Died in Vain

As humans we are very very selfish, and that is why Global warming is happening and nobody cares, Animals are becoming extinct and nobody cares, well obviously we have more important things to worry about like making ends meat, and getting food on the table for our family and of course money, Your health is your wealth has been flushed down the toilet, nobody cares about the planets health or what will become of the planet for our future generation? will there be any animals left? 

I just read an article this morning that kind of shocked me, "US crushes 6 tons of "blood ivory" that would be approximately 2000 elephants, I just don't see the logic of crushing it all, why would they do such a thing? I know the selling of ivory is banned and for good reason because this type of confiscation is what they are trying to avoid, they don't want to find 6 tons of ivory, but i feel now that they have found it, and since there is no way of rebirthing all these elephants, surely they can find some practical use of this ivory other than just feeding 6 tons of ivory trinkets and tusks into a giant industrial blue rock crusher? 

Couldn't they sell off the ivory trinkets made out of elephant tusks and raise money to protect the elephants that are still alive? Crushing all this ivory won't do anything in terms of stopping the trade in ivory or preventing elephants from being killed for there ivory tusks? In fact i predict that another 2000 elephants are going to die as a result because these people who trade in ivory and killed all those elephants will just go out and do it again. 

The money that could of been earned had these ivory trinkets been sold could have been used to educate the buyers and sellers of ivory and teach them about the damage they are doing to the worlds wildlife, 

How many animals are going to be put into extinction as a result of greed, lack of education and just downright stupidity? We have already lost 

The West African Black Rhinoceros, 

Simmilar to the elephants, Hunted for its horn which was believed to have aphrodisiacal powers, 

The Mammoth

I just think they should have come up with a better solution. Destroying the ivory is just going to fuel a bigger desire to get it. This year alone 35,000 elephants have been killed for there ivory and that is a low estimate so this 6 tons of ivory crushed is just a drop in the ocean and does nothing in terms of discouraging ivory trade. 

So what is being done with all this illegal ivory that is being traded, The chinese in particular are making chopsticks, buttons, hair pins, spear tips, bow tips, needles, combs, buckles, handles, billiard balls, and of course the most modern use as piano keys. .

Up until quite recently there was no alternative to be used instead of ivory in pianos but nowadays there is, so there is no excuse for animals to be senselessly slaughtered for essentially just there teeth when there is a manmade alternative. By forbidding the trading in it, just makes it even rarer and more sought after. its just a vicious circle

Finally lets not forget the other animal long being killed for its ivory tusks elsewhere the Walrus

I do,

I do, I do, I do, 
lol, wedding season in Ireland, On Tuesday I attended my chinese friends wedding, it was the first Chinese wedding i have ever been to. But actually not only that it was only the second wedding i have ever been to, The first wedding I went to strangely was my Granddad and Grans Wedding. My Granddad got remarried aged 80. Your never too old to get married I guess. 

Anyway this wedding was something of a conundrum for me and my boyfriend, First off was the gift we had to give, €200. The system for gifts for the chinese weddings just seem like madness, What you give depends on the friendship and what you give you will receive at your own wedding. 

When we arrived at the restaurant we were given a Tiny red envelope to put our money in by, what can only be called the Best Man I guess, There wasn't really grooms men and bridesmaids or anything like that. Then we put our money in and handed it in to the 2 Chinese Girls sitting at a type of reception table.

Once that was done a long night was to begin, we sat down and had to wait for all the guests to arrive, and of course most of them were fashionably late and by the time food was served, we were all starving lol. There wasn't a scrap left at the table. Waste not want not. 

When the food and games were over, My friends kids were starting to get tired and wanted to go home so my boyfriend suggested i should go home with her because he was going to stay and go to KTV with some of the wedding group.  

A male friend

During the past few months away from my blog I did a series of courses, My chinese course, I am now on Level 3, My boyfriend says I am now as good as a senior infants child. basically a kid who is in their second year of primary school.

My French friend from class said my boyfriend has a great way of complementing people lol. But I took it on board as a good thing. Anyway other than that friend the rest of the people in my Chinese class are much older than me.

But asides from that course I also did a CV and interview skills course and that course had more people my own age, including one guy who went to school with one of my old friends and at the beginning of the course I talked about my boyfriend and how I was learning Chinese.

But at the end of the course this guy Johnathon, asked me for my phone number and I was a bit surprised to say the least but didn't see any harm in it. I come against this situation so often, people sometimes men or women asking me for my phone number and i don't particularly want them to have my phone number. What can i do or say? sorry I don't have a mobile, sorry i don't think its appropriate for you to have my phone number? Then I just seem like a big bitch. 

But within a few days he was texting me and asking do I want to meet up blah blah.  out of politeness and thinking theres no harm, I met him in dun laoighraire, and it was going fine, we were having a nce chat, then he started trying to pay for things for me and then alarm bells started ringing and I had to get out of there. Then we ended the meet up with a hand shake which was a bit weird, Then after that day I started avoiding him as if he had the plague.

Then I was at my families house on Friday chatting to my mom and told her about what happened and my mom said Sarah you have to be more careful, A man and a woman can never remain just friends ever. To me this statement seems terribly old fashioned. I mean its the 21st century surely a man and a woman can stay just friends if they want. 

I don't often talk about Africans in my blog but recently I was talking to one of my african male friends. The topic of female friends came up and he said no matter whether a woman is married, single, separated, divorced. If a male and a female are in a house together alone something is going to happen. He personally doesn't allow his girlfriend to have any of his friends numbers, in case there is temptation. In particular African male friends. I really thought this was too extreme.  (By the way we weren't alone lol)

My boyfriend doesn't mind me having his friends numbers because he knows nothing would ever happen with them but he hates other strange men he doesn't know having my number. Its funny how different cultures see things. 

Moving...

Me and my boyfriend are in the middle of a tug of war fight. As I mentioned last week one of his friends, who had been living and working in Galway has moved to our town. Its like "The Prodigal Son" has returned, whatever he says is right. Frankly I am over it already.

The first day the "Prodigal son" returned we invited him to our apartment for dinner and to have a chat about how he is finding the new job. After the first day he didn't like it.

He also didn't like our apartment, "its too small, Its too cold, Its old, blah blah blah." We have been living here for almost exactly a year and personally I think its fine. Not amazing, or marvelous but for the price, Its convenient and handy.

The next day my boyfriend said we should find a house to share with "The Prodigal Son" and his other friends family because they also want to move. My first reaction was NO, Primarily because

1. I like living here alone, not sharing the bathroom, kitchen or anything like that. A house you have to share a toilet with 5 other people, imagine how long it would take to wait for our turn in the shower? We would always have to be careful what clothes we wear in the house. Ultimately we have to answer to somebody for everything.

2. All his friends, that he is thinking of moving in with are Chinese... He argued that it would be a good opportunity for me to improve my Chinese. but I think that's a very feeble argument because he rarely translates anything.

3 Another part of me thinks that if he is living with his friends he will completely ignore me.

So far we have viewed 2 houses, one unsuitable and a second one that could be suitable and a studio apartment which is in a odd location... I'm rooting for the studio apartment despite the location. Were going for our second viewing of the studio apartment tomorrow so fingers crossed.

Birthday fun!

I know I kept this on the down low, but yesterday was in fact my birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Basically I woke up yesterday morning and my boyfriend made me some pancakes and some hot chocolate for Breakfast.

Then we went out for a walk and decided we would try climbing Bray Head again but go a different route this time, but unfortunately... As we were nearing the sea front a big huge black cloud appeared

so then we decided to call in and visit some friends. We had some Chinese Jelly there. It's weird it comes in a tube like a cool pop. Actually it comes in all different shapes, like Cats, Sea horses, mice fruit. Etc and they come in all different flavours such as Strawberry, Mango, Lychee, Pineapple & Banana

If you want to see more check this website Zuozuo Jelly

 My friends son Yi Bing

Here is me and my friends daughter Yi Han

Then we went for a walk down the sea front and walked around the harbour looked at the incredibly noisy swans,

We went back to the apartment and freshened up then my boyfriend said he wanted to find the best Chinese restaurant in Bray for us to go to. We went into about 4 different ones. The first one was incredibly overpriced.  we would be better off going to an Irish restaurant, if we had to pay that much, Then we looked in a Chinese restaurant that we had never been in and they didn't have a "Chinese" menu. It was purely take away style.

Then we looked in another restaurant the food was reasonably priced but all the tables were on top of each other my boyfriend said he didn't want us eating in a canteen. Then finally we found the perfect one. Ying Yang Chinese Restaurant.

Most people will know this already but it your finding trying to find a good Chinese restaurant outside of China of course, A key indicator of a restaurant being good is if they have a Chinese version of the menu (written in Chinese)

Secondly if there are actually Chinese or even Asian people eating in the restaurant.

Thirdly this is not always true, but if the restaurant looks quite shabby with quite old mismatched furniture, its likely to be family run and will have quite traditional food. and traditional food is always better than Chinese Take away style food.

Sweet and sour chicken is not traditional, The best place to find traditional Chinese food in Ireland is in Parnell street and Capell street  in Dublin, City centre, Some restaurants in my hometown Bray have traditional food if you inquire such as China Kitchen.

Anyway back to the dinner, I let my boyfriend order because sadly most restaurants don't translate the Chinese version of the menu into English and a lot of dishes are left out in the English menu what a pity!

We had Prawn Wonton Soup.

Crispy Ribs 

Sweet and Sour Sea bass

Yummy!!! My favourite was the Sea Bass, Most Irish people don't like fish but I usually love it!

and my Birthday Celebrations are continuing today. Its a tradition in my family that the Birthday Girl or Boy gets to choose which restaurant they want to go to for their Birthday dinner. So we are having my Birthday dinner today because.... Its mothers day and my dad wanted to include my Grandma, which I was fine with. So I am thinking Italian today!!