DAY THIRTY Oct. 16

Still mighty sore, But one more day... Went down to 1st rehab session-acupuncture and massage, and that's it until stem cells come, supposedly this afternoon.

We're trying to pass out gifts, in the form of card packs. Gifts are a very impotant gesture here, and we don't have enough. We have resorted the cards and needed some ribbon to tie them together. Ribbon seems very hard to come by. Deb finally found some for us in Hong Kong at a small Hallmark store. She also found me some ibruprofen, but that was also difficult to find. Guess the Chinese feel no pain. Confucius said Life is Suffering. If they have a problem, they treat it with acupuncture. They also seem to prefer these hard beds, and all have strong quads from these toilets. No satellite dishes, though. Must be prohibited. That means no Al Jazzera. Pity. I guess they have to, get anti-American propaganda from somewhere else.

After being here a month, we see lots of business opportunities. I'm sure they will be addressed, and with the speed of change here, in 3-5 years the present times will seem awfully primitive.

Stem cells are here. More later.

Well, threy're still giving spinals. I got my IV, but all the nurses are helping, so I'm still tethered. Deb had her sedation, and was hallucinating. Very funny, I'm told. Sally visited her room, Deb said "Wal-Mart?" Sally chuckled and said "Sure, Deb, we'll go to Wal-Mart."

Nightime now. Turns out the IV got clotted, so they had to poke me again. Couldn't find a suitable vein, so Sally pointed out one on my thumb, which they usually avoid, because it is PAINFUL.

Feeling emboldened, we took a cab to the famous Sea World, an area of many international restaurants and shops, catering to Westerners, although I didn't see any. Sea World is near the bay, in downtown Shenzhen, which looked like Manhattan to me, except more trees. Lots of animated, colorful signs; big buildings. A 15 minute cab ride to Sea World was $3.

Now, I would never even attempt to go anywhere at night before, but I have some newfound confidence (abiility?) and did OK. Sally's been wanting a steak, so we both had a filet. Napkins and everything!

It's too bad I can't try out my walking on some of the sights. We have to leave too soon. Maybe tomorrow. We'll give out our gifts tomorrow and have the last rehab. My body's covered with bruises..from the fall, from the acupuncture, from massages, from IVs....I guess I'm just a puss.