Halloween décor is a relatively new in QD at least, and probably still bought up mainly by the foreigners who can also be seen rushing about the tailors in the Tai Dong area having custom costumes made and scouring about the shops that sell brooms and plastic basins and other household cleaning and maintenance materials (I once bought a flimsy fly spank for 1 yuan… 12 cents… at such a shop) looking for the infamous witch’s broom. Handmade straw brooms are still used regularly used in Chinese homes, on the streets, and even in grassy areas in lieu of rakes. They do make great costume accessories in that Wizard of Oz - Wicked Witch of the West way.
Our family’s Monster Mash party was just the tip of the Halloween iceberg… as Halloween continued on November 1 @ the Expat Halloween party where international children from all corners of the globe convened @ the Best Western for games, crafts and snacks, followed by good-old-fashioned trick-or-treating in the adjacent housing complex inhabited predominately by Westerners.
Eliza wore her new red silk and heavily beaded East Indian suit that we picked up in Kuala Lumpur’s Little India. She had a sticky jewel for the center of her forehead, one for the side of her nose and elaborate design that traced up her arm.
Beatrice sported the “bottom-of-the-dress-up-bin” look, reviving the tired bride costume and headband veil she has been wearing daily since we arrived home from Uncle Ryan’s wedding.
Millie spent another windy Saturday @ the Olympic Marina, facing for the first time really strong wind gusts and a white-knuckle sailing adventure. Sean spent the afternoon with her, and they came home to warm showers and a little down time before the costumed little sisters on a sugar high returned with Mom.
Saturday night was date-night, and Saint Ayi Lucy arrived for her five-hour stint with The Johnson girls. (Our date nights could probably be a blog entry of their own… stayed tuned… )
This week we had 7:00 reservations at our favorite restaurant in Qingdao, Tratoria Verde: a tiny, six-table Italian Restaurant in the heart of Hong Kong Garden. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and decided, after our Italian coffees and melt-in-your-mouth tiramisu to try to catch the first set @ Club New York. (When we toured Qingdao in 2005 on our house hunting trip, our real estate agent pointed out Club New York and boasted that being inside was the equivalent to being in Manhattan. The reality… not so… not even close.)
CNY is on the second floor of the Chinese Overseas Hotel, where a huge bunting on the banister reads… Welcome to Friends From Domestic and Abroad. The toilets are the nasty variety you can smell long before reaching them. The lobby is outdated marble and the carpeted stairs are worn. The draw for us though is the talented six member Filipino band (half of which also lead worship @ our Sunday fellowship.)
Saturday night was Halloween night… with huge fuzzy spiders hanging from the ceiling, together with orange and black bunting. (Hopefully this autumnal décor does not go the way of other misunderstood Western holidays in China.) The bouncers, who usually wear U.S. army fatigues, instead had on jackets that could either belong on a drum major or the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts club band. The waitresses donned flowing antebellum dresses with matching hats. Our server, curiously also sported cat whiskers. The talented band did not disappoint, and like good sports where also decked out for the night, one wore a scary wolf head and a sleeveless furry top (white jeans and go-go boots rounded out her look), superman, a hillbilly and cat-woman joined her.
If you ignore the creepy middle-aged white guys trawling for women half their age, the rest of the mix at Club New York is rather fun and eclectic. Young Chinese crazy for 80s English music rocked out to I’m your Venus. The multi-talented band crooned a Japanese love ballad for the businessmen at the table next to us who smiled and politely bobbed their heads in appreciation. Later, one of the Japanese guys joined the band on stage for a rendition of Sweet Home Chicago where he played the bass and two of the regular guys from the band blew dueling trombones with their guitars still strapped to their necks. The band threw in a Chinese pop song, and closed out the set with an amalgamation of Gloria Estefan hits.
Saturday night was date-night, and Saint Ayi Lucy arrived for her five-hour stint with The Johnson girls. (Our date nights could probably be a blog entry of their own… stayed tuned… )
This week we had 7:00 reservations at our favorite restaurant in Qingdao, Tratoria Verde: a tiny, six-table Italian Restaurant in the heart of Hong Kong Garden. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and decided, after our Italian coffees and melt-in-your-mouth tiramisu to try to catch the first set @ Club New York. (When we toured Qingdao in 2005 on our house hunting trip, our real estate agent pointed out Club New York and boasted that being inside was the equivalent to being in Manhattan. The reality… not so… not even close.)
CNY is on the second floor of the Chinese Overseas Hotel, where a huge bunting on the banister reads… Welcome to Friends From Domestic and Abroad. The toilets are the nasty variety you can smell long before reaching them. The lobby is outdated marble and the carpeted stairs are worn. The draw for us though is the talented six member Filipino band (half of which also lead worship @ our Sunday fellowship.)
Saturday night was Halloween night… with huge fuzzy spiders hanging from the ceiling, together with orange and black bunting. (Hopefully this autumnal décor does not go the way of other misunderstood Western holidays in China.) The bouncers, who usually wear U.S. army fatigues, instead had on jackets that could either belong on a drum major or the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts club band. The waitresses donned flowing antebellum dresses with matching hats. Our server, curiously also sported cat whiskers. The talented band did not disappoint, and like good sports where also decked out for the night, one wore a scary wolf head and a sleeveless furry top (white jeans and go-go boots rounded out her look), superman, a hillbilly and cat-woman joined her.
If you ignore the creepy middle-aged white guys trawling for women half their age, the rest of the mix at Club New York is rather fun and eclectic. Young Chinese crazy for 80s English music rocked out to I’m your Venus. The multi-talented band crooned a Japanese love ballad for the businessmen at the table next to us who smiled and politely bobbed their heads in appreciation. Later, one of the Japanese guys joined the band on stage for a rendition of Sweet Home Chicago where he played the bass and two of the regular guys from the band blew dueling trombones with their guitars still strapped to their necks. The band threw in a Chinese pop song, and closed out the set with an amalgamation of Gloria Estefan hits.
Halloween in November, China style!
3 comments:
"fly spank"? that must be what you yankees call it.
Actually, our British friends introduced us to the word... which we think has a superior ring to it. (Much like I now prefer "lollypop" to "sucker"!)As in, did Lucy get a lot of Lollies on Friday night?
you have a good point. when joy was with us in the hospital she kept calling diapers "knappies" and the bathroom the "lue, or loo" something like that. i have to admit,i like those terms better.
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