Eye of Modok

Tis the season to eat mooncakes. Chinese people have been passing them out, both out of pleasure and obligation, for a few weeks now and today is the big day to eat them! I’m not actually that fond of them, to tell the truth, but I don’t really hate them either, so I keep on trying them every year to see if I ever find one that knocks my socks off. They come in all sorts, sizes and shapes but the traditional ones have a sweet bean paste filling. (Actually, the really traditional ones are made from lotus seeds.) They’re just a bit too dry and rich for my taste. That’s why they market many other non-traditional mooncakes these days too. If someone really wanted to get on my good side, they could give me some of those TCBY frozen yogurt mooncakes I saw the other day.

We all went to a special celebration today that my daughter Blysse somehow managed to get invited to. Most of the other guests were embassy folks, VIPs and the like, but Blysse and a few of her classmates recieved invitations for their whole families. It was at Sun Yat Sen’s (S?n Yìxi?n) wife Soong Ching Ling’s (Sòng Qìnglíng) old house and just getting inside to see that was a treat. If I could live anywhere in Beijing, it might very well be in Houhai right up alongside this place. It was amazing with a huge garden, wandering covered pathways, private ponds and streams and an immense courtyard house. I’d settle for 1/100 of that place and be very happy.