Adrian’s return or…Marmite, Tunnocks and Yorkshire Tea!

Adrian’s return to Shanghai was not unlike Christmas. We went to meet him at the airport, which was a novelty in itself, and then the children bombarded him with questions and information all the way back.

While back in the UK, he had collected some remaining bits and bobs that had been omitted from the airfreight, but weren’t practical to bring on our journey out (we lugged far too much stuff anyway, but as we are still living with only that 2 months later, it has all proven necessary). He emptied out his two big cases and I was very excited to find 2 x 500g jars of Marmite (Laura ate 2 rounds of Marmite toast at every meal for at least the next 10 days!) a huge stash of Yorkshire Tea, Tunnocks caramel wafers and teacakes, Extra Peppermint Gum, Jaffa cakes and 2 packs of Haribo given to us before we left that we just couldn’t squeeze in. Happy days! He also brought a toaster (we hadn’t had much luck finding one here, although I did finally find a reasonably priced selection once he was back in the UK). And joy of joys, my iron! I was pathetically grateful for these familiar objects. Another item was a glass worktop protector with gingerbread men all over it that was a gift from a neighbour a few years back and had come to represent my kitchen as we make endless cups of tea and sandwiches on it and I hadn’t found anything similar here to take its place. He had carefully smothered it in bubble wrap and it survived the journey :)



I had asked Adrian to bring back a kitchen roll holder as Asda had them for peanuts and I hadn’t been able to find one here. He ran out of time on that request and I have now managed to find one in Ikea. Little things that you are used to at home to make life easier can quickly becoming irritating when you have to make do without them long term. Along with the goodies already mentioned he had bagged a box of chocolate brownies and had picked up a Click and Collect order from Boots that I had done online here. It included my preferred hairspray (yet to find it here), more of my face cream (they have it here, but it is 3 times the UK price and is a whitening cream which I fear is a nice way of saying ‘bleach’!), more 50% DEET mosquito repellent – sadly nowhere near enough as we have used a third of what he brought back already, more antihistamine tablets and cream, vitamin tablets, Hula Hoops and mincemeat!

It sounds silly, but this random selection of little comforts that Adrian kindly lugged back all the way from the UK brought us all so much pleasure; they will either make life easier or more enjoyable! I have stashed all the goodies out of reach in the emergency contraband cupboard and we shall eke them out carefully over the coming months. I can see already that a Tunnocks wafer will be included in Christmas stockings!

Annoyingly the toaster developed a fault within a couple of days which may be down to Chinese socket wiring/voltage (more on this later!) but necessity is the mother of invention and having now acquired a toaster, I wasn’t about to do without it again. The problem is that the lever (or whatever you want to call it) doesn’t stay down once pressed, so I cobbled together a solution using a hook that is used to hang brooms etc and one of Laura’s elastic hairbands. It is still in use now!




Adrian and I have both questioned what we are actually expecting in the 15 or so boxes of airfreight as after nearly 2 mths in Emerald Park we are pretty sorted and not missing much. Of course, there are important things in the airfreight that we can live without temporarily, but not long term, such as the breadmaker, skis, adult bikes and the dressing up box/facepaints! Also warm/winter clothing and boots and shoes. I am trying not to dwell on how long it is since I last clapped eyes on my beloved Alexander (French Horn that I have had since my mid teens) as I fret if I do…

Over recent weeks I have had to remind myself how to cook properly. Thanks to the abundance of great frozen food available in the UK, actual cooking was infrequent and at its most exotic included spag bol, chili con carne, casserole or chicken curry (indian or thai, sauce from jar). Suddenly I am back to using actual ingredients, periodically anxious as to their origin and while it is not ‘rocket science’, sometimes providing a nutritious, vaguely recognisable meal becomes a challenge. Inevitably, along with the struggles and disappointments come some pleasant surprises, the potatoes are delicious and the children have discovered a taste for homemade herby chips (I have only found oven ready ones in one shop so far and they were £6 for a tiny bag!) They have also decided they now LOVE omelette (amazing what hunger and desperation will do to the palate!) and that is a huge bonus!

I have also had the fun experience of opening a back account, trips to the bank can vary between 30 and 90 minutes depending on the queues and the transaction. On arrival you book in according to the transaction you wish to effect and are given a ticket with an alphanumeric code and this ticket also advises the number of people in front of you in the queue. You then wait for your number to be called. VIP customers are inevitably prioritised and different transactions are carried out at different windows. Cashiers do not wear a name, but display their employee number e.g. ‘05452’. So, I went to open an account and spent 30 minutes signing triplicate forms in Mandarin that I still have no idea what they were. But, after the manager came over and also stamped every form with his little red stamp, I left the branch with a functioning account and a cash card in my hand…

On the subject of stamps, they like them here very much. A couple of the grocery shops I frequent (Metro and RT Mart) have a person standing at the exit barrier with a stamp in hand to stamp your receipt as you leave. At Metro (like Makro/Cash and Carry), this is fine as it is a massive A4 punched side receipt which you are not likely to tuck in your purse with your change, but at RT Mart it keeps catching me out as I put the receipt away when I stash my change and I have to fish for the receipt while juggling bags of shopping.

Another funny little practice I discovered thanks to Noha. We have a Tesco about 10 minutes from us and I use it on average once a week. On one occasion I had three or four heavy bags of shopping and as I would in the UK, set off to the car with the trolley, only to be harangued by the chap in charge of organising the trolleys. Leaving the mall with the trolley was obviously NOT allowed, so I had to unload the bags and lug them the 50m out to the car waiting on the main road. WJ of course ran over to help when he saw me but it was still a pain. I mentioned this to Noha and she had already rumbled the procedure. You leave an item of your shopping with the trolley minders and then they know you will come back with the trolley. Great! The last time I went in I found 4 bottles of wine at a great price, 29¥/£3, so I obviously bought 8 bottles. I had also bought a vacuum cleaner (more on that in a moment!) and therefore did not want to lug it all to the car. Amongst my shopping I had also bought 2 x 500ml bottles of beer at 1.70¥/17p!!!! So, easy peasy, I handed a bottle of beer to one of the minders (much to his delight, I’m sure he would happily have ignored the trolley’s disappearance!) and seriously considered not bothering to take the trolley back!

I mentioned the vacuum cleaner…I have been hoping to grab a bargain for some days as the cleaner that is in the house is a bag variety and filthy. I refuse to buy bags in this day and age/bring this dirty cleaner into the house and as the landlord has refused to provide a new one as the old one works, I resigned myself to buying a new one…(did someone say ‘expense it???!’) I had found some bargains in Metro but it turns out if it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true. One was missing some pretty critical parts (hose etc!) and would need a further 1000¥ approx. spent on it to get it working and the other two were simply not in stock *sigh*
Half-heartedly I looked at the vacuums in Tesco and didn’t spot anything I liked. One of the sales assistants popped up and gesticulated me into the next aisle where there were some cleaners on offer. I looked, but they were still a little over the price I had intended to pay. One of them was 569¥, marked down to 499¥. I presumably showed the right amount of interest, coupled with reluctance to pay the displayed price as she grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled ‘449’ on it and pointed to the only one I had been half considering. I wish I had had the audacity to try it on for 399¥, but frankly I was so surprised to be offered a better price in Tesco that I just snapped it up!

Once home I was reminded of another feature of life in China that I should share with you. Inevitably I soon plugged ‘Lexy’ in and put her though her paces. A serious irritation for those of us used to the three pin socket system in the UK is the two pin plug here. The sockets seem to be wired in a very hit and miss manner. You need to plug things in, wiggle them about, dodge the blue flash and cover your eyebrows/any other hairy, flammable extremities and pray that nothing blows up/the plug doesn’t fall out of the socket a nanosecond after you walk away. Imagine then, the act of vacuuming…inevitably you unintentionally pull on the lead as you move the cleaner around which here, results in having to re-plug, wiggle, curse, eventually reconnect and tiptoe carefully away again every 30 seconds...*sigh*

While on the subject of funny things you have to do here, it is worth mentioning the cash machines. There are two types of machine, ATM (I think we are all familiar with those) and Cash Recycling Machines. Still not sure what they are, but I know for international cards you should only use ATM. The cashpoints here are generally lined up on the outside of the bank wall and look like phoneboxes. You enter the cubicle and lock the door behind you and in some instances are barked at by an automated voice. They generally reek of smoke and are highly claustrophobic. I find it strange that there is this level of protection while accessing your account when I have seen people in the bank clutching huge wedges of quite possibly millions of Yuan to deposit. But then all the banks have at least one security guard at large in the foyer and if any employees walk around carrying cash or foreign currency, a security guard follows with his baton extended. (There is no way to describe that without it sounding lewd!)

In other news, James’ year group were visited by a dental practice who gave them each a free dental examination. Procedures are very American here and he came back with a recommendation for braces…hmmm, braces, glasses and orthopaedic inserts, someone doesn’t want the boy to have ANY friends! We will drag our feet massively as I think 7 is far too young for braces. In my memory they are troublesome to keep clean even as an older child, so I am not enamoured. Dental friends, please feel free to send me your thoughts!

I have continued entertaining local supermarket staff with my pantomime performances when attempting to establish what is under the breadcrumb at the meat/fish counter. This involves mooing and miming horns, oinking, performing a snake like hand motion for fish and the predictable chicken dance. I am generally underwhelmed by the response; at best I get a blank stare and they produce a frying pan to show me how to cook it, but do little to confirm what I am trying to establish. This may be cultural as it is bad news to lose face by acknowledging you don’t know/don’t understand. I have heard that asking for directions is a nightmare, particularly for important public buildings/attractions as a Chinese person would apparently be embarrassed to admit that they didn’t know, so would rather make up some directions and send you on your way rather than just say they don’t know. Net result is you can get sent on some pretty wild goose chases…

Not too long ago I was in Ikea and they appeared to have some short shelf life Milk Chocolate 2 for the price of 1. I have been caught out before by thinking a price was displayed, only to find out that it was not the ¥ price, but the special offer discount. So I went to the till, gesticulated theatrically at the chocolate and said ‘liǎng?’ (a pair/two of) and tapped the card with the price. He nodded and said in a bored tone in perfect English, ‘Yes....buy one get one free’. Thankfully he didn't actually sigh and roll his eyes but yes, I did feel a smidge patronised!

Cars, drivers, driving...

Having a driver is not as great as it sounds. Realistically WJ shouldn't work excessive hours and he picks Adrian up at 7.30 to go to the office (he and the Dabbagh's driver do the office run on alternate days since Adrian and Suad are doing the same journey). Occasionally we could use him to go out in the evening, but I don't feel comfortable doing it yet. Ideally we need to plan at least one day a week to be without a car so he gets a day off and he needs an hour's notice to be here as he lives 20-30 mins away in clear traffic conditions which means spontaneity is not an option unless he already happens to be in this neck of the woods! Obviously it is GREAT not having to park in a big city, and although I am not faint hearted, I wouldn't dare drive here! He also helps carry the shopping in :) but I am missing the freedom and independence of just having my own wheels. We are likely to get e-bikes at some point - eeeeek, I have never even ridden a moped, I will be LETHAL! Locally e-bikes are known as 'silent death' as being electric, they make no noticeable sound in a city environment. This coupled with the fact that they ride them on the pavements and frequently the wrong way down the bike/scooter lanes means they are a constant danger. This is exacerbated at night as they rarely bother to turn their lights on and just rely on their hooters to get you out of the way if you haven't spotted them. Vehicles without lights are not limited to scooters, on one of our longer out of town journeys we also saw HGVs driving around after dark with no lights, not funny on the unlit freeway.

On a happier note, we saw this Porsche decked out for a wedding with roses stuck all over it with suction cups...pretty!

(nice photo bomb from the guy in the car next to it!)





Latest funny grocery items:

• Strawberry flavour cheese triangles….ewwwww! I thought they were ham, good thing I realised before I bought them.
• This :) 

(To go with my previously spotted Elaborate Bacon, maybe?!

 

• And these: 

Had to buy them as I was intrigued, they tasted greasy and salty and smelt vaguely of fish, so now you all know what a USA smell is :)

• Favourite toiletry find: 

Mr. Bump and Laura Scissorhands.

Prepped this up about 10 days ago, but have been busy over Half Term. This covers the last couple of weeks of September.

We have had a busy couple of weeks, but are now thankfully on Half Term for 10 days.
The children had a GOAL day at school (12th September); this was a meeting with their class teacher and the child and they check progress and set targets. We went on a little adventure in the morning to check out a soft play area while it was quiet. Slightly thwarted as it didn’t open until 1pm, but was happily situated in an amusement arcade. Once I had worked out the machines didn’t take Yuan, but tokens, and how one bought tokens, we had a fab time. A ride that would have cost £1, maybe even £2 in the UK was 3 or at most 6 tokens, 30/60 pence!! We spent several hours there and I won a jackpot:

Arcade heaven!



How many tickets from the jackpot?!

We then traded the tickets for a pad and pencil, some dressing up glasses and a purse. All in all a successful and enjoyable outing, even though it was not remotely as I had planned. For speed and as a final treat I took the children to the KFC in the same mall. One word, yuck! Greasy, fatty, gristly chicken and far too spicy for the children (made KFC UK look like à la carte!)

The school is not open on GOAL day, so the children have a day 'off' but have to attend the 15 minute appointment in uniform. We interpreted that loosely, so Laura put hers over the top of her shorts and vest top and still wore her crocs! It’s early in the term, but both children seem to be where they should be (or better) and have settled really well. Laura’s teacher said you would never have known she wasn’t here last year, she is so confident (as always, I felt that could be taken two ways as Laura has a reputation for being forthright and needing to be kept on a tight rein!) James’s teacher has already understood that he is quite emotional for a boy and is happy that he is settling in well but it is not unusual for him to shed tears over perceived failure or struggling to understand something. Both children are loving Mandarin lessons (and I am learning from nosing through their notes) and James is really enthused about this term’s Topic of the Romans. They are dressing up on the first day back and he is really looking forward to it (pulling together an outfit has been a challenge without our usual resources!) He is also enjoying Recorder Karate; they earn ‘belts’ as they make progress and he has already had his first belt.

We went to the Emerald newcomers’ party. The theme was a celebrity bash and we were invited to come dressed as stars of stage/screen/sports, popstars, celebrities etc…While back home finding an outfit for this would have posed us little problem, without our dressing up box (still in the air shipment back in the UK waiting for Adrian’s visa to be finalised so that it can be processed) and with little local knowledge of likely sources for costumes, we went into drastic improvisation mode. I put on black trousers and a white shirt, borrowed a dicky bow from James, mascara’d on a moustache and bigger eyebrows and wore James’ straw fedora and aviators. James wore a Hawaiian shirt and tie and trousers and I eye-pencilled a curly moustache on him. Laura chose to go as a mummy (don’t ask!!) which seemed a great idea until we set off to walk 20 mins to the clubhouse. Suffice it to say it was a good thing I had elected to bring an emergency roll of toilet paper and the sellotape as I had to all but recreate her entire ‘outfit’ just before we went in. We walked up the red carpet to flash photography and screams (very well orchestrated!), signed the ‘wall’ and went in. The food was pretty good, the band were also Not Bad and thanks to some well considered entertainments for the children too, we had a good time. Unfortunately it decided to chuck it down as we were due to leave and we were so cold and wet by the time we got home we had to have hot showers and hot chocolate!! (Thankfully Laura had long since binned her mummy costume otherwise it would have quickly become pulp). 

 


Using the balloon arch to do a Dragon dance at the end of the party

The next week we had the mini drama of the first accident while at school. One afternoon James got off the bus holding an ice pack to a rather sore face and head. He told me the sorry tale that he had been running for the bus (although there is no need, they wouldn’t go without him) and had apparently been holding his rucksack on his back when someone crossed his path and he tripped over the other person. Presumably this happened so quickly that he didn’t put his arms out as he seemed to have taken the brunt of the fall on his nose and forehead, doing a fair bit of damage to his glasses too in the process. He was taken off to the nurse to be cleaned up and then taken back to the bus (which had of course waited for him!)

Imagine my anxiety the following day when Laura’s teacher phoned just after lunch to say that Laura had been using scissors… (she managed to cut her thumb knuckle quite badly with a pair of scissors at Minety, so I was dreading what was coming)….and to her teacher’s horror she had cut a significant chunk of her own hair off. I tried to establish how much and from where and she said ‘about two inches from her fringe’. Regrettably she has 'form' as it is not long since she hacked another bit off that was ‘annoying’ her. When I saw it I decided she should wait until Adrian came home before possibly trying to take her to the hairdresser. In the end we decided that I would feather/even it up a little on the other side so that it could grow out a bit and hopefully get straightened out properly in a couple of weeks by a hairdresser. It looks pretty silly right now and I’m not entirely sure she’s learnt her lesson…

Fortunately, the school photos had been done the day before for each child so we should hopefully still have half decent pictures! Laura confessed at a later stage that the Head of Infants had come to see her over the 'incident'...already blotted her copybook!

In other news the stinky (musty) curtains in the sitting room were taken away to be washed. A funny conversation took place with the chap who came to take them as he was about 5'4" and blatantly needed steps to reach the curtains. We had no steps at the time, but thanks to a trusty Ikea step, I improvised a very satisfactory solution which I later used to take down the nets/voiles and wash them:

The biggest advantage of city living is takeway access, so we wasted no time in trialling www.bakerhaus.com and were very pleased with the order; stonebaked ham pizza and hummus, pitta bread and crudités, yum! :) The children loved the delivery by moped which (poor deprived mites) they have only seen on TV before now!

 

I didn't buy this, but one of my favourite finds in a local supermarket was this vocabulary sheet including the words: sponge, shoes, glasses, kettle and that most essential word, horn :) (up at the top right)

 

I decided I was being a little too picky buying prosecco, demi-sec and cava, so thought it was time I tried the local 'fizz'. It only seemed to be available in 1.5l bottles but I figured I was up for the challenge and at approx. £3, it had to be worth a punt. I opened it and it smelt familiar, but I couldn't immediately place it. A taste enabled me to identify the 'bouquet', it smelt of cider, so presumably this was pommery or maybe it was just White Lightning in a fancy bottle. Honestly it was pretty ghastly, but much improved when some blackcurrant was added, a top suggestion from our friend Tim! Will I buy it again?? Nope!!

 

Thoughts:

• With a little bit of positive thinking, you can make a place feel like home as long as you have your family with you. I really found visiting Shanghai hard back in June as I was missing the children so much. Now it has quickly felt like home with James and Laura running about the place!
• Seemingly little things can make all the difference. Skype has made us feel much less far away and I really appreciate friends making the effort to call us relatively early in the morning on their weekends, in particular this has helped the children feel less cut off from their friends. I am eternally grateful for my VPN service too, without which I would not be able to blog, access Google easily, or use Facebook. I cannot begin to explain how comforting it is to share in friends' daily joys and woes and share mine. Again, it helps us feel much more connected.
• In some respects, on a broad scale, our lives have barely changed. Adrian goes to work, the children go to school, I clean (as little as I can get away with!), shop for food, cook, do the washing, iron, make excuses not to go to the gym/actually go to the gym, chat to Mums at drop off and pick up... But, at the same time, each one of these routines has also changed, some subtly, some significantly and for now it is a little more complicated than it used to be until we get used to it and it becomes our new normal. Effectively we are all doing the same 'work' but with less skill, ease and familiarity...

Děng yī xià...wait a moment!

I know I am long overdue a post and I have a couple pending that just need pictures adding/finishing off. The last 10 days have been a combination of Half Term and Golden Week, a 3 day National Holiday often extended to 7. Consequently I have not spent much time on the laptop and now need to get back on track stocking the cupboards, fridge and freezer following the 'break'.
I have just placed my first online 'protein' order to see how it works out. They had British looking bacon and sausages which I hadn't seen here yet so thought we should definitely try them! I am still finding my way with meat and fish as I have been warned off about fish from heavily polluted waters/unethical fishing practices and meat from animals fed steroids to speed unnatural growth and meat with added antibiotics to counter its poor quality. I try to remember to wash meat before cooking (not practical with mince obviously) and soak and scrub fruit and veg thoroughly as that too is renowned for being heavily coated with pesticides.
In addition to these new practices to add to my daily food routine, we are trialling various methods of moving money around and as most trips to the bank take 30-90 minutes at the counter, this is another time consuming affair (we have opened 3 bank accounts here so far and haven't yet totally cracked it!) I am all too aware I could do with a trip to the dentist, I need to get James booked in with an Ophthalmologist and I can't remember whether we need to actually register with a doctor, it seems likely. I am firefighting the issues as they arise currently rather than having a plan!

I did enjoy a trip to Marks and Spencer today, their bakery smelt heavenly, but some of the food prices were outrageous. I will no doubt have to cough up £4.50 (x2) for an Advent Calendar from there at some point as I doubt there are many alternatives, chocolate is expensive so putting one together myself may not end up any cheaper. I couldn't bring myself to pay nearly £5 for a little tub of cornflake bites when I know they are so easy to make. The problem is when milk chocolate is pricey (£1 for a tiny bar) and cornflakes are extortionate at £2.70 for a tiny 170g box, making them isn't necessarily a viable plan B!

So, I hope to back pretty soon with a couple more updates...in the meantime this is a hotel I have passed several times with a name that tickles me...makes me think of Dr. Seuss ;)