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 :(

  

Delaying Tactics

Well, I wasn't expecting to be doing this at this time of the morning.

 

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:

1. 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!
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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... 

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 ;)

Mandarin musings...

Ni hao! So I am picking up dribs and drabs of Mandarin although our lessons have not been sorted out yet. I reckon I have over 50 words, but am still not remotely able to have a conversation! Imagine trying to communicate with only the following words at your disposal when you wish to say; open a bank account or go to the dentist…!

Hello, goodbye, thank you, tomorrow, birthday, I/me, you, want, lunch, good, bad, crazy, toilet, crying, beautiful, road, car, driver, fried dumplings, this one, (English) school, Chinese, bank, money, boss/old man, a glass/cup of, big, small, cold, the bill, a receipt, no, yes, ok, wait a little, minutes, come here, let's go, people, cat, moon/month, rain, RT Mart, left, right, straight on, a pair of...and numbers to 100, (with a small time delay!)

Thank goodness English speakers can be found, nevertheless I find it cripplingly embarrassing to have to ask if anyone speaks English all the time, and miming to fill the gaps when I am so used to being able to get around most parts of the world I have visited with more than just a few words at my disposal.

Here is a clip of Laura teaching us some Mandarin, or is she??!

 

That's some quality bluffing!!!

Other musings (apologies if I am already repeating myself):

•             My favourite street name to date: Longdong Avenue *snigger*

•             Chocolate doesn’t seem to be a very popular flavour here. I have been caught out quite a few times with things that look chocolatey, but are actually made with red bean. They make all sorts of desserts with beans too, sweet dumplings and ice lollies for example. The other common flavour I have had near misses with is coffee. We chose an ice cream from a menu for the children expecting it to be chocolate, but it was coffee. Thankfully it was very mild and they both liked it. (Anything for an ice cream!)

•             A popular bread topping here is Meat Floss, I can’t tell you how much this offends me, it’s probably not massively dissimilar to jerky, but I just feel nauseous every time I see it sprinkled on a roll or loaf of bread http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rousong

•             Weird crisp flavour of the week: Sour plum and melon, no, I couldn’t bring myself to buy them…one day, just for you guys I will try them… Also Tortilla chips that were labelled Ethnican flavour…hahahaha, no idea what that is!

•             Fireworks/firecrackers are a regular background noise, no idea why, but they go off frequently in the morning, afternoon and evening, weekday and weekend…

•             I have been challenged to find some particular chopstick rests by my bestie Kate. Can you believe that despite looking in almost every shop I have been in, I have seen only one very plain set. Thousands of chopsticks though… ;)

•             Bodily functions: while I knew about the spitting, I actually find that less bothersome than the awful hawking up noise that precedes the actual spitting. I was also quite surprised to see a toddler needing a wee being held over the small drain of a drinking water fountain in the middle of a supermarket, although I know that the outcome could have been far worse!

•             Autumn is coming and the leaves are starting to fall, the temperature has dropped a little to the upper 20s rather than low 30s but the mosquitoes are still on the rampage. Very happy that compound living means that someone else sweeps the leaves off the drive daily (I do my own doorstep, I’m not that work shy).

•             We had our first typhoon warning; while the rain hammered down and the wind howled, it was otherwise uneventful.

•             Every time we go through the barrier in and out of the compound the security guards salute us. I LOVE this as I never took a commission and really enjoy the novelty…BUT I have to hold my arm down against the instinctive need to return the salute! The children often salute back which seems to entertain the guards.

•             We may have people that go to the shops in onesies  in the UK, but the Chinese are way ahead of them. It is completely normal to go out in your pyjamas. Whether popping to the shops or running errands, it is not uncommon to see people in their nightwear!

•             I have discovered that the smell that makes this house most feel like home is that of burnt toast lingering in the air when I come back in from the school run!

More to follow soon, with pictures :)

 

Air Quality Index (AQI) and getting a fitness routine back

A quick post to precede another much longer one!

Shanghai Air Quality - I check this link several times a day and certainly wouldn't go to exercise outdoors unless PM2.5 (one of the most damaging indicators) was green or low yellow. Last Monday it was a lovely low green reading, so I strapped on my (new replacement) Garmin and went out on my first run as it was time to get back on the horse fitness-wise, so to speak.
At least 2 months off from exercising and rather too much junk food has led to an increased waistline and general tetchiness on my part due to missing my regular endorphin fix.
I decided to just set off and use common sense to do some sort of a 3 mile loop. I found it a great way to be pretty nosy as I don't move quickly and had plenty of time to take in the sights along my route. Here is the Garmin link but it didn't sync up properly with the map, I was on the roads, honest! I know it is an appalling time, but it's a start...

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/591291625

Run report:

• 25 degrees, 78% humidity. More than enough, thank you, for 9am
• 3 miles covered
• One lady gutting a fish on wall outside a block of flats.
• One bloke dumped from an e-bike, throwing up at an intersection.
• Several people tending roadside 'gardens'. They grow crops on the verges between where they live and the road.
• Spitting - while I am not keen on all the spitting here, on this occasion I was grateful as I felt the need to clear my throat occasionally and had no qualms about joining in with the locals.
• Several locals bemused by the puffing, puce 'laowei' wobbling round the local side roads.
• Discovered another market (referred to here as wet markets, they sell veg, meat and fish) and also a hotel we didn't know about
• Disorientation, one count, but eventually worked out where I was and made it back.
• One near miss with an e-bike (or silent death as they are known) as I didn't hear it coming from behind. Very quickly corrected my route to run towards the oncoming traffic as we all know we should. That only affords minimal protection here as they use the scooter lanes in both directions and at night don't even bother with lights. Plus a couple of days ago in heavy traffic I saw a few cars zip down them too.
• Massive desire to jump fully clothed in the swimming pool at the end but I managed to resist and went in to the gym to do another 30 mins of weights.

I really felt like I had seen a bit more of what I expected in China as opposed to the shiny Westernised malls and that felt good and was interesting.

The following day I fancied a swim, but couldn't be bothered to walk the 10 mins to the other clubhouse when we have an indoor and outdoor pool about 150 metres away from the house, but they aren't open. The outdoor pool isn't technically open either, but it is still maintained and it is accepted that people use it at their own risk. So, I went for a 30 min swim in the outdoor pool, much to the amusement of the garden maintenance team who obviously consider 26 degrees far too chilly to swim outside. It was perfect actually, and a nice sunny day.

On Wednesday I went to a Legs, Bums and Tums style class (first session free!) with a very entertaining French lady called Pascal. While it was a good class, I knew it wouldn't suit me long term, so the next day I tried the Boot Camp. Several people had reported this to be 'full on' and really hard, so I was interested to see how it would measure up. Bear in mind I have done very little exercise for a few months other than some bike riding, so I was already feeling my legs from the run and some other muscles were making their presence felt following Pascal's class. Boot Camp was excellent and just my cup of tea. My legs were jelly by the end of it and I knew I was going to struggle to move the next day! The only downside is that these classes are really expensive compared to the UK £8-10 per session. I have decided it is far more important to me to attend these sessions than having an ayi (maid/cleaner etc) so will clean the house myself and save the money for Boot Camp!

Sure enough on Friday morning I was too sore to go to the Spinning session I had hoped to go to at the school and, thanks to Laura having come home in sports kit on Wednesday and failing to bring her uniform home that night or Thursday, I decided to go in on the bus to retrieve the uniform (and more importantly her shoes) before the weekend and then walk home to stretch off my aching limbs. I actually came back via a supermarket and walked the 1.5km home in the drizzle with a good weight in the rucksack including a badly packed watermelon jabbing me in the back!

It was obviously all a bit too much for my system as I then went down with a cold and have done nothing for the last week (ok I went for a fun swim today, but that is it). Now it is school holidays so my opportunities are limited, but I will throw myself back in as soon as they go back to school! These extra 5kgs need to be got rid of...

Will be back with the next post tomorrow hopefully as it is largely complete :)