It has been a strange week. Take sandwiches, for example. One day we sold 20 sandwiches, where the maximum to date per day has been 7. Another day our sales were above average, but we did not sell one sandwich.
Word must be getting out.
I've been receiving calls from various media. There are quite a few newspapers in Changzhou, so I'm not clear on which is which, but I've had a couple of phone calls about requests to do interviews. I stipulated that there must be an English speaking member in any crew they sent. Some weeks ago a crew came, and no one spoke English. I have no idea if they ever used the material.
A man came in, a customer. His English was quite good. I asked him what he did, and he said he was a TV reporter. What's your beat, I asked him. Human Interest, his reply. He called a couple of days later and asked if he could come and do a piece. Thursday or Friday, I said, were good days. Another crew called me, the lovely lady called me 'grannie' during our phone conversation. I told her also, Thursday or Friday were good days.
Yesterday was Thursday. I received an invitation to attend a ceremony sponsored by the Foreign Affairs Office, unveiling a new program for 'foreigners' to help them integrate better into Chinese community. Anything involving the FAO is attractive to me these days. I am having trouble renewing my visa, and it is under their auspices. Spending a day rubbing elbows with some of their staff seemed desirable. And it would include a free lunch of good Chinese food. I texted the TV reporter and told him Friday would be better. He confirmed.
I did not have the phone number of the newspaper, to tell them I would not be at the bakery Thursday. They came, and found me absent.
Friday at 9 a.m. the English speaking man with his camera man arrived. I had a heavy baking schedule. I had started at 6 a.m., and was coaxing along not a few recipes of various stripes. We chatted, he asked me the predictable questions. Why did you come to China, why did you open a bakery, what was your life in American like?
When I could take a break, while the bread was rising or the oven heating, he would pose me at certain tasks. They wanted a shot of me writing on my Grandma's Nook blog.
It went on and on. They went and took a lunch break, timing their return for when the bread would be coming out of the oven. Meanwhile, the newspaper crew arrived. They past at the threshold. The new cameraman told me that he and the other fellow were colleagues. Cool, better than enemies.
So the photo shoot went on around my baking. Their thrust is a photo story, which was already done in a Wujin Daily issue Jan. 3, but who was I to tell them that.
They went off to lunch, just as the other crew came back. The TV crew wanted a more varied background, so they took me to the local supermarket, following me around with a camera.
We get to the checkout, only to find the newspaper crew with their camera swooping down on us. The checkout girl said, in Chinese, Who are you? I replied, that's a good question.
I wanted to try baguettes today, using a new recipe from the Bread Bakers Guild of America. I thought I might finally get a baguette that was crisp on the outside and having large holes inside. But all this commotion made me put the bread in the oven too soon. Then they took me away, and Xiao Lan had to take the bread out. But the oven needed to be dried out of the steam I had added, ten minutes before the finish. I wasn't able to explain that to Xiao Lan. The crust came out too soft. The taste was really good, but not so many holes. I used expensive stone ground wheat for this, too. I don't know who will buy these seven long loaves. Jason, my one customer (he is an interior designer) who actually orders this kind of bread, last night told me he would be here in the afternoon. It is now 2:30, and he hasn't arrived yet. I am eager for his reaction to this new recipe.
When I lived in Sichuan, teaching at the Kangding Teachers College, two separate networks came and interviewed me. They promised they would send copies of the final cut, but neither did.
I asked this English speaking TV reporter if he would be allowed to give me a digital copy. He said he could and he would.
We'll see.
Word must be getting out.
I've been receiving calls from various media. There are quite a few newspapers in Changzhou, so I'm not clear on which is which, but I've had a couple of phone calls about requests to do interviews. I stipulated that there must be an English speaking member in any crew they sent. Some weeks ago a crew came, and no one spoke English. I have no idea if they ever used the material.
A man came in, a customer. His English was quite good. I asked him what he did, and he said he was a TV reporter. What's your beat, I asked him. Human Interest, his reply. He called a couple of days later and asked if he could come and do a piece. Thursday or Friday, I said, were good days. Another crew called me, the lovely lady called me 'grannie' during our phone conversation. I told her also, Thursday or Friday were good days.
Yesterday was Thursday. I received an invitation to attend a ceremony sponsored by the Foreign Affairs Office, unveiling a new program for 'foreigners' to help them integrate better into Chinese community. Anything involving the FAO is attractive to me these days. I am having trouble renewing my visa, and it is under their auspices. Spending a day rubbing elbows with some of their staff seemed desirable. And it would include a free lunch of good Chinese food. I texted the TV reporter and told him Friday would be better. He confirmed.
I did not have the phone number of the newspaper, to tell them I would not be at the bakery Thursday. They came, and found me absent.
Friday at 9 a.m. the English speaking man with his camera man arrived. I had a heavy baking schedule. I had started at 6 a.m., and was coaxing along not a few recipes of various stripes. We chatted, he asked me the predictable questions. Why did you come to China, why did you open a bakery, what was your life in American like?
When I could take a break, while the bread was rising or the oven heating, he would pose me at certain tasks. They wanted a shot of me writing on my Grandma's Nook blog.
It went on and on. They went and took a lunch break, timing their return for when the bread would be coming out of the oven. Meanwhile, the newspaper crew arrived. They past at the threshold. The new cameraman told me that he and the other fellow were colleagues. Cool, better than enemies.
So the photo shoot went on around my baking. Their thrust is a photo story, which was already done in a Wujin Daily issue Jan. 3, but who was I to tell them that.
They went off to lunch, just as the other crew came back. The TV crew wanted a more varied background, so they took me to the local supermarket, following me around with a camera.
We get to the checkout, only to find the newspaper crew with their camera swooping down on us. The checkout girl said, in Chinese, Who are you? I replied, that's a good question.
I wanted to try baguettes today, using a new recipe from the Bread Bakers Guild of America. I thought I might finally get a baguette that was crisp on the outside and having large holes inside. But all this commotion made me put the bread in the oven too soon. Then they took me away, and Xiao Lan had to take the bread out. But the oven needed to be dried out of the steam I had added, ten minutes before the finish. I wasn't able to explain that to Xiao Lan. The crust came out too soft. The taste was really good, but not so many holes. I used expensive stone ground wheat for this, too. I don't know who will buy these seven long loaves. Jason, my one customer (he is an interior designer) who actually orders this kind of bread, last night told me he would be here in the afternoon. It is now 2:30, and he hasn't arrived yet. I am eager for his reaction to this new recipe.
When I lived in Sichuan, teaching at the Kangding Teachers College, two separate networks came and interviewed me. They promised they would send copies of the final cut, but neither did.
I asked this English speaking TV reporter if he would be allowed to give me a digital copy. He said he could and he would.
We'll see.
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