Meet Mr Flowerpot & Mr Leafy...
With more than a foot of snow in our backyard, Lu Lei decided that we should attempt to build our very own snowman. As you can see, we ended up with 2.

HOW TO BUILD A SNOWMAN
What you need:
1. a foot or more of fresh, undisturbed and sticky texture snow on the ground (temp should be about 0 degrees celsius)
2. 2 slightly curved twigs or buttons for the eyes
3. a longer curved twig for the mouth (to give him a smiley look)
4. a short straight twig for the nose or a carrot
5. 2 branches for the arms
6. more twigs or buttons to either give a buttoned shirt look or one with chinese buttons
6. some yellow leaves left over from autumn for the hair or a pail as hat

What you need to do:
1. gather some snow on the ground into a small ball
2. start rolling the ball around the undisturbed fresh snow causing it to snowball.
3. roll your snowball around till it gets to the preferred size or till it gets too heavy to push. Ball should be rolled around from left to right and front to back to prevent it from being cylindrical in shape
4. start on the second snowball, this time smaller. Make sure it is not bigger than you can lift it as you will need to set it on top of the first bigger snowball as the head.
5. start to sculpt the "man" by using a circular motion around head and body to get the round shape.
6. fix the eyes, nose, mouth, arms and buttons
7. fix the leaves on the head
8. set the pail just slightly askew on the head

VOILA! your very own snowman in your backyard!

WINTER WONDERLAND -it has been reported in the news that total snow fall in Dec last year was only 0.8 inches compared to this year's Dec to date of 25 inches of snow and winter has not even officially started yet! (The official start date of winter is this Xmas weekend). We have never experienced winter conditions of this sort (Lu Lei rarely had such problems back in his hometown even though temperatures there average at -20degrees in the winter months) and till now have not even equipped ourselves with a shovel. By the time we realised how bad it is, shovels have been sold out in the few shops we visited. By hook or by crook, we intend to get one this weekend!!

WASHINGTON DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA or DC as it is often called is the capital of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia and Maryland. The city is named after George Washington and houses the centres of all 3 branches of the US government as well as HQs for both international and national institutions like World Bank and IMF.

Distance 440 miles Flight time: 1 hr 10mins

Lu Lei was there for a 5 day Cell Biology conference and I tagged along as a tourist. While Lu Lei was at his talks all day, I took the opportunity to check out the sights and sounds of DC. It is a well organised and small city (I moved around on foot). I encountered familiar looking official buildings at almost every turn.



Presi"The White House is the oldest public building in DC and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most famous address in the US. Here every the chief executive." - extracted from a White House information signboard

dent, except George Washington has conducted the government of the Nation. Since 1792, the White House has become symbolic of the American Presidency throughout the world. While the Capitol represents the freedom and ideals of the Nation, the White House stands for the power and statesmanship of

Washington Monument & Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument is a US Presidential Monument constructed to commemorate George Washington. It was officially opened in 1888 and was the tallest structure in the world till the Eiffle Tower was completed in Paris, France.

The reflection of the Washington Monument can be seen in the Reflecting pool that extends towards Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln Memorial was built to honour Abraham Lincoln.

The stone inscription in front of the National World War II Memorial read:
"HERE IN THE PRESENCE OF WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN ONE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FATHER THE OTHER THE NINETEENTH CENTURY PRESERVER OF OUR NATION WE HONOUR THOSE TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICANS WHO TOOK UP THE STRUGGLE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND MADE THE SACRIFICES TO PERPETUATE THE GIFT OF OUR FOREFATHERS ENTRUSTED TO US A NATION CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY AND JUSTICE"