Tony.  I love the little guy, but sometimes he can be a chore (though admittedly more for my wife than me).  Last night, he was up three times during the night.  He needed his mother to feed him.  I could only watch and feel guilty.  I had a hard time getting up this morning and the Toner had the chutzpah to give me a warm, friendly smile.  The smile makes it all worth it.

Two months before I said I was going to go to Canada and I am not anywhere near being ready!

What fresh horrors awaited me at work?  There will be a general staff meeting at 830 AM.  Not so bad if we worked 9 to 5 but we usually work 1 to 9.

Seablogger links to news of another environmental disaster in China.

I can get AKIC blogspot today.  Can you?

Tony.  I love the little guy, but sometimes he can be a chore (though admittedly more for my wife than me).  Last night, he was up three times during the night.  He needed his mother to feed him.  I could only watch and feel guilty.  I had a hard time getting up this morning and the Toner had the chutzpah to give me a warm, friendly smile.  The smile makes it all worth it.

Two months before I said I was going to go to Canada and I am not anywhere near being ready!

What fresh horrors awaited me at work?  There will be a general staff meeting at 830 AM.  Not so bad if we worked 9 to 5 but we usually work 1 to 9.

Seablogger links to news of another environmental disaster in China.

Thursday afternoon, while the wife went to the new apartment, I spent the afternoon with the Toner.  We went to an island park that is not too far from the Wu Ai Jia Yuan apartments. 

This island park is a gem if you ask me.  It has those pretty Chinese courtyard buildings, as well as trees, quiet pathways and a nice view of a canal.  When I went it was practically deserted so the Toner and I had the place to ourselves.

I took some photos with my camera.  For some dumb reason, I decided not to bring my Nikon with me.  I was smacking myself about as I realized I had something new to take photos of.  But the camera phone was better than nothing.  I unfortunately had it set to take the smallest photos possible.  You may be able to see a canal in the photo below.

Later, I did change the camera phone settings and took this photo.  It shows the foot bridge you have to cross to the get to the park.  The Buildings to the right of bridge are on the island.

I did meet one person on the island and I was able to have a conversation in Chinese.  I was able to explain where my wife was when this man asked me if she was at work.  Damm!  How I wish my wife could teach me more Chinese!

Tony fell asleep during the walk so home I went where I took these two photos in nice late afternoon lighting.

Here is downtown Wuxi in profile.  The King of Wuxi can use this photo for his doings if he wants.

And I took a photo of the nearby construction site complete with rush hour traffic.

Thursday evening, I was also able to watch two movies on DVD.  The Dejarling Limited, the latest Wes Anderson movie that I know of, was frankly quite boring.  I then watched The Getaway directed by Sam Pekinpah and starring Steve McQueen.  The film definitely had the feel of Pekinpah's direction and the early 1970s; and was a much more enjoyable film to watch than the Anderson movie.  Steve McQueen is the coolest!

I am going to be making tributes to William F. Buckley all week.  He was a giant of the Right.

Right now, I am making three series of update videos.  Here are the latest videos from each of these series for your perusal:

Here is the first video of my King of Wuxi apartment update series in which you will be able to keep up-to-date on the decorating been done in his majesty's apartment.

Here is the 45th video of the already epic Wuxi Tony Update series:

You can go to my other blog or search around my Youtube channel to see videos 43 and 44 in the WTU series.

Here is the fourth video from the Wuxi Jenny Apartment Update series.  You can see how decorating is proceeding in the new Kaulins abode.

 I will say it again:  William F. Buckley, R.I.P.

I have been reading tributes to William F. Buckley all this morning.  It was good to see that he received tributes from people who disagreed with him politically.  He was a man of ideas and genuinely interested in debate of them.  I remember watching him debate George McGovern in the 1990s on Firing Line, for instance.  Also, Buckley's relationship with John Kenneth Galbraith reminded me of the friendship between George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton.  Buckley proved it is possible to be friendly with the people you politically disagreed with.  But in the case of Gore Vidal, he also showed that to people who act beyond the pale (as Vidal did when he baited Buckley with the crypto-Nazi charge), you have to say enough is enough.

I was watching the CCTV9 news last night and found it interesting to see two almost clashing news items.  They first reported on the Symphony from New York visiting North Korea on a tour of peace.  They then reported on the U.S. Navy having Nuclear Subs at a South Korea port in preparation for a naval exercise.  The first item was reported as a grand peaceful gesture.  The second, of course, wasn't.  But which gesture is really contributing to peace and which is a futile feel good exercise?  The U.S. Military does more for peace than a symphony orchestra ever could.

I have just heard that William F Buckley died.  He was one of the great intellectual figures of the 20th century.  It is a shame to see him go.

We went to the new apartment this afternoon.  I took photos and videos, of course.

We took this rinky dinky bus out to the Hui Shan District.

It was a half hour bus ride.  I read some poetry, my Alexander the Great biography and a Chinese textbook.  I was able to briefly get the wife to teach me some Chinese.

Here is the Ramada plaza near our apartment.

This man will be our upstairs neighbor.

Our apartment complex is quite swank as these photos will attest.

Or should I say Saturday or AKIC Saturday?

Here is how the city of Wuxi looks from my 21st floor apartment this morning.

I will go with the wife to see our new apartment this afternoon.  I will take photos and videos (Wuxi Jenny Apartment Update 3 or 4) along the way.

Last evening after work, the trainers were able to get together as we bid farewell to Bradley, aka Jimbo, from Austrailia.  We had pizza and beer at Romanos.  We told many an interesting story.  None of which I can print in this family blog.

Yesterday, some students told me that the matchmaker who can take credit for introducing a couple that got married gets 18 pig's legs at the wedding ceremony.  I asked the other trainers at the school if they had heard of this.  They told me they didn't.  I will have to investigate the existence and discover the origin of this custom.

I started early today at school so I have a lunch hour.  For lunch, I have gone to a nearby grocery store and purchased some fruit and a bottle of juice.  And so on the way to and fro, I took some photos.  Looking at the blog, it seemed to be lacking in Wuxi photos.  Of course there are lots of Toner images, but that won't change.  I know the world can never get enough of the Toner.

Here is Ba Bai Ban under renovation.  I believe that it will no longer be called Ba Bai Ban when it is finished.  The new name?  I am not sure yet what it is.

Next, you can see what a sidewalk in Wuxi looks like during renovation.  When the Chinese redo roads or streets, little provision is made for people to avoid the construction and so they have to get through best they can.

I have  never published a photo of a newsstand in this blog till now.  In trying to show all aspects of life in Wuxi, I have been negligent to have not shown a newsstand before because they are ubiquitous here.

As a regular AKIC reader may know, my days off from work are Wednesday and Thursday and I like to go on and on on about how the days of the week should be adjusted to suit my schedule.  Anyway, I can say it is AKIC TGIF.  Or should I say TGITu! (Thank God it's Tuesday!)?

Tuesday or Friday, it is cold and wet today.  I have put the long johns back on. 

My poor wife has to go to the new apartment this afternoon.

I have a long day today.  I won't see Tony till late tonight.

Someone in Canada looking at the photos I published yesterday of Tony in a high chair and a stroller, asked if we had heat in the house.  In response, I can say we don't have central heating and the heat sources we do have aren't enough to heat certain parts of the house.  And this Canadian is right to say that Tony has a hard time doing anything wearing all that puffy clothing.  It drives me crazy that Tony has to wear all that stuff.  He seems happy to get out of the clothes.  However, my wife, being Chinese, insists on him wearing all the layers because she doesn't want him to be cold.  So many Chinese babies look like squat Michelin men.  Boy, they look ugly when dressed so.

I have some cousins coming to visit in April.  One of them just informed me that because of the Olympics, they are upping security in Beijing.  So because she will spend some time in Beijing, the consulate in Canada asked why hotels she would be staying at.

I took these photos this morning.  I am so proud of the boy.

It warmed up for one day in Wuxi, but it has now returned to late winter coolness.  Today, it is raining.

The King of Wuxi lent us a highchair.  Now or eventually, Tony will be able to sit with us as we have supper.

Tony is using a stroller and is making his first attempts at crawling.  In both activities, for now, he goes backwards.  When he crawls, he pushes his face against the surface of the bed.

I went with the King to the Austrailian pub last evening.  There was a good crowd there last night.  Asking the King why he seems to prefer Ronnie's, he told me he likes the fact that it is open in the afternoons.

This backward flying birds of Austrailia's Lord Howe Island do so during mating rituals or so my quick look-up on the Internet tells me.

I already have told you of the King of Wuxi's cynical, from my point of view, endorsement of Barack Obama for U.S. president.  But now I meet another serious political observer of U.S. politics predicting and endorsing a Barack Obama victory this fall.

Barack, to paraphrase this man who comes from California U.S.A., will be able to unite people to rise above partisanship to solve all of America's problems.  This mantra of unity and bi-partisanship is as false a political prayer or slogan as I have heard in a long time.  On what basis, will Barack unite Americans?  Will he make them all Christians?  Will he make them all Atheists?  Will he make them all believers in government's power to solve all human's problems?  Will he turn libertarians into big government liberal democrats?  Will he find a way to make all opposition shut up like only a good dictator can?  Will he find the true third way that hasn't been tried yet?  Will he stop all Americans from taking drugs or getting drunk?  I don't think so.

He might do better to get Americans to appreciate what they have and to get the many, who don't seem to, to understand that democracy is about compromises and debates.  To have no debates, no partisanship, no heated discussions about governing is to invite dictatorship.  To never make voters aware of the trade-offs each policy proposal he makes is to promise them the earth and the air.  To always tell them that their circumstances make them victims and that he can make their lives better is to create a population of forever victims.

Barack is a lot of hot air.  Anything specific he says about policy has already been tried and resulted in the cynicism that everyone has about the political process.

This columnist thinks Barack will turn America into Canada.  America taking up curling, three down football and having to listen to Gordon Lightfoot all the time?  I don't think so.  I really hope Barack does not win.

Ten poems to memorize in school.  I always read Kipling's If to the Toner.

Both the wife and I are up early this morning.  I have to go to work; she has to go to our new apartment where the decorating work is starting anew, finally, after the Spring Festival.

It would have been a good morning to take photos of the sunrise from the 21st floor apartment.  But I left my camera at school, alas.

Here is a good take on the Obamas.

Here is Tony last night on the eve of his sixth month birthday.

Here he is six months ago.

He has changed so much in so little time.  Last night, he was actually moving in his stroller as you will see in the video below.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to visit a company that in the Huai Shan district where our new apartment is located. 

The place was nothing special to look at.

But it must do the job. 

Wuxi has hundreds of these company sites: all square and ugly.

The King of Wuxi, as some AKIC readers may know, had endorsed Mitt Romney for President in the current U.S. election race; now he is endorsing Barack Obama.  Why?  He says because he thinks Obama is young and not at all radical in any way.  I think his thought patterns are poisoned by his Liberal Party of Canada (LPoC) amorality.

Working for LpoC, the King was always trying to win elections.  LPoC, like the PRI in Mexico and the Chicoms, think it is its' right to rule their respective countries.  So they abandon principles, cater to the masses as much as they can and use dirty tactics to win elections.  They are also notorious band wagon jumpers and as long as an idea seems popular, there is nothing wrong with it.

Obama's vapid gaseous speeches, said the King, are just election time rhetoric.  Everybody does it.

When I mentioned the Cuban flag with Che's image on it being seen in an Obama campaign office, the King saw nothing wrong with it.  "Come on", he said, "Che merely represents the revolutionary urge of the young. He was no Hitler." 

When I mentioned Obama's proposal to give every student in the country a 4000 dollar tuition credit toward college the King thought it was a good idea.  Maybe, the King thought it was a good way to win an election.  But, he wasn't interested in hearing me tell him the economic fatuousness of such a proposal.

Principles must only be for those who don't occupy the political middle ground.  But if you don't occupy the middle ground you are an ideologue.  That is what I get out of the King's endorsement of Obama.

My picture was in the February 20th issue of the Wuxi Daily.  Here is the link.  Below in the photo.

I was doing an Olympic English event. 

I have no photos of Lanterns, as I had promised.  When we went to Nanchang market, there were people but not many lanterns. 

But I did take some photos yesterday.

To begin with, when I looked across the street at the construction site, I saw this:

In the afternoon, I went to a factory to do some Englsih testing of soon to be enrolled company students.  At the company, Legris, I saw our former head tutor Shadow.  Here is how she looked yesterday:

That was the only gig I did yesterday.  After the testing, I went to B & Q to meet my wife who was buying more things for the apartment.  Here is what I saw in the B & Q  parking lot.

Above, you can see the large apartment complexes that overlook B & Q, Wuxi's equivalent of Home Depot.

I also saw a large group of men watching a card game:

The above is not at all an uncommon sight in Wuxi.

From B & Q, we walked to the King of Wuxi's apartment along this road:

We went to a Japanese restaurant for supper.  There, the King regaled the children with tales of his heroic role in liberating Hans Island from Denmark.  The children listened in a rapturous mood:

The blue outfit that my son Tony is wearing was knitted by my mother, his grandmother.  My wife and the King's wife praised my mother's knitting.  So Mom, if you are reading, please know that there are a few people who want you to knit for clothes for their children.  The King's wife even said she would pay you to knit something for her son Tommy, who can be seen above sitting on the King's other leg.

After supper, we went to look for lanterns but saw none.

When we got home late last night, I was able to take video of a radioactive boy:

Thursday is the last day of the Spring Festival and so today is the Lantern Festival.  Go to Xihui Park or Nanchang Market to enjoy the Lantern displays.  I look forward to being able to show the displays to the Toner.

Our new teacher will arrive in Wuxi tonight.

We will see the King of Wuxi and his family tonight.

I will take lots of photos.

Wednesday is Saturday in AKIC land.  I had an okay day that provided me with some material for this blog entry.

I had an argument with a neighbor in the apartment building.  Actually, it would be better to call it a shouting match.  Everything in the 21st floor apartment we are staying in, till our new apartment is ready, is cheap.  The first day we moved in, about five months ago, we discovered that the washing machine caused water to leak into the apartment right below us.  That was quickly fixed.  Anyway, the problem cropped up again this morning.  The women from the apartment knocked on our door to tell us about it.  But then she and my wife started screaming at each other.  I really didn't know who was in the wrong in the situation but I felt compelled to take my wife's side of the argument.  So, I call the woman all sorts of names, and repeatedly used the F word which my wife tells me many Chinese know.  I even shook my fist at her when she wouldn't let me close the door, or rather slam the door in her face.  When I eventually did get to slam the door, she then took revenge on us by going to a switch box and turning off the electricity in our apartment.  My wife wanted to do the same to her but I thought it was best to not get in a war.  Any more acts on that woman's part will be taken as a declaration of war.

We took Tony about Wuxi in the stroller.

I was all full of fury after my morning shouting match.  I was thinking today was going to be a China Day (that is a day when China causes an Expat frustration).  I thought how I was stuck in a fascist state.  I thought about wanting to punch out the next ignorant driver I saw.  What I did do was take my time at pedestrian crossings, forcing accelerating drivers to slow down when going through.  One time, I made a taxi grind to a halt and make the action of punching the vehicle's hood.   

We had to take Tony to a medical office to get a shot for the flu or something.  The office we went to was so small and crowded that I had to stand outside the building and wait for my wife to phone me to come in with Tony.

When the Chinese decide to demolish a city block, it can be very disgusting.  The block turns into a temporary garbage dump.  Now there are a few block in the downtown Wuxi area where this is happening.  When I am with Tony, I have to avoid these blocks because they must be a source of disease like typhus.  I have seen people still living in these blocks and running shops,  next to  vast piles of garbage,  seemingly ignorant of the risks to their health.

There is a block near Houxixi that is being demolished.  I took this photo there this afternoon.  Look closely and you will see garbage and an abandoned mannequin.

The Chinese must hand out driver's licenses in those red envelopes they give to each other at Spring Festival and other special occasions.  I saw a man drive his car into a wall as he tried to park against the side of a building.  It was a situation where you saw it coming and you think to yourself "the guy couldn't possibly be that stupid.  This man trying to turn against a wall hit the corner of the building because he had no idea of the turning radius of his car.  It was so laughable.

An old Chinese friend of mine, Lucy paid us a visit Wednesday night.  It was her first chance to meet Tony.

We attended a wedding party for her last summer.  How are she and her husband doing?  She told us they are expecting a baby of their own in seven months.  However, because of their work, they are separated and can only see each other once a month.  It is a not uncommon situation for many Chinese couples. 

John Derbyshire, expert on China and an excellent curmudgeon, predicts that the next president of the U.S. will be....... click here to find out.  Considering the lameness of their two candidates, the Democrats have no choice.

WTU 40 is now on the Internet:

"Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad dinner."  Sir Francis Bacon