KTV, Cake, and Utter Sadness

Smudgie and Adam turned another year older in March. Smudgie's birthday was rather uneventful, except for this special treat:

 

 

For Adam's birthday, his work friends threw him a party at a local KTV. Go figure, right? That's the only thing they have for fun around here, it seems. Can you tell how much I love KTVs? Well the only thing I loved about this one was the name of the place:

 

We've walked by this building before, marveling at the name and wondering what kind of "recreation" goes on within. I'm kind of sad the mystery is gone. I think this was my 3rd KTV and it was the worst in terms of English song choice. There were also like 18 people there so most of the night was spent listening to people singing badly in Chinese. I also cannot stress enough how bad Chinese cake is. They ordered him a cake from a local bakery and it was just slathered in fruit. Fruit all over the top of it, fruit all over the inside. And of course, the icing was whipped cream.

 

 

 

I tried to eat the cake part of it but it had soaked up so much fruit juice it wasn't good. It did have a thin wall of chocolate going around the outside, which I snagged several pieces of. This isn't the first cake we've tried here, so I'm not judging all of China by this one cake. This is a picture of Adam's birthday cake from last year (given to him by his Huainan work friends):

 

Not so much fruit, but the icing is whipped cream and those black things in the middle are raisins.  We also bought a little cake from a different bakery in Huainan on our own.  It had a chocolate outside so we gambled on it.  But it had vanilla cake and a thin layer of fruit filling on the inside.  Blech.

TERRIBLE NEWS NOW: Do & Me is closed.  We tried to go there yesterday and the place was all locked up and the signs were taken down.  Just the other week, they were hiring!  This poster was up on the window the last time we were there:

 

 

Yeah, I'm sure it's a great job.  It's so great they couldn't find anybody willing to work there and now it's closed.  :(  It's probably for the best since it's time for me to start dieting and now I have no more temptation.  But it was my favorite place in all of China!  Now I really do want to come home.  There is nothing left for me here (dramatic sigh). 

One thing that does lighten the mood is this fish that has been laying on this support beam for at least a month. As far as I can tell, it hasn't decomposed at all. Why haven't any birds eaten it either? Guess that shows you just how polluted this river is.  But I won't be seeing it anymore because it was on the way to Do & Me.

 

Here's a picture of Smudgie wearing a cape made out of an old t-shirt: