Yet another week gone by, with me getting older, fatter, and none the wiser.  Isn’t that just life?  The only consolation I have is to live vicariously through younger folk like my three-year old daughter Sarah.  In celebration of Children’s Day, we took her out to brunch at the Paulaner Brauhaus with our friend LK and his wife Ranran and daughter Samantha.  The heavy German fare now sits in my intestines like a lead weight.  So much for losing a few pounds.  Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

After brunch we visited Fuxing Park, formerly the French Park in the heart of the French Concession.  The sky was cloudy but didn’t rain as forecast.  People of all ages, but especially young children, were running and strolling all about the park under a canopy of blossoming magnolia trees (Shanghai’s official tree is the magnolia), whose large white flowers remind us of the beauty and promise of youth.

The garden in front of Park 97 nightclub was alive with roses and myriad other flowers, all carefully cultivated.  Women workers were cleaning the fountain at the center of the rose garden.  We strolled over the kids’ amusement park, where Sarah got a ride on the car coaster. 

Then we walked over to the green, where adults were flying kites and kids were blowing bubbles.  One could hardly imagine a scene more serene and more distant from the carnage of the recent earthquake in Sichuan, whose images we are bombarded with by the media on a daily basis.