Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

Founded in 2008, Yihaodian e-commerce store – now 51% owned by Walmart – runs logistics centres in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu and is able to offer same-day and next-day delivery.

This is how those deliveries were arranged every single morning on a fleet of about 20 bicycles:

 

We lived in the block on the left, behind the grey pillars. One of the flats opposite us on the hallway was a distribution store for  1 号店, the  chinese e-commerce online store. A fleet of lorries delivered to the store, often in the middle of the night, and then the guys and girls trolleyed the goods out to the bicycles, and rode off.

Related articles

• Wal-Mart Raises Stake to 51% in China Online Retailer Yihaodian (businessweek.com)

Sidey’s weekend theme: tellurian

Sidey – Where on earth did that come from???

TELLURIAN

tel yur Ian the answer is …

a person from tellur – that’s a planet in galaxy sje647vc

a vegetable that smells like durian, tastes like tar

a metal that makes bicycles glow in the dark

a lake on the dark side of the moon

a city in middle earth Tolkien forgot to mention

….

I knew I knew that word from somewhere but resisted looking it up! I am going to find out what it is by deduction from everyone else’s posts about it. Think maybe the bicycle glowing in the dark is close – is it one of those rare metals, probably bits of it sitting right on my lap inside this computer?

Its the paint on my bike!

Blooming

Return from Cornwall
Good news waiting here and the Christmas cactus bloomed while I was gone. WordPress obviously likes photos, the photo challenge on postaday is taking lots of time to look and wonder. So many talents out there, and thoughts.

Decisions Decisions

Sidey’s weekend theme: The Decision

at a Shanghai Exhibition, near Peoples Square

Why pick a picture which to me is so neutral? Just a board game… a statue at that… not representing the kind of decision which took me to a different life. But then most of the big things which changed my life were not the result of my decisions at all. Getting pregnant comes to mind as the most momentous, got to confess to three ‘accidents’ there, not one plan or decision. Similarly getting married and getting first job (and second, third, etc).  Divorce did take a decision, but by the time I took it, pretty inevitable.

It has all been a sort of Go with the Flow, rather than anything thoughtful like Making a Decision.

I have become a bit better in recent years, I hope, become self-aware, it is my life. I could live every moment being aware, wow, living in the moment, a full life, and I could see every moment could bring a decision. Pretty exhausting, habits are helpful! Thinking about being aware, there is a different kind of decision there. To be or not to be?

What are decisions actually about? Not a lot about outcomes, so very very few of those are in our power to control, whatever decision we take.

Decisions are not so important in real life, they might be in a game. I like this photo, they take their game seriously.

I did write a poem a year ago – it is on my poetry blog. Choose life, whatever it brings.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: through

Serendipity, synchronicity, whatever – before seeing this week’s topic, yesterday I went on a walk and took this at Trebarwith Beach, Cornwall. Through to Sunshine.

From inside a cave at the Port William end of Trebarwith Beach

Rocks rock

I am having a week in Cornwall with old (both senses of that) friends. Yesterday we had a geology walk on Trebarwith beach. Utterly beautiful and endlessly interesting. The previous evening we watched The Boat that Rocked. Foot twitching, then next day this wonderful walk, Rocks rock too.

Trebarwith beach

John, geology group leader

Low tide

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual

Why is this unusual? Because it is EMBROIDERY.

My camera could not take a picture which conveys the stitching in this amazing work of embroidery.

This fierce and even terrifying raptor is created from the finest silk thread and tiny stitching (about 1.5 x 1 metres in size). I think it is a sea eagle, was part of an incredible exhibition seen at the Shanghai Art Museum. It was unusual for me to go to an exhibition of embroidery in the first place – my assumption was that such work was all of flowers and subjects of that kind. There were plenty of those too, but all just challenged me to hold a different kind of view. As the unusual usually does.

I wonder…wandering in wondering

Sidey’s weekend theme is “I wonder”.

Taken at midday from the entrance to Inverleith House, Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. Created by a camera, and chance.

Try anything on the National Geographic Photo Galleries, though we are all photographers now.

Why is this word WONDER so different when it is a verb – that is the theme – and when it is a noun? OK the thesaurus gives lots of synonyms of the various meanings but the everyday use ones are the ones which are so different.

Verb: I wonder – I am in doubt, uncertainty, pondering, a little tentative about my curiosity, where will it go?

Noun: A wonder – all the adjectives for such a thing are marvellous, awesome, wow, glorious, even to be revered or worshipped.

Image of Inverleith House via Wikipedia

[My word of the moment seems to be glorious, I just realised how many times I have written 'glorious day' in previous posts]

So, I wonder, ha ha, what if the connection is that I /we only have the state of mind to see the glorious when we are open to uncertainty and a liitle lost so going out to look for anything is a bit risky? We just might find it wonderful!

Computer scary, real life more so...

Its the state of mind where “I” doesn’t have to be an ego, thrusting itself into the world, it just is, and the world comes, with whatever it brings. We are tentative in this state because it is a risk we are taking, who knows what it might bring?

 

 

Incidentally, wonderful WordPress just sent a post which had a link to a blog about finding friends in new places – and it was missing friends while I was in Shanghai that started me on blogging. This gave a link  a link to another blog 1000 awesome things. They are both plugging books, but why wouldn’t they when they have taken the time and energy to collect thoughts about friendship and about wonderful things? When Sidey sent the theme I was already thinking about friends and how much they matter, and about wonderment. [Synchronicity is another wonderful thing I have wondered about, maybe Sidey got the WordPress post too and it is just as simple as that to make connection.]

I hope I don’t sound smug – just want to say I am at the moment in such a happy frame of mind, able to wander in wondering.

Related articles

• On seeing the positive side (wiredal.wordpress.com)
• Under no illusion, or betrayal? (elspethc.wordpress.com)

Edinburgh Tourist (4)

I cycled down to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens again. Yes I know I have written about them before, but every trip is different and opens up different kinds of enjoyment. Today I went with specific purpose – I have two trips arranged and the Botanic Garden shop is a Great Place for Gifts for Gardeners and Girls and Growing boys. Gee getting carried away there and successfully too as nearly £100 Gone mostly on those grandkids. [Not being able to see them, I subsitute stuff].

I headed up the hill to see what’s on at the Inverleith House Gallery and then pop in to the Terrace Cafe for coffee.
Unexpected openings up to thoughts and companionship

First – pink tree – ask gardener – possibly connected to the moon walk for breast cancer.

Second – Inverleith House exhibition: Glasgow artist Luke Fowler, with John Haynes, Toshiya Tsunoda, photos, installations and film celebrating one of Glasgow and Scotland’s most radical/ marginalized/ genius/ disturbed figures: R. D. LAING. Fowler’s film was to start later so I went to the cafe for early lunch.

Standing there beside the soup was C first met in November in Shanghai (see earlier blog) tai qiao le 太巧了 as they say there. Here, what a coincidence, and she said “did you see N?” and I had indeed walked right past N. So, more good company, more talk, more walk.

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After taking more photos, I went back to R. D. Laing and listened a bit, wondering have we learnt a lot or maybe learnt too little since then (1960′s). I had been reading Bollas before I came out, The Christopher Bollas Reader, his thoughts on personality development via trauma (binding, limiting, creative aspects an acting out by repetition) or genera (agressive pro-creative combination of self and other/object sought) Misquoting, trying to paraphrase here, will probably put people off reading a very valuable contribution to depth knowing why glass is half-empty for some, half-full for others.

More to think about, not least because I have written about this stuff myself about what the clues are to getting into the mainly half-full way to live (here if you are interested). Belongs to my other blog so maybe I can spend the evening writing a post for that one, or, maybe not.
Glorious day again.

Jack’s Party

Another glorious day, unexpected. I was invited to Jack’s party, to be held some where in North Berwick.

North Berwick - from the beach looking toward the Seabird Centre

It was his 3rd birthday party, and I had not previously met him, but he is son to A who has been friend to N since we arrived in Edinburgh and they were both 15. I have been away so much it seemed hard to believe, A has a son and he is going to be THREE. It is time I met him. And renewed acquaintance with others of A’s family, and met Jack’s mum. We had a wonderful family day.

N and I took the train from Waverley, always a pleasant trip, walked from the station along the upper road to the Skate Park where the party was to be held. I had never been there before, and had never been along the upper road, as in all the times I have been to North Berwick, like all the day-trippers, I go to the beaches or the Seabird Centre, or have a nice walk along by the golf course or up the main street for the nice wee shops.

North Berwick community skate park, just by the swing park and playing fields.

The Skate Park was a real delight, created by the local community out of what looked like an old shed, it had of course the requisite ply-boarded slopes and curves and all that which were for the party-time empty of older kids.

At the entrance and alongside the skating area, there were places to sit, to get tea, coffee and snacks etc. and all managed and staffed by local folk. There was a half-size snooker table, a real antique with massive carved wood legs, and a bit of tape over the place where the baize had torn. There were comfy sofas, not matching, obviously donations form somewhere. And, at the table where the party food was laid out, two wonderful upholstered benches. Presumably these were also donated, but from where? Too posh and soft to be church pews, though that kind of length, did they come from some ‘big house’ hallway? Or where? No time to follow up the questions but the whole place was great and such a contrast to other leisure

Mummy brings the cake. See some of the upholstered bench Jack is sitting on.

centres I have been in where the decor matches and the company who owns it sets the rates which makes the profit. Hurray for small towns in Scotland, still great places to live in (see views above just ten minutes walk away).

After the cake, and time being up in the skate park, soon re-populated by older youngsters, it was such a glorious day everyone went to the swing park outdoors. I renewed acquaintance with A’s sister and parents, met the other grandmother and various aunts uncles and cousins. Some went to the beach. N and I walked along to A’s sister’s house, talked over old and present times, then went for our walk along the beach. Finally, before catching a train home, we walked to Jack’s house (overlooking the station) where he was now with his parents opening the presents.

Great kid, good family time, great day and thanks to everyone.