The Bund

The Bund
Sightseeing on The Bund September 2014

Thursday, 4 January 2018

Golden Week, Half Term and a little bit of exploring

Draft found Jan 2018, post originally dates back to October 2014!

This should have been posted weeks (months!) ago so I am going to whistle through as quickly as possible!!
In the Autumn months, the Chinese celebrate Mid Autumn Festival and have time off - known as Golden Week. Half Term was in this period and the children had 10 days off school so we set about a little bit of local exploring. WJ drove us to the Bund and we hopped on an open top sightseeing bus, 80RMB for James and I, and 'baby free'. Luckily Laura didn't hear that bit or there could have been fisticuffs! We stayed on the bus for the best part of an hour and then got off to find ice cream.


We walked back down Nanjing Road West towards the Bund and the children posed with a statue:

We stumbled across a band who had a very enthusiastic outlook (NOT!) and an entertaining dancing groupie...



We walked alongside the river to the ferry terminal and I snapped this fab shot which I love for so many reasons!


Obligatory selfie...


Another day we went to the Aquarium, I know these pictures don't look like it, but trust me, they were taken in the Aquarium.


Obligatory 'force my scared toddler to stand with the blonde foreigners' photo that happens frequently when we go out:

Penguin poseurs






The giant magnet at the foot of Shanghai World Financial Centre (the really tall building with 90+ floors from an earlier post).




A rainy day in Half Term - junk modelling is obligatory :)





Back to Blighty...

December 2017

Given that I haven’t posted for a reeeeeealllly long time I will complete a very, very brief summary of the intervening period! I am cheating and using my Christmas letter...
  • Houses lived in: 4 – 1 in Pudong, Shanghai; 2 in Puxi, Shanghai and 1 in South Cambridgeshire
  • Schools attended: 3 – British International School Shanghai (BISS): 1 year Pudong, 2 years Puxi; currently Gamlingay First School
  • Places visited:
    • Thailand – Bangkok and Phuket
    • Vietnam
    • Philippines
    • Turkey – Bodrum and Dalyan
    • Corfu
    • Taiwan – Taipei and Tainan
    • China – Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Xi’An, Beijing, Nanjing, Changbaishan, Harbin and Shanghai Disney
  • Unexpected incidents: 1 transverse fracture of left femur – James, 6th September 2015
  • New family members: one Chinese street dog of unknown breed, known as Trixie; several fish who were rehomed before leaving Shanghai
Other main events over the three years included me returning to full time employment after 10 years at home and Adrian taking voluntary redundancy from Alcatel-Lucent (ALU). Events unfolded thus:
  • Nokia bought out ALU and all ex-pat assignments were immediately stopped. This meant Adrian would either take another position or opt for voluntary redundancy after 15 years’ employment.
  • We agreed that we were not ready to leave Shanghai but needed one of us to have a working visa to stay so I looked for a job. I took a 2 year contact in June 2015 as PA to the Principal at BISS Puxi which I applied for as an afterthought. I was surprised to be offered the job at the interview and ended up really enjoying it.
  • In December 2015 Adrian returned to the UK, collected his redundancy and got back on a plane to Shanghai!
  • In the 6 months he wasn’t working Adrian was able to do the sorts of things that have been open to me since the children started school. He volunteered to read with both children’s classes, helped Laura’s class’s Room Parent with tasks when needed, was able to help on school trips and became a regular at a nearby café and dumpling shop!  He also tirelessly dedicated himself to planning lots of holidays with the redundancy money!
  • In July 2016 he was offered a role at Cobham Wireless in Stevenage as a Director. Happily, Cobham also have offices in Shanghai, so we shifted to a new routine of Adrian being in Shanghai for 4 weeks and in the UK for 8 weeks in alternation. He remained officially resident in Shanghai but worked principally in the UK. Work travel destinations for him now include Delhi and Israel fairly regularly and latterly, Copenhagen. He was in Shanghai for the first time since our return as I wrote this, returning in time for Christmas.
So, back to this year…we left Shanghai in July after a rollercoaster few months where we frequently believed we were going to arrive at a solution that permitted us to stay in Shanghai for another 2 years. The final stage being an interview and the offer of the Head of Admissions role at BISS for me. Unfortunately, the offer was not sufficient to permit us to stay given the huge cost of rent and tuition, so we finally made the decision on 27th June (while Adrian was in Israel!) that it was time to leave. This left him with just 3 fraught days in the UK before returning to Shanghai to select a house for us to move in to! The container came 3rd July and the children and I flew out 10th July. As you can see the timescales were very tight and we really thought I was going to secure a role that permitted us to extend our stay, but we had to have alternative plans prepared in case we had to leave. Adrian followed 10 days later, and Trixie came by cargo due to the complications of UK regulations not permitting her to fly in direct. Having fulfilled all the necessary criteria, quarantine was not required so she was released to us within a few hours of landing. We were staying in a holiday cottage in Saffron Walden on arrival and pets were not allowed so she went into kennels until we moved into Gamlingay in August. We visited her regularly and then went for a much-needed break to visit Adrian’s parents in Dalyan, Turkey for two sunny weeks and enjoyed snorkelling with the turtles and exploring a little of the local area. We came back and braced for the move into Gamlingay. First all the items from storage in Cirencester and then the next day the container from Shanghai. The house already felt full after the first delivery of boxes had been unpacked!

No sooner had we moved in and started school than it was time to celebrate Laura’s 9th Birthday which was done in a very low-key manner due to it being too early for her to have many friends and Adrian being overseas. Both children are taking all these changes in their stride again although there are occasional sad moments missing friends which cannot be avoided. From a school of 1500 with 100-120 in their respective year groups, they have now come full circle back to a village primary school with less than 200 pupils in total and James only has 17 in his year! Extra-curricular activities have again taken a backseat while we settle in. After Shanghai, the choices here are very limited so we have found it hard to be enthused but expect this to improve for James at least when he starts Secondary next year. Laura enjoys the choir and they have performed at various events in recent weeks which has been enjoyable and meant Laura has appeared on the television again! Laura has on a santa hat, approx. 2nd row back on LHS

For now, I am not working although I am looking and applying for roles, but the right fit hasn’t materialised yet. I am enjoying sharing the great British outdoors with Trixie on a daily basis and join local bike rides a couple of times a month to help me discover the area to share with the rest of the family. I am also playing horn with the St. Neots Concert Band.

As far as our families are concerned, my parents are still in Oakham and still have interests that keep them as active as they want to be given their advancing years. Bryan and Joyce visited us here for 10 days in November and were introduced to Trixie. Unfortunately, it was during a cold snap which meant we all spent less time out and about than expected!

This year we were in Gamlingay over Christmas and had a relatively quiet time. My parents came over for lunch on Christmas Day, we went to see The Last Jedi and we enjoyed exploring new places with Trixie.

With very best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Cath, Adrian, James and Laura xxxx

p.s. For environmental reasons we have chosen to send the majority of our Christmas mail electronically this year, donating what would have been spent on postage and cards to the Royal British Legion. If you would like to receive a Christmas letter via email in 2018, please send your email address to catherine.sharman@gmail.com


2017 in Pictures

Images – left to right, top to bottom:

1. Taipei Zoo, Taiwan 2. Father’s Day on The Bund, Shanghai 3. Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan 4. Dondurma in Dalyan, Turkey 5. Home in Gamlingay 6. Lotus Pond, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 7. International Parade BISS Puxi 8. Exploring Gamlingay Wood 9. Trixie 10. Trixie and Adrian’s Mother 11. Corfu 12. Men in Tutus, Shanghai 13. First day at Gamlingay First School 14. Conquistador Laura 15. Grafham Water

Saturday, 25 July 2015

Happy thoughts...things that make me feel at home

 
I started this post months and months ago...when we were still in the early days and seeking comfort in familiar objects around us.

These items, amongst so many, in our China home helped me feel connected with home and gave me a safety line during my Shanglows:

My Minety Pre-school mug...(complete, obviously, with a good strong brew of Yorkshire Tea!)

 
Random I know, but this always reminds me of a particular pupil at Minety School. It is the brand of the mixer tap in our kitchen and every time I use it I think of him and remember him holding a group of pupils in his thrall and singing 'I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier', 'We will rock you' and 'We built this city' in the outdoor classroom one summer a couple of years ago
 

 
Comfort in the familiar...this has hung in every kitchen I have cooked in since I 'acquired' it in the late 90's

 
All our 'bon voyage'/'good luck' cards on the mantelpiece


An album of photos given to us by a close friend that we regularly leaf through and smile/get watery-eyed at!

Another gift from a friend (a coaster) that is by my bed on the bedside table, as it was in the UK

 
A gorgeous piece of jewellery from my bestie incorporating some Clogau Welsh gold to ensure I don't forget her (as if!)

 
Another favourite piece of jewellery, a leaving gift from a Minety bestie
 
 
Another leaving gift, a lovely charm, a character meaning 'friend' or 'friendship'.

 
Another favourite item shipped from my Minety kitchen. A birthday gift a few years back from a friend who has also since left Minety. This worktop protector travelled several thousand miles to help me feel at home
 
 
There are many, many more items such as my 'Whatever...I'm late anyways' clock which was another leaving gift from my Minety friends, but I could have taken endless pictures!
 
I am so very grateful for these seemingly trivial items that kept me grounded in the early days...
 
Thank you so much to all our wonderful friends!

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Back in the UK

Hmm, well it's only been about 4 months since the last post.
I apologise for that, it is down to a number of reasons; one is that it is quite a faff dealing with blogging via VPN with a horribly slow internet connection and partly because we were just so busy!

Anyway, the long awaited day finally dawned, the big trip back to the UK...
 
We had a great journey back although Adrian was the only one to sleep; James, Laura and  chose to OD on films!
 
We stayed the first night at a Swindon hotel and Adrian collected our 'wheels' for the month.

 

The following morning (thanks jetlag, everyone awake at 4am!), we dropped Adrian off at work and James, Laura and I went to pick up some food and other essentials. We started in Aldi of course, then Asda. Having picked up all the critical items; wine, Yorkshire tea, milk, Tunnocks caramel wafers, Heinz tomato soup, hummus, sliced cold meats and cheese and English bread amongst others, we went to the holiday cottage in Hook, just by Lydiard Park. It is just what we need for the next four weeks.





As luck would have it, that Friday was an Inset Day so we were able to get straight over to Upper Minety and visit Laura's best friend Lola at another friend's house and start dishing out the many gifts we carried back.
On the way back to Hook we drove past our house...


We reinstated Friday Pizza Night and managed to get James and Laura to eat some before they fell asleep in it. They were in bed by 8pm and we made it to 10pm, just!

The next day was the first day of the Cotswold Show so we spent nearly the whole day there having a lot of fun and bumping into many friends. We then popped into another friend's house before coming home and again just about managed to feed the children before they fell asleep!






Interesting product...

 
On Sunday we had another shopping day, mostly for Adrian. He picked up a bike so he can cycle to work to allow us to have the car as much as possible and then when I could feel the children and I were flagging and just wanted to go to bed, we went bowling to try to keep us awake. It worked well and we managed to last the afternoon. A quick bowl of soup for James and Laura and then I went to fetch kebabs for Adrian and I from our old takeaway. Imagine my delight when the Turkish owner greeted me joyfully and almost got our (slightly unusual) order right after a year of not seeing us. She was so delighted I had travelled past another takeaway to hers that she insisted on making a gift of our order and refused any payment. Slightly embarrassing, but such a lovely gesture. (Sammy's Cricklade for local readers...highly recommended and totally deserving of some free advertising!!)
 
On Monday James and Laura went into school to reconnect with their friends. They asked to bring their BISS uniform to wear and had a great day handing out keepsakes and being the centre of attention!
James, Laura, Lola and Isaac at the Minety school gate.
It is strange to be back. Initially I felt like we didn't belong here and it was odd that every sign around us was in English and I had no trouble communicating. Now it is strange because it very quickly feels like we never went away and I have dreamt the past year in China and everything that has happened was just a figment of my imagination...it is like we live in parallel worlds which, I suppose to some extent, we do...
 
I hope, while we are here, to finish off the many drafted posts I had started but not finished. I am going to investigate blog providers that will be more easily accessible from China and may move the blog in due course.

Friday, 27 March 2015

A wet day in Shanghai

A very quick update from my phone. The children broke up this afternoon for Easter/Spring Break. 
 
It was drizzling today and I have a bit of a sniffle so decided it was best not to go to my usual spinning session. I played horn and piano for a bit and then went to the China Art Museum. I really enjoyed it when I took James and Laura, but wanted to go back and spend a little more time as I had a whistle-stop tour with them. It is a massive building, I can't remember how many floors, 5? maybe 7? I did the first two floors fairly thoroughly and just as I was starting to reach my limit (3 hours!) about 10 busloads of very noisy schoolchildren arrived in a very short space of time which made my mind up for me and I left.
Here are my favourite pictures from the day:
 
Funky building
Entrance ticket (free)
 
 
 
Nanjing Lu
Baosteel
The first car in Shanghai
 
   
 Building Pudong 
Maglev high speed train
 

 
 Russian wartime exhibition
 
 
Suzhou, early 1900sThis one was entitled 'Ark of Jews'.
Shanghai took in many Jews who had fled other countries.
Expo Mall
Pudong airport
 
 
Front and centre French Horn :)
 
A beautiful inlaid Steinway
 
Before I went round the museum I stopped for a Starbucks and was offered a sample of a Green Tea Latté...
You can see what it looks like...
It smelt...........of wet dog
It tasted..........sweet, grassy......and faintly fishy!
Won't be having that again :(