BOATS, PLANES AND CHINESE DELIGHTS

FORTY-FOUR + ELEVEN = A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA!

I cannot believe that the time is finally here! We have been planning this trip for nearly a year now, and suddenly the date is upon us. This will probably be the last you'll be hearing from me for a while. I don't plan on spending time on the computer while we're gone as there will be too many interesting things to see and do once we are half way around the world!

I put the final touches on my bags and took them down to the Postal Center to be weighed. I was tiny bit overweight (only by 2 1/2 pounds total), so I came back home, omitted a few items and re-packed (not my favorite thing to do!) When you're literally counting ounces, it's unbelievable how much light weight clothing, safety pins, band-aids and bobby pins weigh! I'm sure my poor suitcases feel as though they have been going to Weight Watchers meetings since they have had to "weigh in" so many times! When I used to go to Weight watchers, I would take off everything that I possibly could without being arrested for indecent exposure in order to weigh less at the meetings. Can you believe that I think I have everything I'll need for 3+ weeks in these two bags??? I can't and trust me ... it was a struggle!

The flight over will be a long one and I'm always a little apprehensive before I start a trip like this. We'll go to San Francisco on American, then get aboard JAL and fly to Tokyo and then on to Beijing. Our total travel time going over will be almost 20 hours. Fortunately, our seats make into beds, so we'll be a little rested when we arrive. The hotel butler will be meeting us at the plane and handling all our luggage, customs, etc., and have a limo waiting (I can get used to this treatment very quickly) so at least we won't have to deal with all of that. We won't get to Beijing until 9:30 at night, so we can go to bed when we get to the hotel. Coming home, we will fly Cathay Pacific out of Hong Kong to LA and then on home on American. We've flown Cathay Pacific before and they are wonderful. I can't describe the service that you get on Asian airlines. They really spoil you! I don't think the little flight attendants ever sleep. They're there to help you every minute of the flight and they're pretty little things and so very polite. We have beds on that flight as well, so that always helps.

Our 21-night adventure will explore China’s cradle of culture with a 9-night cruise on the Yangtze all the way from Chongqing to Nanjing. We will see the wonders of Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. Uncover the roots of Chinese civilization from Jingdezhen, birthplace of porcelain, to Mt. Jiu Hua’s remote Buddhist Temple complex, to Nanjing, capital of ancient China, and Suzhou, “Venice of the East.”
We will be cruising for 9 nights along the Yangtze River aboard one of the best ships on the river. The lounge has panoramic windows to view the sights as they go by, or we can enjoy the views from the sun deck or our cabin’s private balcony. On board, our meals are overseen by our Swiss catering department and alternate between Chinese and Western entrées so I’m not concerned about not having anything to eat! Our guides will be English-speaking and they will take us to the Great Wall as well as hidden gems like the Yue Yang Tower at Dongting Lake. We will get to explore ancient Chinese culture at the Wuhan Museum, Ceramic History Museum and Suzhou’s silk factory. In Xian, we’ll be able to view the 6,000 terra cotta warriors Emperor Qin Shi Huang commissioned to guard him in the afterlife. W watched a special last week on the HD channel about this and no two warriors has the same face. We have friends who just returned from there and they said that this was one of the highlights of the trip. We will also attend a Chinese acrobatic performance, the Peking Opera and a Tang Dynasty dinner show.
We had added a 4 day extension to our trip and once we have spent several days in Shanghai and we will then travel to Hong Kong and Guilin We have spent time in Hong Kong in the past and I’m looking forward to getting back. It’s such an exciting city and I love Stanley Market, riding on the Star Ferry and people watching! I’m not much of a shopper at this stage of my life, but there are bargains at Stanley Market that can’t be resisted!

I have included a slide show of the hotels where we'll be staying along with some of the places we'll be visiting. They aren't as sharp as I'd like for them to be as I scanned them from our brochure, but I promise much better photographs when we return!

Below I have listed the hotels where we will be staying and I have also included our itinerary if you're interested in following our travels. I would ask for your prayers for a safe journey and good health along the way.

XOXO, Pcasso

http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/beijing/chinaworld

http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/shanghai/pudongshangrila

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/HongKong/Default.htm

Here is our itinerary. China’s Cultural Delights River Cruise: Itinerary - www.VikingRiverCruises.com We will go over 3 days early to get over the long flight and also have extra time in Beijing. We are taking the extension trip to Guilin and Hong Kong as well. I've always wanted to see the Li River and Guilin.

Magical Meals and Tantalizing Tidbits

The opening photograph on this blog is one that I took when we were in France last year. Our tables were exquisite and the roses were perfect. The food that we were served absolutely melted in your mouth. The name of this place was Le Chateau du Domaine St Martin and it was a little bit of heaven!

I have just finished posting my first slide show (which is the next post down) and it was a bit of a challenge. I had no idea what to put in the actual show itself, so I said to myself, "Self, what are your favorite things?" Unlike Mary Poppins, I said to myself "Some of my favorite things are travel, art, family and food." I feel that this entry encompasses almost all of those (except perhaps family) and they have had the pleasure of sharing some of these meals with me, so I guess they are with me in spirit if not in body!

I think of really good food as a work of art since the person who prepares it must have a sense of creativity, good taste (literally) and design in order to make a good presentation of what they have prepared. If food is presented properly, it not only looks better, it tastes better as well!

Speaking of bodies, too much food can take it's tow on the svelte figure I possessed when I was young, but I take pleasure in quoting the late Robert Morely who played the role of Max in the movie, "Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe" when he said, in reference to his rather large body, "Each and every fold that you see is a work of art and I have worked very hard through the years to paint a great landscape". He was a gourmand in the film and played his role to the fullest (if you'll pardon the pun ;-)

I have had both the pleasure and the privilege of eating at some of the finest dining rooms in the world. We even have planned trips to Europe around the time that we could get reservations in certain establishments, so I guess you could say my "folds" have been sculpted by some of the finest chefs in the world from Jacques Pepin, Fredy Giardet (who is now retired which is very sad) and Paul Bocuse to name a few. Paul Bocuse took us on a tour of his kitchen after our meal. It was wonderful to see where this culinary delight had been prepared. We were really into food and cooking at the time and loved to sample the things that these wonderful chefs would create. What a treat for the palate!!

Our son, Franklin, is really into serious cooking as well, so now he is trying to have some of the tantalizing experiences that we have had over the years. When he and Beth went to Las Vegas earlier in the year, they ate at Bobby Flay's restaurant, and in New Orleans last week they took their whole family went to Emeril's place for dinner... BAM!!! The Food Network is their favorite channel on TV, so I guess I raised him right.

Here are some very interesting web sites that you can check out if you're interested in great food and top tables. http://www.relaischateaux.com/crayeres

http://www.lescrayeres.com/uk/navigation.htm

http://www.bocuse.fr/us/restaurant/default.htm

Unfortunately I was not painting at the time that I ate in some of these delightful establishments, so the photographs in my slide show have been taken in the past year anywhere from Villefranche at Le Chateau du Domaine St. Martin http://www.relaischateaux.com/en/search-book/hotel-restaurant/stmartin/to a light breakfast at the Sage Bakery or Huevos Rancheros at the Guadalupe Cafe in Santa Fe, NM.

When we booked a table at Giardet's in Crissier, Switzerland you had to book exactly one year in advance to the day - IN WRITING, so the reservation had to be made in French! It was a small place with limited seating, so since he was considered to be one of the finest chefs in the world at the time, booking was a challenge. We found a friend who spoke French and he helped us with our reservations. I must say that it was well worth all the trouble. After we had our delicious 7 course meal (actually we ordered a degastation), we visited with our chef with the help of an interpreter, were taken on a tour of his garden where he grew all the vegetables that were in the dishes that he prepared. He was fascinated that we asked to change our clothes in their restrooms so we could go on a hike in the nearby hills. Apparently Fredy hadn't had too many Texans in his wonderful establishment, so he was more than accommodating, and seemed fascinated that we were doing so many things on our own ... especially since we didn't speak the language. Frank always got A's in school in French, but now he tells me that it was only because he could operate the movie projector when he was in high school. His teacher gave him A's as a favor in exchange for his mechanical talents ;-)

I've tried to group the foods together according to courses serves as best I can since making a slide show is a little difficult at the moment and the food groups are so different. Some of the food that I have pictured here is from our Mediterranean Cruise last year aboard one of the Crystal Cruise Line ships. The food was not only of excellent quality, it was absolutely exquisite to look at. Once again, presentation is the key word here. I kept saying, "Watch out, hips, here it comes," but my hips wouldn't listen. Consequently, I had a very exciting ride home on the plane. I had NO idea that they would remove all the comfortable seats and replace them with smaller ones! Guess they'll do anything these days to economize!

Speaking of food, it's after 7:00, Papa's at the Ranger game, and I need to go and feed these hips. Lunch was a LONG time ago.

Since I'm almost packed for the trip to China, I think I might bring out my watercolors and paint a few things for our food blog. Being a Type A personality, I just can't seem to sit still. I'll probably post a time or two more before we take that Slow Boat to China :-)

XOXO, Pcasso

FABULOUS FOODS - photos by Pcasso

Packing, Passports and Pcasso

I had a delightful lunch with a friend today and truly enjoyed and welcomed the break since I have been very busy getting things in place for our upcoming trip to China. We have both passports and visas in hand, so we're almost ready for the big event. I don't usually get very excited about traveling any more, but I'm really looking forward to this trip. I've been packed mentally for over a week, but now the time is almost here, so I had to get busy and get things done before I run out of time!

As a general rule, the photograph above is the way I look when we get off the plane for a trip overseas. Not true this time! We are limited to 1 bag each, weighing no more that 44 pounds TOTAL and 1 carry-on each.

I have spent the better part of the day packing my bright, compact little chartreuse bag that Frank bought for me so it wouldn't get lost amongst all the black baggage, and he took it to the Mailing Center (not the post office) to be weighed. Believe it or not, it only weighs 39 pounds and I'm allowed 44! That's one big load off of my mind. Now I have to unpack it, wash and iron the linens and Chico Traveler stuff (I don't have to iron those) and re-pack it so the linen pieces can get wrinkled again. Such is life. At least everyone knows that linen wrinkles (at least if it's the real thing) so that's what I'm taking since it's going to be very warm in China and handkerchief linen doesn't weigh very much. The clothes from Chico's are a completely different matter, but they don't wrinkle!
Next comes the carry-on. We're allowed one each of a very definite size and it can't weigh more than 11 pounds. This is the real challenge because my cameras, medicine and make-up will be in there. I just pray that they don't decide to weigh me because I already know that I'm WAY overweight!

Once I have this done, I can sit back, relax and look forward to the trip. It's going to be a long one, over 20 hours traveling time, but at least the seats on JAL make into beds so we can sleep. We go from San Francisco to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Beijing. They are sending a car for us from the hotel so that will make things easier. Check out the hotel ... it's looks pretty neat.

http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/beijing/chinaworld

We'll be there 5 days so we can really get to see Beijing as well as recoup from the long flight, and then we will begin our actual tour. Here is our itinerary of you're interested.

China’s Cultural Delights River Cruise: Itinerary - www.VikingRiverCruises.com We are taking the extension trip to Guilin and Hong Kong as well. I've always wanted to see the Li River and Guilin. Here is photograph of this mystical place.

I won't be taking my laptop but I will take a lot of photographs and will post them after we return. I do plan to keep a daily journal while we're gone. It's a good refresher after you're gone on a long trip.

I'll write more later. It's cocktail time and I think I deserve one. It's been a very busy day!

Pcasso

Freddie, Casper and Busy Times

The past two days have been very busy ones.
I've been trying to get all my ducks in a row so I can start to pack for the upcoming trip to China and still have time for family and friends before we leave. I have had several painting assignments for Canvas by Canvas to complete before we leave as we have several important shows coming up in the near future. One of the exciting things that we will be participating in is Holiday Magic. Every year since 1982, more than 10,000 North Texans flock to Holiday Magic, a holiday gift market with the unique gifts from more than 100 exclusive vendors and attend the highly anticipated Ladies Style Show and Luncheon. This year Holiday Magic also includes a Tween Style Show and Children’s Party. It is sponsored by the Junior League of Arlington. Check out their web site at http://jlarlington.org/holidayMagic.asp Be sure to join us for the fun and great shopping!
We will be showing many of our paintings for sale there, among which will be our new whimsical minis which consist of lures and flies for the ladies and gentlemen in your family who enjoy the wonderful sport of fishing. To be perfectly honest, I was NOT looking forward to painting these funny little creatures, but once I got into it, I became very excited and they actually started to take on a personality all their own!
I have named the first one, the dry fly which is pictured at the top of this post, "Freddie, the Flying Red Ant" and his friend below is aptly named "Casper, the Punkinseed Spook". I think that Casper has a personality all his own, in fact I find him to be very "alluring" ;-) He tells me that he might even consider auditioning for a role in the next "Finding Nemo" if this ever happens to materialize into a new movie!
If you are a fly fisherman, you know that you need to match the hatch, and if there are red ants flying around, Freddie will be your best friend. By the same token, Casper makes great bait for shad if that is your fish of choice.These little jewels are each 6x6 on gallery wrapped canvas and are the perfect original gift for that outdoor person in your life. Check out our web site at http://www.canvasbycanvas.com/ for more details.I have had such fun painting them and hope that you enjoy seeing them and hopefully buy one or two. Can't wait to paint more of them.
Of course, we will also have our shoes, angels and cupcakes there as well and they are also on our web page. We decided that we needed something for the boys and shoes and cupcakes probably would interest them ;-)
Tomorrow will also be a very busy day for me and Frank. He has a bank board meeting and then we'll be picking up some of our art work at Reel FX in Dallas that has been on display where our son works in order to show it in some of the shows in which we are participating. You can go to http://www.reelfx.com/ to see what they do and what our son, Franklin does. We've had several pieces on exhibit there for the summer and it's been very well received. It's a wonderful place to work and he really loves what he does. What a blessing to love to go to work. I would wish that for everyone!
He's an Audio engineer and is now also in management, so check out his pages by going to Audio on the main page. Needless to say, he too is Frank Salazar ;-)
Have a great rest of the week and I'll check in again before we leave for China in less than 2 weeks. Can't believe that it's nearly here. Better start washing, ironing and deciding what to take. I'm limited to 40 pounds including my suitcase so I'll really need to think this one out. I have nearly that much weight in camera equipment alone!
Love to all! Pcasso

A Splash of Color and Light and a Look at Chinese Loos

This past week I've been as busy as a cat on a hot tin roof, to borrow a phrase from Tennessee Williams. And speaking of hot, summer has finally come to our part of the state and it's hotter than the Chili at The Shed in Santa Fe!

It seems as though there's no rest for the wicked and if that's really the case, we must be the baddest of the bad! Between meetings, social gatherings and paintings I've hardly had time to draw a breath. And of course, we've danced every step with the competitors from So You Think You Can Dance so at least we're in fairly good shape. Frank has had to confine his steps to slow waltzes since his cataract surgery but I'd better watch out in another week or so. Dr. Tran will turn him loose and he can dance a mean Rumba and Paso Doble!
I have been working on a new art technique and it had taken up a lot of my time the last few days. You can see one of the pieces that I have done today that I've included in this blog. It's a reproduction of one of my larger pieces on a small 6x6 canvas. I am working on several of these in various sizes and I think that they would make wonderful stocking stuffers at Christmas time, birthday gifts or great house guest gifts. They are from my own original paintings, so they would not be something that you will see everywhere. If you need anything like this, please keep me in mind.
We also are getting ready for 3 big shows for Canvas by Canvas and I have worked on and finished one of my assignments and have 4 more to complete before we leave for China. According to my age, I'm in my "Twilight Years" , and if this is the case, I wish that sunset would hurry up so I can take a break! We have something on our agenda almost every day until we leave for China. I never thought I'd look forward to a 20 hour flight, but I think I'll need the rest to gear up for the agenda while we are there! And speaking of China, I keep getting Email warnings about the toilets over there. It might turn out to be a challenge since I don't plan on taking many skirts. You can see what I mean from the photo above!However, it can't be any worse than it was when I was in Egypt. They had bathroom attendants who would sit outside of the stalls with buckets of water and wait for you to exit so they could perform the task of flushing. There's a country western song entitled "Mammas, Don't Let You Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys". Had I written the song the title would have been, "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Bathroom Attendants in Egypt!"
Here is a quote from a letter that a friend sent me so I'll be prepared! She said, and I quote, "For one thing, she will be assuming the ‘potty stance’ 99 times out of 100 visits to the ladies’ room because there are very few ‘Western’ toilets in China, just a porcelain hole in the floor with a grid where your feet go. And toilet paper, surely you jest! Every morning before leaving for the day’s adventures, I took a few minutes to carefully unwind the day’s supply from the hotel roll, folding each precious square into little packages for easy access in times of need!" I think that I'll take small purse size packages of Kleenex just to be on the safe side!
I'd better close this out for the night. We're going to Franklin and Beth's house shortly. We're taking the dinner and then we will play cards after we have a toddy or two and cook out. The boys have more things to do at their own home. They will all leave on a cruise next weekend before school starts and we leave shortly after they return, so this may be our last opportunity to all be together for a while.
One of Frank's friends refers to this as my "Blob" and he just may have the right name for it.... a little blob on information here and there. Hopefully my ramblings will all connect to one another and make some sense. At any rate, I'll just keep blobbing along and will write again a time or two before we leave on our trip. Have a great and productive week.
Pcasso

All Roads Lead to God

I have been very busy since we returned from New Mexico and Colorado. There have been the usual household chores that needed attention, but something much more important has come up besides the things that need to be done around the house. I am making reference to my second home, St. Alban's Parish, where my heart always is. It's so wonderful to know that you have an extended family at your church that is always there for you, and Frank and I feel truly blessed with our church family. They're very special to us. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and St. Alban's has always been our home away from home.
We are about to begin a Capital Campaign there and I am heading up a committee which is the Advance Commitment phase of the campaign, so I have been very busy with this worthwhile project. Frank is the Campaign Chairman for this project so I guess he is my boss ;-) We have many major needs and will make quite a few physical changes at the church, so we will need lots of help to get major funding to help us conduct this campaign in order to meet our goal which is $2,000,000. We have our work cut out for us and we ask for your prayers.
When we were visiting one of our favorite galleries in Santa Fe, the Manitou, I saw an artist that I was not familiar with and fell in love with his work. It's a little crazy and funky, but then so am I, so I decided to paint my rendition of one of his paintings. It seemed very appropriate since we are going to be in the middle of this campaign for the next few months and all roads really do lead to God if you are on the right path! We have the perfect spot for it in Frank's office and I can't wait to hang it. It's a large painting ... 18 x 24 and it will look wonderful in there since his little office here at the house has a Southwest theme to the decor. I'm dedicating this work to the Capital Campaign since it helped me to re-focus on what is really important in life. If you notice, the building at the top of the little village is God's house and that's where our focus should always be.
I've spent a lot of my time recently painting small paintings for Canvas by Canvas, so it was a real challenge for me to paint something this large. It took me the better part of 6 days working 8-10 hours a day but I think I'm satisfied with the results. Hope that you like it!
Please keep me, Frank, my team that I will form in the next few days and our Capital Campaign in your prayers. We will be needing a lot of support, both monetary and spiritual, in order to accomplish what needs to be done at our parish to the Glory of God.
Many thanks! Pcasso

TGIF

Thank Goodness It's Friday! Today I decided that the weekend is a good time to indulge myself and start working on a new project.
As you can see, I have started adding my paintings that are for sale to my blog. I will eventually put them on a web site called Daily Painters Marketplace, but I decided to get my feet wet this way first and see what happens. We are posting items for sale with http://www.canvasbycanvas.com/ which is the collaborative group I paint with, but it's the first time that I have done it on an individual basis, so try to be kind and humor me please :-)
You may remember this painting. It is the first one that I painted from a piece of jewelry that I own. Several years ago we were at a benefit auction at the Arlington Museum of Art and we bid on this cross along with several other pieces of art that were up for auction, and we won this piece. It is quite lovely and is a one of a kind piece in sterling silver. It occurred to me that I could share it with others through a painting and that is how this concept was born.
The actual cross itself measures 3 x 3 inches, is quite heavy, very attractive and every time that I wear it I receive compliments on it. In fact, I have even been stopped many times on the street in Santa Fe where you find silver everywhere and people have inquired where I purchased the piece! It's one of my favorite pieces of jewelry and I wear it a lot. One of other favorites belonged to my Mother. It's a gold crucifix with rubies and it's beautiful. It is very special to me because it was very special to her.
When I started my cross project in Canvas by Canvas, I decided to paint a few individual pieces of my own apart from my painting group which are from my own cross collection. I have quite a few crosses and am usually wearing one of them. I have painted another version of this same cross with a different background, but this one is the original "model", if you will, from which I designed the other piece which is smaller and unframed. This cross is 8x10 on canvas and framed out, the dimensions are 13 x 16. The framed piece is priced at $225 plus shipping. I feel that it would make a nice addition to any home or office.
You may contact me at Pattycake1@AOL.com and please put
TGIF painting in the subject line. Many thanks!!!
Pcasso

Visions - '58 Thru '07- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

This has been a day of thanksgiving for us in more ways than one. We were up at 4:30 a.m. since we had to be at Arlington Memorial Hospital at 5:15 in preparation for Frank's surgery. He had a cataract removed this morning and the operation was successful. For those of you who are in their "twilight years" like we are, you are aware of the fact that many of our original body parts must be removed, replaced or regenerated. So far, it has only been a few for both of us and we are very grateful for that!
Frank's vision has been bothering him for quite some time, so this morning Dr. Tran took care of that and after only a short time in the hospital, we were on our way home ... I was the designated driver and he was the designated eye-patch wearer. In a day or two, he will be like new again with his vision hopefully at 20/20 and he can look at all the cute girls again in a totally different light ;-)
Tomorrow will be our 49th wedding anniversary and we will probably celebrate by having fried chicken at some point in time during the day. We both love it but don't allow ourselves a chance to eat it too often due to the fact that as much as we like it, it doesn't like us that much anymore!
We will spend a quiet day at home after a visit to the Doctor's office to get the patch off of his eye and get direction for things to do to keep his eye healthy. No bending, lifting or straining for him for 2 weeks, and believe me, he wants to take advantage of every minute of that situation. I'll even have to take the trash out and it's not one of my favorite things to do!
It seems like only yesterday that we were married in Springer, NM (Frank's home town) and were off to our honeymoon cottage in Red River, New Mexico. We were married in the morning and had a wedding breakfast in a little cafe called The Stockman's Cafe. Mainly family was there .. around 80 people 77 of whom were his relatives! I'm an only child with no relatives, so it was just me, my Mom and Dad on my side of the family at the service. He was the baby in his family so everyone showed up. I think they all wanted to see who had finally snagged him :-)
As part of my trousseau, my going away dress that his family made me and surprised me with was a Squaw Dress and they had also bought me moccasins. The dress was yellow and had brown and silver rick-rack on it. It was very New Mexican and extremely tacky. I was so in love at the time that I thought it was wonderful. It was quite a change from the designer dress that I was married in.
When we went on our honeymoon, we only had $100 to spend and we were able to stay for a full week! Frank went fishing every day to catch our dinner. The place where we stayed would cook the fish that you caught and serve you a baked potato and a salad for $1.00 each, so that helped to prolong our stay. That would never happen today! We had to really economize since he hadn't started to practice yet, we had to buy equipment for the new office and we had very little money. It was a very special time in our lives and we both remember all of the details with very fond memories.
Things are still going wonderfully well for us after 49 years, I'm still as much in love as I was when I was wearing my squaw dress and we're both looking forward to a big celebration on our 50th. I pray for this sort of wonderful and special love for each of you. There's nothing like it. We've truly been blessed!
Cheers!!! Pcasso