JongZi

It's peeing down with rain in Swindon. I had to walk to the station in the rain. Then when I got there, some clown with a folding bicycle was managing to block both entrances to the platform while he searched for his ticket. I so hate folding bicycles, or the people that use them anyway. They don't fit properly in the luggage racks on the train and they invariably end up blocking aisles and doorways. All trains have a special carriage for bicycles. Why can't they use those? Then the train was somehow leaking rain. Some of the seats were not in use, and water was dripping from the ceiling in my carriage. Mercifully, it was on time however.

We went to the Chinese Supermarket in Bristol on Saturday. It was quite an experience. I thought it would be a sanitised, Anglicised affair, but it was very authentic. It was dirty, dimly lit. Oriental people were rushing around speaking a variety of languages. Shelves were stacked high and dangerously, and strange substances in jars and packets were to be found everywhere. There were no chickens running around, and I think it was rat free, but apart from that. It was like being in a Taiwan market.

The dragon was in her element. She bought exotic vegetables, strange potions, glutinous rice, and most importantly, bamboo leaves, an elusive but essential ingredient for jongzi. We spent the evening making jongzi after we put Dumpy to bed.



Jongzi are sticky rice dumplings with pork stew. The stew and sticky rice are combined, wrapped in a bamboo leaf and steamed. It's traditional dragon boat festival food. I think traditionally the whole family are supposed to get involved in the making of jongzi. The youngest get jobs like cleaning the bamboo leaves.

This week we will be visited by my sister in law. She is currently in Paris on the final leg of her European tour. She will arrive in London on Wednesday. I've taken next week off work so we can do stuff. I think this week is going to be wet, but I have high hopes for the following week. We can maybe go down to Devon for a day or two. She returns to Taipei on Thursday next week.

I can't let today go by without mentioning the fact that this morning we have a new Prime Minister. Actually I'm not entirely sure when the moment of exchange actually occurs. Gordon Brown is definitely the new leader of the Labour Party. I don't know whether he has officially taken over as PM yet. I have a feeling that might be Wednesday. He's already raised a few eyebrows with his attempt to poach politicians from enemy parties. Surely this can only be an attempt at stealing enemy votes. He's also been threatening to curb union power. Who knows wht that means.

There is also a new deputy leader in place from today and it is Harriet Harman. She very narrowly won the vote and it's an odd choice becuase she was fairly critical of Blair's war decision. Not critical enough to stand against him of course. She's pretty foul, but I'd say it was the best choice the party could have made. She's popular. Her husband is a fund raiser or something, and he's mixed up in the cash for peerages row, which should explode fairly soon. That could be her undoing.

I should also make mention of the new EU treaty that we've signed up to. Blair sold us out. Brown said he'd give us a vote before signing. Now both say that a vote isn't necessary despite the fact that the treaty represents a transfer of power to the unelected Euro government. The more I think about it, the more Europe seems to me to be turning into Mao's China.

I'm going to make a prediction. I think there will be another Big Brother row starting tomorrow. Apparently the latest stunt is making contestants stay awake. Housemates are to be allowed only 4 hours sleep between them in 60 hours, to win food. So they are effectively given the choice of starving or sleep deprivation, both well known methods of torture.