Frugality

I read this great article in the Herald Tribune on Thursday and wanted to share a few parts with you, I thought it was laugh out loud funny! It seems the Indian Culture does it best - have a good laugh:

The first tip of the Indian frugalist is to wear your money. One rarely misplaces funds when they are kept in gold and hooked through your nose or strung around your neck. Some Indian women wear saris woven with gold thread. The danger of nudity discourages whimsical spending.

The truly frugal segment friends and associates into two camps: those who merit their money and those who don't.

Cellphone calls may cost a cent a minute in India, but why call people who only rate a text? Why text when you can make a "missed call"? Millions of Indians dial and quickly hang up, hoping for the other person to call back and foot the bill.

Your upholstery is not for everyone. Sofas fray and stain; there is, in the final analysis, a cost per posterior. So cover your sofa with bed sheets and remove them for only the best behinds.

So, too, with crockery: Buy a set of expensive plates and keep it in a case where your friends can see them while they eat from the cheap plates you actually set before them.

When eating out, order soups fractionally: a certain number of soups split by a certain number of people. Start with "one into two".
Of course, if you can, avoid restaurants altogether. Weddings are big here, and Indians who keep an ear to the ground can eat free every night. Wedding crashers are not a movie in India; they are a way of life, and I'm told it takes three successful blend-ins before guests begin to take your presence for granted and invite you to their own weddings.

In India, nothing cannot be recycled. Wedding gifts, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts, gifts for Hindu festival of Diwali: forwardable are they all. Presents are opened carefully so that the wrapping paper can wrap again. Plastic shopping sacks are reincarnated as garbage bags. Used, licked stamps are enlisted for further tours when the post office fails to mark them.

And what cannot be reused whole can often be recycled for parts. In Dharavi, the Mumbai slum, workers in dingy rooms sort the jettisoned - plastic spoons, watches, mobile phones.

Every shard of every ware has a value. Each piece is disassembled, then the pieces are melted, reassembled and sold - all for a profit, not as a tax-guzzling government program.

Within the household, Indian frugalists think strategically, like MBA's. They do not let their children study art history. Children are equities, and good investors build a diverse portfolio by rearing one police officer, one software coder, one retail clerk. They sequence their educations such that the eventual profits from each child subsidize the schooling of the next one.

With all their thrifty proclivities, it was inevitable that Indians would one day make the world's cheapest car. But Tata Motors, based in Mumbai, did not revolutionize the car so much as squeeze $10 savings hundreds of times over.

It took out one of the windshield wipers, used glue instead of nuts and bolts in places and stripped out air-conditioning despite the blazing 120-degree Fahrenheit (49 Celsius) summer heat.

And yet my favorite choice was the analog, rather than more accurate digital, speedometer. It was not a huge savings, and a speedometer's accuracy can determine life and death. So I put it to Ashok Taneja, a Tata supplier, some months ago: Why scrimp on something so vital?

"So what if I'm going at 65 or 75?" he said.

I assumed, and hoped, he was speaking of kilometers per hour, not of the duration of a frugally lived life.

TJ Has Arrived!

Wednesday December 17, 2008

TJ has arrived! His plane landed at 3:00 and he was through customs and out the door by 3:20, not bad! We took him back to the apartment and after the “tour” of the place he jumped in the shower to freshen up.
We decided to take a nice long walk to dinner. There is a wonderful little outdoor pedestrian mall with tons of restaurants about 45 minutes away by foot. We headed out the door and the sights the smell of Shanghai enveloped us immediately and we all knew we weren’t in Kansas anymore.
Dinner was at the German Bier Garten – I know I know, Chinese anyone? But really you don’t want to eat the Chinese food that the Chinese eat, you wouldn’t really like it. Anyway for those of you who don’t know, Chinese is NOT one of Tony’s favorite foods. He’ll eat it but if there is a choice………
Tomorrow we head out to Hong Kong, Tony has work and TJ will be visiting some of his college mates who studied in Hong Kong for fall semester. Weather in Hong Kong 75 degrees and sunny, and hey we’ll be on an island, we love that!

Bulk Food

Wednesday Dec. 17 2008
On Monday you may recall I took a trip to Carrefour, the grocery store, it is Walmart-ish in size and style. What I did not tell you about was my experience in the meat department. I had told you that all in all the shopping experience was good but there was this one small moment that made me wonder how the Chinese all have not fallen ill with some sort of awful bacterial poisoning.

Here I was slowly pushing my cart through the meat department and truly my mouth was agape and my mind was exploding. Was that an open refrigerator case loaded with chicken legs and thigh parts……loose, some frozen, some thawing, water and blood melting in the bottom of the case? Oh my word, an open refrigerator case with large racks of beef ribs thrown together in a mass? Name an animal and a part and you can find it loose, sort of in “bulk” form if you will. The Chinese ladies were shoulder to shoulder pushing a bit (they all push here in China) reaching in with bare hand and selecting their favorite piece, pushing aside one raw chicken thigh to reach to the bottom of the case and grab the “premium” piece. They would then place their prize in a plastic bag. At this point I just walked to the veg. department. I have no idea where they wiped their hands. I feel ill just writing this for you. Oh and the smell, well, there was a smell but on reflection you would have thought the smell would have been much much worse.

I was in a bit of a daze at that point. I was supposed be buying some ingredients for dinner and now I didn’t want to eat, anything. I was completely grossed out. I must have walked around the vegetables four times before I finally figured out what I could cook with a little tomato sauce.
I will take a picture of this unendorsed FDA procedure of selling poultry and meats in a grocery store. I had my camera when I was there I just forgot to take a picture due to my mind exploding at this time.

I also just want to tell you this is not an open air, local yokel market, this is a modern store. There were no live animals running around or whole chickens with their heads and feet still attached. The meat was cut up as if it were to be packaged, American Style, and then thrown in the case for you to select your choicest piece.

December 16, 2008
Happy Cow
Happy Cow Cheese looks just like Laughing Cow Cheese, one of our favorite snacks. And they even have lite! I paid 14.90 Yuan = $2.20, not bad. Today I am going to buy an xmas tree per Tony’s request. Who knew he was feeling so sentimental, what a sweet guy!. I saw some trees at Carrefour yesterday but they were a bit scrappy looking so I am heading out to another part of town, Yu Garden, I had read about this area in That’s Shanghai Magazine, apparently they have some plastic trees. If the selection or price isn’t as good as Carrefour then I will go back and buy one at Carrefour.
Here is a typical cucumber, size and length of an “English” cucumber in the states, but has small soft spines sticking out of the skin. Easy to peel, tastes just like it should. Cost 2 for $1.00. Maybe we’ll live on cucumbers!
Mr. Gu helped me buy this wonderful tree and the lights and ornaments. It was quite an adventure.
Here is the area of the market that we explored to find the perfect tree.
There was a lot of negotiating but the final cost for 1 tree, 5 strands of lights, and some ornaments: 270 yuan = $39.71


Our Tree!!

Sour Breasts

Monday December 15, 2008

Sour Breasts

Today I headed out to Carrefour the large grocery store about 40 minute drive through the city. The store is located in Shanghai and is probably only 15 mile away but the traffic is terrible hence the 40 minute drive.

My driver Jason (aka Mr. Gu) is learning English and he and I have agreed to teach each other. His English surpasses my nonexistent Chinese but we are both game and having a good attitude about the whole communication thing. Mr. Gu dropped me off for shopping and we agreed that he would pick me up in 2 hours. Two hours was not nearly enough – it’s so confusing this shopping business. Different floors for different items pay as you leave each floor. And who can find anything, forget that it is in Chinese. I managed to get 70% of the items on my list and all in all it was a good experience although I was very tired at the end. Mr. Gu happily put my bags in the car and noticed my purchases. He was trying to make conversation by saying: oh you bought eggs, and sour. Sour? Soup? I replied No no?

Mr. Gu has a wonderful little phone which has a dictionary translator function. He can type in a word in Chinese and it will show him the English or visa versa. So he typed in his Chinese words and showed me the screen – sour breasts, you bought sour breasts. So I said breasts ? and pointed to my chest. He said oh no sorry sorry. I thought about this sour breasts word and said Yogurt? Bingo! Sour Breasts in Chinese = Yogurt in English! And yes there was yogurt in my bag, I could not stop laughing!

I am going to have a very good time here in Shanghai!

Our first coffee at home

It’s been a whirlwind so far, everything so new and different. Everything tastes different even the skim milk.

Yesterday morning (Sunday) our first morning in the apartment we had our first coffee and it had its challenges. I brought my favorite flavor in my suitcase, Hazelnut and we had bought milk the night before at City Market or shall we say Overpriced Market. ($2.65 for one single serving size blueberry yogurt.)

As I perked our first cup I realized I did not have any sugar or sweetener for my coffee. Tony drinks his black so he was going to be fine. What to do what to do……ah ha! I had a few Werthers candies in my purse, a perfect sugar substitute. And it really was quite yummy, just crush it up add to hot coffee, melt and add milk. I really enjoyed the coffee – oh did I mention it was 3:00am in the morning. A little trouble sleeping with the time change and all. So we started our day, Tony doing homework while I checked email and screwed around on the Internet. We headed down to the gym at about 6am and got in our workout then showered dressed and started the next part of our day. We headed out to Paul’s – a French bakery located a few steps from the front door of our apartment building. You know Shanghai is the Paris of the East! A quick cappuccino as the coffee from 3:00am had worn off and we were off to the shopping mall to look at hairdryers, and grocery prices. We thought it had to be cheaper if it was away from the Ritz Carlton Hotel. As we found out not really. More on that later.

Here is a pretty picture of the holiday wreath that was sent to us by one of Tony’s colleagues as well as a nice poinsettia given to us by the apartment staff. This picture is of our dining room living room area. The door you see is to the small balcony. The wreath is so fragrant and fills the apartment with a nice fir sent. Since I didn’t have any hooks or any way to hang the wreath I am using it as a center piece. Pretty nice don’t you think?

Sunday Dec. 13 2008

Holy Cow, what a week. We have arrived in Shanghai and it all went smoothly.

The flight was 14 hours long leaving Friday Dec. 11th at 10:30am out of Chicago and it was uneventful, thank you very much. The movie selection was not great and I wondered why as there are so many good movies out on DVD at this time. I watched Journey to the Center of the Earth and part of Mamma Mia both frivolous but entertaining. Food was semi edible - good salad and nice smoked salmon appetizer. Main course, Mahi Mahi with rice and a yellow spicy sauce, not so tasty, accompanied by a side of sauteed peppers. The time past and I read a book and a half - The Choice by Nicholos Sparks and White Out - Ken Follet; And slept maybe 4 or 5 hours of the 14 hours. We touched down at 3:00pm Sat. Dec. 12th. Weather partly sunny and 50 degrees. Not bad!

Customs/passport control was a quick process and we headed over to the luggage carousel to pick up our 7 bags. Fortunately they all arrived and we headed out the door to meet Mr Gu (pronounced Goo) our driver. Mr. Gu had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me and I was very touched. (Not to be confused with my normal mental state - slightly 'touched'!) Hee Hee.


The drive from the airport to the apartment was 40 minutes with minimal traffic. We were in the apartment and unpacking our bags by 4:30p and then headed down to the gym at 5:30 for a quick workout. It was necessary for me to fill out some paperwork to sign up for the gym membership and surprise surprise they wanted to take my picture for the ID. Oh was I a pretty picture. Travel weary, stringy hair, slightly oily face, no makeup, hair pulled back with band - I love that look! And now it has been captured forever on the gym membership id computer. The process itself was quick albeit ugly.

Our apartment is located on the 28th floor of the East tower and the gym is located on the 8th floor of the main/center tower. An elevator ride and a short walk, past the beauty farm gets us to the gym - someone should have warned me that they were going to take my picture as I would have made a quick stop at the beauty farm for a quick freshen-up!

We showered (finally!) and headed downstairs to one of the many restaurant located in Shanghai Centre complex. One of Tony's favorite - Element Fresh. We shared a hummus appetizer, Tony had a Greek salad and a carrot juice and I had tuna tartar and a warm spinach salad with caramelized apples.

Just a quick update for those who don't know: We had an unexpected trip to Washington, PA to go with TJ to see his neurologist and the fantastic super news is that TJ is going to be fine and with the exception of some headaches and some slight memory issues (minor) he IS fine and IS going to be fine. The headaches will subside and the memory with right itself in time. For those who don't know TJ took quite a blow in October at Lacrosse Fall Ball, a concussion, he was quite dazed. Although he seemed to have felt ok through Oct and Nov when he play some touch football over Thanksgiving he got "jostled" and at that point began having some headaches. The MRI is clean and he just has to let his brain rest and heal. TJ will be coming to visit us in Shanghai arriving Wednesday Dec. 17th!!! We are so excited!

Weekend Update

Great weekend in Syracuse, shopping, dinners, and nice visits with both Mary and Margaret. We arrived in NY at about 4pm and headed straight to our appointment with Tony Sr.'s money manager. We learned a lot and have some things to think about in terms of our long term savings plan. Unfortunately our meeting lasted about an hour and Tony's parents were left sitting in the car waiting for us. We felt so bad! We immediately headed to dinner at Drummlands (sp?).

The meal was absolutely fabulous. Great salad bar, and terrific dinner! I had the special, chicken piccata - perfectly cooked with just the right amount of lemon and capers. Tony had the sauteed haddock with steamed spinach on top and a drizzel of alfredo sauce, wow! Tony Sr. had the fried Haddock dinner and Liz Sr. had the fried fish sandwich, both looked marvoulous. We ended the meal with a slice of coconut cream pie and four forks.

Saturday Liz Sr. and I did some shopping, Macy's, Smart Duck, Wegmans and a nice lunch at Panera's; My new favorite lunch place. Tony headed out with his dad to the Train show and they had a yummy lunch of a Italian sausage sandwich with onions and peppers. I had a wonderful walk in the afternoon and enjoyed the perfect fall weather. T the end of the day Margaret and family come over for dinner and I so enjoyed talking with them and the kids. The kids are so grownup and SMART!!! I just love to hear their thoughts on the election and I am so glad they are engaged....even if I don't necessarily agree with them. Kate is working so hard applying for college and I just know she will find the right school for her! Ryan looks good and seems to be healing so well after his knee surgery. Of course the little girls are not so little anymore. They are full fledged young ladies and delighful to talk to! We did touch on politics at dinner and everyone was respectful even though we have our differences.

Here are some pictures of us on Sunday before we left for heading out to see TJ for lunch. Mary came out to the airport to say hi and we visited for about 30 minutes.

Testing

This is a test

Flying into the weekend

We are off today to Syracuse, NY to see Tony's folks. The weather this week in Syracuse - snow! I do believe the first snow of the season fell this week in Syracuse. The weather for the weekend is suppose to be nice but cold. High - 45F / Low 30F. No snow in sight. Except well it's Syracuse and those darn lakes create that lake effect snow and those winds!! But I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best during our flights. Tony is such a good pilot and weather predicted today - 53F for a high in Syracuse so I am predicting a smooth and clear flight.

Tony has spent the week getting organized for his move to China. He has about 5 luggages spread out in the guest room and his clothes laid out and folded. It isn't as easy as you think to move from a large house with lots of space to an apartment with limited closet and storage. I think we should do ok but there is a lot to think about. Tony leaves on Monday morning Nov. 3 and is planning to be back either Nov. 19 or shortly thereafter. Our big move will be Dec. 11 or 12.

Funny Picture

A few weeks ago Tonys' colleague had a going away party for Tony and it was, surprise surprise a Chinese themed party. There was great chinese food from Chen's restaurant and fun chinese decorations that were sent over from the Shanghai office.

Sue and Alex happened to be visiting us that weekend so they came along to the party too!
Earlier in the day the four of us went to Can Can, our favorite french bistro here in Richmond.

Shanghai Apartment - Second bedroom and bath.

Here are the wonderful private accomodations that all our guests will enjoy when visiting us in Shanghai.

Shanghai - Master bedroom and bath

The bathrooms have been recently updated so they are really clean and shiny!

Shanghai Apartment - Living Room

Here are some pics of the dining and living area. The apartment was being cleaned and painted which is why the furniture is in such disarray.

The door/opening on right side of the last 2 pics is the study.

Pictures of our new apartment in Shanghai - Kitchen

Here are a few pictures of our new apartment. The apartment has 2 bedrooms, 3 full bath, study, living / dining area and kitchen. It's probably about 2,000 square feet. We are on the 28th floor in a building that has about 38 floors. The apartment is located in downtown Shanghai near lots of shopping - similar to 5th Ave in NYC.

The Kitchen has a dishwasher, microwave, electric stove top, 28 inch oven, and fridge. There is a ton of storage space.

28 Days Until Paris!

Vicki and I leave for Paris in 28 days and we are getting so excited! We have been emailing each other about different things we want to do and where we want to eat. We have decided on a few things to do already and Vicki has started the template for the itinerary. I will take some time in the next few days and start to fill it out. Some of the things we have decided, in no particular order:

Fashion show at either Printemps or Galleria Lafayette - perhaps both if the first is fun!

Tour of the Paris Opera House

Secret Treasures of the Louvre - private tour

Visit my favorite museum in Paris - L'Orangerie

Champagne at Hotel Crillion

For this trip we are staying at the Hotel Intercontinental near the Paris Opera House in the 9th arrondismont.

In this picture we are having coffee at the George V the morning we arrived on our last sisters trip to Paris in March of 2006! We look a little beat up but excited to start our adventure!

I will list out our restaurants as soon as we have finalized the list.

June 10 2007 Dinner at the Sigmans

My my didn't Sophie have a great time making biscuits with Susanne. Although she really didn't like them once they were cooked.

It was a great day to take a drive to Charlottesville. Dinner was wonderful and the visit with Bob and Susanne terrific. They live at the top of a mountain and have the greatest views. We spent time catching up and working on Bob's marketing for the Salon. Well actually Vicki and Bob worked while Susanne and I chatted up a storm.

The Sigmans have been part of our lives for 21 years and it has been a blessing to know that they are there for us and us for them.

Saturday May 26 2007. Second day on the island.

So Mom you can swim right? I asked her this as we were listing and taking on water in the 1956 Chris Craft. I found out later she hadn’t heard me. The day started out as so many of them do here on Cherry Island to sunshine and blue skies, Liz Sr. had already put up the coffee (hazelnut) and breakfast was laid on the table. We enjoyed our coffee and then began our day cleaning the boats and the boat house. Memorial Day Weekend is the weekend that the cottage and boathouse is opened and it’s a cleaning jamboree. Windows are washed, inside and out, porches are swept and outside furniture is hosed down. And spiders, the spiders are sucked into the depths of the vacuum cleaner as the interior of the house is made to shine. The outside is a flurry of activity as well, boat bottoms are being sanded and painted, plants are being planted and the lawn is being groomed. Tony’s sister, Mary, and her family, husband Jack, Lizzy eldest daughter, Jackie second child and eldest son, Matthew youngest son, came for the day to help. The day really was spectacular 80 degrees in the sun and it was inevitable that the boys were going to jump into the river. The St. Lawrence River this time of year is cold, about 50 degrees I would say, and it’s a treat to see the stunned faces of those teenage boys as they bob up gasping from the big splash into the river. They are so proud that they had the first swim of the season on Memorial Day.

Surprisingly we already had one of the boats painted and in the water, the 1956 Chris Craft. We don’t usually have any boats in the water ready to go before June 15th or so. Wooden boats take special care, most importantly they must “soak” in the water for about a week before you can take them out for the first ride. You want the bottom to swell so that it won’t leak. Well in our excitement of having a boat in the water – soaking for 24 hours – we thought wouldn’t it be great to take a cruise out on the river. We planned for a 4:15 departure. I had spent the day cleaning the inside and outside of the boat. I washed down the beautiful wooden walls and deck and then took a dust rag and furniture polish and polished the wood. I scrubbed the decks and hosed them down and windexed all the windows. It was as clean and bright as a new penny. Snacks were readied, chairs were placed on the boat and we loaded up the people. We were 10 in total, a great group for a first cruise. The skies had become overcast a bit and the cold water on the river made for a cool cruise. We enjoyed looking at the homes on the various islands, making note of who already had their flowers in and commenting on the state of homes in general. Everything was looking wonderful. As we made the turn around Bolt Castle suddenly we felt a little ‘off’. Dad, captaining the boat, turned to look at us and noticed we were listing and then looked forward into the galley and saw about 6 inches of water in the boat. He quickly turned the boat toward the docks and headed in. Mean while the kids were all peering into the hold and commenting on how much water had gotten in.

Mary and Liz Sr. were a bit flustered and unsure as what to do. It was at this point I got up and looked into the hold and saw the water as well. You could really feel us listing and the back of the boat was very low in the water. I started handing out the life jackets and told the kids to put them on. As Liz was pacing around I asked her if she knew how to swim, she didn’t comment but continued her pacing. Fortunately Dad and Tony saw the empty slings at Hutchinson's and pointed her straight into the slip. As we were pulling in one of the gentlemen who runs the docks asked us ‘what are your intentions here’ and we replied ‘we are sinking’. He gave us the ok to pull in onto the slings. The boat was gently lifted about 3 inches to start letting the water drain out. We saw in the hold that held the engine had about 2 feet of water! After about 15 minutes the boat was lifted about 6 more inches and we saw water leaking out of the bottom wooden seam of the boat. At least the mystery of where the leak was was solved quickly. Repairs will be made next week and the boat put back in the water to soak ……for at least a week.

The first day on the island

Friday May 25, 2007

Tony took on the task to paint the bottom of the Lyman, every year it gets painted with an oil base metallic paint, copper in color. Tony was just about finished when SPLAT a drop of paint fell in his eye!! He finished up, about 10 minutes worth of work, instead of coming straight up to the house and looked at me and said I think I have a problem, can you fix this? His eyelid looked as if someone put copper eye shadow on it. Also the under rim was totally covered, I was a bit worried that the tear duct was going to be clogged. The contact lens had a bit of the paint on it as well. We all stood around looking at him for a few minutes discussing what to do. No way we could use paint thinner to take it off, we’d burn his eye out. Hmmmm, yup first trip to the hospital – can you believe it. Tony wailed, I don’t want to go to the hospital! Well do you blame him? So we decided a shower and a wash cloth to gently rub off the paint. And you know it worked! It took a good scrubbing in the shower and again the next morning and it was pretty much washed off. Really glad we didn’t have to go to the hospital

Memorial Day Weekend - the ice cream story

OK so here is the first of a few stories: This one is the funniest. When you live on an island - Cherry Island St. Lawrence River, between Canada and NY on the map - you have to think about what you need and how to cart it over. For example - need a new bed? Do you have a boat big enough to get it over. How about a stove or a washing machine. OK those are the big items. How about ice cream? How do you get it from the store, to your car, to the boat, to the island and into the freezer without it melting? Especially when you make the decision to buy ice cream without making the plan first. My father in law wanted an ice cream sandwich one for him and one for Liz Sr., but he didn't know how he was going to keep it cold so he thought - Oh how about I buy 2 half gallon containers to sandwich around the 2 ice creams sandwiches so they don't melt. My father in law is addicted to ice cream so we figured out later that it was a ruse to bring home the sandwiches and extra ice cream!! Nice idea!