This Is Just Ducky!

Today turned out to be quite a busy day for me once I got moving.  Thursday is the only weekday that we don't have anyone coming to the apartment so it's a good day to chill first thing in the morning.  After some breakfast, playing and housework with music, the boys decided they wanted to go to Happy City.

It was really busy there and one of the mothers was in the bouncy house playing with her daughter, Nick and another little boy.  I ended up in there as well, sitting at the top of the slide while she was at the bottom.  She was Chinese but was talking to the kids in English and although she was pretty, there was something odd about her face.  I normally don't notice these things but it was hard not to see that her skin was very white compared to the rest of her body and I quickly remembered reading about how some of the makeup here is of the "whitening variety".  Some of it actually bleaches the skin, which sounds really horrible, and women here use it so they can appear to be more "white".  I can't imagine why this pretty woman would want to do that to herself but to each his own I suppose.

We lasted an hour and a half at Happy City before Ryan flipped out because a girl took the red ball he wanted.  This caused me to flash back to our layover in Toronto and the bowling alley we visited.  Ryan and a little girl were competing for the one red bowling ball.  What's up with that?

After a long walk home with a very whiny Ryan we had some lunch and he went for a nap.  Tim called and said that our weekend plans had been altered slightly which meant that we needed groceries before Saturday.  My options quickly became to either take the kids shopping tomorrow or go tonight by myself.  Can you guess which one I chose?

For the rest of the afternoon I took Nicholas and Ryan out to play.  It was cool and breezy with a little sunshine - my favorite kind of weather.  I didn't want to bring them inside but had to get supper started and be ready to go shopping when Tim got home from work.  Almost as soon as he walked in the door I was on my way out.  My intention was to stop at the Bank of China to get some cash then go to YooHoo for groceries.  I wanted to go to Ole but they don't have the Life cereal that Ryan has been asking for so I was going to get everything I needed at YooHoo.  We are having dinner guests on Saturday and we thought we would try cooking something different.  I found some dishes in my Wok cookbook that looked interesting, one of them being duck with bell peppers, so I brought the recipes along tonight to make sure I got all the ingredients.

Tian Ye dropped me off at YooHoo and I started my shopping.  I got as far as the produce section and was placing my first item in the cart when I remembered one tiny problem.  No money!  I had forgotten to stop at the bank.  Crap!  I had a little cash on me so I decided that I would only get the cereal at YooHoo.  I did that then went back out to find Tian Ye.  He looked shocked that I managed to get my shopping done in less than two hours.  Then he didn't seem that surprised when I told him what I had done.  I explained that once you have kids, your mind leaves with your sanity in tow.  He thinks that if he only has one child, he can avoid that.  Hah!

When we got to Ole Tian Ye said he wanted to come in with me.  He spends a lot of the day sitting so when he gets a chance to walk around, he takes it.  I thought perhaps he was going to have a look around the mall but he actually came and pushed my cart for me.  It was really nice of him but it felt a little wrong.  I don't want him to feel like a servant or something but he said it was fine, he didn't mind. 

We made our way to the meat section and after finding the beef I started looking for the duck.  The recipe specifically called for duck breast so that is what I was hoping to find, a nice little package that looked like a chicken breast but a different color.  Then Tian Ye called me over to where he was, he had found the duck.  I walked over and all I could say was "ew".  It was a duck alright.  You could easily tell by the beak and the webbed feet that were all still attached.  The only things missing were the feathers.  Tian Ye laughed at my reaction then pretended to stick his finger into the head and use it like a puppet.  Next to this duck was another, slightly less attractive half duck.  I was trying to explain to him what it was that I wanted when a guy came over and started talking to him.  Then the two butchers showed up and Tian Ye spoke to them also.  I had looked up 'duck' on my iPod trying to find the words for duck breast and although it gives you a list of terms, that one wasn't on it.  I did find one that amused me, 'Donald Duck', so I showed it to Tian Ye and he laughed.  I'm not sure what was said next but one of the butchers took the duck and went back behind the counter.  I then tried to figure out from Tian Ye what they were doing to it and he indicated that they were cutting it in half for me which was not what I wanted.  So, I decided to look up 'breast' on the iPod and show him that.  Of course, the first translations that came up had nothing to do with meat and Tian Ye laughed and said, "I don't think this is what you want".  Finally I found 'chicken breast' and told him that this is what I wanted, just with duck instead of chicken.  He finally understood so we went over to the counter to explain it to the butchers.  By this time they had the duck cut in half and were wrapping it up.  He told them what I wanted but they just shook their heads.  I told him that I would pay for the entire duck if they would just cut off the head and the feet.  I figured I could do something with the rest of the duck but I didn't want to bring it home with a head.  Oh the questions I would be asked!  Tian Ye didn't understand so I touched my head, then my foot, then made a slicing motion across my leg.  He got that.  When he asked the butcher to do that the man looked at us like we were crazy but he grabbed one of the feet and chopped it off with his huge knife.  Then he looked at me to make sure that I really meant what I had said.  I gave him the thumbs up then did the slicing across my neck to get him to chop off the head.  Again he looked a bit dubious but did it.  Then he said something so I said to Tian Ye, "He thinks I'm crazy doesn't he?" to which he replied, "He just said that he doesn't understand why you don't want the head.  It's very good".  I told Tian Ye to tell the butcher that if I knew what to do with it I would take it but since I didn't, he could just keep it and eat it himself.  My treat.  I don't think Tian Ye bothered to mention that.

I finally had my mutilated duck so off we went to find more groceries.  I was so glad that Tian Ye had come in with me as he was very helpful with finding items that I am not familiar with and we had a lot of fun.  It's so nice to have a pleasant person driving us around now.  I miss driving and the independence that comes with it but at least now I can enjoy myself when I go out.

So that was my day in a nutshell (me being the nut, China the shell).  I have spent the last three hours trying to get this blog written.  Tim has started watching a new television show and I have been sucked into the plot so I find it difficult to get any writing done while it's on.  Finally he turned it off and went to bed so I could finish.

I don't know yet what tomorrow will bring.  Isn't that wonderful?

I will leave you tonight with some pictures from Saturday night when we had supper and lots of fun at Cristina and Daniel's place.  Goodnight!