Smokin' Joe Cachina

We had a visitor from the United States the other day. Joe Cachina, a former colleage who worked with Tony at Burndy. It was great to see him again after so many years.

He brings a black Samsonite suitcase with him. He opens the Samsonite suitcase and it was like....Christmas!!!!

For Matthew, he brought over ten pounds of Halloween candy, Halloween toys and a Halloween trick or treat bag. Matthew's in candy heaven. Joe figured he's missing out from going door to door. The average kid probably does get about 10 pounds of candy. Why not just get it in one shot and not have to work for it right?

For me, Joe brought over my baking supplies- Nestle Toll House Morsels (something that is impossible to find in Shanghai), three large bags of Hershey Kisses and boxes of Shake and Bake, for those days when you just need good ol' Shake and Bake chicken.

For Tony, he brought over 5 Corvettes. When Joe asked what we needed from the U.S., I gave him the laundry list for baking items. He asked Tony what he wanted. Tony tells him nothing unless it's a Corvette. Joe brings over a box of 5 Hot Wheels Corvettes. Nice.

We had a great dinner at Shintori and then proceeded to Xintiandi for a stroll after dinner. Xintiandi was full of people that night and Halloween was in full swing. Xintiandi is a popular place for expats to visit and as a result, there were decorations at every restaurant, a ghost, witch and pumpkin walking around giving out little Halloween toys.

It was great to catch up with Joe and we'll see him again when he returns for another business trip. In the meantime, Matthew's busy digging into this stash of Halloween candy and I'm going to start making chocolate chip cookies, while Tony is busy driving his new cars around the house.

Feeling The Blues

I woke up this morning and I got a strong sense of nostalgia for Connecticut.

Autumn is in full bloom in New England and I really miss it. There are few trees in Shanghai, no Thanksgiving turkey, no pumkin pies or stuffing. No Halloween, no multicolored leaves falling to the ground. Nothing.

These are the times that I think I made a big mistake coming here. The funny thing is that missing holidays like this was trivial when we made the decision to come to China but now, they are the things I really miss. I know it is going to be really hard at Christmas time but, at least we have plenty of mosquitos as a substitute. We've gotten bitten so many times that I think we are actually on the mosquito menu. Maybe we're the blue plate specials....Sweet and Sour Tony, Moo Goo Gai Pan Susan or maybe some Meat Loaf Matthew. Yummy! Them's some good eats!

.... And The Winner Is ME!

The Formula One race was incredible. We were sitting at curve 7, (look at the map to the left). This was a great spot to see the car try to over take each other and is one of the fastest curves in the Formula One circuit. The weather was not the best. It rained, at one point very hard. Luckily Matthew, Susan and I went to a local store and bought some slickers. Everyone had a good time. Even Susan, who normally doesn't like racing.

I bought Matthew a giant Ferrari flag. In addition to the flag, he wore his bright red Ferrari shirt. He looked like he worked for Ferrari. The girls, (which he calls Coochie Mamas, don't ask), loved him. They were taking pictures of him waving his flag like he just conquered China or something.

You haven't really experienced a Formula One race until you've been to one. I've been watching these races for years but, I never truly felt the electricity of the fans or the brute force and speed of the cars and the deafening noise, what a rush! We were hoping for a good race and it was. Schumacher came from 6th place on the grid to win the race. A classic battle between good, in this case Ferrari, and evil, in this case Renault. God it was good. If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these races, take it. The tickets are not cheap, transportation in and out of the race track is exhausting but, you will truly love it. We are definitely going next year, maybe we'll buy our tickets tomorrow.