Qing Gong Lo is Done!

We're very happy to announce that the construction on our building  (called Qing Gong Lo) appears to be done!  There are spaces ready for shops on the first floor, and down the street more shops have started to open up.  We even have a new traffic signal outside, so I guess our street is up and coming!

 
The city has been relatively devoid of people over the Chinese New Year and today is the first day everything appears back to normal (except for the constant firing of gigantic fireworks - still noisy!!)  The result of the lack of people and traffic are some very blue, sunny skies.  The weather is getting warmer (50 degrees for a high today) so it feels like Spring is coming!

One of the practices that the Chinese do to get rid of the gigantic piles of snow, is to put them BACK into the street for the cars to drive over and melt down.  I saw at least one intersection, recovered with snow, which caused an accident between two sliding vehicles.  WEIRD!

Peter's helicopter lasted one whole day after his birthday until it slammed into a tree and lost some of its landing gear.  Then I tried to fly it with only one side of the landing gear working and one of the rotors slammed into the ground and broke off.

Our strategy now is to wait until they have another copter in stock and buy it for spare parts (and batteries) since it would be just as expensive to get the parts we need via the  mail. Only 2 more days to wait until the store's stock is replenished.  Peter can hardly wait!

Jack's birthday is coming up and we're still trying to divine what he wants.  Hopefully not another helicopter in the house!

Sophie's school restarts on Monday, and we're all thankful about that :).  Even Sophie...