1. Never have a lack of goals.
"If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals." –Lou Holtz
2. Vision is everything.
"If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else." –Lawrence J. Peter
3. Dream enormously big.
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars." –Les Brown
4. Persistence makes all the difference.
"The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score." –Bill Copeland
6. True success is all about working towards meaningful goals and dreams.
"A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at." –Bruce Lee
7. Stop playing small.
"The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." –Michelangelo
8. Where are you headed?
9. Stay focused at all times.
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." –Henry Ford
10. It's never too late.
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." –C.S. Lewis
Heat oven to 350°.
Grease and flour a Bundt pan or spray with Baker’s
Joy.
Measure 3/4 cup of pineapple juice and mix that with all other batter ingredients except drained pineapple. Save the balance of the
juice for the soaking mix. Beat 2 minutes.
Fold in pineapple.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Test
and adjust time.
Mix soaking ingredients while cake bakes. Leave cake
in pan, poke holes with a skewer, and pour all mix over hot cake.
Leave cake in pan to cool for 40 minutes. Invert on
plate and dust with powdered sugar or glaze, if desired.
Trip to
China 3-27-2003/4-12-2003
March 27, 2003
Things have changed dramatically since my trip, but I have some nice photos.
Away we go! Flight one of nine on this trip. Nine flights, a hovercraft, two riverboats, a bus, and a rickshaw. No wonder I came home tired.
My airport shuttle driver was a little old man about my age. He was so cautious, I thought we might reach LAX after my flight was well on the way to San Francisco. He arrived to pick me up a half hour early, and I rushed through my departure, forgot my house slippers, vitamins, and Bill’s new address, and I hadn’t had my tea. He was happy to wait while I made my tea, which turned out to be a mistake, because one quick brake stop on the freeway, and I had tea down the front of my pink top. I cleaned it the best I could in the airport restroom, then ran around with a wet front for a half hour. I discovered that I would not make a good candidate for wet tee shirt contests.
We arrived at the airport by 8:00 a.m. and my flight was 10:40 a.m. Oh, well. Welcome to the world of security. I had less than an hour between flights, so I decided I needed a breakfast sandwich from Burger King as I wouldn’t have lunch until 2:00 p.m. or so, and I’d been up since 5:45 a.m.
While eating, I overheard an airport employee telling some passengers that her brother had been in the Panama conflict and Desert Storm. He came home unscathed, only to be killed in a car-jacking in Los Angeles. You just never know.
I read a little at the airport and then had a half-hour nap after boarding. A quiet group, the plane is about two-thirds full. There were more airport security, United employees, and policemen at United Terminal 7 than there were passengers. All checked luggage went through the BIG x-ray machine and passengers were required to stay with their luggage until it was cleared. If film passes through this big baby, it’s ruined. Then another check to x-ray carryon luggage, purses, and shoes. All the security people were very helpful and very nice. I’m eager to compare our system to China’s. I couldn’t bring my rolling carryon, as it’s more than 8” deep due to the handle. According to the tour people, the Chinese are very strict, and only 44 lbs in your checked luggage – not the 70 lbs we’re used to. I weighed my bag and it was 45 lbs, but decided I could shed a pound by the time of my first Chinese flight, even if I had to put something in my carryon.
Somewhere over the Pacific – we didn’t get lunch until 3:30 p.m. I was
starving. I chose beef as I’ll probably see plenty of chicken in the days
ahead. Slices of roast beef with a tiny bit of barbeque sauce, roasted potatoes
with cheese, medley of black beans, corn, pinto beans, and red peppers, a whole
wheat roll, Romaine with Ranch dressing, lemon cheesecake; Baby Bel cheese with
crackers and grapes. All small portions, so I ate everything but the cheese and
crackers. This trip was before I became a Foodie, and I’m so sorry I don’t have
photos of the food.
I read, napped, made a run to the powder room and it was only 6:00 p.m. Our ETA was 2:30 a.m. my time. I was by the window, with a lady on the aisle who was with a group, so she ignored me (goody!), and we had an empty seat between us. Lucky me! So far I’d met a nice Cambodian couple from Boston who were on the tour, saw a Chinese couple with Collette bags, and two other Collette bags in the overheads. Coming from Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County, I figured that if I were the only haole with a busload of Asians, I’d feel right at home, as I heard more foreign languages at the supermarket than I did English; most of them Asian.
An announcement was made that there were attendants on board who spoke Chinese and French, so if we saw anyone who looked as if they needed help communicating to please let someone know. My thought was that if my French friend Michelle were along, she’d pretend she only knew French so she’d have someone to share a conversation in their beautiful language.
During the flight we crossed the International Date Line, so it became March 28. Our snack was a small bowl of Chinese noodles with pieces of dried bean curd, carrots, and green onions (you know, the kind where you pour in hot water and wait four minutes), a lemon cookie, and the world’s smallest apple.
We had an excellent pilot. When we hit turbulent air, he immediately found another altitude. We had movies back to back, but I read and napped. When my watch said 1:25 a.m., it was still daylight. I like going west. We were due to arrive at 7:00 p.m. China time, so we could start off with a good night’s sleep.
Then more food. Stuffed shells with marinara and cheese tortellini with Alfredo sauce, watermelon, honeydew, and grapes, orange juice, coffee, and Oreos. Not exactly gourmet. The outside temperature was showing -72°F, and we were warm and cozy. Isn’t modern technology wonderful?
The Shanghai airport was new, beautiful, and spotlessly clean. The check-in was easy (even though we had visas as well as passports), organized, and signage in English so you’d be directed the minute you deplaned. The airport police had spiffy black uniforms with lots of silver embellishments.
Our bus ride was almost an hour. We landed after dark, so we couldn’t see much until we were in the city. Our Collette guide was a red headed guy from Vancouver. Our Shanghai guide was Summer, a heavier than usual Chinese male who spoke King’s English. He was very proud of Shanghai. He said that some foreign journalists recently told him that 85% of all the high rise building cranes in existence were in Shanghai; lots more than Berlin when they moved the capital of Germany from Bonn.
We had a beautiful Renaissance five-star hotel; but they gave me a room on the 12th floor, right over the freeway. I asked if I could have a room away from the freeway, so they moved me to the 18th floor over the same freeway. I didn’t mean further up, I meant further horizontally with a ninety-degree angle. I’d wasted time waiting for the bellboy, going to the lobby for another key, etc, so I just surrendered. I was so tired, I figured I’d probably just pass out. We had a seafood buffet waiting, but I decided I needed rest more than food, so I ate my mini-apple and jumped in the bathtub. I took time to wash my undies because I just had to use the retractable clothesline in the bathroom – the first one I’d seen. Finally in bed at 10:37 p.m.
The view from my room. Not the best air
quality in the world.
Organize one of my many, many notebooks.
Lunch: Still playing with my new air fryer, so frozen taquitos and mozzarella sticks from Walmart. I'm getting good at this.
Written
for Aunt Patsy
I love you so much my heart is full to bursting,
Les.
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