Trixie in her natural habitat, the ‘Deepistan National Parklet (& in front of our temporary construction mural by Adrian Cotter.)
When I started my front-of-home renovation project, my architect Jane Martin surprised me by asking if I was interested in doing a parklet. The irony was that though I spend plenty of time involved in issues related to urban spaces & livability (and thus I run in parklet-y circles), the thought never occurred to me! Luckily, it did to Jane & I immediately loved the idea.
Months later, as the parklet project was really making progress, Jane proposed doing a “succulent sculpture” for it. And since she was so dead-on about the parklet, I immediately said sure! I thought “Ummm – a what?” Jane excitedly explained that our parklet needed an artistic focus & that it should be plant based. At that point, seeing her vision completely, I said “sure!” I said “Ummm – hmm” & started trying to figure out how to say “no” to something she was so enthused about.
Click HERE for more…
[Ed. Note: This post is 4 months late. The trip was 8/15 to 9/10/11. Now that no one cares, I thought I'd post about it. 
I've been trying to write this for months, but really I was too focused on this project at work to make it happen... If you want to just look at my PICTURES, here they are, but I think the pix are better if you read this post & vice versa...]
[Ed. Note II: I was in China for less than a month. I saw a tiny, tiny, fraction of the country in terms of square miles. I met maybe 150 Chinese people. I had more than a "Hi, can I buy that?" conversation with maybe 10 (being REALLY generous). Nonetheless, I'm about to post something now that makes vast sweeping generalizations about an entire nation of over a billion people and thousands of years of history, with languages I can neither read nor write. So please accept everything I say here as gospel from someone who knows everything. I certainly do.
In all seriousness: I hope I don't offend anyone (esp. my Chinese friends) with my thoughts and impressions - I really am just trying to understand what I saw & felt while in a fascinating and very different place.]
Our hero in the Great Taklamakan Desert
A few months back, I was whisked off to China by my girlfriend to experience her step-mother country. Kimberly, although pretty damn white, has studied Mandarin since she was very young & then majored in Chinese studies in college & lived there for a total of 8 years. I knew she was missing China, so it should have come as no surprise when she hijacked our planned trip to India by taking us to China instead.
I recovered from this by planning to trade her for a panda. Perhaps two.
Unbeknownst to me, she subverted that plan by having us head to the far western deserts of China along the Silk Road. Pandas are NOT in the desert. Sigh. (She’s tricksy!)
Luckily, I found a new fascination soon after arriving in China: looking for signs of happiness.
But, before we get into that, a brief map:
View China Trip 2011 in a larger map
We landed in Hong Kong, then flew to Beijing, spent a week or so there, and then started heading consistently west, more or less along the route of the Silk Road: We took an overnight train to the ancient capital Xi’an, spent a couple of days there, then took a 26 hr train ride to Dunhuang (sort of the gateway to the West). We then flew to Urumqi, the most remote city from any sea in the world according to Guinness, and the biggest city in Xinjiang, the western-most province. From Urumqi, we flew to Kashgar near the border with Pakistan, and spent a few days there exploring the edge of China, before flying east to Shanghai & then back to Hong Kong.
Click HERE for more…
This post is a brief collection of thoughts and impressions that didn’t fit into my in depth and more thoughtful (I hope) post on China (see above). I recommend that one if you’re only going to read one of my China posts. But if you prefer little tidbits sized chunks of randomness from my month in the PRC, here they are! (Also, if you want to just look at my PICTURES, click here.)
As I said in my other post: I hope I don’t offend anyone (esp. my Chinese friends) with my thoughts and impressions – I really am just trying to understand what I saw & felt while in a fascinating and very different place.]
- Unsurprisingly, knockoffs of Western brands were plentiful but this is my MOST FAVORITE ONE EVAR: I give you Clio Coddle.
When I first saw it I simply chuckled, but something about the name really stuck with me and I had to think about it for a few minutes. Suddenly I realized the “Clio Codile” was probably an Asian L-R-switch attempt to pronounce “Crocodile” – it is simply a filtered onomatopoeia! This cracks me up no end.
Click HERE for more…
