Madness In The Middle Kingdom

No we are not moving out of our apartment but instead I am moving this blog to another site.

Update your bookmark to this link here http://madnessinthemiddlekingdom.blogspot.com

Why am I moving it? The Chinese GreatFireWall has been blocking the host of this website for several years now and it is just getting too damn frustrating to work around it. Yes those bastards have worn me down and they have won. I stuck it out as long as I could hoping that they would lift the block but alas it was not meant to be so like the Jeffersons “We’re movin’ on up!”

On the new blog I plan to have a category called “The Best of Madness in the Middle Kingdom” which is just an excuse to put up some of the posts from this website.

See you at our new home.

Whenver you jump into a taxi in China about 80% of the time you will hear the great storyteller Shan TianFang 单田芳 doing what he does best. Arguably the most recognized voice in China and I love listening to the guy even though I cannot understand what he is saying. You really don’t need to speak Chinese to appreciate his art.

Take a listen

Ok .. we all have ‘em and we love (for some reason) to dig ‘em out of our closets and share them. The guilty pleasure. That tune that you cannot get out of your head and you hate yourself for liking it but you just can’t help it.

In Boracay I heard this song played quite a bit on the speakers blasting from all the bars and coffee houses.

Ladies and Gentleman I give you Beyonce (that’s bee yawn say) - Single Ladies

Of course such a worthy tune deserves to get spoofed and it was in spades. Thousands of YouTube videos offer their favourite take on this song including an ugly fat guy in a leotard (my eyes are still burning). However the winner goes to this Barack Obama spoof. Enjoy

Ok .. I didn’t put Boracay in the title but I could have.

When we arrived I saw this building being constructed and was mildly curious. Turns out it was a Shakey’s Pizza that was completed on Feb. 14th. Why care about Shakey’s Pizza? Well when I was young and my cousins Darlene, Wendy and Jake lived in Prince George we would often go out to Shakey’s Pizza as a treat. Quesnel had one for a short time (1 year? 2 years?) but as kids it never contained the magic that the PG location had. My memories of the place and the food are sketchy but prominent.

Imagine my surprise at not seeing a Shakey’s Pizza for 30 years and assuming they only existed in the Cariboo to find one in Boracay in 2009. Apparently it is a big chain in the Phillipines and has more chains here than there is in the U.S. where it originated in 1954.

So now the really, really sad part. We were wandering around on Feb. 14th (Valentine’s Day to some of you) looking for a dinner spot and of course who could pass up reliving your childhood. Yeah we had Valentine’s Day dinner at Shakey’s Pizza. Now I know for sure that my wife loves me if she puts up with that.

Won’t you be glad when these posts don’t start with “Boracay” .. I won’t. Today is our last day. You would think hanging out on the same beach for 16 days straight would get tiresome and to be honest there have been days where it seems that way but overall we love it.

This entry is a few portraits we have taken of us as a family and some individuals … no slide show here … we need to see the real McCoys

Well .. Michael Phelps without the marijuana photo we hope.

Over the last several days Carter has finally found his braveness and is attempting to learn to swim. For a long time he has been using a tube to kick around the water with. We finally convinced he and Nathan to try water wings (with a lot of ice cream treat encouragement) and they took to them like a fish to water (ouch!). Nathan has done fantastically but is content to float around and kick a little. Carter has taken it to a whole new level (again with the requisite ice cream treat encouragement).

We reminded him that his bestest buddy Magnus can already swim and his competitive nature just took over. Stage 2 was jumping into the pool with water wings which required him to learn how to hold his breath under water albeit for a brief period. In stage 3 Alice convinced him to wear the goggles to keep water out of his eyes and he concurred despite his earlier objections. This led quickly to stage 4 - putting his face in the water voluntarily for extended periods. I coaxed him to play a game where we wave at each other underwater but he quickly realized that the water wings wouldn’t let him go to far under so I seized the opportunity to move immediately to stage 5 - goggles, face underwater and NO WATER WINGS! He was great at it right away and just began swimming by himself.

I know that all the nominations have been decided for the Oscars but this video clip of a Hong Kong woman missing her flight should really be considered for the Best Actress award.

Since living in China I have seen a few scenes like this as the Chinese are prone to excessive drama. If you wonder why so few people are rushing to her aid it’s because everyone knows these outbursts are simply performances designed to elicit a response.

I want to see Meryl Streep top this one.

If ya can’t figure out today’s theme by the title … well .. I can’t help ya.

When you spend 16 days on a small island you run out of things to blog about .. beach great, food great, pool great, family great etc. So today’s entry is a few shots of Nathan. I got a comment from someone who shall remain nameless (SS) that Nathan was looking far too serious in his pictures and I have to agree. He is actually quite a little goof and is always “fooling around” with Carter but so far he has shown a serious, comtemplative side in his pics. Hopefully some of these shots will show his other side ..

For the first few days we were here Carter and Nathan seemed to notice only “The Nemo Boat” as they called it.

We finally relented and went on the boat one afternoon for a two hour cruise which included snorkelling for the adults. The boys loved the glass bottom boat and Carter even put on the life jacket and swam a bit off of the boat. He claimed he was cold but in fact he was a bit frightened but we were very proud of him to try something new and overcome a bit of his fear.

The boys saw one of the boat guys swim underneath the boat to clean the glass bottom and they wanted me to do that. I didn’t think it was a big deal as it was a very small boat to swim under but I could not believe how much I panicked once I went under. It felt like the boat was going to crush me and I was going to drown right there. I very quickly kicked my way out leaving my family very disappointed that I didn’t wave at them but I thought returning safely would be more of a treat for them.

I snapped a few shots through the glass bottom but it wasn’t made for picture taking only viewing. We don’t have an underwater camera unfortunately so most of our pics are of us on the boat and some surrounding scenes.

It’s been 8 Valentine’s Days together and I love you more with each passing one.

Our first full day of sun and sand had us on the beach in front of the Villa Camilla (no it isn’t a scary place Dad) and then down the beach path on the hunt for dinner. We chose an Indian restaurant on the advice of Susan C. and she was bang on about how great it was. You will see in the pics that you sit on the floor on giant yellow silk pillows. We all loved it!

Our days have started to follow a predictable but happy pattern. The boys wake up around 7 am and play with each other waiting for us to roll out of bed around 8 am or so. We hang out in the hotel getting ready for about an hour and then venture to the same breakfast place (they other love us or hate us). Breakie is done about 10 am or so and it’s off to the beach and/or pool until about 12 noon. We cook in our hotel room (simple meals usually noodles) and the boys nap around 1 or 2 pm until 3:30 or 4:00. During that time Alice usually stays back at the hotel and catches up on her Korean shows on the portable DVD player we brought (what a godsend) and I walk up and down the island looking for adventures, the internet and a cup of coffee. When the boys awaken we usually hit the hotel pool for an hour or so and then off to find dinner. It’s been a great time I’ll tell ya.

Check the slide show for some pics of day 1.

Once we landed in Manila we grabbed some coffee, french toast and donuts for breaky in the airport and then slept for 2 hours on our luggage waiting to check into our Cebu Pacific flight to Caticlan (the closest airport to Boracay). I must say this plane was much improved over the one we took from Shanghai and we all crashed for the 1 hour flight.

Upon landing in Caticlan we were whisked (and I mean whisked) by porters from the airport to the motorbike taxis which took us to the port. At the port we took a 15 minute boat ride to the jetty port on Boracay. From there it was another motorbike taxi ride to our hotel .. the Villa Camilla. We were pretty pumped to arrive but were still exhausted from all the travel so we got set up in the room, ventured out for a quick bite and then all fell asleep by 1:00 PM until 6:00 PM.

Carter on the airstrip .. it was a tad loud.

The hotel we call home now

Waiting patiently while we check in

The first shot from the lobby of the hotel.

I am going to start a series of posts that chronicle our trip to and from Boracay as there is simply too much to put in one entry and too many cool photos to view all at once. The first entry is our trip from Dalian to Manila. As posted earlier we transferred in Shanghai.

Dalian Airport - Enthusiasm High

Shanghai Airport - Still pumped … at least early on in the layover

Manila Airport - An all night flight on the most uncomfortable plane ever! We were exhausted.

We arrived in Boracay 15 minutes ahead of schedule but paid dearly in a lack of sleep during the evening flight. Cebu Pacific has without a doubt the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE plane for the Shanghai Manila run. We were slumped over our luggage at 6 am that morning sound asleep waiting for our 8:30 am flight to Boracay.

I have been a bit remiss in uploading photos to Flickr so for the time being it’s just a hello world and we are enjoying the sun and sand.

Tomorrow the Ma-Brown clan are taking off to the Phillipines … Boracay Island to be exact. We will spend 16 nights on the island just soaking up the sun and swimming the beautiful blue waters.

It promise to be a long haul to get there
Feb 2: 6pm - 7:30 Dalian to Shanghai
Feb 3: 12:25 AM - 4 AM Shanghai to Manila
Feb 3: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Manila to Boracay
Feb 3 - Feb 19 Beach
Feb 19: 1:15 PM - 2:20 PM Boracay to Manila
Feb 19: 8:2o PM - 11:45 PM Manila to Shanghai
Feb 20: 10:50 AM - 12:35 PM Shanghai to Dalian

Our reward for all the plane hopping with a 4 year old and 2 year old will be this

The next post will be from Boracay!

Or .. Happy Chinese New Year to the non Mandarin speakers

Our Chinese New Year’s Eve day was an eventful one which began with hanging some Chinese sayings of good luck on our front door. In the pics you will see Alice’s brother leading the proceedings. Some fine tune adjustments were needed.

Alice’s mother slaved in the kitchen most of the day making what would constitute our 3 big meals of the day: 1) Mid Morning, 2) Mid Afternoon, and 3) 11 pm feast. She made the basic dishes which were the backbone of the three meals and new to each meal were fresh jiaozi (dumplings stuffed with pork, egg, spinach etc).

After the mid morning meal we took a walk to the beach to see the dinosaur bone sculptures and throw some rocks in the ocean. In these pictures are Nathan (light beige coat), Carter (blue coat), Alice (tall chinese girl), her niece Rong Rong (short chinese girl).

As per tradition we lit off fireworks in the evening. We were not alone as you can imagine. The main bulk of fireworks started around 5 pm or so and continued until 1 am … steady. It was hard to talk over the noise. It sounded like a warzone. Nathan was very frightened which meant for a tough night for him.

I took some video of the fireworks we set off last night and will post again when I am not so lazy. As I type this it is New Year’s Day morning and more are going off!

The boys hanging on a Saturday afternoon watching Ultraman.

An article in the Wall Street Journal shows the results of a study from CareerCast.com that tried to categorize the best and worst professions.

Much to my surprise Mathematician came out on top … with Lumberjack coming out on the bottom. Sorry Dad.

Firefighter

What they don’t tell you is how many lumberjacks worked their arses off their whole lives so that their sons could go become mathematicians. Thanks Dad! (and Mom too of course!).

Below is the partial results. Notice that heavily math based jobs come in at #1, #2, #3, #5, #6 and #10. Biologists at #4 use math modelling extensively and have to take Calculus in university.

The Best and Worst Jobs

Of 200 Jobs studied, these came out on top — and at the bottom: