… something to write home about.

We had a shopping excursion over the weekend and ended up in Luo Hu, a very big shopping mall.  It is less of a mall in the western sense and more a building filled with street vendors … four floors of it.  Each vendor’s shop is perhaps a 8-10 foot storefront and runs back from 10 to 30 feet.  The vendors usually have someone inside doing sales and someone stationed outside to pull people in - when I say ‘pull’ I mean it.  Lots of grabbing hands and arms to get you into their store.

We were shopping in one store and the vendor looks at me and smiles.  As you all may know, I’ve got a bit of a belly on me; I’m not svelte by any means or angle.   The vendor looks at me again and asks:

"How many baby you have in there?"

Now, I know he is making a joke at my expense and that’s fine; it is a good joke.  I quip back with:

"I ate one for breakfast.  Gave me gas."

Which, of course, cracked up my traveling companions to no end and totally confused the vendor.  For the rest of the day I was ‘Man with baby’; fortunately that nickname seems to have passed now.

The few Adderites will recognize my reference to TB-EBOBAW, also known as "Da Bish".

So, I’m working with our engineering partners in Shenzhen, China for the last 10 days or so.  I’ve gotten tired of going out with the group so tonight I rebelled and walked to Wal-Mart for snacks and then walked to Pizza Hut to pick up a pizza that tastes okay, but Not Quite Right.

C’est La Vie.

In case you were wondering, I am aware of the stuff going on in Tibet.  CNN shows it and when CNN crosses the line and starts to show something that the Chinese authorities think isn’t appropriate, the television station goes black for a bit.  Sometimes it is for just a few seconds; earlier this evening it was for about 15 minutes.  I usually pull up a web browser at that point and join millions of Chinese computer users in circumventing the Great Chinese Firewall with VPNs and open proxies to watch CNN online.

I’m such a naughty boy.

I haven’t taken as many pictures this trip, except for Sunday’s sight seeing excursion. I’m ready to go home but I’ve got a couple more days to go yet before heading home.

Other than that, I’m still alive and all that jazz.