random thoughts evading an all encapsulating title...

Firstly, apologies for my hiatus. Again. One reason is that I am just so busy these days that I just never seem to have the chance to write. Then, one week becomes two, and then three... and well I'm sure you've all grasped the concept of time and how it flies- even when you are not having fun!
Secondly, I started this blog as an outlet and a point of interest for all the weird and wacky things I see here in China. But after having lived in Shanghai now for over three years (has it really been that long?) I tend to feel more and more that I just don't see the things that are totally wacky to the rest of the world. This, combined with a lack of time to write, has resulted in a rather stagnant blog of late.
The weird and wacky things are still happening though, and I have recently decided that I need to make more time to document them before they one day seem lie just a dim past dream. I don't want to look back one day and think, wait a minute- did the repair man really stand on the ledge of a 13th floor window with no safety belt? Did I really know people called Peter Pan, Shiny and Sun Ray? Could I really have been charged in a restaurant for Ass Pie? At least I'll have this blog to look back on one day and realise that all those weird and wacky things did happen.
In truth I have become accustomed to many things, but some stuff still surprises me. For example I was in the back of a taxi the last week when I noticed a new shop had opened in my neighbourhood. Judging by the shelves of random roots and pickled/dried animal parts I assumed it to be a traditional Chinese medicine dispensary.
That, however did not quite explain the 7 foot tall stuffed deer that was standing outside the door. The fully grown antlers led me to believe it was male, and just when I start thinking "Oh how sad, someone shot Bambi's daddy", I look to the other side of the door to see a fully stuffed little fawn. I guess it's more merciful this way- Bambi can't miss his dad if he is stuffed and on display with him for all eternity on a busy footpath on Fahuazhen Rd, Shanghai!
Unfortunately when I went back to take a photo of the surprising Shanghai wildlife, the large deer had disappeared, replaced only by another small fawn. Either he was too cumbersome to move in and out of the shop each day, or someone sold him as a cure for arthritis.
Meanwhile, speaking of traditional Chinese cures, I am suffering from Labyrinthitis again. It is not as bad as the last time I had it, but is still very disconcerting and not to mention nauseating. My Chinese co-teacher told me yesterday that when her aunt was suffering from the same condition (a condition I might add that has no effective medicinal treatments other than time), her local physician advised her to eat a fresh human placenta to cure it. When she decided against the idea, her family procured one for her anyway (I didn't ask how but I have heard that they are big on the abortion clinic black market- and I wish I was kidding about that). They boiled the placenta into a soup and fed it to her without her knowledge. My co-teacher suggested that I do the same, as it cured her aunt. Or perhaps time did, as this condition tends to only last a few days to a couple of weeks anyway.
In anycase, I won't be going for dinner at her house any time soon.