It is 2.30am, I was woken by my sore throat and then instead of going straight back to sleep found myself reliving scary moments with the children and imagining terrifying 'whatifs' as only a Mother's mind can in the wee hours when you really just need to sleep :(
When I logged in I noticed that it was over a month since my last post. I suppose the old adage 'No news is good news' is sort of true, but rather it's more to do with just being very busy! The most recent 'job' that has been occupying my every available moment has been trying to book us a holiday over Christmas. That is almost in the bag now, which is why I feel I can divert some attention to other online activiteis. You would think being in Asia that grabbing a deal to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia etc would be cheap and easy...not so. Annoyingly it is generally cheaper to fly all the way out from Europe than do a short hop from here which is why I have spent days (weeks?!) trawling flight options to keep the cost down. Anyway, we are now booked to fly Shanghai to Phuket on 18th Dec, Phuket to Bangkok 28th Dec and back to Shanghai 2nd Jan. Christmas on the beach and NYE in Bangkok. I really wanted to do NYE in Hong Kong, but I just couldn't make that work out. We have a hotel booked in Phuket and the final piece of the jigsaw is the one for Bangkok which we are still discussing. Some of you may know I was hellbent on Christmas in Oz or NZ, but I just couldn't manage that in the small amount of time remaining....something to plan for next year maybe :)
I want to say thank you to the many people I have had emails and messages from, and offers to send things to us (unfortunately not all of them read the blog, but this is for those that do!) We are struggling to Skype now as the clocks going back in the UK means that we are nearly at the end of the day by the time the UK is online. 9am UK is 5pm in China and on the weekend we are often out/travelling home at the time when most would have time to Skype.
I hope to get round to replying to messages eventually, part of the reason I focus (?!) on the blog is because I hope that this will get a better picture to everyone simultaneously, rather than writing stacks of emails! I hope no-one is offended, but while Adrian and the children's routines are fairly familiar, mine has been turned upside down, inside out and back to front. Pretty much everything is more complicated and takes longer for now until I get more practiced. I used to grocery shop for maybe 3 hrs a week max in the UK, here I am losing maybe 3 hrs a day just to find the right bread, milk and eggs and don't even get me started on finding acceptable taste/price cheese and ham!!! Add into this the usual school projects of dressing as a Roman for a day, International Food day, school outings, school assemblies, Christmas performances etc and I have my work cut out!
I will try to explain the reason I lose so much time in a day shopping for food:
- It is not a good idea to go anywhere much before 10am due to traffic. Even though the children are on the bus around 8 am, there is no point heading straight to the shops as I would just sit in traffic for ages. As a recent country dweller who is impatient even to be sat at traffic lights, this is not good for my blood pressure!
- So, I arrange for WJ to come at 10.30, this allows me time to go to the gym and get back and get showered. The closest shop that I use regularly (W is for Walmart and cheap Wine) is about 10km/20 mins away (traffic depending). WJ drops me, I attempt to give him an indication of how long I will be.
- At the till, I text him to say I am ready. Hopefully this will be 30-60 mins later. It is now 11.30 -12. I need to consider he needs a lunch break.
- If the shopping is perishable, I therefore head home and send him for lunch, have my own and let him know when to be back.
- If shopping is not perishable we can move on elsewhere, maybe Metro. Direct from home this takes about 30 mins, if from Walmart, maybe 15. Either way a Metro shop is always a minimum of 1.5hrs, often 2 as it is a big bulk buying session and getting through the till alone can take over 30 minutes.
- Wherever I head out, I need to be on my way back by 2.30pm as traffic can be unpredictable and it can take an hour to do a 20 min journey. The children come home on a bus that arrives at 3.30pm and I need to be back for them.
- For specialist Western foods (sliced ham, cheddar, Weetabix) I need to head up to Jinqiao which from home is a good 30 mins. Occasionally I go to Marks and Spencer, and that is 30 mins approx over the river in another direction in Puxi. In the beginning I ended up spending most of each day in the shops finding best prices/best food. Now I am a little more sorted and aim to only go to Metro every 2-3 weeks and then I go to these others according to the requirement: Carrefour (for ham, cheese and wraps and Western goodies), RT Mart (eggs, fruit and veg), Walmart (lunchbox snacks, WINE!) I now order imported frozen (Australian) meat online as I have already been brow beaten by the scare stories of antibiotics and steroids in meat. I fear it is only a matter of time until I hear the story about fresh milk contamination (I am studiously avoiding it) and then we will be destined to only have (bleeeeeugh) UHT. Maybe we should just get a cow! Bacon I now buy from a Scottish lady in our compound who cures her own. £7 for 500g, not the cheapest, but slightly more reasonable than the only other acceptable one found to date which was £1 a slice. (Yes, really!!!)
In case I haven't mentioned it enough, it is, unsurprisingly, very expensive to eat a Western diet; fresh milk is £1.60 per litre, and UHT is often no cheaper. Cereal (which is a staple for this family, is a killer!) £2-3 for a tiny 170g box, £4.50 for 275g and muesli...Oh.My.God!!! £7 and more for a 560g box of Alpen. (No, I don't buy that, I make up interesting batches of random muesli!) The only ham I can stomach is £1.50 for 3 slices. (I am, for now, turning a blind eye to the fact it is locally produced). Cheddar (passable and not particularly flavoursome) is £3 for a 200g block.
It is a regular occurrence to go into Carrefour and come out with only 4 litres of milk (in the UK we used to get through 10 pints a week!), 2 blocks of cheese, 12 slices of ham and 2 packs of tortilla wraps (6 per pack) and to have kissed goodbye to £20, approximately double what I would spend on equivalent items in the UK. The fruit, veg, rice and noodles are as expected 'cheap as chips', but while Laura would happily live off rice, James is not so keen, so I tend to rotate through the following dishes: pasta Bolognese, green Thai chicken curry, Ikea meatballs, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, pizza, chicken noodle soup, dumplings, ham pasta bake, omelette accompanied by mash/noodles/chips and veg according to what I have liked the look of. We tend to eat out once a week/fortnight at one of the newly opened restaurants less than 1km from home and we usually have a Pizza Hut delivery one night of the week too. These restaurants vary from cheap and cheerful to a massively expensive Italian. We have had some good meals, one in particular included 5 main dishes, 2 beers and 2 cokes and came in just under CNY70, about £7, I couldn't make dinner for that! (You need to ignore the little voice questioning the quality/origin of what you just ate!!!) The Italian on the other hand is crazy expensive, one pizza costing up to £10!! No, we haven't eaten there yet!
Let me entertain you with a fairly standard Saturday night on the street with the aforementioned restaurants:
And this video of Laura in her Carnival of the Animals Parade:
Both children have now been Star of The Week, conveniently on consecutive weeks so nobody's nose was put out of joint!
Local habits:
- I *may* have mentioned the Chinese clear their throats and spit a lot...and everywhere...indoors and out. Laura makes us giggle by saying loudly 'CHARMING!' in a sarcastic tone whenever it happens. While we consider it disgusting, clearing the airways is considered a good thing to do here and waitresses will hawk and spit in a bin while you are eating, drivers hawk and spit from car windows while waiting at the lights and so on. Fortunately I think WJ has been tipped off that it is not something appreciated by Westerners and so far has never done it in front of us.
- Another thing that makes me shudder is people clipping their nails, anywhere and everywhere. Bored shop assistants and promotional staff; on the Metro; anywhere one feels the need and isn't doing anything else...maybe it's just me, but I don't like it!
- I intend to cover toileting in a post all of its own as I feel it merits it!
- Any day, any time is a good time for firecrackers and fireworks. It is completely normal to hear them being let off at 9am on a Sunday morning. Adrian tells me they are used to ward off evil spirits; I haven't checked that, but he is no doubt right. All you need to imagine is industrial cases of firecrackers, which, when set off at close proximity make you shriek and clap your hands over your ears as there will be a 'rat tat tat' sound akin to machine gun fire for several minutes. Both firecrackers and 'all in one box display' type fireworks will be set off outside the venue in question on the pavement with minimal/no warning. Health and Safety wouldn't know where to start!!! Between that and 'Silent Death' unlit e-bikes at night time carrying entire un-helmeted families including babies in arms, I strongly recommend that anyone involved with H&S avoids China totally as they will suffer great stress and anxiety and may well suffer some sort of breakdown as a result.
- I was mildly entertained to notice that while security staff were practising the Fire Drill for the compound, they smoked through the session...*sigh*
Thought for the day:
You know your children go to an International School when...
The class list includes a gender column as none of us have any idea of the gender of the other children from their name alone.
Finally, apologies (maybe again?!) if I repeat myself, I may forget if I have already mentioned some of these things...
