Rivendell
Ordered this early in 2011.. Finally arrived today, it's an awesome model. I think it's the biggest WETA have produced so far.
50 Words For Snow
XMas lights
Another Star Wars book - art of Star Wars Comics
Star Wars books
The How to speak Wookiee book is cute, it has 10 Wookiee phrases to coincide with sections in the book, eg number 6 is for Wookiee phrases to use when at a restaurant ("ahhh argh wha" is "are you going to eat that?")
Hangzhou's West Lake (and no food)
Today I walked 1/2 way around West Lake in the last free day I have here. A common sight on the city side is to see and hear groups of people singing operatically, doing Tai Chi and then there are people doing calligraphy on the pavement with large brushes and just water.
It's obviously autumn, the leaves have turned, everyone's rugged up (except me, quite comfortable in just a tshirt). The lake has several man-made causeways and islands (from dredged silt) created in some places during the first millennium. The lake's famous (in China) for ten poetic scenic places such as one island called 3 ponds that mirror the moon, two others are Two Peaks Piercing the Clouds, and Orioles Singing in the Willows.
After walking to the far northern shore, I took a ferry boat (45RMB, ~$10) to the 3 ponds mirroring the moon island. This basically is an island in the lake which has lakes (ponds) inside it. After that, back to start. Ok, here's the food bit: on the island I bought some meat-on-a-stick ($1) from a vendor on the side of the path. It was ok, but I don't know what the meat was (maybe pork). It reminded me of "cut-me-own-throat Dibbler" from Terry Pratchett's discworld novels. :-P
Final food
One of several student dining halls from the outside and then inside at the University I am teaching at. This is one floor (of 3) in one building (of many). I tend to eat here at night during teaching, simple, tasty meals (usually including some form of wok-fried spiced vegetables) with a very generous helping of rice costs about 5 yuan, about $1.
Snacks I have bought: I was hoping for mint Oreos, but realistically settled for green tea flavour (yep!). Corn chips (think unflavoured Cheetos) covered with a chocolate shell, surprisingly tasty. Kumquat and lime drink with a touch of honey, and a very cute looking mini cheesecake.
Finally, a sheep with lamb statue. Sadly, no squirrels.
Chinese TARDIS
Tintin & Qiantang river
Today I decided to walk an entirely different way, so I headed away from west lake toward the (massive) Qiantang river (see map). This is a good 5k away from my hotel. Along the way there are several public spaces, rivers and viaducts, along with the remnants of an old wall. There's a huge amount of development, ginormous skyscrapers going up everywhere you look. There also seems to be a great multitude of apartment blocks. "Angry birds" has obviously made a mark here, apart from every second market item being devoted to them, I noticed quite a few junction boxes had angry bird murals on them.
Before the river I found a relatively large modern shopping mall ("MIXC"). It only had upmarket designer fashion shops eg Versace, and top end consumer electronics eg Bose. I thought things were reasonably cheap in China but not here - I could probably only afford some socks. Hmm.. better make that one sock. Actually, maybe one dirty sock... with holes... that's already been used as a rag on the Tag Heur shopfront window. I doubt most locals could shop here either but there must be enough rich locals (and I mean rich) to sustain the place. With > 4 million (?) people in the city there's probably enough of the rich to keep the place in business.
The saving grace of the mall (it even has an ice skating rink - see pic!), was that it contained a IMAX theatre and I was just in time for a showing of Tintin in 3D IMAX.
I loved every second of it. I loved reading the Tintin books from my local library as a child and .. ahem.. I collected them as an adult. The film won't disappoint. Without over hyping it too much.. it was brilliant. Look out for the hawk chase scene...
Continuing along the road I was following to get to the river.. it just ended. This also happened following another road on the way back. This one turned into a tunnel with no pedestrian access, so the only way forward was suddenly a muddy track leading into what seemed like a war zone. Think 6 lane highway disappearing. I was now in a major, major development area, row after row of new, and 1/2 complete empty apartment block buildings. Finally after much uncertainty, I reached a normal road again and finally got to the "civic" area. Think municipal offices on an extremely grand scale. One building looks like something out of the film Contact - (the accelerator machine), or a spaceship out of Stargate. The big gold ball building in the pictures is the Intercontinental hotel and convention centre. Another building is Hangzhou Grand Theatre.
Lots of food
Had buffet dinner at the Hyatt on the one weekday night I have free. It cost 384RMB, which is about $75 - that's VERY, VERY expensive for here. One of the best meals (and filling) I've had. The quality of the food was very, very good. The only odd component was one dish I tried was cow's stomach. Tasted like beef. In contrast, lunch today was beef with rice (~$3), a hot chocolate with oatmeal (! - $1.50) and a cute puppy vanilla and raspberry cake ($2) from a franchise called "Free Mori".
