My weekend

On Saturday night, the host family and I queued up outside the KING CRAB RESTAURANT.. it was hot, humid and i was wearing jeans. We had 6 groups of people ahead of us, so we waited for 45 minutes. I was thinking "there better be good food waiting for us to make this worthwhile!"

And there was!
We ordered 1.5kg of crab covered with cheese sauce.. aaahhhh.. delicious!

That is Jen-Lee cracking the crab pincer, there are photos of me.. but not on my camera.. will load them later.
I picked the salted duck egg york with tofu, mushrooms and green vegetables.. ahhh.. my favourite.. the family didnt eat the salted duck egg yorks and I ate them alllllll.. hahaha.. Usually I have to fight over them with my sisters!

Autumn moon festival is coming soon, and I have already eaten at least 8 moon cakes.. mm.. they are so yummy, but yet very fatty. I dont know how to control myself!! And moon festival is not over till another couple of weeks - I would look like a mini moon after it's over. In the mall, there is decorations celebrating the festival.

I can't remember much about the origin of this festival, except it has something to do with a Chinese woman and a white hare sitting on the moon making cakes... which sounds awfully odd.
So I googled (I do have a whole Sunday evening here to spare)..

There are many variations to the legend, but the main story is set in 2170BC, involving a woman called Chang'e and her husband Houyi, an archer. At that time, there were apparently 10 suns that took turns to circle the earth - one every 10 days. (See, this is how you know it's NOT a real story). One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, scorching the earth. The Emperor of China commanded Houyi to shoot down 9 suns. On completion of this task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill, the elixir of life.

Houyi took the the pill home and hid it. Chang'e found it, ate it for some reason (each version of the story had a different reason). And after she took the pill, she flew to the moon.

Now, how does a hare get involved in all this? Some stories say there was already a hare on the moon. And part of the pill fell out of Chang'e s mouth. Chang'e commanded the hare to make a pill from it so that she could return to earth to her husband. As of today, the hare is still pounding (as often illustrated on moon cake advertisements).

As for Houyi, he built himself a palace in the sun (this story just gets better) as "YANG" while Chang'e is "YIN". Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Houyi visits his wife. That is why the moon is full and beautiful on that night.

Obviously, I dont believe in the story.. and probably dont see the point of telling the story to the next generation.. the important message to this festival is: mooncakes are so delicious and should be shared amongst your friends and family. I will try to bring some back to NZ if I have more space in my luggage.

Today, it was 37 degrees at 9:30am. We went to the produce market.. it was outdoors, hot and crowded. I stood as still as I can in the shaded areas while I watched my host family pick produce in the crowd. This was the only way I could think of to minimise heat production.. Still, I could feel sweat dripping down my face..
When they finished and were ready to go, they said "oh! your face is all red!" yeah.. hyperthermia!

We went into a fish aquarium for a peep. And my host family decided they wanted to buy a few more Japanese Koi fish to add into their existing fiosh collection. They chose a black and white spotty one with a red round dot on its forehead (like an Indian woman), a gold one, and I chose a silver one (well, it looked silver, but when we took it home and looked it under proper light, it was mouldy looking! So Im going to call it Mouldy. Hopefully it will grown up very pretty like Ugly Duckling).

They got me to catch the fish we want from the pond.. haha.. it was kinda fun. In the aquarium, I saw tiny baby turtles. I have decided Im going to buy two turtles (preferrably one male and one female) and set up an aquarium in Hamilton, if turtles are allowed in my flat.. They are such adorable animals.

After we got home, Jen-Yin (the youngest daughter) and I scrubbed the two outdoor fish pots clean before we put the new fish together with the old fish. There was a thick layer of moss and scrubbing them off took a hour in 37 degree temperature! I got carried away with the scrubbing, so decided the scrub off the moss growing on the shells of the two big turtles they own.. HA! that was fun! The turtles were strong and tried to get away.. but they were held against the ground with my strong hands! After giving them the bath, I held them in mid-air admiring my work.. and they waved their legs and arms in the air trying to get away--- hehehe.. so cute.

On Saurday morning, the sisters and I were woken up to go for a brisk hill walk in the park. There were lots of people - as always. But the tracks were nice. Although it was hot.. I fast walked hoping to loose some of the weight I gained over the past 4 weeks. I really should weigh myself - but I rather NOT know.

Jen-Lee took me to Petaling Street in Chinatown.. lots of stalls with fake branded products and copied DVDs.. I approached one of the stalls and asked

"How much is the LV bag?"

"140"

"WHAT!?" with my BIG eye expression

"How much do you want" he handed me the calculator.

"That price is WAY too high!"

"How much you want?"

I typed down 40 on the calculator

He waved his hand and said "no no no - la" and typed down 110 as his offer.

I said "nah!" and turned away.

He followed me for 5 metres and said "it's cheap!"

I yelled back "IT'S FAKE!"