#194 Shanghai F1

The third week in May was Formula 1 weekend in Shanghai. A group of friends from work got together and bought grandstand passes for the weekend and shared them. Half of the group went on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. Fortunately, I was with the Saturday group and we enjoyed perfect weather with blue skies and comfortable temperatures. The group that went on Sunday sat in the rain for six hours !

For those of you, like me, who are car racing novices, Formula 1 is a class of car racing where the cars must adhere to strict set of design rules. The cars are pretty amazing with speeds up to 220 MPH, engines running at 18,000 RPM, and cars capable of pulling 5Gs of acceleration in the turns. There is a lot of technology in the competition and hence the requirement that teams spend more than a billion US dollars each year in order to be successful.

The sport is popular in Europe and supposedly growing in popularity in Asia and the Middle East - although the Shanghai stadium was far from full. Apparently it never caught on in the U.S. and F1 no longer holds races there.

This is only the second auto race I have attended in my life. The first was 20 years ago when I went to a Nascar race in Watkins Glen, NY. In general, I was impressed with the speed (and sound) of the cars, but found it a little boring after five or six hours in the grandstand. It starts to feel a bit like pulling a chair up next to the freeway and watching traffic. Maybe 20 years from now, I'll check out the Indy 500.

#193 Easter Sunday

I have been a bit delinquent in keeping up the blog for the past few weeks, so I am writing some entries today from last month. Easter Sunday was a beautiful day in Suzhou and we had a full roster of activities to attend.

Maria is shown with her take from the Jin Shui Wan Easter Egg hunt. Kathleen was a linchpin organizer of the hunt, volunteering to collect imported candy and fill plastic eggs along with a couple other friends. The older kids enjoyed an Easter egg scavenger hunt organized by another friend and neighbor.

Of course we attended mass and you can see the Cazzato family decked out in our finest for a photo in the garden outside of the church. Later in the day, I spent some time with my Brazilian Caterpillar friends grilling, eating, and chatting.

#192 Suzhou Sights

Several colleagues of mine are visiting this month from the U.S. and Brazil. Kevin from the U.S. is spending two weeks here and four Brazilians are spending three weeks each in Suzhou, all to participate and assist in our pilot motor grader production. On Sunday, Kevin, Marco, Maria, and I headed to downtown Suzhou for some garden hopping, sightseeing, and bargain hunting.

Kevin has been been to Suzhou six times now since 2007 and finally got a chance to visit the finest garden in southern China, the Humble Administrator's Garden. It was first built during the Tang Dynasty (600-900 AD) and became the private residence of Wang Xianchen during the early 1500s. The garden consists of a large lake, 48 buildings, many connected islands, 21 ancient trees, and over 800 penjing (Chinese bonzai trees). The garden was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

From the garden, we walked down "Bird & Flower Street" and enjoyed seeing the flowers, fish, fruit, and furniture shops. Marco and Maria were encouraged to keep walking by the promise of an ice cream when we reached McDonald's on Guan Qian Jie or Walking Street.

Kevin had committed to his wife to bring back pearls and designer handbags. He already had bought several strings of pearls early last week, so we were on the hunt for a knock-off Gucci or two. We were approached by a "friend" who was promoting a sidestreet watch and handbag shop by reeling in foreigners like ourselves. We followed him into a second floor showroom and found two wallets and a purse that fit Kevin's wife's descriptions. We bargained as hard as two men buying purses can and were given the feedback by Kathleen that we were "not screwed too badly".

I have posted the full collection of pictures at snapfish.com.

#191 First Confession

Joseph is preparing for his first communion which requires him to make his first confession. Confession is known nowadays by the kinder and gentler title of "reconcilliation" and we held a first reconcilliation ceremony at Church this Saturday night.

Kathleen organized this event in collaboration with a couple of friends and the priest, Bishop Joseph. They had a nice, concise ceremony followed by a line-up of the candidates who waited patiently with sweaty palms to face the screen and spill their guts about sins great and small.

None of us were able to pry out of Joseph what he told the bishop. As far as I can guess, his biggest challenge would have been selecting a choice few items from his long list of confessible sins.

The event was followed by a post-penance party at the Cazzato house where we indulged in some gluttony and sloth for the balance of the evening. During that party, I had the chance to meet my neighbor Michael's father who is a fan of the Cazzato Family Blog. Joe, from Georgia, and I are shown above having a good time and swapping stories. Actually, I have learned that it is hard to swap stories with a blog-reader, because when I have a good story, I have typically already written about it in the blog.

#189 April Fool

The kids' school came up with a non-traditional (as far as we know) way of celebrating April Fools day. The gist was to dress up as a fool and wear any non-standard outfit to school that you wished. Joseph wore a Dulwich girls uniform, Juliana wore her pajamas, and Maria wore her Angelina ballerina costume which she missed wearing on "Book Day" because of her stomach illness.

Marco, always the willing fool, wore his pajamas, a red cape, and the classic brown afro that remains a staple in our playroom dress-up box. You can see him posing above and preparing for his role in life as the lampshade-on-the-head, life-of-the-party, heir to the Ottavio's (my father's) legacy.