A New Month

I can't believe that in just a little over a week we will be flying off to Shanghai. Time to try to clear spaces away for Ashley, change the sheets on the bed, lay in a supply of treats, and try to let Polly know that Ashley won't eat her and that I will be home again eventually!

We are so fortunate that Ashley is willing to come, bring her own dogs, and live in our house while we are away. It solves the problem of finding a kennel for 3 dogs and it keeps the house occupied while we're gone. It's the best of all possible worlds. And we try to treat Ashley well too!

I so enjoyed keeping a journal of our Russia trip, but things will be different this time. I have been told that there is no wifi on the ship and the only internet access will be on the ship's computers, which apparently move at the speed of dial-up. But we are only on the river five days and there is supposed to be wifi available when we are in hotels. So I am going to write journal entries every day, so that I will have a good record for me, but I may wait to post them until we are on land, so there may be several entries posted at once and days will pass with no entries. Or I could get lucky and discover that if I have a flash drive I can post them on the ship's computers. I'll have to wait and see.

China has so many restrictions (you can't get Facebook or Google in China, I understand), that it may be that I won't be able to post the story of the trip until we get back home again. We'll all just have to be surprised, won't we.

But in case you're interested, here is our itinerary as we know it now....

W 11	Lv. SFO 1:30 am <-- Note that is AM!!!
Th 12	Change planes in Hong Kong. Ar. Shanghai 10:30 am, Check in		Portman R-C
F 13	Old Shanghai & Yuyan Garden tour in am; silk carpet workshop & Shanghai Museum in afternoon; acrobat show in evening.	B,L,D	Portman R-C
Sa 14	Fly to Wuhan in am; museum & bells performance in afternoon; board ship.	B,L,D	V. Emerald
Su 15	Cruising; school visit in Yueyang in am; welcome reception in evening.	B,L,D	V. Emerald
M 16	Cruising; Three Gorges Dam Tour in afternoon; cruising through locks in evening.	B,L,D	V. Emerald
Tu 17	Cruising; Lesser Three Gorges tour in small boat; cruising overnight to Shiboazhai.	B,L,D	V. Emerald
W 18	Shiboashai Pagoda tour in am; cruising the rest of the day.	B,L,D	V. Emerald
Th 19	Visit Chongqing zoo in am (SEE PANDAS!); fly to Xian after lunch; optional dinner show in evening.	B,L,D	Kempinski
F 20	Terra Cotta Army in am; fly to Beijing after lunch.	B,L,D	Regent
Sa 21	Great Wall tour in am; Ming Tombs after lunch; optional Peking duck dinner and Peking Opera in evening.	B,L,D	Regent
Su 22	Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City in am; Summer Palace tour after lunch; some free time in afternoon.	B,L,D	Regent
M 23	Fly to Guilin	B;L,D	Shangri-La
Tu 24	Li River cruise in am; walking tour of Yangshuo village after lunch; fly to Hong Kong.	B,L	Kowloon Shangri-La
W 25	Hong Kong Island tour in am; free time the rest of the day.	B	Kowloon Shangri-La
Th 26	Free time in Hong Kong.	B	Kowloon Shangri-La
F 27	Lv. Hong Kong 2:05 pm; Ar. SFO 11:35 am	B

We will only be on the Viking Emerald for five days, which I'm sad about, since it was so nice to load our stuff into the ship in Russia and then not to have to pack again until the end of the cruise. But the trade off is that all of our hotels are supposedly 4 star hotels, and reports about the hotels from people who have already done this cruise are glowing.

I'm starting to get excited.

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Additions to the royal urinary habits discussion from yesterday:

John S Fitzgerald: The British motto of a "stiff upper lip" must apply to their toiletry habits as well...never show emotion and never need to pee

Linda Courtemanche: I kept thinking that if it were me up at that altar, I'd be saying, "Dad. I have to go. No, I really have to GO! NOW!!" :-)

Miriam H. Nadel: Oh, come now. Surely you remember the folk tale of the Princess and the pee.

Marte Brengle: You know how they took the wedding party aside after the ceremony? It wasn't just to sign the paperwork. :)

Oh Dam

We watched what I think is a made-for-Discovery Channel video tonight called China's Mega Dam. I'm not sure exactly when it was made, but it talks about the 3 Gorges Dam "scheduled for completion in 2009," so I guess it was made before 2009!

It was a fascinating, impressive and at times depressing look at the area where we will be in a little more than a week. I didn't much like the references to what would happen if a major earthquake hit, since the dam is built either on or near an earthquake fault and this ol' planet of ours doesn't seem to be very stable at the moment. We are taking a seismologist (Mike) to a fault zone and I'm hoping the twain do not, in this instance, meet!

The movie also shows me that, whether I've been working on it or not, I am slowly absorbing information about China. This pulls together the novel I read ("Dragon Bones") and the movie we saw a week or so ago, Up the Yangtze, which told the story of a family living along the river in an area that was scheduled to be flooded.

The book deals, in addition to a few murder mysteries, with archaeological excavation, trying to retrieve as many artifacts from ancient cultures as possible before they were gone forever. In China's Mega Dam the film crew visited one of those archeological digs and showed the wealth of artifacts from the ancient "Ba" people, a group of people living in the eastern Sichuan province, as well as peoples even older than the Ba that were being recovered. It also showed the heartbreaking sight of the river washing over the sites of the digs, knowing that all that remained of those civilizations is now gone forever.

When I first went to college, I thought I would like to be an anthropologist. That plan lasted about as long as it took me to read the course descriptions, but I still have an interest in ancient civilizations and appreciate the work that others have done in preserving their history. The loss of the artifacts along the Yangtze must be such a heartbreaking thing for those dedicated to preserving China's heritage.

Then there were the villages the movie profiled. One woman was living in her house that had been in the family for generations. I believe she said for 12 generations back from her grandmother. Hundreds of years. She still cooked in the wok that had been used for generations. In the village there was a tree that had stood there for more than 100 years. All of that is now under water and the family relocated to a concrete apartment building, where she has traded hundreds of years of family history for running water. The sight of her returning to her now deserted village and lighting incense to Buddha and praying for a miracle that would save her home was heartbreaking.

The movie explained the importance of ancestors for the Chinese and how terrible it was to lose the graves of the ancestors of all of the thousands of people who had to be relocated to higher ground.

But it also showed the resilience of the Chinese people, who smiled and shrugged and said that they always managed to cope with whatever came along.

A friend of mine, who is Chinese, told me two things about my upcoming trip -- one was that it will be hot and that I should take lots of handkerchiefs (swell--"heat" is the thing I hate most about traveling!) and the other was that I was in for a huge culture shock.

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And speaking of culture shock that has nothing to do with China, Char brought up a point about the royal wedding that had not occurred to me and which, when I reposted to Facebook has sparked an interesting discussion.

Char asks: "there is a huge question no one is asking. WHERE ARE THE PORTA POTTIES??? They may be hidden, but they have to be there. Also some of those folks had to be inside the church 2 hours early. Some of them were quite old. Did they let them find a bathroom. How does the queen manage. She is old, but must have a concrete bladder."

I posted this question on Facebook and got some interesting responses:

Sue says "they (the portopotties) were disguised as guards.

Marte says, "You only thought those were trees." and adds, re the queen, "what do you think she carries in her handbag? Depends!"

Robin adds, "I did see a lot of people in the fountains" and then adds "also, please note the queen did wear yellow."

Marte comes back in with "Where does the queen pee? Anywhere she wants to!"

Sally, getting logical about it all, says "Anderson Cooper was commenting on his show tonight about how many people he saw urinating and/or intoxicated in public on the streets at night in London."

Robin chimes in again: "the Queen always has that pained expression on her face...I also saw that same look on Princess Anne...and I wont even mention Fergie's daughters...their outfits made me want to go to the bathroom!" ... later she posts "Well that hat that Princess Beatrice was wearing did look like a twisted colon..."

So if you were one of the 20,000 people at Trafalgar square or the million around Buckingham Palace, please do leave a message and let us know how you and your bladder coped. Thanks!

Blogging the Wedding

Yeah, Yeah...I'm one of those dumb people who plan to watch the Big Wedding live. Despite the fact that I think all the hoopla leading up to it is absolutely ridiculous, it is history after all. I watched Elizabeth's Coronation and Charles & Diana's wedding. I sorta feel like part of the family.

So my plan is to stay up. It starts at 1 a.m. here and lord knows how long I'll last. To keep myself awake, I'm going to make scones, brew some tea, and sit here at the computer writing my review as it all happens.

Some blogger was trying to decide which station she wanted to watch it on, but that's a no brainer for me. I've been with The Today Show since they were just dating, so how can I not watch the show with Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann?

12:45: Scones are made. I fell asleep during The Daily Show and woke up in the middle of Colbert. Time to get serious about staying away for the wedding.

Nothing happening on NBC yet, so I'm watching MSNBC. It's like watching the red carpet at an awards show...with less cleavage and more hats. Where is Joan Rivers when you need her?

Since you aren't supposed to attend the royal wedding without a hat, I thought I'd pull out my old Last Session cap and wear that.

Needs more flowers, dontcha think?

(Actually that's a picture from 200...I've lost >25 lbs since that was taken. I also have newer glasses. But if I were to pull a hat out of my vast collection of 1, this would be what I would wear. Good thing I didn't get a royal invite.)

Someone on MSNBC has just said it's a little over an hour before the wedding begins. I guess I have a lot more time to kill before things get serious.

1 a.m. - Meredith and Matt are on now. This is like watching the red carpet. I so wish they would quit talking about Diana's funeral on this happy day for her son. I do love how newspeople spend so much time guessing about what is going on. Total speculation. But it fills up air time.

I can't believe how many people are packed into Trafalgar square (they expect 20,000 people). Where have all the pigeons gone?

Oh lord, it's going to be two hours before the wedding starts. I'd better start drinking tea to keep me awake!

So the royal couple are going to be known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Strathearn and the Baron and Baroness of Carrickfergus. It does sound kind of silly, doesn't it? Especially the third one.

Someone on Twitter called this hat "a rare blue rose vagina fascinator." Apparently there is a "hat watch" going on on Twitter. Some comments:

I've seen a flying saucer and one of those snazzy rice farmer hats. In fuschia.

That blue fascinator looks like a shark fin stuck on her head

WHAT ON EARTH IS TARA WEARING?! It looks like a shoe horn

So many hats and not one sombrero.

I would normally not be on Twitter, but I took a Twitter class tonight and this seemed a good time to start checking it out and see what people are saying about the wedding.

2 a.m. Time for a cup of tea

and a scone

It's been so long since I've had tea to drink, I didnt realize that all I had was raspberry zinger. Well, maybe it will keep me awake. But more "stuff" is starting to happen. Harry and William are leaving Clarence House and headed for the Abby. William looks resplendent in his red uniform, at least from what I can see inside the limo.

3 a.m. Got distracted by all the pageantry and just sat and watched everybody arriving. Actually got kind of teary watching the queen and how she was received by the multitude on the streets. Catherine looks beautiful. The flower girls were so cute and the overhead shots inside the abby were breathtaking.

- Of the opening hymn...why do they have everyone sing every verse, especially when NOBODY that they put the camera on (not even Elton John...not even the queen) seemed to be singing along. I didn't see who lifted Kate's veil, or if she did it herself.

- Very sweet marriage ceremony...you have to kind of laugh at "with all my worldly goods, I thee endow."

- Thank goodness NBC commentators (I don't know about other networks) have chosen NOT to interrupt anything inside Westminster.

- I loved the smiles the bride and groom gave each other at various points in the sermon.

4:20 a.m. - they're parading back to Buckingham and I am finally starting to fight sleep. I'm going to hope I stay awake for that famous kiss on the balcony, but I'm not hopeful. Going to post this, turn out the lights and climb under a chihuahua and get a little sleep.

It's been fun blogging the wedding.