My bestie's wedding My bestie got married! She and her boyfriend have been dating for almost 8 years since high school. So I guess they're high school sweethearts and also partners for life. I'm really happy for them! They had their wedding on 30th of August, which was supposed to be the best day this year in Chinese calendar so it's said in my home town alone there're 200 coupes getting married that day! Not to mention all the posts about weddings I saw that day on Wechat. She looked incredibly gorgeous that day and people God blessed her as it's probably the most important day of her life. She was sitting on the bed in her wedding dress and on great makeup for her man to come and get her. Then the groom came with his cousins and friends, girls, friends and female family members of the bride in the room are supposed to be in the room, blocking the door from letting the groom and everybody in until they give girls some cash in little red envelops as a sign of good luck. But they did it too much the glass in the door broke into pieces and bridesmaid got hurt! Anyway everybody's attention was on the bride and the groom, then the groom was asked to find a pair of high heels which have been hided somewhere in the room/house before he could take the bride to his place, i.e. their future sweet home. Then the groom carried the bride on his back and went downstairs, so it seems that groom should be really strong :). After everybody got to their new place, the groom and the bride started to call each other's parents "mom" and "dad", and it's also supposed to be a ceremony for that too. After everything, we went to a nice restaurant for wedding ceremony where everybody sat around different tables on which a plate of food after another plate would be served. There's also a host for that, taking care of everything. And here we went western, my bestie, accompanying by her father, walked to the groom. They exchanged rings and vows, hugged and kissed. The ridiculous part was, as soon as the ceremony finished and everybody was served chopsticks, they started eating and finished the meal within 10 minutes and a lot of people just left before my bestie changed another traditional Chinese red wedding dress and proposed toasts! I guess that's something very Chinese, everybody cares so much about how things go their way instead of how people feel. (if you know what I mean). Anyway i was very happy for my bestie as its true love and many just marry for money instead of love. To true love!

A Tour to Power Station of Art Today I went to Power Station of Art in Shanghai, first of all, I have to doubt this name, if translated literally, it should be Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum, "Power Station" just sounds interesting. There were some really cool exhibitions there. On the first floor, there was the show room of a French artist called JR who took a lot of portraits of different people around the world, they were really cool. Then there was one on carpets and tapestries but I didn't go in as they were charged :-). But there were still something free to see, an interesting one was they made an artistic tapestry with really old pillow cases and sheets, that was quite creative. Then there was an exhibition of a famous Japanese architect, a lot of people were showing interest and taking photos all the time, but sadly I know nothing about architect, therefore couldn't appreciate the exhibition as much. Last exhibition, also the most boring one, was the Chinese Contemporary Art Award, there were some short movies on show, some were nice and some were bullshit, there was also one room with pics of how the artist committed suicide, I found that cool actually.

IELTS Writing 3 A glance at the two figures reveals similarities in the demand for electricity in England during typical days in winter and summer and the different percentage of electricity used in an average English home. Increasing from approximately 35,000 units at midnight, the demand for electricity in winter peaks at 40,000 at around 3 am. This is followed by a plunge to 30,000 between 7 am and 8am. Then it goes all the way up to around 45,000 at 21:00 followed by a dramatic drop to some 32,000. The demand for electricity in summer, meanwhile, stays below 20,000 overall. It reaches the lowest point of about 13,000 at 9 am before a gradual decrease from 18,000. It peaks at 20,000 in the afternoon and remains steady around 17,000 till evening.However the night sees the second highest point at around 20,000. The electricity is mainly used for heating rooms and water, the percentage of which accounts for 52.5%. The remainder can be divided into 3 parts with 17.5% spent on ovens, kettles and washing machines and one 15% used for lighting, TV and radio, the other one for vacuum cleaners, food mixers and electric tools. It can be concluded that the demand of electricity peaks around 11 pm all the year round and more than half of it is consumed for heating in England.

What are the common alternatives for happy or sad? How do you express it when you are in a good mood or a bad one? Please give me as many words or phrases concerning this as possible. And any difference between "upset" , " unhappy" , "uptight" and " angry" ? Thanks a lot!

Any difference between advice and suggestion? Any difference ? When to use advice as singular noun and when to use it as plural nouns?

An Eventful Night Tonight I did some things which were quite pleasing. Firstly I finished writing the transcript of an interpreting assignment I have done in May. Well, just my interpreting in Chinese so it was such an easy job todo because I typed quite fast. Then me and my mom did a cardio workout together at home on mats, I normally work out every day and mom joined days ago, she wanted to be fit and healthier. After shower, I did a mock IELTS speaking test with a friend on wechat , which was really good and we gave each other feedback and discussed problems we had together. Then we decided to talk in English everyday on wechat, which I thought was a good thing. Hope I get better in near future!

Different types of family living in poverty The table below demonstrates the proportion of different types of families living in poverty in Australia in 1999. 11%, namely 1,837,000 people live in poverty in Australia in 1999. Most people living in poverty came from single families, single people with no children accounted for 19% (359,000) while the proportion of sole parents living in poverty was 21%, the largest proportion among all types of family. Families of married people came the second with families of couple with no children taking up 7% and those with children 12%. The aged people constituted the least proportion, there were more single aged people living in poverty than aged couples with the former at 6%(54,000) and the later 4%(48,000). It can be inferred that the single people and sole parents are the families taking up the largest proportion while couples are a little more well off. Aged people accounted for the least in all family types.

children doing paid work In many countries children are engaged in some kind of paid work. Some people regard this as completely wrong, while others consider it as valuable work experience, important for learning and taking responsibility. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ In many countries children are engaged in some kind of paid work nowadays and different people have different opinions on it. Some people think of this as completely wrong because childhood should be all about being happy and playing around. They believe it is adults' duty to provide their children with an easy and relaxing environment for them to enjoy life, and learning and taking responsibilities are something taught at school or later in the society. While others take it as a valuable work experience. Because many children are too spoiled to do a satisfactory job or take responsibility. When they are engaged in paid work, they'll learn the way how the society works and learn rules of life for later use. Moreover, by doing paid work, they will realise they have certain responsibilities to others, which will benefit in the long run. For example, when children babysit, they are aware that they should be responsible to the baby ,and they'll know the hard way they were raised and some parenting skills as well. As far as I am concerned, children doing some paid work is a practice as well as a self-development for them as responsibilities and certain rules can be learnt. What is important, children will become independent when parents let them go and do something on their own. What they learn from this will never be taught at school and is a valuable experience in their whole life.

Is it pointless to keep alive traditional skills and ways of life as technology develops? Modern technology brings about many changes to life. With advanced electronic devices, communication around the world has been much easier. Thanks to machines, more products are produced without people being exhausted. Some people therefore think it is pointless to keep the traditional skills and ways of life alive as our life has been changed so much and we are adapted to it. On the one hand, traditional skills have been substituted by machines which are easy to operate and time saving. We have more choices of daily products in a reasonable price compared to conditions in the past. On the other hand, our lifestyle has changed, we are more informed than ever that we have different access to global news and we can contact each other not by simply making a call or talking face to face but in different ways such as using audio chat, texting or simply checking status in social networking websites. While others believe we should keep alive the traditional skills and ways of life despite all this. It is because all the convenience modern technology has brought about that we realise how important traditional skills and ways of life are. Take Chinese paper cut as an example, though beautiful paper cuts can be made by machines, hand made paper cut is a skill desired by many and more importantly, a sign of traditional Chinese culture. Losing the skill is ,in some way, losing a part of traditional Chinese culture. Influenced by Western culture, youngsters have started celebrating Christmas, Valentine's Day and other Western holidays, making traditional Chinese New Year less valued in China. However, a person should bear in mind his own culture and holidays before he joins the celebration of other foreign holidays. If everybody is celebrating Christmas and valuing Western culture around the world, no diversity will be found and no fun there will be. As far as I am concerned, there is a point in keeping traditional skills and ways of life because they make what we are today. But at the same time we should welcome the benefit and changes brought by modern technology and spread our traditional culture with it, thus to make a diversified and live world.