Author: Willem

par·a·sol [par-uh-sawl, -sol] noun
a lightweight umbrella used, especially by women, as a sunshade.

Parasols are not used much in the USA (why is that?), but they seem to be quite popular in China – especially when the sun is scorching down.   This is not far from where I work.  It is lunch time and a good thing that the cafeteria is close by !

I had to find out what the deal with this bird is : several nights now I have seen reports about it on the Japanese TV channel NHK.   One evening there was a news clip showing a nest with a new chick in it.  The researchers watching through a camera with a telephoto lens were beside themselves. Well, it is a toki or a Japanese crested ibis. The birds hover on the brink of extinction.   They used to be found in pine forests and wetlands all over Japan, China and also in South Korea.  A small population does remain in Shaanxi Province in China – but in Japan there are only 5 breeding pairs, on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture.  They are all fitted with GPS devices, designated as National Natural Treasures.  I see some websites show its scientific name as Rhacophorus schlegelii – but Wikipedia says it is Nipponia nippon.  It does not get any more Japanese than that !

I checked into the news reports about Apple’s annual world-wide developers conference in San Francisco (WWDC 2012) and found this beautiful conference logo. (There is a new operating system for the iPhone and iPad on the way, new Macbook computers but no iPhone 5 announcement.  That’s fine with me.  I’m not itching to get a new phone!).

There was lots of water at the 2012 French Open Mens Final between Nadal and Djokovic : not Perrier mineral water, but rain.   So when the match was suspended (again) for the day, Nadal was up two sets to one, and Djokovic up 2-1 in the 4th set.  Play is to resume at 1pm local time on Monday.

Poland and the Ukraine are co-hosting the Euro Cup 2012 soccer event that started Friday night.   CCTV1 transmitted the Netherlands-Denmark match live last night.  I watched until the Danes got the first goal in the 24th minute and then went to sleep .. turned out that was the only goal.  ‘Slordig Oranje hard onderuit’ (Sloppy Orange team fell down hard’) says Dutch paper Volkskrant on-line.   But they point out that the Orange team lost their first-round match in 1988 against Russia and then went on the win the Cup.   So all is not lost for the Dutch?

Friday night found us in the Damiesha Sheraton’s lobby again for a beer and a burger (and other food).  One of us ordered the burger without mayonnaise. ‘Mei you mayo’ I chimed in, and we all laughed at the instant double entendre (of sorts).  Méi ​yǒu (没有) means have not / has not / does not exist / to not have / to not be. Here is another example. Some time ago I called the front desk after I had settled in my room.  There was no internet connection cable in the wall (there usually is). Up to my room comes a guy, takes a look under the desk, looks up at me – somewhat surprised – and says ‘méi​ yǒu’.  Yes, yes, ‘méi​ yǒu cable’ I said, grinning. (The cable was actually tucked away in another place in the desk).  And what is mayonnaise in Chinese?  Dàn​ huáng​ jiàng, literally ‘yellow egg jam’.

The National Higher Education Entrance Examination here in China, or commonly known as Gaokao, is an academic examination held annually for two to three days across the country.  There is a lot of pressure : almost 9.15 million students will take the exam to vie for 6.85 million vacancies in the country’s universities and colleges.  There are about 310,000 exam rooms at 7,300 venues nationwide.   All of this sounds very similar to my situation in high school in South Africa with the Matriculation Exam I did !  (Once upon a time, a long time ago).

In the USA taking the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is an important part of the admissions process – but just one of many criteria used by colleges and universities to make admissions decisions.  The SAT test consists of three parts- Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing. The scores from each section can range from 200 to 800, so the best possible total score is 2400.  The average score is about 1500, though.

I love the beautiful design on this dinner plate.  It’s from a grocery store right here in Dameisha.

The Telegraph has compiled a cool interactive timeline of the 60 years since Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, here  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9305109/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-timeline-60-years-of-history-in-the-UK-the-world-and-the-Royal-Family.html

The decade when I made my entrance into the world shows a Pan Am 747.  I see decimalization of the currency in the UK occurred in 1971.  The penny farthing (¼ penny) bit the dust in this conversion, and the Pound became the Pound Sterling.  In South Africa a decimal currency was actually introduced 10 years earlier almost to the day, on 14 February 1961.  TWO South African Rand replaced one South African pound.