We visited some of H’s relatives at CNY and had to pop to a local supermarket to buy one of those CNY health giftsets for them. It’s interesting that they use English on the packaging but never actually tell you what the products is, just random self-reviews like “SUPERB“, “BEST ENJOYMENT” and “NUTRITION: GOOD TASTE“.
One package was refreshing in its honesty though:
We got a fabulous gift at Chinese New Year.
Firstly take a look at the double- fabulous box it came in, what are you thinking? Expensive chocolates? A subscription to Hello Magazine? Monogrammed handkerchiefs?
It's difficult to understand the scale from the pic, I should have placed my trusty icepick next to it, but it was getting on for A3 size
Click more for the exciting conclusion to this post!! continue reading…
Do you remember a few days ago I won a fake ipod in our works prize draw?
Well, I was right, the nephew I gave it to was over the moon with it, he showed it to everyone, they all wanted to try it! Unfortunately they all wanted to try it at the same time..
"Uncle, the screen does not turn on any more, I think it has some problem".....
Oh baby Jesus, why is it that the lights that burn so brightly burn out so quickly??
Happy CNY 2011 everyone! We just got back from H’s hometown in Jiangsu province where we’ve been staying for the last 5 days, it’s good to be back!
Here’s some random photos from the trip:
Eating great home cooking at H's parents! Although after eating there for every lunch and dinner for the last 5 days we went straight to Di Shui Dong when we got back last night!
Helping H burn money for the dead, it goes straight into their heavenly bank acount innit.
"Gold" and bundles of "bank notes" to be burnt for the dead. Each "bank note" is worth 50,000,000, apparently the currency of heaven is Vietnamese Dong.
The official village dragons, they come to dance at each house to bring luck for the next year (or something like that), the neighbours watch closely to see how much money you give them, this is a sign of how successful you've been in the last year, anything less than 1000rmb is viewed as a disaster..
On the back of the official dragons come all the local beggars and money swindlers etc, most of them with homemade dragons, it was pretty much like being in a zombie movie with the sea of arms waving through the gates at regular periods through the day. Apparently at CNY everyone who turns up gets something, nobody gets turned away, so they come, in numbers, at one point I noticed a group of guys on motorbikes going round begging at the house gates, so blatantly not poor.... The only thing you have to watch out for is that they tend to keep coming back, several times during the day, they just do laps of the whole block....
Hurray I won a fake Ipad at the our annual company dinner prize draw!!!!
Ok, it was actually touted as an e-book on the ticket and it’s not really a “fake” in that it’s not copied the design of the original, but when I got it out of the box it’s obvious that’s what they’re getting at with it’s touch screen, the icon layout, the ability to play games, watch HD video and play music (as well as read books). The brand is Gemei by the way, not sure what model.
Unfortunately it’s pretty poor, the touch screen is very slow to respond and the applications don’t work at all well, it’s not pleasant to use at all. What’s more, it’s core function, as an e-book reader is held back by the dreadfully dull screen, I’ve got a kindle which has an amazing reflective screen which can be read in direct sunlight (actually the brighter the better), this one struggles even in low lighting. On the train this morning I played games on my iphone the entire way with no problem, H could barely see the screen on the Gemei, even at full brightness..
This one’s going straight into the outbox, it’s going to make a fabulous gift for one of H’s nephews!
