Pancakes were being served at the Cornell's last Sunday. Final retribution for the loss by the Canadians to the Russians in the gold medal hockey final of the World Universiade Games held in Harbin at the end of February. The bet was with my Russian colleague, Irena. If Canada lost I was to serve pancakes and if Russia lost, she would be serving blinis, a kind of a Russian crepe. Thanks to a stupid penalty near the end of the third period Canada lost and I needed to dig out my chef's hat. A few of the young'uns invited themselves to the payoff. Branson and Takae came with Russian champagne and orange juice. whipping up some delicious Mimosas. Brian brought his appetite. The pancakes turned out to be a little on the heavy side and were renamed flapjacks. But smothered in some pseudo maple syrup, they tasted great.
Irena, a gracious winner, brought her own stove, pan along with blini fixings and made batch after batch of the delicate crepe like creations. She also brought some homemade jam, canned plums and honey which were used to smother the blinis. Once smothered, you rolled them up like a crepe and inhaled them. We lost count on the number that Brian was able to put away. The brunch rolled on into the afternoon with some pleasant banter and Mimosas. A nap rounded out a wonderful day. The only thing missing was Nonie. Perhaps if she had been here, the flapjacks would have been pancakes.
Her eye is showing good progress and if all goes well she will be able to fly about mid April. I cannot wait. I have made a decision to stretch my wings a bit and try a little independent travel. There is a ski resort located about 180 miles from Harbin called Yabuli. It is billed as the largest hill in operation in China. I am working on the logistics and hope to go next weekend on my own. The weatherman is forecasting some snow up to Saturday then sunny on Sunday. So if all goes well, I will be skiing in some fresh Chinese power on Sunday morning. More in a later blog.
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