Trouble in my neighborhood

This is what they are planning to do to me: Open a Godiva Chocolatier less than 50 steps from our front door. Whilst I am alone in China? They have really done their demographics well...

And what would go better with quality chocolate than luxury-brand coffee? Like the famed "Louies vuitton Coffee". You haven't heard of it? I think that just shows you are not keeping up with the world. Ought to be shamed of yourself ;o)

For sale

I have already told you couple of times, that in Shanghai you can buy anything you could possibly want, like for example official receipts, live frogs, fake eggs or children. Or documents. Any documents.

Swiss James from I Spy Shanghai had noted an add providing an easy way to staying home "sick" for couple of days without loosing your salary (or job). Or you can simply choose to defraud your insurance company.

The world is your oyster, just pick your favorite sickness and contact "Michelle0924". The hottest thing in town, swine flu, might be out of stock right now, but she shoukd be able to get more next week.

P.S. I didn't find any babies or kids under the "Baby & Kids" section.

Long life in China

You can leave your money as a heritage for you children, but in China, you may also leave your ATM / debit card for the future generations.

Sweets

Someone please tell me why on earth there are candies that taste like jalopeno or pop corn?

And someone please tell me why on earth I bought them?

More names...

I know it hasn't been long since I pondered about the "english" names of the locals, but I have got to tell you this to emphasize my point. Recently four people have joined our company. Namely, Kiro, Subrina, Marine and Harway. All pretty words, but hardly pretty English names. But hey what do I know? Though, I am not to only one to raise an eye brow or two for this.

Superstition

Do you know what that thing in the photo is? The ugly plate on the right side of the photo.

Care to even guess?

Could it be...

...a small portion left of a prison wall?

...an only standing wall of a warehouse taken by a tornado? (Or some other grazy storm, I am not an expert.)

... an old, abandoned billboard?

...a slightly rusty climbing wall?

Nah, maybe not. I'll give you a hint. It has a purpose. It is being used all the time, even as we speak. It is on the "backyard" of the factory, where my other office is. It is beside a road coming from a river.

Maybe it is a huge backpane for equally huge dartboard (tikkataulu)?

Or, perhaps, it is a huge metal wall set up in the midst of "nowhere" to stop or mislead all the evil spirits before they reach our factory. Oh, you knew it right away? Why didn't you just say so! Because that's what it is. As you surely know (I don't even know why I bother to tell you this), the evil spirits live in (on?) the river. For reasons unknown to me, they like to get off the water at times, and try to reach our blessed site of employment. But aren't we just LUCKY someone was smart enough to set up a wall like this. Phiu. I don't know whom to thank for it, but indeed the person should be granted a medal (Valkoisen Ruusun Ritarikunnan risti, ihan vähintään).

I have been wondering how long we can fool the evil spirits so that they don't go and learn to go AROUND the wall. I find it hard to believe they would be that stupid, but I try not to voice my concerns. Who knows when the evil spirits are listening... I don't want to be found guilty of such a treasonous leakage.

Btw: Does anyone of you know if they can READ?


Where some westeners believe number 13 will cause you bad luck, for Chinese, number four (4) is evil. In Chinese, it sounds similar to the word "death", or "si" in mandarin. No one wants to have a phone number ending with four. Prices usually end with eight, never with four.

Due to this, there is no 14th, 24th, or 34th floor in our building. Maybe they have had some symphaties for westerners, as we also don't have 13th floor at all. I am not so particular about these number issues, but if it makes someone happy, what's that to me? Go ahead and skip all the fours.

But what I don't get is why we still have 4th floor?

(Apologies for the high quality pictures. I have excuses. First one was taken in a hurry with a mobile phone (and if the sky is grey, then the sky is grey, that cannot be helped) and in the second shot you can see my concentration reflecting from the mirror like elevator panel. There isn't much room to take photos, and the mirror kind of makes it a little difficult... Lame excuses, I can hear you say to yourself. But I ain't got any better ones right now.)

On a completely different note: can you but just love the spring?

Friendly service

Who wouldn't want something special and meaningful that is worth your money? I certainly would! Well these guys provide exactly that AND "friendly service and product" to you.

Unfortunately the shop was closed, and we never found out what services and what products they have. But it must be special. And meaningful.

If this rose your interest, just go to Beijing, call to the car rental company in the tourist map, ask to get Sabrina for guide, and ask her to take you to see the most famous Hutong. Or, just find out in which hutong are Bell Tower and Drum Tower. This is to say, that I don't remember the name of the hutong we went to.

Busy

I have been a bit pre-occupied, so I haven't managed to deal with the photos of our Beijing trip yet, but they are coming, I promise.



Meanwhile, a piece of censorship for your enjoyment: http://ispyshanghai.com/2009/03/04/thats-i-spy-shanghai/#more-2076



Who knew you cannot call a beverage by the name of a late statesman.

Piipaa-autoja ja muita mukavia

Jotain ihmeen kautta eksyin Suomalaisen hätäkeskuspäivystäjän blogiin. Hätäkeskuspäivystäjän työvuorossa näyttää saavan aimo annoksen ei-niin-komeaa suomalaista arkea. Mielenkiintoista luettavaa!

Blogi ei ole pelkkiä tarinoita, mutta poimin tähän kuitenkin muutaman sellaisen jonka parissa ensin hekottelin ja sitten vähän väsyneempänä nauroin kippurassa.

Normaaleja hulluja...

Viikonlopun iloja...

Henkilökohtainen suosikkini: Turhapuro... Mene nukkumaan. Kiitos. Hei.

Ja vielä melkoinen Bondi...

Escalators

Wednesday:

Thursday:



Why do they keep changing the directon of the escalators?
Not just these escalators, but others too.

What lies beneath...

... the "the"?

It does not show very well, but in the below picture there is a patch where it says "the". It is not just this one banner, but many of them, so I know it is not because it was broken. I have been wondering for quite some time now, what in the earth was there before they corrected it to be "the".

Considering all the Chinglish around, why was it so important to change it afterwards? It has to be something really badly wrong. But how can it be, considering there is only room for 3-4 letters?

I have no answers, just questions.

That is because of the 24 hour surveillance. I don't dare to try and peak beneath the correction. Puzzling.

Five things you didn't know about...

I got this e-mail, challenging me to think of five things that my friends don't know about me. And then sending these five things to my friends. The obvious reason being, that my friends would know me a little bit better after that. Yeah right! I tell you: the real reason is, that if there are five things people don't know about their friends, they must be embarrassing things. Like truly, unbelievably embarrassing. And some, twisted soul (could have been me, but wasn't) has had an idea: this way we just might learn embarrassing things about our friends. Which can later be used to torture or blackmail, should the situation require such desperate actions.

Anyway, here are my Five things I think you didn't know about me...

1) I get really cranky if I sleep during the day. I mean, if I sleep late in the morning or take a nap during the day, it is best to keep out of my range for awhile, because taking a nap just ruins my day.

Doesn't apply to travelling, though: I never get cranky if I manage get some sleep on a plane, for example.


2) I hate it if my feet are too worm when I sleep. Actually I can hardly sleep if that is the case. Followingly, I never sleep with socks on. (Except if I happen to be sleeping in a car, airplane, or some other place not suitable for feet or other nudity.)


3) This is starting to sound like "What you did not know about my sleeping habits"... This is a new habit: if I am home alone here in China, I am pretty sure there is going to be a gas leak during the night. So, I need to open kitchen window, close the kitchen door and close the bedroom door. I have no idea if hat would do the trick, should there actually be a gas leak. Neither do I know why I think the leak would happen when I am alone, but not otherwise.

I guess I just revealed how seriously troubled I am inside. It is a good thing I live with a "certified health care professional".

(Just so you don't think that would actually help, this health care professional is strictly something other then the title would imply, has never worked with health care issues, not one day. And very unlikely that he would.)


4) I have at least three things in my bode that are not as straight as their should be:

- my wrist, which was broken almost 9 year ago. It works, but it's not straight.

- my nose, which did not have an accident, that's just the way it is. I might straighten it in a surgery, but then again I don't have extra money (there are so many more important things) and if I had the money I could still not do it because I almost faint if I think the sound that my nose would make when they would break iiiiit....

Sorry, a short loss of consciousness, but I am back now.

--> Hey, what ever happened to number three? I don't know, but it's my spine. There is a bend in it.

5) I don't always comply with Chinese toilet using instructions. (Yes, keep reading, you'll figure it out at some point.)



But when I listed the above, I started thinking that most of you come to this blog to learn something about CHINA, not to read about me, me and me! So, I'll give you:

Five things you didn't know about CHINA!
(or maybe you do, how the heck could I know what you do or don't know about China?)

1) Language
There are some word in the Chinese language that sound approximately same as their Finnish equivalents. Don't believe me?

Well, here are some that I have noticed. There are more, but I cannot remember at the moment.
Vauva = waa waa
Hi / hei = hai (yes, you should know by know that the most common is "Ni hao", but also "hai" is used as a greeting.)
Talo (rakennus / building) = da lou


2) MSG
Did you know that Chinese use a lot of artificial, chemical flavour enhancer (aromivahvenne) in their cooking. Also families, not just restaurants. Ok, so you might know this if you are aware of the news of the world, and weren't born yesterday. (Since I think the discussion of the subject was on the table some fifteen years ago.)

Some believe that the MSG is connected with obesity and some other health issues, but there is no compelling evidence for one way or the other. Some people say you get a sort of a "hangover" from MSG-food.

I can pretty much guess (after some practice) whether there is MSG in the food or not: the food tastes some how salty (but not exactly) and kind of good, in a way that all the tastes are stronger (yup, I KNEW there was a reason they call it "aromivahvenne"). Don't know how bad it is for health, though...

3) Retirement age
The legal age for women to retire in China is 55! Can you imagine that. And, if you continue working after that, you get to keep both your pension and your salary. There is a little downside though... I am not sure how many Chinese actually can afford to retire at that age...


4) Toilet paper
Did you know, that toilet paper does not belong to the toilet in China? (And when I say China, I mean Shanghai :o) Yes, it is true there is no paper in many public toilets (malls etc.) but that is not what I meant. I mean, in many places they ask you to not through the paper to the toilet. In some places they don't, so I am not sure whether it applies in every where, but based on my observations, that is how Chinese act. Signs or not. I don't always comply. I am sorry. I really am. I am also sorry I brought up the topic.

5) Did you know that there is a KOTI-PIZZA in Changshu? (Did you know what is Changshu? It is a city, 120 km from Shanghai, and there is a "Special Development Zone", in which the company that pays my salary has two factories in. It is small city in chines scale, only 1,4 million citizens.) OK, so we all know that Koti-Pizza and Hesburger, those great Finnish gourmet/export-success stories have spread wide, but that there is one in Changshu! I almost could not believe it. But I have to, since I just got these pics from my colleague:

And now I have an unbelievable craving for Koti-Pizza... Do you think they deliver to Shanghai? Or maybe to the mill, it's only some 40 kilometres away...

Bonus 1)
This one you should know, if you have been good and diligent blog-readers. Many small children were pants that are open from the crotch, enough to show a good look of their buttocks. (Sorry, I have not yet get the courage to take a picture of such a child. I might get accused of inappropriate behaviour, or something worse.) Now, for example this week I saw a Chinese lady who herself had seen fit to put on a down filled, really warm coat (untuvatakki) and her child was wearing this kind of pants. So my question is, if adults needs a proper winter gear to manage, how come they don't come to think that these little kids might get frost bites to their buttocks?

P.S. Christmas - The Chinese Way - pictures coming on soon! Consider yourself warned!

If I had lived in the...

I spent the weekend alone since the joy of my nights happened to be in Finland, and friends were away from town, too. Well, alone, weekend, rain... -> INTERNET! Oh, internet, how would I do without you? (Truth to be told, I also went to gym, twice, went to the fabric market, had a chinese lesson, and manicure and pedicure and did some window shopping and grocery shopping, too. And a lot of garllic-fumed cooking. And went to see a doctor. And read a book. And watched TV. Anyway, point was I wasn't clued to the laptop all weekend.)

I happened upon a site called "Yearbook yourself". What you do, is that you download a photo of yourself and start placing it in to someone elses hair and upper torso. Styles available from 1950's to 2000's, for boys and for girls. I think it was made for people like me, who'd never, not in a million years have the nerve to e.g. blonde my hair... (It would fall of after bleaching, I know, so I actually have a perfectly acceptable reason not to try it.) Soooo, you haven't seen many photos of me on this site, and I promise this will be an exception, but below some what might have been-shots of me.

50's

If I had lived in the 1950's... (Although I don't know where half of my chin disappeared, 50's or not?) It actually slightly reminds me of my dear, dear grandma. And the expression is fitting, I think, as people seemed to be quite serious in the 50's portraits. I think.

60's

And almost twenty year's later, Eeva a'la 1968. I kinda like the style, but in the picture my head is too bif for the hair. Which is funny, 'cause my head is actually too small. For anything.

70's




Yup, 1972 rocks. I wonder how you keep the thing fluffy like that all-day long?
































































80's

Eighties, oh eighties. I believe further comments are not needed...

And last but not the least...

00's
This is supposed to be 2000... Don't know about that, but I think I sort of look like the deceased Armi Aavikko (Not trying to claim I looked like the admired Miss Finland from 70's, but that's what the photo brought in mind. Must be the hair.)