Happy Easter

Have nice holiday and eat a lot of eggs!

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Semla

Nam nam

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Mezza Luna

Italian restaurant near Odenplan. Very tasty pizza!

Forno a Legna

Such a good looking pizza! Bide your time, I will devour you...

Chinese fruit stores

Here in Shanghai you can see fruit shops everywhere. Sometimes there are really less than 100 meters between them. And all they do is sell the fruits that are available for the season, and they seem to sell well.

The key here is to understand the important social game they play in China, and that it is totally different of what we have here in Sweden.

In China, family is everything. Also friends, colleagues and neighbors are important. You have a very wide network of friends and relatives. You call your cousins wives fathers brother for your uncle. Your cousins wives fathers brothers daughter is your sister. Blood bands that in our view is so far away that we never heard their names mentioned here in Sweden is someone that you regularly visit in China.

If anyone in your family or someone among your friends have visited you, then you have to visit them in a reasonable time period. They gave you a gift (Yes it is a rule) and you have to give something of more value than you got from them. You can see the gift they gave as a loan with interest that you have to pay back next time you go to them.

So now you can see that this thing with gifts is quite important. So what is usually given as a gift?

Well it depends on how wealthy you are. Among the really rich ones it is gold and jade. When you go to the Chinese malls you will see that it is common with jewelry stores that sell small statues made of gold or small to mid sized gold bars. Amulets or jewelry made of jade is also common. Among those who try to achieve a western way of living you can buy western food or wine (which is ridiculously expensive).

If it is the season for moon festival, then it is common to give a box of fancy moon cakes. Otherwise it is never wrong to give some vitamins or omega 3 oil pills of a good quality brand. Wishing health for your loved ones is never wrong.

Another thing is to give fancy cakes or bakeries. It is believed that this is common food in the west and that we eat this for breakfast. For a Swede this sounds ridiculous, but it is just to play along...

The most common thing to give among common people, that you don't have to impress but you wish a healthy life for, is fruits. Every family along the street will then have to boy fruits as gifts at least once or twice a week. Then you start to understand that selling fruits is a big business.

Beijing Yandai Byway

We have been in Beijing for a couple of days visiting old friends to Girlwing. Soon it is time to go back to Shanghai again but first we decided to take some time for sightseeing.

We once before, in 2006, visited a bar street at night by the river. Just a quick stop and a short walk before we went home. It was dark and a lot of people but it seemed like a nice area. So we wanted to go there again when the sun is shining.

I didn't expect so much people there but it is an old area aiming at tourists so we were not alone there. Though it will be a lot busier at night when all the bars open and everybody is having a party.

On a sign in the end of the street I read: "The Yandai (literally meaning "tobacco pipe") Byway measures 232 meters long. It was known as Gulou Byway over two centuries ago as recorded in an ancient map of the capital city. During the late Qing Dynasty, it was renamed Yandai according to local annals and vendors along the street mainly dealt with smoking sets besides paintings, calligraphic works, jade ware and other curios. As it embodies traditional folk customs and distinctive features of old Beijing, Xicheng District Government launched a protective restoration in 2007; and it was designated as a Speciality Shopping Street by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce."

Street view

 This cool guy was sitting just inside a shops open door, 

chewing his toe nails.

 One of the many small shops along the street.

A midget terracotta soldier, 

equipped and ready to party!

The romantic river where you can hire a pedal boat.

 A lot of bars along the river and the drinks are not expensive.

 When you are too drunk to walk you can let this guy give you a ride back to the hotel. That will cost less than one of the drinks you had.

A local girl.

More shops.

The last dinner in Beijing for this time. This plate is huge! Probably food for at least three persons. Girlwing always buys too much food. But it was tasty!

Xi'An Small Wild Goose Pagoda

The first old Chinese building that we planned to see in Xi'An was the Small wild goose pagoda. A pagoda is a kind of house or tower with many roofs.

This pagoda was built in year 709 and is 15 levels high but it used to be even a bit higher before the devastating Shaanxi earthquake in year 1556.

Girlwing and I climbed the stairs all the way up to the top. The last levels I had to take off my backpack to fit in the stairs and small passages. Finally up there we were able to enjoy the fantastic view over the city.

Breakfast!

Stone carvings with names of who donated a lot of money for the construction of the pagoda.

On my way up the pagoda!

Chinese graffiti at the top...

The temple next to the pagoda.

Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

A pomegranate tree.

 The yard of the temple.

A stone lion.

A sacred animal looking piece of wood.

The horse parking lot. The higher stone, the more powerful owner.

The most powerful people have a statue on top of the stone.

Really cool leaves on that bush!

Happy lion parking spot.

The temple and the pagoda in the background.

I also took some time to smell the roses.

Lunch!

The great wall of Xi'An.

We will take a closer look on that one before we leave.

Xi'An Food

Girlwing and I took a late vacation and went to China. First we stayed a couple of days in Shanghai with her parents and met some relatives, then we went straight to Xi'An.

The first day we went out to try different kinds of special street food. There are a couple of streets packed with people and all kinds of food and there is fun stuff to buy everywhere along the streets.

It is a very special atmosphere and if you ever go to Xi'An this is something you have to experience. Everything is very cheap compared to Shanghai or Beijing. Not to mention what it would cost in Europe.

First we ate spicy duck neck in the street. Then some fried rice in a simple restaurant. Girlwing followed that up with some cold noodles and after that a cold dessert that you see getting prepared in the picture to the right. I didn't dare trying the cold food but it didn't matter because my stomach got a bit upset anyway. So I stayed away from the street food for the rest of my stay in Xi'An. Girlwing didn't have any problems so I guess I am just a little more sensitive than she is.

Tomorrow we will go and see some old parts of the city. So stay tuned for some more pictures.

Work summer party

Once a year in the beginning of the summer my customers boss is inviting us all to his home. There he and his wife are treating us with food and drinks. Good customer!

Pizza Hut - Tropical Chicken

Oh tasty pizza, I WILL DEVOUR YOU!

Pizza Hut - Garlic bread Bruccetta

Girlwing and I took a ride by bicycle to Barkarby. Finaly there we got hungry and we found the right place. :)

Project party - Burger

Free dinner is never wrong. :)

Stockholm Open 2010 - Second day

The second day started quite good for me. I played my first game against a KGS player on his first tournament in real life. He played the tournament as a 5 kyu but I felt he was actually much stronger than that. He played some moves a bit strange and I felt I got an advantage. If he learns some fundamentals and josekis he will be 2 kyu in no time.

He used a lot of thinking time and soon he was in byo-yomi and he used one period and then another. Then suddenly the last period expired and I won on time. Girlwing looked at the board and said it was very close and anyone could win. The strongest endgame would decide the winner.

My opponent believed he had another byo-yomi period when the Ing clock said 1:30, but that is actually the last period. I actually made the same mistake in a tournament a couple of years ago. It's a hard lesson to learn, but you will never forget it.

During lunch a whole bunch of us go players went to the local fast food place Daisy's. Girlwing ordered a disgusting looking fish and chips and I took a greasy plate of kebab. The food was not the best but we had interesting discussions about the Swedish go world and old players that we seldom see any longer. We imagined how interesting it would be if all the strong players started go to the tournaments again.

After dinner Girlwing I and jpyllman went to the bicycle dealer next doors. I need a new tyre for my bike so I fell for this deal with two brand tires. When I got home I fitted one of them on my bicycle but then I got the problem of filling it with air. So now I have to go buy myself a pump. Or I have to carry the wheel to some place where I can fill it with air. Hmmm... I need a car...

After lunch it was time for a second game. Another 5 kyu for me to play against. It is always a little scary to play the lower ranked players because I feel pressure to beat them. Still they have a good chance to win over me but it feels better to get beaten of a higher ranked player. Probably because that if a stronger player wins over me it is because he is better, but if a weaker players wins over me it is because I played bad. This is of course not true but this is a common way of thinking.

Anyway... The game started off good and I had a nice moyo. Then I made a bad judgement and I got myself a running group and a not yet alive group on the side to worry about. It ended with my running group with 21 stones died and a big dent in my moyo. I played to the end anyway and I lost by 35 points.

So to sum it all up I won two games and lost three. I am not very happy with this result and I really need to study. So Girlwing bought me a book and I will study it this summer. Hopfully I will come back to the next tournament as a 3 kyu player.

Girlwing won all five games and the first price. She also gave a free lecture as a price to one of the 9 kyu players. This lecture will be held online in English on KGS. Hopefully it will be a public lecture so we all can watch a learn something valuable.

On the way home we stopped in Kista for some sushi. At the same time there was some performance by Magnus Carlsson the singer. He is actually good live. I only wish he sang some other songs....

Now it is time for bed and another week of hard work. I will dream of becoming stronger and beat all my opponents in the next tournament... Sweet dreams... :)

Read about the first day.

Main course

Tasty fish with mashed potatoes and sauce.