My kingdom for a threaded doohickey!

I noticed the other day that basically all I have posted about is hunting for food. I don't want to make it sound like I have some obsession but, well it has been an obsession. The sad part is it hasn't been looking for good food so much as looking for any food. We've really been struggling to get a normalized pattern of groceries and meals based on locally available stuff. I've written about western foods mostly for the entertainment value, but we are trying to "go native" to a certain degree, and most of our food has come from regular stores and our local "wet market" (produce).

Of course, it hasn't been just food that we have needed to search for. All the little odds and ends that make up a household have to get found, from school supplies to outlet splitters to laundry soap. Now, finally, our basic routines are starting to feel established. I've been joking that we are moving out of our "hunter-gatherer stage".

On the issue of tools, however, I'm still feeling very Stone Age. China these days is an advanced society, but labor is very specialized. Not a job gets done that you don't have to pay someone else to do, and that is really annoying me when it comes to minor household repairs and such. There is absolutely no do-it-yourself culture of any kind, and therefore, the tools and supplies are completely unavailable. The big grocery stores have a tool section about like what you find at an American grocery store. We went to a store called B&Q, which is a Home Depot-ish type store. It had fixtures and materials (like laminated flooring, stoves, sinks, etc.) but very limited offerings of parts, hardware, or building materials, or tools. Literally, what it has to offer is not much more than one would find in a Walgreens grocery store in the U.S.! No one I have asked so far knows where to buy real tools, either... it really is bizarre.

I'm not just saying any of this on my own authority either. We have met a friend who works for Black and Decker here. He says there is virtually no consumer market for tools in China. Only the professionals have them. I use the term "professional" very loosely. I'm thinking of starting a special blog series titled "Really, Really Bad Caulking Jobs". Several pictures could come from our apartment.

I have a pretty good selection of real tools coming in the stuff we shipped, but they won't do me much good, because I can't find any of the little bits and pieces that you need to ever fix anything. All the screws, brackets, and little hardware doodads, they don't exist! Based on available supplies, I can't even fix basic things like cracked outlet covers or the water stream that runs over the edge of the tub and puddles the bathroom floor. I really, really miss having a standard American hardware store. Not only did it hold lots of useful stuff, but the hardware store was always my sure-fire-no-questions-asked errand. It could always get me out of the house! (Where you going honey? Oh I just need some stuff at the hardware store....) A guy can always find something useful in a hardware store, even he didn't know it existed, and even if it fixes a problem he didn't, until that moment, even know he had.

I will get back to my quest for food later, right now, I wan't you to just go to a regular old ACE hardware store for me, wander up and down the aisles, and take it all in. When any of you come to visit, I'm going to give you a list of things to bring me.