 20-year-old’s left side, still behind the counter.

It looks like the customer stabs her right index finger in the direction of the 17-year-old, but it’s hard to see if any actual physical contact was made. The customer was trying to lean around the 20-year-old to better address the 17-year-old. As this is happening, the 20-year-old, places a hand on the upper chest of the customer, in a sort of, “hey, you need to calm down” gesture. Was it a shove? I think not. It certainly wasn’t a slap.

The older woman wasn’t having it and shoved the 20-year-old back. The 20-year-old leans against the little door, opening it a bit. Then the older woman punches the 20-year-old in what looks like her nose.

To be continued…

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A Good Day

Invited out to lunch by a friend, neighbor and colleague. The weather was cooperating and the temp was nice too. After a great Mexican meal, we went to a print shop to print out a white paper I wrote for the college. Even though I only had Microsoft Word to work with, I’m very happy with the way the paper printed out. It looks like a little book, which is exactly what I wanted.

Then we went to Ole, a fancy food store. They had sliced turkey again, which was great. Turkey is hard to come by here in China, for some reason. Duck, on the other hand, is EVERYWHERE. I’m getting back on the low-carb wagon and also picked up some bacon as well, plus some veggies.

After we got home, I went for my walk. I found out 15,000 steps is a little over six miles. Since I try to walk 15,000 steps nearly every day, I’m logging way more miles than I thought.

Then I graded some quizzes.

Today was just right.

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An Ugly American

I’ve been lucky enough to avoid Americans here in China. The last one I really had to deal with who got on my nerves was back in 2021. She was so pampered and spoiled, I couldn’t believe it. It’s taught me a lesson to reserve judgment on meeting new people. I need to spend some time with them the first few weeks to really see how they are. When I saw how she treated the security guard at our school, that really soured me on her. And how she felt she needed to hire a private driver, because the Didi (Chinese Uber) drivers couldn’t understand her. What she needed was an apartment. But because she’d been living in West Palm Beach with her parents, expected deluxe accommodations in China. I thought since I was moving out she could take over my apartment, but I guess the “unfinished” (her words, not mine) bathroom and the few odd rats scurrying around the delivery boxes near the outside staircase put her off. The bathrooms here frequently are all one room. It didn’t bother me—I just put up a shower curtain and dealt with it. But it wasn’t good enough for her. The last thing I was going to do was remodel a bathroom in an apartment that isn’t even mine.

Anyway, yesterday I ran into another Ugly American. I was at McDonald’s, and I noticed him while I was waiting for my food. He was walking around the dining room. He had a big pair of headphones covering his ears. He drifted over to where I had my stuff, but he veered back over to the other side of the dining room and picked out a table.

I was waiting for my already paid-for food, but he freaked me out with his constant pacing. Had I been in the United States, I would have walked out the restaurant.

I had to wait a little bit longer for my food than normal. The restaurant wasn’t crowded, so I think it might have been lack of workers. After a longer than usual wait, I finally got my food.

An Indiana Pacer?

The pacer guy went up to the counter and was arguing about something. It was puzzling to me, because the guy was an American—I could tell by the accent and the cursing. Why he wasn’t using a translator app was a mystery, unless he didn’t want to interrupt whatever he was listening to. He was insisting the cup of fries they set on his tray wasn’t “large”. He kept saying “da! Da!” That means big. After they finally brought him a big cup of fresh out of the fryer fries, he grumbled they “always try to fucking cheat him here.”

I wanted to tell him if that was the case, he should try another McDonald’s. They are literally all over the place. There was another one a block down the street.

But I didn’t. I wanted to eat my food in peace. But the guy seemed strange to me. He looked way too old to become a teacher. He wasn’t dressed very well, so it wasn’t like he was some executive in town that wanted familiar food.

He was unnerving though. The constant pacing before he got his food, yelling at staff, ugh. In the USA, this happens every day pretty much. But in China, people are pretty calm about stuff. Even ebike/auto accidents are more civilized than this, and much more is at stake.

It made me realize how safe I feel here and how much I take it for granted. I know that when I step into a restaurant, I won’t be gunned down. I won’t be overhearing American men who seemed a bit wired, and anxious about their damn French fries.

I felt so bad for the staff I went up and told them I was sorry about the angry guy. But really, either use a translation app, or learn the language. Because yelling at someone in a foreign language is going to make you seem like an asshole. Dude had a cell phone, but maybe he didn’t have a translation app, because, being American, he probably assumed everyone in China speaks English.

So You’re an American? Bye!

It’s funny, some of my Chinese acquaintances assume I’d welcome speaking to Americans because I’m an American, but no. I’m fed up with Karens, Chads, the violence, the stupidity, and people who don’t give a shit about putting together a decent outfit. I saw a photo on Facebook of a French guy who had an effortless, but cool-looking outfit, and I’m like, YEAH!

The guy at Micky D’s had a face like a melting candle, and greasy hair, and headphones like he was a sound engineer. I don’t know why, but those made him look extra dorky. Whatever he was listening too certainly wasn’t mellow, with the way he was pacing.

And I’m not kidding. If I see someone pacing like that in a fast-food restaurant back in the states and I’ve paid for my food and I’m just waiting for it, I’m getting the fuck out. He probably didn’t have a gun, because it was China, but they still let any damn fool buy a machete here.

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Hong Kong Diary, Day Six

May 4, 2026

Another GREAT trip to Hong Kong. Train was delayed, but only by about six minutes or so. Some little kid was screaming; I went to see what was going on because she sounded awful. She eventually calmed down, but her mother thanked me for being concerned. Apparnently, mom forgot to pack yogurt! The rest of the train ride was uneventful.

Got another bag of Cheetos crunch, and nearly ate all of them. The ones they sell on the mainland are steak-flavored. I LIKE steak, but leave the snacks alone. Cheetos, should taste like CHEESE. Now, my ankles are swollen. That’s never happened before, welcome to old age, I guess.

Otherwise, I feel fine. Blood pressure good. Over 28,000 steps walked yesterday, which doesn’t really surprise me, but may be the most steps I’ve ever taken in a day. Forgot to mention that S. and I went to the Formula One Grand Prix museum on Sunday. They had all sorts of interactive things to try, and since I love to drive, I had to try pretty much all of them. I plan to send $1000 USD home come payday. Had nearly $2000 HKD left, but left some money as a tip at the hostel, and then kept a few bucks to fund the next trip to Hong Kong. I have $459 HKD in total, which includes the $175 that I already had, but forgot to take with me. Can’t believe I forgot about that.

Met a nice guy from Singapore. Let’s see how long THAT friendship lasts. Added some funds to my various envelopes, so I’m that much closer to a plane ticket home and new glasses.

So… the Macau Grand Prix Museum. I’ve never been a fan of NASCAR, because I’ve always thought it was tacky. Indy cars have a very definite look, and so do Formula One cars. I’ve been to the Indy 500, but have yet to experience a Formula One race. It just looks glamourous, driving at top speed through some super-cool city. So here are some photos from the museum.

Yes, that is a genuine wax figure.
Another wax figure. These were pretty damn realistic.I think this is one of the coolest cars I’ve ever seen.
They had motorcycles too. I was surprised there was no tread on the tires.
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Hong Kong Diary, Day Five

S. met me for lunch and we walked around Macau for a bit. Saw the Ruins of St. Paul’s. Really bizarre to see the front of it, then look at the back and realize it’s a facade. It’s literally just the front of the church, and that’s it. Everybody seemed to be there. Everyone looks like an influencer who brought their own personal cameraman/woman.

S. found a nearby coffee shop and we stopped to have a rest. After we left, I was hoping to see a cemetery on the way back to the bus stop, but I got screwed up again with the maps. I always THINK I’m going the correct way, but I’m not. But we made it to S’s bus stop. I decided to walk back, then realized almost too late that wasn’t the best decision. I was deeply afraid I’d miss getting back to the Sands and miss One Bus back to Hong Kong.

And to add to the drama, my phone was nearly dead. And my charger didn’t seem to be working very well, and… it started raining again. Hard. I desperately needed my phone to navigate the not-so-straight streets of Macau, but somehow, I was able to juice it enough to get me into familiar territory, then I broke down and took a cab to the Sands. It wasn’t a very long ride, but knowing my luck, I would have gotten lost and missed the bus.

But I got back in plenty of time, it turned out. It was so nice to get home and take a hot shower. My room and bathroom may have been tiny, but the superb water pressure and non-stop hot water were wonderful.

I was a bit sad knowing that another wonderful trip to Hong Kong was nearly at end. There’s something about this city that I just love.

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Hong Kong Diary Day Four

Made it to Macau just incase S. didn’t want to go Sunday. Didn’t spend a lot of time there, didn’t get as many good pictures as I wanted, but it was a good trip. Found a Daiso japan and an Aeon grocery store and I have CRAVED stores like that since day one.

Got insoles for shoes and also those blade things to trim callouses from your feet. It was like a feast for my eyes. Gambled a bit, but slots are boring. One bus is all right. Very nice and relaxing if you like riding the bus. I saved a bit of money going by bus instead of ferry. Not too bad price-wise. Weather continues to be good. Temperature is perfect.

The Sands Casino had a horse statue covered in what looked like Swarovsky crystals.

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Hong Kong Diary, Day Three

Tried again to go to the Giant Buddha. I didn’t have exact change for the bus, or an Octopus card, or WeChat. I can’t use WeChat because I’m not a Chinese citizen. Didn’t know I needed exact change ($37) until I got there. But the person took pity on me and told me to wait. she broke my $100 bill, then I was able to pay exact change. So why didn’t I use my credit card? They don’t accept them.

Finally got there to the Giant Buddha. The bus ride was almost like being on a roller coaster. Seemed like the bus was going really fast, and the plants/trees along the side of the road felt like they were rushing at me. It would have been a really wild ride if I’d been stoned.

So we get to the area, which has a fishing village not very far away, and a tourist trap sort of village with all sorts of places to eat and souvenirs to buy. You walk along this path lined with statudes of the warriors and the astrological signs they represent.

You need to climb stairs to get to the actual Buddha. It took me about a half hour, but I was stopping along the way to get pictures and prevent a heart attack.

Traditional shot of the Giant Buddha on Lantau Island.
Experimenting with the “negative” filter in Camera MX.
A psychedelic view using the Thermal filter on Camera MX.

Burger Cafe, despite its name, had some delicious spring rolls. They also had a decent variety of western foods, but their spring rolls hit the spot.

I wish I’d gone to the fishing village, but I wanted to make sure I got back to the bus on time. We had another adventurous run through the mountains. The Giant Buddha seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere. I saw very few houses.

I was tempted to take the cable car, which offered great views and a relatively quick 5 km trip over the mountains, but I was trying to be better about money. As it was, the bus was great fun, what with the speed and the turns, and wondering what would happen if the driver lost control. But he didn’t. I was able to get back in plenty of time, and not sure what I did that night. I think I probably took pictures because my diary entry ended with Burger Cafe’s listing of burgers, shakes, fries, calamari, fish and spring rolls. I was probably too tired to write anything more about what I did. A look at my photo information should clue me in.

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Hong Kong Diary, Day One

April 29, 2026

Back in Hong Kong! A nice man carried my suitcase up the last flight of steps from the subway tonight. That was so nice. AND my room has a bathroom!* Smallest room yet, but I have a bathroom. Took pics and walked. What a nice night!

*The reason I was surprised my room had a bathroom was because my card wasn’t accepted on the first booking website I used. On the Agoda website, my card worked, but it didn’t show the room I wanted as available. I figured a private room with a bathroom down the hallway was better than sharing a mixed dorm room with strangers.

But when I checked in, I had a bathroom in my room. Aw yeah!

View from my bed into the tiny bathroom.
View from the bathroom.
The rest of the bedroom. It’s all I need–a reasonably clean place to sleep and shower.
My beloved skyline.
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Vacation all I ever wanted…

I haven’t been posting because I went to Hong Kong and Macau, and exhausted myself. I took my laptop with me, but after getting home each night, just wanted to go to sleep.

It was amazing. Hong Kong has such a 1980s vibe, but isn’t as dirty or crime-filled. Macau is interesting for a number of reasons. This time, part of the interest was a downpour. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get back in time for my bus back to Hong Kong. That’s right, I took One Bus over the border. It was very pleasant, because I like being driven around. The bus wasn’t completely full, so I had an empty seat beside me, which was nice.

It’s a bit cheaper to go by bus rather than by Turbo Jet Ferry, but it takes twice as long. Still, it was relaxing.

Hong Kong is, well, Hong Kong. A mixture of east and west. Cantonese food, English widely spoken, and people being polite. It’s a hold over from being a British colony, I’m sure. Great weather, great food, and seeing new sights.

I had more energy this time around, and I think it was because a health issue had been taken care of. Plus, I’ve been logging about 10,000 steps a day, nearly every day of the week. That, plus an eight-pound weight loss, has been helping.

I got lucky. When I booked the room, the site wouldn’t take my card. I switched to another site, and it did take my card, but I couldn’t get the room I originally wanted. But to my surprise, when I checked in, they led me to a room that DID have a bath, which is what I wanted. On the site that did take my card, I could get a private room, but not one with a bath. It was nice to know that I wouldn’t have to sleep in a room with a stranger, AND I wouldn’t have to leave my room in order to pee. If men have been shitty and abusive to you for decades, it’s a little scary to room with a strange man. But the male roommates I had were pretty decent, even though one of them was a Trump supporter.

But that’s how much I love Hong Kong; I’m willing to share a room with a stranger in order to experience the city. My Hong Kong diaries are coming up, so stay tuned!

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Going to the Devil

So what do I have in common with the people who went to the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2 April 20?

I saw it before the rest of North America did.

I was planning to see the movie before I was going to Hong Kong, then realized I’d be in town when the film came out, because here, it was released April 30, a full day before North America gets to see it.

Nanny nanny, boo boo!

I’m gonna gloat, because rarely do I have the chance to do it. But as someone who is growing more interested in fashion and developing a style for myself, I had to see this movie because I saw the first one in the theaters, and at that time, I was working for someone who had her own magazine. She wasn’t as bad as Miranda, but she did splurge on things I thought she could have saved money on. An SUV for example. She could have just as easily rented a van for the one week a year she actually needed a larger vehicle, instead of investing $10,000 in upgrades before buying the monstrosity that she HAD to use on a regular basis in order to make it a tax write-off.

Anyway. About the movie.

It was good. Not as funny as the original, but they had lots of little throwbacks to lines and scenes in the original script. They did it without making the movie feel like it was the same old thing again. The four main characters, plus the screenwriter and the original director came back, so I had hopes, and I was right.

SPOILERS!

It’s now 20 years later, and Runway is still going, but not as strong as it once was. The movie opens on Andy Sachs getting an award for her writing. Right before her name is called, she finds out she and her fellow journalists were fired. Via text. As she accepts her award, she gives an impassioned speech about the unfairness of it all.

After crying the blues at dinner (in a scene reminiscent of the original, when Andy’s phone is kidnapped by her “friends”) she is offered a job at Runway. Not having lots of other options, she accepts the job (offered to her by Elias-Clark head Irv Ravitz after her impassioned “I was fired” speech goes viral) and walks back into Miranda’s office. Miranda doesn’t remember who she is until Nigel explains she was one of the Emilys.

Speaking of Emily, she now works for Dior.

Miranda approved a glowing article about Speed Fash and how great it is, only to find out it’s a sweatshop. Andy’s first job is to do some PR damage control. Andy writes a great piece apologizing for the error. She still flounders a bit, and in a throwback to the first film, Andy has to figure out what exactly Miranda wants—and if you’ve seen the first film, you know that’s something you just can’t ask Miranda—you have to figure it out yourself.

Emily seems to hold a bit of power in this one. Dior is a big advertiser, and makes some demands of the magazine. And also turns out to be a bit of a villain.

Meanwhile, Andy scores an interview as well as an exclusive from a reclusive celebrity, and finally gets the hang of what the readers want. As she improves, Miranda (who wasn’t aware that Irv had hired her in the first place) eventually warms to Andy.

But there are twists and turns in this one. Miranda is hoping for a promotion but SPOILER ALERT! Irv ends up dying at his 75th birthday party. His son, Jay, played by B. J. Novak, has ideas for the publication, and he and his Millennial staff tell Miranda the way it’s going to be. Gutted.

It’s Andy’s nerdy assistant who drops her phone and deliberately leaves it under Miranda’s chair, where the meeting with Jay and his buddies take place in the Elias-Clark cafeteria of all places, and records everything being said, so Andy finds out what’s going on.

The climax comes at a fashion show in Milan, where some favors had to be called in. Lady Gaga provides the music, or else she won’t get another cover. Andy shared her plan with Miranda, and phone calls are made. In a sort of “passing the torch” moment, Miranda realizes she can’t be in two places at once, and, nudged by Andy, asks Nigel to give the speech she had intended to give. Miranda claims Nigel won’t do it, but realizes that in her treacherous fashion world, Nigel is her rock. He’s always put up with her shit and never said anything, was loyal to the core—and he’s finally, finally rewarded.

There’s another twist at the end, but despite fast fashion, Wish, Temu, Shein, and technology, the good guys win. Andy turned down a $350K book advance about working at Runway (even the book deals aren’t seven figures anymore) to not hurt Miranda, but of course, Miranda knows about it and encourages Andy to write the book anyway—the resulting warts-and-all memoir might actually buy Miranda a few more years at the top.

The film closes with an exterior shot of Miranda, Nigel, and Andy all in their individual offices, all on the same floor.

Yes, I cried. If the first one was a coming-of-age story, this one also deals with jobs and what you sacrifice for them, and if those sacrifices are worth it. Andy has better friends, this time around, although Tracie Thoms (Lily) still likes free handbags, but at least she offered Andy a job at her gallery. Andy has a budding romance with a contractor, but thankfully, it doesn’t take precedence over everything else that’s going on in her life. Miranda is on husband number whatever, but they seem to be happy. The movie showed happy endings are possible, especially at the expense of outwitting villains.

Looking at you, Emily.

My jacked Prada frames. Six months after I bought these, they started falling apart. I’ve fixed them so many times, I can’t remember how many times I’ve glued bits of wood to keep the side pieces tight enough on my head. $1,400 for these, but the two pairs I got in November 2024 for $100 broke within a couple of months. Three eyeglass places said they couldn’t do anything. And neither could I.

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The Smallest Room Yet!!!

I got a pleasant surprise when I checked into my room tonight. I wanted a room with bath, but my credit card wasn’t working on a particular booking site. I went to another site and was able to book, but the room with bath was no longer available. That’s fine, at least I didn’t have to share my room with strangers like that one time.

So when they took me to my room, I saw that it had a bath! Aw yeah!

But it is the smallest room I have ever had here at Ashoka Hostel. There’s maybe 16 square feet of floor space, not counting the bathroom.

But I don’t care. I have a tiny private room with a bath.

And some kind stranger carried my suitcase up the last flight of steps to street level.

I love Hong Kong.

This is what you see when you first open the door.
The view from my bed looking into the bathroom.
From the bathroom looking out.
The rest of the room.
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A Good Day for a Walk

It was a good day for a walk, and just generally a good day overall.

Still getting in my 10,000+ steps per day. I’m seeing some results too, which is nice.

Some good things are starting to be habits now. I don’t know how or why they are sticking, but they are sticking. I might skip a day, but it’s rare. I guess it’s not striving for perfection, but consistency.

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Dumplings for Breakfast

Today, through one of my school contacts, I got to meet the dean’s son, and to have breakfast at a place near my apartment.

My contact warned me the place wasn’t too elegant. But I said I didn’t mind; there were lots of Mexican places that didn’t look great back home, but the food was really good.

The dumpling place was very popular; people lined up to get either pork or veggie dumplings. You had to walk through the kitcthen to get to the dining room, so that was interesting. The dining room was a bit deceptive; there was another dining room off to the side, so it was much bigger than I expected it to be.

The dean’s son was a very pleasant young man. He spoke about some trauma he had experienced in the past. After breakfast, my contact took me back to my apartment and I told the young man to keep in touch. He explained he wasn’t very social, and I said I understood.

The whole experience was really nice on a beautiful day.

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The Lost Art of Conversation

I think it was on Facebook recently, that I saw a short video that summed up dating now as well as in the 1700s.

Whoever did this video had a sense of humor. It showed two guys sitting on a couch, one saying to the other, “I wish to fornicate.” A footman (servant? butler?) brought oil portraits of young women, where one of the guys dismissed them for some reason or another. Of course, the woman with large breasts was chosen.

So a raven was summoned to send a message to the fair maiden. Took months. And when she unrolled it, all it said was, “hey.”

I had to laugh, because every so often, I get messages from men that have the stunning range of, “hey,” “hello,” “hi,” and occasionally, “what are you wearing?”

No joke. Here’s a string of messages I got from some guy years ago:

I hope we can video chat soon

hey gloria

how are you

I’m sorry to hear that

I’m sorry to hear that what are you doing today

That’s nice. Can I ask what are you wearing

Hello

hey

hey

What are you doing right now

Hello

good morning

Good morning

Of course, if you talk about sex, it doesn’t get much better, but it seems that once you get guys on that topic, they can string more than two words together.

Why aren’t people into dating anymore? Well, it’s kind of obvious.

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Tonight, Someone Else Cried

So Friday’s English corner was held tonight, and at least I didn’t cry. But someone else did. We tend to play card games that have questions on them. The EC coordinator has a bunch of games, and we played Talking Hearts couple’s edition. These kinds of games are good to get people talking, but on the downside, it can feel like group therapy.

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Sixth Tone For What’s Going on in China, in English

Every so often, I’ll go to Sixth Tone, an English-language paper that has interesting features about China.

For example, a few years back, there was a student who tried living for free for about a month. She hung out in fancy hotels and made do with sneaking into places. She faked being rich. Not surprisingly, this was an art student’s project.

Another article was about elderly people getting into video games.

And a more recent article was about how divorced Chinese women are searching for other divorced Chinese women for support. They share chores, cooking, child care duties and basically provide a safer, cohabitive space for themselves and their children. I had my students read this article and also Judy Syfer’s satirical essay, “I Want a Wife,” written back in 1971.

If you’re interrested in reading the articles, the Sixth Tone one is available here:

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1017507

Syfer’s essay is available here: https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/i-want-a-wife-by-judy-brady-syfers-new-york-mag-1971.html

But you can read it for free here: https://msanaknudsen.weebly.com/uploads/9/3/6/8/9368722/i_want_a_wife.pdf

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Another Tuesday…

Tuesdays go by very quickly, and today was no exception. It was interesting to see how the exercise in instructions turned out. Students had to fold a piece of paper as per my instructions, without knowing what it was going to be. Most of the classes got it, especially after I went throught the process again, with visuals.

But my last class of the day got it right from the start.

I’m sure a few of them thought by the size of the paper I handed out it was going to be some origami animal, but no, just an ordinary paper airplane.

That air raid siren during my first class this morning was a bit of a shock though. A student sent me a message saying it was just a practice drill. But with the war in the Middle East, anything could happen. It made the last half hour of class a bit of a problem. Lecturing was impossible. And they didn’t give precise times for all of the air raid sirens. It would have been nice if they had said they were going to go off at 9:43, 9:55 and 10:00, but no.

I know it was practice, but still a bit unnerving.