Lemonade...

Lemonade is the newest thing that we've moved on to in our world over here. We've tried finding some in the stores and other then the little, and overpriced, bottles of Snapple all you can find is an odd Chinese version that is way too sweet and, actually, doesn't taste all that much like lemonade.

So, in keeping in how we do things over here - we purchased a small juicer and I proceeded to juice up 7 or 8 lemons to get a cup of lemon juice.

It's a pain, but not as much work as the coffee grinder and the lemonade that we enjoyed was excellent.

This will also become very handy in the warmer months that are approaching when we need lemon juice so that Tina can make her sangria....

More Flintstones....

Since Tina decided to mention how we were running much more in a Flintstones environment because we have an old school manual coffee grinder as opposed to a Jetsons style fancy let's-always-have-a-perfect-cup-of-coffee complete brewing machine.

It got me to thinking, as we did make fun of Heather and Mike while we were there because they also had a automated germ-free self opening garbage can that pops it's top open when you approach it with some rubbish. Fancy stuff this future holds, but it made me think of all the other things that we've become accustomed to since we moved to China that we thought outdated or just different when we moved here.

They have hot water in their kitchen, a novel concept and something that we do not have. We have to heat up a pot of water just to do the dishes - I'm not sure that hot dishwater was ever addressed in the Flintstones.

The had a washer and a dryer, we have a washer and a clothesline. Takes a little longer to dry things, and in the typhoon season and the months of 90% humidity a clothesline doesn't really do much to dry your clothes. Our washer doesn't have hot water either...

Heat. The future holds heat but with us being in the south of China we don't have any heat in our place. You don't think of 12C (54F) as cold, but when that's the only temperature you are in all day long it sinks into your bones. The windows that we have are also poorly constructed so they shut and block out the wind about as well as the open stone holes in the Flintstones homes. Luckily, one thing that the Chinese love is fresh air, so even when it's cold outside and a good breeze has you shivering the windows will be open at work and any restaurant or store you visit.

The Jetsons, and much of the states, get all their food pre-packaged and pre-processed, whereas we wander the local market. This is one of those instances where we think the old way is better and now, since Tina had Siew Hong's training class, we have even stepped up to buying meat in the market - selecting a slab of pork that's been sitting out in the heat on a sheet of cardboard. Tina will have to inform you the tricks to getting the best stuff another time.

I'm sure there are some other things, but then we also have things that, to us at least, seem more advanced then what we left back in the States. Some of the items are a bit of a nuisance sometimes, but being here with everything that we get to experience more then makes up for these little things like having to grind our own coffee beans and manually open the cupboard door to throw things into the rubbish bin.

Jetsons vs. Flintstones

In the morning Mark enjoys one or two cups of coffee which happens to be instant coffee, except on the weekends. When we first arrived, I suggested that we purchase an electric coffee machine to which my husband replied a big fat NO.

Mark is extremely fussy when it comes to coffee, the water temperature has to be right, the grinds have to be so, the strength has to be perfect, you get the drift. Mark decided that in order to get a decent cup of coffee on the weekend, we needed to purchase a French press instead. We purchase this little guy (which gives us two cups of coffee) and throw in some of the beans. According to my beloved, there is an issue with this, as the beans have been grounded way too fine for his liking, so he decided that we needed to grind our own coffee. Okay, except he doesn't want an electrical coffee grinder, he wants a manual one. Of all places, you would think China would sell these grinders. Nope cannot locate one, electric grinders they have, manual not so much. I happened to mention our plight to one of our expat friends, and oddly enough she had one. She was going to throw it away, as they have an electrical one. We've had it for about a month and now we get to enjoy freshly ground coffee on the weekends.


Yesterday, I decided that I would be the good little wife, and start grinding some coffee for him, so he can have a decent cup of coffee before he leaves for work. I started grinding the coffee, and grinding and grinding. As I'm grinding, I keeping thinking of our friends Heather and Mike who purchased one of those new fangled coffee machines, (Keurig Platinum B70) that produces individual cups of coffee. You only need to select the coffee of your choosing and a perfect cup of coffee comes out each time. Thirty minutes later I'm still grinding.

Yea, our friends are the Jetsons, and we're the Flintstones.