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5 Things to do Before a Music Exam

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I have recently done an AMEB flute exam. 

Now, anyone who’s not an Australian is going to read that and go, “Uh-huh?!” In Australia, we like to rank aspiring musicians. We have grades 1 through to 8 (followed by four diploma exams) and this basically means that kids can wave around pieces of paper that are an indication of:

-Their achievements
-Their stress levels
-Their tiger parents
-And whether they actually ARE good at music.

(Note: if you don’t know what a “tiger parent” is read this.)

So I, as one who just survived, am going to give some tips on how to survive:

1. NEVER under any circumstances drink coffee or red cordial before an exam. 

If nerves don’t give you enough bobbance and bounce to send you playing everything at triple speed, caffeine will make it worse. Or, more usefully, don’t start your pieces too fast.

2. NEVER let the examiner smell fear. 

They’re like Nazgul. They can sense it and prey off your weak mind. Okay, not quite. But examiners are happy people when they don’t have to feel nervous for you, so when in doubt, fudge. NEVER say, “Ah, this is my worst piece” or “I don’t know the answer” or “sorry for messing that up.” No! If you forget an answer, make something up. If you mess up, pretend it never happened.

3. ALWAYS warm up before hand. 

You know how people get better the longer they play? Yeah. If you’ve done scales or run some hard stuff ten minutes before the exam, your fingers/breath/whatever-you-play-with will remember what it’s doing better.

4. ALWAYS tune your instrument! 

Like, times x1000000. If you tune it between every piece, the Earth will rain beauty upon you. Especially if you play strings. Nothing has made me want to make a Frodo-face like out-of-tune strings.

5. ALWAYS read the syllabus requirements. 

It’s funny, but in the front of any syllabus (probably the Manual of Syllabuses, particularly) there are details. Oh-so-many details about what’s required for technique, sight reading, general knowledge, and playing maturity. Let me tell you, reading through all that helped me.

There you have it. My attempts at being all professional and musician-y. 

I do realise this is a bad time of year to post AMEB exam tips, as most exams are over, but still.

What tips do you have to make exams (or performances in general) easy instead of a take-the-ring-to-Mordor kind of experience? Ever done one? Does your country have music exams?

Mime is currently feeling very relieved that her certificate came today. She got an A+. She had a generous examiner. She also has to read Tomorrow When the War Began for school and would very much like to know if it’s any good. She is lamenting the fact she’s out of liquorice tea, and very excited because she has art tomorrow. Art is good, because abstract is easy. Throw paint, drip paint, make friends raise their eyebrows… good times.

55 Questions About Books || Part 2

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Welcome to Part 2, peoples!

Remember last week? We began our discussion of 55 quirky book questions as discovered from this blog (amongst others…it’s a tag gone far and wild). 

Part 1 showed us many interesting fact about your fabulous Notebook Sisters. Like how Mime doesn’t have much chance to read these days and Cait is raising a cucumber (who bets puberty turns it into a pickle?).
Feel free to do these questions on your own blog! And tell us about it, if you like, so we may sneak over and compare answers with you.

28. Favourite reading snack?

MIME:Chocolate. Obviously. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. The world could run on chocolate. 

CAIT: Aren’t you eating chocolate right now, Mime?

MIME: Shhh.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

CAIT: I have to confess (and don’t kill me, I’m too fabulous to die) that I didn’t like The Winner’s Curse very much. It looked great. It sounded great. And mostly everyone loves it. But me? I’m the annoying black sheep in this crowd.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?

MIME:More often than not, unless the critic is a troll, I do. (By troll I mean those people who find issues with every. single. comma.)

CAIT:Ah…well, actually I’m opposite. (I’m assuming “critic” is working for a magazine or newspaper and not just your average joe-blogger.) I find critics have sucked on a lemon before writing their review.

MIME: But lemons are great! I love sucking lemons!

CAIT: I need say no more.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

MIME: I used to love deep frying anything subpar. But now I think “how would I feel if I were the author etc.”

CAIT: I have to admit…it’s a lot easier to write a negative review. You can yabber on forever about their failings, lists and lists. And the GIFs you can use! Okay, okay, I digress. While it’s easier to write those reviews, it’s not nicer. And I’m in no way a fan of book bashing. Every author worked dang hard on their book and we should appreciate that!

MIME:

CAIT:Yes, I’m finished now.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?

CAIT: Didn’t we already answer this? Didn’t I already say Klingon?
MIME: Pretty much. Except, you’re going to have to go a couple of thousand years into the future to get any good reading material.

35. Favorite poet?

CAIT: Who wrote Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue?
MIME: Not you, that’s who.

CAIT:Mime! You may be my new favourite poet! (Although, I admit I do enjoy Lewis Carroll’s nonsense.) Do you poet, Mime?

MIME: I poet. See, we’re doing poetry at school right now, and we mentioned Banjo Patterson. Some of his stuff is pretty funny. That is, the stuff that is funny. The rest is kind of “OOOOHHHH THE WOOOOES OF OUTBACK LIFE!”


36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

CAIT:Actually at the moment I only have 6 library books out! (Let’s not talk about the reserves waiting for me.) I’ve had up to 10, I believe. See how restrained I am? I deserve a cookie.

37. How often have you returned books to the library unread?

MIME: Embarrassingly often.

CAIT: On a scale of one to Gru-wearing-a-tutu, how embarrassing?
MIME:

CAIT: Fair enough. For me? If I get an unexpected conglomeration of ARCs, then I may send books back to the library. Just recently I sent back The Enemy and Alice in Zombieland and Anna Dressed in Blood, all WITHOUT reading. Too many ARCs. Too little time. (Also Anna Dressed in Blood had a suspiciously close plot to Supernatural. Complete with pinching names. This made me frown.)

38. Favourite fictional character?

MIME: Okay. Cait. Did I read this question correctly? Is it actually asking what I THINK it’s asking???
CAIT: They wish us to choose favourites between all our kids.

MIME: Not going to happen. See why this is such an impossible question? There’s childhood favourites like Peaceable Sherwood from The Sherwood Ring, right up to modern awesome like Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass, to hilarious ones like Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars.

 CAIT: And Katniss from The Hunger Games, obviously.

MIME: And Cinder from Cinder and Lemony Snicket himself. 

CAIT: And Cath and her introvertedness from Fangirl! And Cole and Isabel from The Wolves of Mercy Falls! 

MIME: Shall we stop?

39. Favorite fictional villain?

CAIT: I love villains! Let me go wild! Although, the villains in books I like are usually not-so-much-villains, like Warner from Ignite Me and…Caine from the Gone series.
MIME: Movie villains are usually better, though. You know. All the right combinations between terrifying and funny. Like Smeagol. Loki.

41. The longest you’ve gone without reading?

CAIT: Well, my first 5-years were pretty illiterate. I’m ashamed, really, of how little I read.

MIME: I think I learned to read at four. So HAHAHAHHAHAH!
CAIT: True geniuses don’t show all their skills at once. I perfected the Puppy Dog Eyes way before you did, miss. And who always got dessert? Me. And WHO can still wheedle ice cream on a Monday night? (We only get it on the weekends.) I CAN.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

MIME: There are a few of such calibre. Most were school books that I felt insulted my intelligence. But also The Lord of the Rings. I read The Fellowship, but I couldn’t make it to Two Towers. I just… couldn’t. I’d like to one day, though.
CAIT: I have a Thing about not finishing books. It makes me twitchy to have unfinished books lying around. The I confess, I only got 50% into Two Towers before I realised I was reading it just to “say” I’d read it. Which isn’t a very good reason.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?

CAIT: Meal times. Small nephews who steal bookmarks. Small nieces with sticky fingers who try to “read” too. The call of dessert. My sister choking on her hot chocolate and threatening to spit it at me. Normal things, you know?
MIME: Just about everything distracts me when I’m reading, which is a reason I don’t do enough of it.

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel?

MIME: Catching Fire! No doubt about it.

CAIT: This is haaaard. I want to say Catching Fire, but The Book Thief is incredible! And it’s SO like the book…and Matilda. Matilda is a brilliant movie and the only thing they wrecked was moving them from being British to American. (No offence to the Americans, but a British Ms. Trunchball was scarier.)

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?

CAIT: Where do we start?

MIME: Percy Jackson…1 & 2…Eragon (not that the book was stunning)…The Cat in The Hat….Mr. Popper’s Penguins…
CAIT: Ugh. No more, please. Spare me the memories.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

MIME: I actually have a great story about this one. When I did work-experience at the library, they sent me down to the bookshop and said, “Go nuts!” (Not quite. They said “buy 50 board books.”) Still. I spent a lot of library money there. It was brilliant.

CAIT: I spent $12 once.

MIME: That was Big W, not a bookstore.

CAIT: It was a big $12.

MIME: #cheapskate

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?

MIME: What?

CAIT: Who does that?

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through?

MIME: If it was impossibly awful, or if I had a really strong disagreement with it.
CAIT: For me, it’d have to be absolutely-awful-terrible-no-good-very-bad-writing.

49. Do you like to keep your books organised?

MIME: If by organised you mean a stack on my desk…
CAIT: That’s why I don’t lend you books. You mistreat my babies. I, on the other hand, have mine in perfect order on my bookshelf. (Okay, I’m lying. There’s no order at all. But they’re still nicely arranged.)

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?

CAIT: No. Mine.
MIME: I don’t own many books. Cait owns most of the books, so why buy my own when I can read hers?

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

MIME: There aren’t many I’m consciously avoiding, but there are an awful lot I haven’t gotten to, yet. Cait would list them out. But I won’t let her. Because it would take too long, and I would look bad.

CAIT: (I’m being silented against my will.) I’m avoiding Wicked, but only because it’s thick and not YA and…it somehow ends on the bottom of my TBR all the time. I’m avoiding finishing the Inkheart series too. My bad. Just basically I avoid most books over 400 pages.

52. Name a book that made you angry.

CAIT: Must that be singular?

MIME: Hold in the little green rage monster, Cait.

CAIT: Okay, I fiercely admit it. Thirteen Reasons Why made me angry. I think it sent a horrible message that condoned bullying and…and…it just ignited my fury. Also, The Last Thirteen series makes me angry because it exists. It’s — okay, I probably shouldn’t rant here. Ranting about books I don’t like is slightly mean.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?

CAIT: That’d probably be Mime’s book that I beta read for her.
MIME: I hope you’re buying a coffin.
CAIT: I’ve got myself a nice little plot in the cemetery too, don’t you worry. It’s taken care of.
MIME:
CAIT: Okay! I’m joking! Mime’s book was good. But also, actual-published books…I didn’t expect to like The Selection but I did!
MIME: I wasn’t really sure if I’d like Throne of Glass, but it got my full approval.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?

CAIT: Don’t get me started. I expect to like most books, I honestly do. Because I’m a very positive person.
MIME: Ha. ha. ha.
CAIT: But I expected to like Taken and A Midsummer’s Nightmare and both had me frowning into the dark night.

MIME: I have so many examples of this, I’m going to pull out a really obscure one from back five or so years ago. I thought I was going to adore Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott, because I’d liked Little Women. I fell asleep about a quarter of the way in. 

CAIT: The fact that it’s titled “good” wives leaves me dubious anyway.

55. Favourite guilt-free pleasure reading?

CAIT: Chocolate wrappers?

MIME: Guilt free? Really? Those chocolate wrappers are completely guilt free?

CAIT: I don’t feel bad about it. Nope. Not at all. Do I look guilty?

MIME: You know what? I’m at a loss here.

CAIT: I win? I WIN I WIN WIN!

MIME:

and, i’ll be nice and NOT ask you all the questions for the comments. instead! i want to know your answers to “favourite guilt-free pleasure reading?” and “what would make you put a book down?” because those are very interesting questions and i wish to know your thoughts.

Cait and Mime had quite a raucous time doing this two-part post series. They laughed till they cried. They spilt hot chocolate on each other. Even their mother questioned the sudden increase in frivolity. They also remembered a lot of movies they suddenly feel like watching, thanks to these gifs. Like Kung-Fu Panda. Currently, Mime’s reading OF NEPTUNE and Cait’s reading BOY21.

55 Questions About Books || Part 1

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You know what’s fun? Lists of questions.

We keep seeing this bookish-survey go around, with 55 quirky book questions. We’ve see it on copious blogs, but most recently Musings From Neville’s Navel. So! We googled and we believe it originated here.

Because 55 questions is kind of a lot, we’re splitting this into two posts of discussion awesome. You’ve been warned.

1. Favourite childhood book?


MIME: This is a really hard question, because the love of my childhood-book life was an even split between The Boxcar Children and the Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary.

CAIT:After you finished rereading the same. books. over. and. over. GOSH! I had to throw books at her head to get her to try new ones. (Not that I minded…the throwing, that is.) I personally adored The Chronicles of Narnia. I had them on audio. I listened to them about 52 billion times and then I started them again.


2. What are you reading right now?


MIME: Of Neptune by Anna Banks. It’s a cross between chick-lit, action, and mermaids. Makes for an interesting combination, but I liked the first book better.

CAIT:I’m actually not reading anything right this second! I KNOW! You can take a moment to let that sink in. But the YA Aussie Book Club is reading Rebel Belle next, which I plan to join in. And I’m about to start The Book Thief, so RIP my feels.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

CAIT: Mime, do you even have anything on reserve? Or do you just obediently read the books I give you?

MIME: I wouldn’t use the word “obedient”. It makes me sound way too “minion”.

CAIT: Well done! You’re finally learning your place! But, to answer the question, I have many books waiting for me at the library. I have Let It Snow and This Star Won’t Go Out and She Is Not Invisible. I keep demanding the library give it to me, but they’re asking for patience or something ridiculous. 

MIME: Let it snow! Let it snow!

CAIT:


4. Bad book habit?


MIME: Not reading?

CAIT: Reading too much?

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?


MIME: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. Australian, contemporary, and recommended by Cait.

CAIT: See, you are a good minion! Taking my recommendations! Good poppet. OKAY! Let me see, The Maze Runner and The Book Thief and —

MIME: Please don’t list all the books you have out. She has half the library out, let’s leave it at that.


6. Do you have an e-reader?


MIME: Yes, but no. I have an iPod. But I didn’t buy it to be an e-reader.

CAIT: She bought it to play Temple Run on. Don’t deny, Mime.

MIME: No, I bought it so my nephew can play Temple Run on it. He’s about as good as I am. He’s three.

CAIT: Babysitting fail. I also have an iPod as a Kindle, in fact, it’s identical to Mime’s and about 2 months older. (Mime is very peer-pressured. If I jumped off a bridge…well, she’d probably laugh. BUT STILL.)

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?


MIME: I like reading one, but I usually end up reading about two. Don’t know why. One upstairs, one down. Something like that.

CAIT: I only ever read 1 at a time. I’m focused and dedicated.


8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?


MIME: Uh… not really. But I do try to read more diversely.

CAIT: Yes. I read rather obsessively. I read everything. I stroke my books. And I sniff them sometimes.

9. Least favourite book you read this year so far?


CAIT: Ohhh, what can I burn. Let me see…perhaps Thirteen Reasons Why and Take Back the Skies. I loathe them with the fires of Mount Doom.

MIME: Settle down, Sauron.

CAIT: Sometimes I get angry, okay?


10. Favourite book you’ve read this year?


MIME: This question is hard, because I read both The Fault in Our Stars and Cress this year. And they are both wonderful.

CAIT: I can’t even BEGIN to list all the awesome I’ve read this year. Unhinged, Sinner, Cress, Dangerous Girls, Half Bad…aaaand I’ll stop? Unless you want to know about Paper Towns, Fangirl, More Than This…


12. What is your reading comfort zone?


MIME: I don’t like anything toooo violent. Or anything that has a central plot focus of JUST THE ROMANCE. It’s like, life doesn’t stop for love, people. You can still have a life outside of your crush.

CAIT: You clearly haven’t read much chick-lit, have you? If you get a crush = life starts. Break up = life ends. And in between? You’re not livin’, darl.

MIME: Says the girl who’s engaged to the fridge?

CAIT: We’re raising a cucumber, stop judging true love.


13. Can you read in the car?


MIME: Absolutely.

CAIT:

14. Favourite place to read?


MIME: On my bed.

CAIT: On Mime’s bed.


15. What is your policy on book lending?


MIME: If it’s me from the library, than, uh-huh. Good. If it’s other people from me… then my trust in them is pretty high.

CAIT: Would you like to explode?


16. Do you ever dog-ear books?


MIME: What?

CAIT: No.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?


MIME: WHAT?

CAIT: Who wrote these questions? Are they into book defacing?


18. Not even with textbooks?


MIME: I’m going to have to say no.

CAIT: Textbooks? I barely remember the things.

19. What is your favourite language to read in?


MIME: Quenya.

CAIT: Klingon.


20. What makes you love a book?


MIME: The feels! If I have the feels, I have the joy of reading. If a book can make me laugh, cry, (or both) then I bump up the rating.

CAIT: I have a list of very specific criteria for a book to match to make me love it. We won’t go into the exact details, but least to say, I require it to (like Mime) make me laugh and cry and possibly mention food. Delicious food.


21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?


MIME: A ridiculously fun fandom.

CAIT: If the book is feels shredding enough, I’ll definitely recommend it. I need people to suffer with me.


22. Favorite genre?


MIME: Right now, I really like contemporaries. They’re funny, they’re quirky… I like it. When I was Middle Grade age, though, I adored gothic books, like Lemony Snicket.

CAIT:As long as it’s YA, I’ll probably try it. Dystopian used to be my favourite, but writers seem to sacrifice individuality for a dystopic-checklist which sometimes bores me to tears. SO. I adore retellings and paranormal and moody contemporaries and horror.


23. Genre you rarely read but wish you did?


MIME: Classics — I wish I enjoyed them. But I don’t. So I don’t read very many of them. I’ll have to next year, though, for extension English. Whoppee.

CAIT: Epic fantasy for me. I love it and admire it…from a distance. They’re just so darn long and complicated and filled with family-trees of people who kill each other and then fall in love. Ugh. Confusing.

24. Favourite biography?


CAIT: Mime isn’t answering because she’s uneducated. I quite liked Mao’s Last Dancer and The Chinese Cinderella and…there was this book called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother which was entertaining and disturbing. All these biographies are about Chinese people. I don’t know why.


25. Have you ever read a self-help book?


MIME: I made custard from a recipe once.

CAIT: It helped us. We helped ourselves. Quite a success.


26. Favorite cookbook?


CAIT: Speak of the devil!

MIME: I can’t be specific on this. Any cookbook with chocolate in it. (As long as the chocolate isn’t mixed with avacado. Ugh, no.) 

CAIT: Do I even know you?? I also like cookbooks that contain food. I like easy ones, without a million steps. Put it in a bowl, mix it up, put it in your mouth. 


27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

CAIT: Oh stop avoiding it, Mime. You obviously think my book is the best you’ve read this year. It was witty, fabulous and inspirational.

MIME: I hope you’re not taking about the child-abuse one?

CAIT: No, the one about futuristic slave-trade.

MIME: Ah! That one. Absolutely!
CAIT: (I’m ignoring that gif.) I AM witty and inspirational. Also, I personally have been very inspired by the Throne of Glass series. It makes me want to write better and it’s also inspired me to ship a certain couple very very hard. Let’s hope my ship isn’t a titanic.



Because there are 55 questions and we know you love us but probably not that much…this will be continued next week!


Until then, you may picture Cait as Megamind and Mime as Minion. (Obviously.) And we will get back to you with the rest of the survey.


i could ask you to answer all the questions yourselves in the comments…buuuut i will be nice. instead! i want to know your answers to what’s a genre you rarely read but wish you did? and how many books do you read at once? because those are very interesting questions and i wish to know your thoughts. also, you could totally do these 55 questions on your blog! if you dare…mwhahaha.

Cait is possibly the only person who can make Mime literally laugh her head off. In fact, after the cucumber comment, Mime needed to take a moment to compose herself. Mime is back at school doing petty tasks like maths and Cait is growing paper flowers. They now have a sudden hankering to re-watch Megamind but are contenting themselves with quoting, “L-O-L smiley face.”

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (quiet fangirling involved)

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Believe it or not, I read this before Cait. (Though she read it right after me and fangirled so much she decided I should write the review because she was too emotionally invested.) You can catch Cait’s review on Goodreads.

Thank you Pan Macmillan Australia for the review-copy! FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell hits shelves on April 1st, 2014!

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they’re off to university and Wren’s decided she doesn’t want to be one half of a pair any more – she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It’s not so easy for Cath. She’s horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she’s experienced in real life. Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She’s got a surly room-mate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words …And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone. Now Cath has to decide whether she’s ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she’s realizing that there’s more to learn about love than she ever thought possible …

add it on Goodreads
Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they’re screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she’s not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don’t really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

If you want a book that basically sums up the Internet age? This is the one. 


I love all the references to pinterest/tumblr/meme culture. It’s fun and hilarious, but it does have a fairly da-da-da type of plot.

I really enjoyed the characters. While Cath, the narrator, isn’t someone who will get on my list of Most Memorable protagonists, she is undeniably well-written. I am fairly introverted, and Cait is very introverted, so I know how socially uncomfortable people respond to situations. Cath is so realistic. The way she actually does cry. The way she’s bold as anything on the Internet. She has a fettish for peanut butter. And she loves her twin sister SO MUCH.


I was kind of mad at Levi the Love Interest a few times… (HOW DARE YOU, YOU STUPID BOY!) And Nick…don’t get me started.

I think Cath and Wren (her twin sister) could be a little stereotypical as a pair. I mean, the super-introverted nice girl with the super-extroverted party girl as a twin?? On the surface it was very “Yep. Expected.” Underneath, I like it that Wren wasn’t as shallow as she first appeared.

The plot was, as I said before, not very fast.  I have trouble picking out the main plot. The whole thing wasn’t about the romance. It wasn’t all about Cath and Wren. It wasn’t just about Cath’s writing. And it was more than a college story. It was kind of a whole bunch of threads tied together, and they all worked gorgeously. But while they each had a climax (and a good one), they didn’t all come together to make the plot memorable.

It was funny, and I identified with Cath. It was beautiful, and a tiny bit bittersweet. It wasn’t hilarious, though, which I’d hoped for, and it didn’t leave me in a puddle of tears. I didn’t have the feelz. (Hence the 4-stars, not 5.) But it’s totally enjoyable and absolutely worth the read.

Expectation:

Reality:

Mime is doing work experience at the library. This is a simultaneously scary and exciting thing, as she’s never had a job before. She is extremely relieved that all the exams are over for Term 1, and the holidays are coming up. Unfortunately, so is Cross Country. She hopes dearly that she doesn’t get lost. Unlike last time. 

Shopping!

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In China, things are cheap. Very cheap. So we decided to go dress shopping.
The Chinese shopping centers are amazing places. First there are some enormous, posh ones that are so expensive you will not see an unemployed-soul inside. These types of places are so concerned with fanciness that they supply umbrella bags so you won’t drip on the floor. Note Rachel demonstrating. The bathroom attendants also wear suits.
Next we have the less expensive style, where

you won’t be able to breathe for the crush of
people.
Here you can buy a pair of earrings for 5 kuai (Kuh-why) the equivalent to a little under a dollar, a beautiful wedding dress, a pretty and
short dress for about two hundred kuai (roughly $33), and all your shoe needs. (Whole levels of shopping centers are devoted to high heeled shoes.) To the sides you will see some of the dresses.
Now we couldn’t afford a dress for two hundred, so we sought a cheaper option, and Rachel took us to an underground
shopping center. This form of underground doesn’t mean underground as in against law,
but underground literally. This is the next level down, and here you have to keep your handbags in front of you for fear of people with quick and devious fingers. (Pick-pockets weren’t wiped out in China in the “Oliver” era, you see.)
In the last two photos I’m wearing the two dresses we bought in the underground shopping center. I call the pink one my “Alice in Wonderland Dress”, and the other my “Dress-with-Felicity-Sleeves” — from a book I read about a girl in the 1700s. So this is what we did before my birthday, and you might say for my birthday. These dresses were my birthday presents, along with my MP3 player.
So shopping in China is really a memorable experience, and it was really a lot of fun, what with the lunch of steamed buns and a stop at a dessert cafe for mango glutinous rice balls.
Who’s up for a day of shopping?

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Easter in China

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And My Birthday
Easter is really not celebrated in China. So for us, Easter was not really Easter-ish. Two days before, Rachel, Mum, and I were out shopping (birthday shopping, since my birthday fell on the same day as Easter Sunday) and we saw chocolate rocks, a favourite treat. The only place we knew where to get them was a chocolate shop in Melbourne, and that’s wasn’t very local, so it was surprise-surprise, when we found them in China in an underground shopping center. (Underground in this case meaning not illegal, but literally, underground, like a subway.) So I thought knew the big Easter surprise, and then I was truly shocked when we found that the Great Wall had not kept the rabbits out (private joke: only certain people will get this) and we found that Mum had brought chocolate Easter bunnies to China, and we were delighted. And I still have some left!
So now it was time for the next stage of the Easter-birthday. This was to ride two hours in a rented bus to a waterfall on the Vietnam-China border, the largest trans-national waterfall in Asia. We all had good expectations about the “Niagara Falls of China”, the only negative being the two hours there and the two hours back in the bus.
And so we drove. And drove. And drove. Our bus driver (it was more like a van-taxi) had tinted the windows, and we could barely see out, and it was dark inside, so I couldn’t really read the book I’d taken.
“We must be almost there,” we told ourselves after two hours. Another hour passed. And another. Most of us began thinking “two hours, my foot!” And that was exactly right.
So we finally got to the waterfall and it started to rain. Never mind. We climbed up the track to see it better, and viewed a very pretty, but smaller than expected, waterfall. We couldn’t step into Vietnam, a disappointment, and so after an hour or so in the rain we decided to go face another four dry hours in the approaching night to get back to Nanning.

We finally arrived home. It was much to late to have the birthday cake that was specially brought for Rachel and me, and too late as well for making pasta. So leftovers and and eight hours in the bus completed this day, and I suppose I’ve had more lively birthdays, but it wasn’t outright bad. Just a little boring.

I think I’d had a birthday’s worth before hand though, since Rachel had taken me to have my toenails specially painted with flowers and swirls on them, and on Good Friday we’d gone shopping for a dress and ended up with two. And as a main gift, I received an MP3 player, and that has been great!
And that was the 24th of April, 2011, signifying both Easter Sunday and my birthday.

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A Walk In The Park

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Shortly after arriving in China, Rachel took us for a leisurely walk in the park. Ah, very exciting! Wow, were we surprised!

We saw people taking their birds for walks:
People practising tai chi (with swords):
People doing the ball dance:
People playing any instrument or singing (with the aid of microphones):
People on theme park rides:
Like rollerskating, jumping machines, shooting galleries, and roller coasters.
People selling candied fruit:
Strawberries, hawthorn berries, pineapple, tomatoes, you name it and it’s candied on a stick!
Dancing in the Spanish Style:
People on exercise machines:
I decided to have a go at these things, which family and Chinese alike laughed at me…
Any one for a walk?

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The Smaller Half of China

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Doesn’t she have a cute little face? We saw adorable kids just like her all over the country. This one we saw at a mini bird-and-flower market on the way to the park.
These bubble guns are available at all the parks. We saw these two children at the People’s Park.
Who would give their kid a hair cut like that? It was very popular for little kids, actually.
Or a haircut like this! Ah, but it is cute…sort of.
Little Marshmallow. Poor kid. Especially since we were all wearing tee shirts. This specimen of a regular sight was at the Forbidden City.
And if one’s not cute enough, how about double that?
And this last kid drew the largest crowds and had the most people oogle over him and snap photos; far more than any of these gorgeous little ones. Yep, you guessed it; my nephew.

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Petals, falling

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We went to China in the spring time, which had to be one of the prettiest times, with beautiful peach blossom in bloom. While we were on the Great Wall it was amazing, because all over the awe-inspiring mountains were these beautiful pink and white flowers, and we also saw them at the Forbidden City. The little pink petals and the red walls were so…so…Chinese. But that doesn’t explain very much.
Maybe these pictures will show you better. Such beautiful flowers.

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My Little Nephew

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This is my one and only favourite nephew, Xavier.
He has to be one of the cutest babies in the world. And I am so excited, because I will see him in a bit over a month. Can’t wait. I have told my friends again and again that “Xavier’s so cute” and “my nephew is the cutest baby ever!” and that type of thing. Now I will show everyone why it was so great to see him when we were in China. We don’t know who is his favourite aunt out of Cait and I, because she is more comfortable, and I am hilariously funny, especially when he is over tired, and then he will start laughing and end it in a fussing complaint. So then we would start laughing. Cute as….This is him as a fairly new born baby. Cait is comfortable, and I am funny. Not much changes.
And this is pretty gorgeous, too.
Just look at that little face! (At the Forbidden City)
Some things never change, I think. At least in the two adoring aunts holding him. He looks more shocked there, rather than happy. (At the Korean restaurant.)
And he is so cute when he sucks his bottom lip, like this last one (at the tea drinking ceremony)
Now would you agree that I have the cutest nephew in the world? He is the cutest baby. (Until proven otherwise by another niece or nephew. I think it’s going to be a little difficult with a face like that!)

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