Christmas as it should be

Sunday December 27 2009

Not much left of the year now. Christmas has come and gone and forgotten for another year.Next Friday is New Years day and the last year of the first decade of the new century will be with us.So I thought I’d talk about the difference between the standard northern white Christmas and the real Christmas that we celebrate here in Oz.

Who wants to be stuck inside when there is a festival on?????

This year was a little colder than usual. In fact it was the coldest Christmas Day for many years. That’s because a cyclone (hurricane, typhoon depending on where you live) that came across the north western top of Australia from the Indian Ocean, turned into a rain depression and moved down across Australia and, at the moment, is sitting across the south eastern corner and bringing much needed heavy rain to this area. The rain started on Christmas day after lunch. The day was cloudy and cool with strong sea winds.

It even brought heavy rain to the Red Centre. Uluru (Eyre’s Rock) even had waterfall running off it. The North West is expecting floods, much to the delight of the farmers because of lack of rain lately.

But we were still able to have a lovely B-B-Q lunch with some friends who just happen to be from Weifang and then go for a walk around the sea side rocks.

And so a description of a usual Ozzie Christmas for you.

Like most places around the world, Christmas shopping really starts the week before and builds to a crescendo on Chrissy Eve. The stores and malls get more crowded and noisier each day up to the final night.

Many good Christians will go to Church for special services on Christmas Eve but the clothing will be a little lighter than where many of you live.

Most large companies will cease work at lunch time and stay closed until the week after New Year. Schools generally will have closed around a week before and will re-open at the end of January.

Christmas day for people with young families will be no different from any where in the world. Kids will be up at the crack of dawn to rip open the presents and have fun playing with the boxes.

But that will be the end to similarities to the northern hemisphere.

Once the family formalities are over, it’s time to prepare for the rest of the day. This will usually take two main forms, both happening around an outside lunch.

It will be a): at a beach or park or b): at a designated relative or friends’ house. Typically it will start about 11am and friends and family will start arriving at the decided location.

A gas barbeque has become the centre piece of the Ozzie outdoors and many parks and picnic areas are now equipped with free gas or electric barbeques. Open fire barbeques are now banned almost every where in Australia due to the risk of bush fires.

And so gifts will be exchanged and let the festivities begin.

The barby will be fired up and covered with steaks, lamb chops and sea foods and anything else that can be cooked. Salads will have been prepared before hand with potato salads and other old family specialties and favourites.

And it’s lunch. Perhaps around 1 o’clock and the meat will be hot and ready to go. There will be cold meats as well (Deli meats for those in the States).

And of course there will be beer for those who want it. Cool and crisp. Or perhaps a good Ozzie wine, red or white. Either way it will be the best wine in the world, as everybody knows. Forget French or German. Whether it be Hunter Valley, Barossa or Victorian, you can believe it will be a good drop.

It won’t be long before the kids have had enough and want to off playing with the new toys or a friendly game of cricket until the adults decide to show the youngsters how to really play the game!!! (Yeah, right).

If the Barbie is on the beach or if the host home is near the beach, a squad of the party goers will head off for a plunge in the surf, littlies supervised by an adult or older teenagers.

Lunch will drift on into the afternoon. The wine glasses will be swapped for cups of tea or coffee with cake or a prepared dessert.

Some will leave to visit others but some will remain as the afternoon turns into evening. Picked over leftovers will be the low key dinner inside and a movie or the television will complete the day for the stayers. As daylight savings is in force in much of Australia, it will still be light until at least 7.30pm.

The next day in most countries that have a British background is also a public holiday known as Boxing Day.

This is a tradition handed down from England where the Families shared gifts on Christmas Day and then, on the next day, they would give gifts to those less fortunate than themselves. Eventually it became a gazetted Public Holiday.

In Australia today it has become legendary as the day for SALES and SAILS. It is the chance to snap up a bargain as all the major department stores have major sales to move left over and one-off items. Televisions, refrigerators and other electrical items can be reduced by as much as 70%. No rain cheques and first come, first served. Clothing and many other items are usually included.

And the other SAIL?? It is the start of one of the world’s ocean classic yacht races. It has become the big one with maxi-yachts from many countries competing. This is not a little harbour race but an open ocean race from Sydney Harbour, down the East Coast of Australia and across Bass Strait to Hobart, the capitol of our island state Tasmania.

Yachts are at the mercy of all the elements that nature can throw at them. It can be favourable north easterlies which carry the yachts along with a tail wind. Or the feared southerly can come upon them with howling gales and waves up to three metres high pounding them.

A great competition that has unfortunately claimed a few lives in its history. But it is still the race for real sailors and hardy boats and none of them would change anything. Some years ago, safety rules were tightened to ensure all boats are fitted with the correct safety gear and communications equipment.

Some years earlier, a particularly bad storm claimed many lives as many of the older boats didn’t have radios so the race coordinators couldn’t contact them to warn them of the storm. It’s very different today.

Bass Strait is very dangerous as currents and winds surge around the bottom of Australia where the Indian, Southern and Pacific/Tasman Ocean all merge.

Not a race for the faint of heart or weekend warriors.

And of course, there is the Cricket. The Boxing Day Test Match. The pure sport. A five day contest between two International teams and ,,,,,, well, those who know will understand and those who don’t will never work it out. Poor people!!

So while you northerners are digging out your driveways just to get to the letter box, we are sitting here in shorts, sandals and t-shirts, sipping beer, coffee or tea under the gazebo and listening to the birds chirping.

And, strangely enough, much won’t change when winter comes. Eat you heart out.

Cheers!!

Old City Wall, Weifang

This posting is from my old blog and talks about the old city wall that once surrounded Weifang. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did researching it.

Weifang History Blog March 2009

It is holiday time and I finally have some time to get to my blog.

Last weekend I did something I have been hoping to do for a long time. I went to the remnants of the old Weifang City wall. There are only two small pieces of the wall remaining. These are in the west of the city so they are the Han Ting section, not the Kui Wen or main city area wall.

In the main CBD, there are two old gates but it is not clear to me if they are part of the original wall or built in the recent past. From what I have seen in diagrams, the original gates were within the stone walls and not stand alone wooden structures. But they are very old in themselves. I believe they were built after the removal of the old wall. I am waiting to confirm this information.

Bai Lang He. The old City Gate and the river (now artificial) that used to run through Weifang

According to what I do know, from a visit to a local museum, is that the city was divided into two sections Kui Wen in the East and Han Ting in the West. These are naturally separated by the main river, the Bai Lang He (pronounced HERR which is Chinese for river. Bai Lang means white waves). This is still the case only the river is now artificial, having been dried up by the construction of a large dam to the south of the city. The portion of the river that exists is currently being upgraded, as is much of Weifang, to make it an environmentally friendly area for people to spend some recreation time.

How the river looked just before we left in July 09

A museum model of what the city looked liked in the time of the wall.

I had seen one part of the old wall from a bus some time ago and only realised that there were two parts when we recently moved to the area nearby.

The remaining piece is an East-West wall and is cut in half by Xiang Yang Lu, a North-South street.

The purpose of the walls was not protection from human invaders but from the river. Apparently, the river used to flood regularly, inundating the town and the peoples’ houses. So the governor at the time decreed the building of the walls to keep the water out. His name was Zheng Ban Qiao and he wasn’t from Weifang but he had deep feelings for the area and the people and there are still some statues of him in his memory.

Zheng Ban Qiao

There is an old residence in the west of Weifang not far from the Bai Lang River, a very large walled complex that belonged to a well-to-do family in old Weifang. The Governor, Zheng Ban Qiao, used the residence as his offices. This is now a museum. It is where I learned about the walls and took the photos some years ago. It is being preserved while everything around it has been torn down. Behind it is a temple, apparently the oldest temple in the Weifang area. Now unused and in bad condition, it is being restored along with the residence.

Four photos of the residential buildings

There are two other small rivers that used to flow through Weifang, Zhang Mian He and Yu He.

When I first came to Weifang, Yu He was a putrid black sess pool of rotten water. Now it is a lateral park that stretches from the centre of Weifang to the Peoples’ Square park in the east. All the storm water is now underground in large pipes and a beautiful artificial river with walking trails the full length of it on either side runs along the surface.

More street food

Delicious food available all around you.

In the previous posting about markets, I mentioned a couple of take away food types that are common in the streets around Weifang and other parts of China. You can get dumplings (Jiao Zi) and Huo Shao (possibly the most common snack or breakfast food around).

Here are a couple more.

The one that foreigners call the Chinese doughnut is the Yu Chou.The difference is the way it is cooked.

Just like a doughnut, some batter is dropped into hot fat and it rises and is cooked quickly. The major difference is the Yu Chou is long, not round with a hole in it.

A winter favourite is the sweet potato. Cooked by baking in a portable, coal fired oven, it is hot and sweet and perfect for lunch on a cold winter's day. It is known as Di Gua in Chinese.

Of course, there are many more that I could show but the list is really endless.

It is one of the main things I miss about China. Being able to walk out into the street and buy something different to eat each day.

And, if you want to go fancy, there is also an abundance of restaurants with great food and an unbelievably cheap price.

Here is one that tastes as good as it looks if the chef knows how to do it well. Fish in a batter with a sweet and sour sauce, cooked so it curls up. How's you taste buds going?

This is from my old Blog, Weifang Whales.

Markets.

An essential part of life in China is still the street market. Many people still buy only enough food for one or two days and the markets allow this because they are only 5 minutes walk from your house. This is one of the things I am really going to miss when I leave China

In the more rural areas, there is a farmers’ market once every 5 days based on the lunar calender. Each local district will have it on a different day so that all have a chance go to each market if they wish.

The other type is the regular street markets in the towns and cities. Some are during the daylight hours and some will start in the early evening and go to about 10pm. Some venders will simply lay a blanket on the ground if they only have a little to sell. Others can have quite elaborate stalls which are permanent fixtures. Some will just sell off the back of a truck.

Qing Dao Market.

So why buy from the market? One reason, as I have already said, is convenience. One is tradition. It’s been done that way for centuries. Why change now? The other is price. There is no middle man, often no shop rent and no wages. So the price is very low. Imagine buying a kilo of ripe peaches for 50 cents? You can. I have. You can buy bulk or very little. Most is not prepacked so you simply get a plastic bag and help yourself to whatever you want and the vender will weigh it and give the price.

Many now use electronic digital scales but some still use the traditional stick with the sliding weight.

You could buy one carrot if you wanted but why would you when six will only cost you 2 yuan.

A hand of sweet bananas may be 5 yuan.

The price of most goods in China is still quoted per Jin. A jin is an old Chinese weight equivalent to around 500 grams.

Now, what can you buy in the markets? Whatever you can think of. Fruit and vegetables, bits and pieces for the house, toys for the kids and even meat, tho’ I don’t buy street meat because it just hangs in the air. Not so bad in the winter when the day time temperature rarely gets above 5 degrees but in the summer it’s a different story. Meat and 30 plus degrees Centigarde is not my idea of the perfect scenario. The shop keepers get good exercise shooing the flies away.

Another thing you can get from markets is what one would have to call fast food,traditional Chinese style. In the street directly outside the gate of our apartment complex is a mixture of small food outlets that all specialise in only type of food. It might be noodles, charcol barbeque, Huo Shao, Bao Zi (See the end of the text for an explaination) and something that resemble a Kebab but you choose what goes in it. You choose the mixture of vegetables and other odd things and they are cooked and wrapped in a tortia style bread. Sometimes it’s just not worth the effort to cook. And even if you do want to cook, which I love to do, and you realise you forgot the onions, well just down the street and around the corner, there are the vegetables. I bet you can’t come home with just the onions!!

The rest of this posting is a collection of photos of the different types and parts of markets you will find.

First some explanations of the foods I have mentioned.

Huo Shao. Weifang Meat Pies

Bao Zi. We in the west might call these Dim Sims. A small pastry bag containing meat or vegetables, steamed cooked on a hot plate.

Onions,garlic and a few other things.

Spices.

Shoes and Shellfish

Strawberry fields forever

Wide selection.

Wild vegetable. We would call it a weed.

Eaten raw with a sauce, it’s very nice.

Cabbages falling off the back of a truck.

The Bakery

Carving Pineapples.

Bits and Pieces

Poultry Shops

Cabbages and mushrooms.

Ducks cooking

Like something from the sea?

Fresh fish

Oysters By the truck load.

Cockles and Mussels alive O!

Sea Weed

The butcher shop. Anyone for ribs??

Need your shoes repaired? Or anything else? Husband & wife team.

You can even get your hair cut.

The markets are truly a major part of life anywhere in China and a part of my life that I will sorely miss.

Here are some of the photos from my old blog. These are street markets in Qing Dao

Back dated

It is the week before the holiday (well, we have been on holiday since August) and all the major jobs around the house are finished. We have a new side fence, a new side path, a new spinning ventilator on the roof and I have fitted leaf guard to a third of the guttering. I am waiting for the next lot to arrive.

I have ordered a mixed dozen of good Aussie wines and looking for a time to drink some of it.

And now I have time to get back to my blog in a serious manner.

So first, last weekend Saturday December 12. I won two tickets to a concert On-The-Green at Wyndham Estate in the Hunter Valley (Newcastle). Smokey Robinson and Human Nature.

It was the first time since we got home that we have had an outing. We made a weekend of it by staying in a local hotel. Fortunately, because the concert didn't finish until 11pm and the access road is a little country lane and 10,000 cars took about 2 hours to clear the estate. We got in our car at 11.15 and left the car park at 12 midnight. The 7 kilometre drive from the estate took another hour. We arrived back at the hotel at 1.15 am.

But it was a great weekend. Anji enjoyed her first live Aussie concert and there was no lip sinking here.

She also loved the country side of the Hunter Valley.

The local weather is up to its usual summer standard. A few days of brilliant sunshine and very high temperatures, moderated by a southerly change and a day of light rain and 24 degrees. Does anywhere have a better climate than this?????

I have been working slowly on my photos and also copying old Vinyl albums onto my PC with a USB turntable. Time consuming but a great way to preserve and listen to some great music at the same time. I can also copy them to CD and play them in the car.

We are looking after my son's Belgium Sheppard at the moment while he does some house renovations. Anji loves having a dog around. Ben Ben will arrive in Australia at the end of January so she is getting excited.

This is Kanu. He loves chasing and jumping for sticks.

Anji and her new friend Zip Zip the King Parrot