Ho Ho Ho!!

It's Christmas time in Shanghai. I didn't know that they celebrated Christmas in China, but they do… at least he shops and restaurants do. Myh first exposure was last weekend when I went to get a pizza from Pizza Hut. I know, I know, all these great places to eat and I end up in Pizza Hut – well, it's close, I was tired, and I like the pizzas. Anyway, all the staff were dressed up in Santa outfits and there was Christmas music playing – there was even a Christmas pizza! I've been out and about in Shanghai today and was amazed by the number of Christmas trees in public places – some of them very high tech, as you would expect here. Christine and her boyfriend came round last weekend, and I put them to work putting up my Christmas tree – first time they'd decorated a tree!!! It's on full view of all the skyscrapers round about – and of course the cathedral!!

Last Friday night I was out being sociable. Angie had signed me up with a membership of the Australian Women's Social Group, and they were having a get-together last Friday. I walked in and looked around trying to work out who were the Australian women. I got it wrong, but got invited to join a birthday party anyway. I said I would if I didn't find the Australians – but I did find them in the end. I met some nice folks – including a couple who'd just come back from an adventure-filled trip to Tibet. Sounds like a challenging place to go. The bloke had been all over Asia, and this was the first time he'd got ill. He must have eaten something that didn't agree with him (yak, probably, as that was all there was to eat!) and the altitude didn't help. Lhasa is fine for backpacking, but there's nothing posher than that! After a couple of glasses of wine they invited me to join them for something to eat. We ended up in a pub! A real genuine-looking Irish pub! The food was good, the décor traditional-pub-like and a good atmosphere. Yes, I went to the pub on a Friday night – I've not done that in a long, long time! I'll be back! It did mean I was out late though – I was in the taxi home at 10:45 (which is really late when you get up before 6!) and we drove past a hairdresser's – they were still open. In fact, all of the hairdresser's we passed were still open! Not like Scotland then…

I had a go at cooking Chinese this week. I got out my wok (which I'd bought in Scotland, then taken to Russia and is now in China) and had a go with some of the ingredients I'd found in the supermarket. I had some pork in chilli black bean sauce. I tasted the sauce before I cooked it, and it was so hot my lips swelled up! It was fine after I'd cooked it though – thankfully! Then I did some vegetables in oyster sauce with garlic and ginger. Yum!! The greatest thing is my cooker. The gas rings are so much more powerful than back home. There are 2 sets of jets, and the pressure seems much higher. The stuff cooked in no time at all – just like proper stir-fry should be. There are a quite a few ingredients that I can't read. I'll wait until next year to give them a go.

I was heading off to the metro the other morning, and saw a moped drive by. There was half a pig draped over the back of the seat, as casual as you like. I had to look a few times – it wasn't even 7 o'clock yet, and I wasn't sure my eyes were open, but yes, it was there. Shame I was too slow to get my camera out though!

I went out Christmas shopping today, but before I could buy anything for anybody else, a dragon jumped into my bag and demanded that I take him home. So the dragon collection has started … Shame I can't do the photo thing – but look back next week for lots of photos!!

Boxes, boxes and more boxes

Why do I have so much stuff? Where am I meant to put it all? Hmmm. The great thing is that all my clothes have arrived. I was getting really, really bored of wearing the same things all the time. The down-side to all my clothes getting here is that they all need washed, and dried, and ironed. As the weather has got chillier, it takes much longer for things to dry – so I now have first hand experience of what it's like to stay in a Chinese laundry!! Who knew I had so many clothes??? Why do I like to iron everything? I've watched a good few films as I've turned my ironing mountain into a foothill (even with my shrimp-sized ironing board!) – and not everything is washed yet…..

 I attacked the bathroom boxes earlier in the week, and had to laugh at myself. I sorted all the toiletries into piles, and discovered that I had 16 different types of shampoo. I believe that you shouldn't keep using the same shampoo, but that's just taking it too far, Rhona. There were shampoos in English, French, Russian and Chinese (I think the French stuff was just being posh in Russia). The biggest laugh of all was on Friday. Everybody in the factory got a present – 2 bars of soap, shower gel – and SHAMPOO!! I'm up at 17 different kinds now!! Guess what I don't need for Christmas.

I have a water distributor in the kitchen for drinking water, and I'd get a bottle of water (22 litres) the day I moved in. It cost me just over £1, but it tasted horrible. I decided that I would move up a grade when it ran out. It ran out last Saturday afternoon. No problem. I'd been told what to do. I phoned down to reception to ask them to bring me up a new bottle. That was where the trouble started. I tried in my best Chinese – no success other than understanding I wanted water; my most simple English, hmm, not much further forward. A while later somebody with a bit better English asked me how much I paid for the water. That was too complicated. I tried to ask what the prices were, but that didn't work. They hung up on me. OK, charades it has to be. So I got in the lift with my empty bottle of water, and went to see about getting some drinkable water. I didn't know how easy I had it in Scotland, just turn on the tap and out pours lovely tasting water. Down in reception we have a bit of a conference, with lots of people being involved. Eventually they understand that I don't want the same kind of water as I've just finished (they even understood that I thought it tasted bad), but am more than happy to pay more for the next quality. 5 minutes later, the water arrives at the door, and I pay my £2. It's much better tasting, but I still screw up my face at the first mouthful of the glass.

Mum's booked me in to get an eye test when I'm home at Christmas. No, I wasn't joking about this getting older lark. She had a bit of a laugh when she made the appointment though. She'd explained the problem to the receptionist, and then the optician asked what the problem was, the reply – the trombone effect!! Just 'cos I feel that I have to hold my book a bit further away than I used to …….. Cheek! I pass some time on the metro to work deciding what type of specs I'll get, if I need them. There are 19 people in my office, and all but 4 of us are under 30 – and 17 of us wear specs (that may increase to 18 after my visit to the opticians…). So why do I think I need a specs test. I think I mentioned that I had to have a very thorough medical by the Chinese government before they would issue me with a work permit. During the medical, I had to have an eye test. When I got as far down the page as I could go, I said that was it. The doctor said 'Really??' That of course made me all sensitive. I used to wear specs for reading for a few years at school. When the optician told me I didn't need them any more, he did say I would be fine until I was 40. Guess what!! I'm 40. I have noticed that my reading position has changed too. I had the chance to give myself an eye-test one time I was out shopping with Christine. She was seeing about contact lenses, so was blethering to one of the assistants. I'd looked at all the sun-specs and decided I didn't need a new pair (I'd stocked up in Florida last year, and haven't lost them….yet!), so was looking for a distraction. I saw there was a booth with an eye-test, and decided to have a go. Problem was, you had to look in the mirror to get the correct distance, and I couldn't do that without going and sitting in the chair. So, I counted the number of floor tiles, doubled it and then went and stood that distance away. I tried one eye, and then the other, and seemed to get on fine. I couldn't do the bottom row, but the rest were fine. Maybe I don't have a problem. Anyway, after my test I looked up to find almost everybody in the shop laughing at me. Glad I was able to lighten their day. Need to see how I get on with a proper optician now. Do I really have trombone syndrome?

Trip to the Master's Cup

It's good to know that I can still be a bit spontaneous in my life. Last Saturday, I went out to buy a pint of milk, and ended up buying myself a new camera AND a pint of milk! I know, I know – it's only a couple of months since I bought a camera, why would I need another one??? Well, this one is a digital SLR – a camera body you can change the lenses on. I got a Canon 400D, and I can use the lenses of my conventional camera on it. The photos are pretty good, although the files are enormous – only 100 photos on a 1GB card.

 
So I took my camera for a bit of an outing on Sunday. I went to the final of the tennis Master's cup. The stadium is about 10 minutes from work, which isn't very handy on a Sunday! There were free shuttle buses from Shanghai stadium – one metro stop up the line from my flat. Easy, I thought – jump on the metro, then meet up with the bus at entrance number 2. What could be easier?? Well, life is full of adventures! I got to entrance number 2, and there was nothing there. I wandered about a bit, but didn't see anything that looked like a bus to the tennis. Eventually, I found a sign with the Master's cup logo on – but I couldn't read it. A couple of Chinese women came up to the sign, obviously looking for the bus too. They could read the sign, and they asked some officials what the situation was – ahhh, they said – follow us. So, I did… into their car, and then 2 minutes up the road to the outdoor stadium. Silly me – I had gone to the indoor stadium! There was a queue for the bus, but I got on, and an hour later we arrived at the venue. It's an amazing building. It's enormous, but there is only 1 tennis court. There's some fancy engineering in the roof, which opens like a chrysanthemum – their explanation, not mine. The tennis was good – I saw the doubles final, followed by Roger Federer beating James Blake. My camera got a good work-out!

 
I started my Christmas shopping this week. I was in the supermarket, and walked past a cat food display. I had asked Sheila to take some Chinese cat food back to Koshka in September, and Mum says she loved it, and just scoffed it down. As I'm going back to Scotland for Christmas, I'll need to take her some food. So, at the cat food display, I picked up 3 packets each of 3 different flavours. The woman standing next to me said something – I don't know exactly what she said, but it was along the lines of 'nine packets of food, how many cats do you have?' It's as well I couldn't say that I only have 1 cat, and she's in Scotland.

 
You may have noticed that the weather has changed here in Shanghai. It's got cold and wet. It's not cold, cold. I'm still walking about in a T-shirt and jacket, but it's pretty cold in my flat. The temperature is hovering about 18 degrees in my sitting room, just a bit too cold to be comfortable. The heating in most places in Shanghai is pretty feeble. As we're south of the Yangtze, it's thought that there is no need for heating. I don't agree. The heating in my flat consists of the air conditioning units, and a little portable electric heater. The problem I had – how do I get the air conditioning units to heat instead of cool? I got the remote control and started pushing buttons. Nothing happened. Eventually I worked out that the battery was flat, and no signal was being sent. Ooops! I got hold of another remote control, and pushed some buttons – and the units sprang in to life…… blowing cold air. I'll be alright in the summer. I couldn't get any hot air out of them at all, so have been cuddling hot water bottles and my electric heater all week. Desperate situations call for desperate measures, so I took the remote controller into work for translation. Yes! I now know that those squiggles there mean hot air! Things are a bit warmer in my flat tonight!!

I'm so tall here

The weather has changed this week. I was in my shorts last weekend, but I had to get my jumper out on Thursday. Last night I even had to get the heater out. Brrr! It was much nicer in Shanghai when it was warm - not hot, just warm.

 

It's so nice being in a flat of my own, and no longer in the hotel. Mind you, it was quite a few days before I got the place to myself! Work continued on the flat until Tuesday. It's all finished now, and I can start to settle in. It's just as well – as my stuff from Russia is arriving on Monday. It was a bit scary on Friday as I received an email from the removal company saying that the boat had arrived last Monday and my stuff had cleared customs, but that there was import tax to pay before I could get my stuff. I was intrigued by the calculation, though. The most expensive item was my 6-speaker surround sound system. The tax was £60 – about the same as I paid for it 3 years ago!! Another surprise was the £20 for 50 DVDs. The surprise – I had sent about 400!!! Luckily, it seems that Michelin will pay the tax. I'm so looking forward to being reunited with my stuff. I hope it fits in!! I've scouted out the bike park for Sheila's bike. You know – the bike I borrowed from her 5 years ago. It spent 3 years in Russia, and is now in China. I can't believe that I will be riding a bike in China. Mind you, with the traffic around here, I'm not sure how well I will cope. I will also have to register my bike, and pay it's road tax. I've had competing advice though, some folks think that the tax has been abolished, but I might have to go to the police station to ask!!

 

So, the flat: it's on the 18^th floor, and has 2 bedrooms, plus a bedroom/study. There's a smallish kitchen and a sitting-room/dining room with a balcony. There's a panoramic view of sky-scrapers. Oh, and there's 2 bathrooms! One of the bathrooms has a Japanese toilet. It's a combination toilet/bidet. I decided to see how it worked, so I plugged it in, and pushed one of the buttons. I was standing in front of the toilet, and saw a plastic tube move into the middle of the bowl, and squirt water – straight at me! My shorts and T-shirt were soaked in the couple of seconds it took for me to jump out of the way. The wall took the brunt of the power-wash until I pulled the plug out of the wall. Don't think I'll be trying that again for a while – well, I might have a go with the heated toilet seat!!!

 

I went out to get a pizza the other night – I don't have any pots yet!! There was a queue of 20 people outside Pizza Hut, can you believe that? So, I ordered take-away, and was told to pick it up in 30 mins. Hmm. What to do for 30 minutes? Oh, the pizza place in at the entrance to an electronics market, full of gadgets and computer stuff. What else could I do, but have a wander! The time just flew by, and I managed to resist spending – at least that visit!!

 

I went back to a DVD shop I'd visited with Sheila (where I'd been awarded a VIP card on my first visit!!!). Well, it's changed a lot. I walked in, and was then escorted to a door in the back corner, which my escort knocked on. The door was unlocked and I was allowed into the inner sanctum. It was full of people looking at DVDs. The selection was much poorer than it was the previous time, but they've probably had some problems selling dodgy DVDs! I'll need to try a few other places.

 

I've decided that it's no fun being tall!! Believe it or not, I'm one of the tallest people around!! I was brought home to me on Sunday night as I put a film in the DVD player and got the ironing board out. It was tiny!! I had to sit on the arm of the chair to be able to do the ironing. Who'd ever of thought?

 

I was getting a bit irritated last weekend, as the Chinese folk tend to just wander down the street. There's no sense of urgency, and you just walk as slowly as you can. There as so many of them in the street that it's really difficult to get past them all at a normal pace. This weekend, it got even worse. Unfortunately, the Chinese don't share my aversion to umbrellas, so as they were wandering and I was dodging, they kept hitting me in the head with the spokes of the brolly – ouch!!

 

It looks like I can't send photos to my blog. I'm not all out of ideas, but it'll just be words for a while. Humph!!

A flat ... at last

Scratch, scratch…..this week was so hectic that I'm only just getting around to writing down what I've been up to – sorry if you've been waiting!

 

The early part of the week was taken up with work. I was in work on Sunday, and then I had to work late on Tuesday. I was meant to be working late on Wednesday, but there were problems and the schedule got rearranged, and I got home on time! I was awfy glad, 'cos I was already tired out!! It was a bit of an adventure on Sunday. Until then, I had been getting the Michelin bus to work – it leaves from outside my hotel and drops me at the factory gate. I don't need to think, and can happily fall asleep. The bus doesn't run on a Sunday! Hmm. So I had to find my own way to work. I got on the metro line 1 to the end, then changed to metro line 5 to the end, and then got a taxi. Not complicated! It still takes about 90 minutes, though! Of course, there are no taxis waiting at the factory gate to take me to the metro station, and they're not keen for such a short trip, so I walked. It wasn't a big problem as it was a nice day – sunny, about 23 degrees. It took about 20 minutes, and then of course another 90 back to the city. I cheated a little bit, and jumped out early – to explore an area with some interesting looking places. Sunday afternoon – had to be the DIY/garden centre!!! I do miss my DIY. I haven't lifted a screwdriver in anger for eons. It wasn't quite B&Q, but not bad. (Seemingly B&Q has a couple of shops in Shanghai, but they found that the local market preferred the fuly- fitted service than the DIY service, so it's not quite the same.) After a wander about, I then headed off to IKEA. Yes, they have IKEA in Shanghai, and yes, it's just like IKEA in the UK (and Russia), but with EVEN MORE people in it!! I managed not to pick anything up on the way round the shop, and I was so glad – the queues at the checkouts were 15 people deep! Nightmare!! Well, it was Sunday afternoon.

 

I rewarded myself for all my hard work by going to a Brazilian restaurant. I first tried this place with Sheila when she was over. It's a great concept – the chefs barbeque the meat – lamb, beef, pork, chicken …, and then wander around the dinners serving it up.

 

The biggest event of this week was finally – after 3 months – I have moved into my flat. It was all a bit of a disaster. The landlord had done none of the things she'd promised, so the weekend was spend with people and things coming and going all the time – with washing machines, desks, internet connections …. I had to bail out in the afternoon to go and see my pal the dentist. I'm sure I've spent more time with her than with anyone else in China. That was the last time for a while, unless more teeth fall out! I made the most of my escape and started shopping for the flat. You know, those little luxuries like sheets, pillows, a duvet, towels, plates, cutlery … I was very keen to try out my new bedding! I was not at all impressed when I was woken up just after 7am on SUNDAY morning with the building work in the new apartment building next door ……….

Sleep was also a bit short on Sunday night - a mosquito had made it all the way up to the 18th floor, and proceeded to have a feast. I woke up scratching at 2am. Grrr! Of course, I couldn't find my Anthasan anywhere at that time of the morning. Scratch, scratch!

test with Koshka

Above photo taken on: 07 / 23 / 2005

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Latest test for sending photos

Testing to see if I can post photos .....

Fish without the chips
MP4 player (on the right)

Test

This is another test

Latest test for sending photos

Testing to see if I can post photos .....

Fish without the chips
MP4 player 9on the right)

Pictures .... maybe

The photos ....maybe this time

IMG_0248c.JPG
IMG_0247c.JPG

Further Technical Developments

Thanks to Gav and Wend, I can now add to my blog via email, so I think all the technical problems should be sorted. Hopefully the photos should be here too.

Fish, but no chips.

MP4 player (on the right)

Technical problems

I've been having technical problems this week. Well, not so much technical problems as geography problems, or maybe political problems. I couldn't understand why I could no access my blog. I thought at first there was a problem with my computer, or maybe the hotel's internet, or even with the blogspot server. No, it isn't that. The Chinese government has blocked all access to blogs, unless it has prior government approval. As someone not deterred by little challenges like government censorship, I spent a bit of time this week trying to get round it. I created a Chinese-approved blog at http://rcrofts.blogbus.com, but the site is very slow to load with only one compressed photo on it. It was very interesting trying to read the Chinese instructions!! (Thanks go to www.babelfish.com for all their help.) Due to the slow load time, and lack of Chinese reading expertise, I needed another solution. I have found a way to surf anonymously, or at least a way to stop being identified as being in China and so subject to blocks. I can now access my blog. This time thanks go to www.anonymouse.org I don't know how long I'll be able to keep using it, but hopefully long enough. So, now I can see my blog, but now I can't add to it from China! Huh. If you're reading this, it's because somebody has posted it for me.

 

Technical problems seem to be a theme this week. My mum bought my Christmas present for me last weekend. Do you know how bizarre it is to be thinking about Christmas when I'm sitting in my shorts? It's a balmy 24 degrees at the moment, and only 7 weeks until Christmas! I'm assured that the nice weather will continue until mid-December. Autumn came late to Shanghai this year (autumn is when the weather changes from 35 degrees to 25 degrees), the latest in living memory. Maybe I'll still be in my shorts in January?? So, for Christmas, my mum bought me an MP4 player. That's a gadget that you can use to look at photos, listen to music (like MP3) and watch films/TV programmes. It's especially useful for showing photos to your pals without carrying about your computer – also good for whiling away the commute. After mum bought the gadget, which involved me going to the electronics market, choosing, haggling, learning how to use it (Chinese not good enough for those instruction booklets!!), persuading them to reset the language to English, then phoning mum up to tell her what she'd bought me, I brought it home to play with. Hmm, it didn't work as it should. After a couple of hours, I gave up and took it back – guess what, they couldn't get it to work either. They tried for 20 frustrating minutes, but no, I needed a replacement. That took another 10 minutes, and when it arrived – it didn't work either!! A second replacement appeared 15 minutes after that, by which time I was nearly ready to give up. It works, so the other night I was standing on the metro watching Michael Palin's Full Circle – he was in Shanghai!!!

 

On Tuesday night I went out for a meal with some of the folks from the office. Yes, me and 4 Chinese blokes! I had a great time. We went straight from work, so were sitting waiting to tuck in by 5 o'clock. Of course it was a Chinese restaurant. It's a bit strange, but whenever I eat out in nice Chinese places, we never eat rice or noodles. In the cheaper places, you always eat rice, but otherwise no. The specialty of the place we went to was fish. Shen Jian ordered for us, and had to disappear during the ordering process. I tried not to think about it, but he went off to choose which fish we would be eating. In some places they put your chosen fish in a plastic box and bring it to the table for you to confirm your choice. I'm just a bit squeamish and prefer to disassociate my food from its source. The fish was good though!!! One of the dishes was particularly good; although I'm sure it was just because of the familiarity – battered and deep fried! Shame it didn't come with chips!!!

 

Just to round off my week of technical problems, there were problems with the computer system at work on Friday afternoon. I needed to spend the afternoon doing some stuff, but no luck! So, I'm going in tomorrow instead. That should be a bit of an adventure, as there will be no bus to pick me up at the hotel and drop me at the factory. I'll tell you about it next week!

Test

This is a test.

Some visitors

I’m sure you remember me saying that I developed a silly grin on my face every time I walked through Red Square in Moscow – well, it’s back! On Wednesday night I decided walk up to Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road is THE famous road in Shanghai. If you read the guide books they’ll say that the best shopping area is now Huai Hai Road. That’s true, but lots of the fancy sky-scrapers are around People’s Square, next to Nanjing Road. It was the fancy sky-scrapers all lit up for the evening that caused the grin. What a sight. I tried to take a photo or two, but they didn’t come out very well.

Last Saturday morning, I found the best way to not spend any money in the antique market – don’t take any money with you when you go!! I didn’t mean to go to the market – I was just going for a wander, and turned right instead of left when I left the hotel. The market is in the next street over, so there I was. It’s called an antique market, but only because everything is made to look antique. On my wee wander, I had planned on going to the bank as I had less than £5 in my purse – but I ended up at the market before the bank. While having my LOOK around the market, I decided that I’m going to have to start collecting dragons – they have some amazing ones there. I’ll need to go back when I have some money in my purse!

The biggest excitement for this week was that Denise & Thierry were in Shanghai. We met up for a couple of drinks on Saturday night, and then spent all Sunday exploring. It was so great to see them again – it’s been a year! Apart from a weekend in Paris last September, I hadn’t seen them since we were in China last year!! Who knew??? The highlights of the day were: watching all the boats on the river from the Bund, and being on one of the boats ourselves in the evening, admiring all the lights; going to a Chinese acrobat’s show; trying to eat crab from the shell with chopsticks and, of course, spending time chatting with my mates. Laurence, another pal from Paris, joined us later in the day. We had a great time, although at one point I had to admit to not been able to speak in French any more. It was a temporary glitch, as I managed for most of the rest of the time. . As the local ‘expert’, it’s difficult to realise that I’ve only been here for 2 months.

Quick weather report – it’s cooling down here. Most people are wearing light summer jackets or thin jumpers. I’m being a tough Scot and am just wearing my shirt-sleeves. OK, OK, it’s not even as low as 20 degrees, so I’m not that tough. Apparently, the first snow has arrived in Davydovo!

Brunch at the Westin

I’m still suffering from lack of sleep. I can’t get used to the alarm clock going off at 5:45 every morning – and more importantly, I can’t get used to thinking about going to bed before 10 o’clock. This not getting home until nearly 7 o’clock really shortens your evenings. Mind you, it does mean that 8 o’clock is a long lie at the weekend! The traffic coming home tonight was much worse than usual – even for a Friday night, and it took 2 hours to get home. I was all set for a wild Friday night, but now … I have found a way to make the trip more bearable – audio books. I just download the audio book onto my MP3 player, sit myself on the bus and let somebody read me a story! I must get reminders of bedtime stories, ‘cos I realise from time to time that things no longer make sense, and I’ve missed quite a bit of the story. Hmm. I’ve just finished ‘Going Postal’ by Terry Pratchett. Very funny!

I had a treat last Sunday. I went for brunch with Alan and Angie. We met at the Westin hotel at 12 o’clock, and then ate and drank for the next 3 hours. There was an amazing range of food: lobster and crabs, seafood and sushi, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Peking duck and Chinese specialities, plus flavoured vodka and caviar – just to remind me of my time in Russia!! The champagne, wine, rum cocktails liqueurs and chocolates were included. Just in case that wasn’t enough – there was entertainment: an orchestra, singers, dancers, acrobats and pizza jugglers. Good to watch as you try and make a tiny space for another mouthful. All of this for the very reasonable price of £30 each. Of course, after all that we needed a walk and where better than the Bund? The Bund was the original British quarter of Shanghai. It’s now a walkway beside the river, with fantastic views over to Pudong, the new part of Shanghai. Our wee walk lasted 3 hours, so that was Sunday pretty much over – funnily enough, I had no room for my dinner, so I just had to spend Sunday night doing my ironing.

A Quiet Week

It's been a quiet week for me - recovering from my adventure during the bank holiday. On Sat I went back to the dentist, and today was my last visit. I always thought that the jokes about teeth & toffee were just that - jokes. No, they're not. I was wandering down the high St in Perth when Thornton’s caught my eye. I treated myself to some special toffee, and within a few minutes was standing holding one of my teeth! An emergency trip to the dentist, and then several other visits in Shanghai, and I now have a crown. What do you think, looks good? So, this turning 40 lark – teeth falling out, eyesight failing…. I know I’m not going deaf, ‘cos there’s so much noise here!

On Sunday, I went out for lunch with Alan, Angie and one of their pals, Garry. We went to a Japanese place near where I’m staying and ate Teppanyaki. You sit at a table with the chef standing in front of you. There’s a heated metal plate (hibachi) that the chef uses to cook your food. You choose lots of little dishes (we had 7 for the 4 of us) and the chef cooks them one by one, before dividing them up. We had a combination of steak and vegetables, finishing off with bananas, but the people we were sharing a table (and chef) with had king prawns, fish and shellfish. It all tasted great, helped along, I’m sure, by the copious amounts of butter, garlic and salt. I thought that the principle was great, and started designing my new dining room around a hibachi griddle. After a quick surf on the net, I discovered that you can get them as a trolley! Ideal! Just need a house for it now!

When Sheila was here, she bought me rice cooker/steamer. We didn’t get a chance to use it while she was here. Of course, all the instructions are in Chinese, and the buttons are labeled in Chinese. Hmm! I got them translated, and then figured out how to make it work. I’ve made rice a few times with it, and this week I had a go with dumplings Sheila had put in the freezer. It worked – yum! In the photo you can see the dumplings. They’re served with vinegar in Shanghai, but in the UK they’re served with soy sauce. I had both!

Continuing the food and drink theme, I have a hot and cold water distributor in my room. I can have a cool glass of water or, more usually, a cup of tea with the flick of a switch. It saves the constant boiling of the kettle!

I’ve been trying to do the blog thing on a Friday night, but I couldn’t last night – I was out. Alan is going to work in the factory in the north of China for the next 3 months, so was having a meal out. We’d a great time - the most challenging dish was beef tendons in jelly, and the most interesting was fruit salad in mayonnaise!! The restaurant was in XuJuiHui - a very lively part of Shanghai, a bit like Times Square in New York. It's all neon, and it never stops. My apartment will be 5 mins walk away from the centre of this area. Just a bit different from Davydovo. The latest date for my moving is mid-Nov, so still another 6 weeks living in a hotel! THe boat with my stuff will also arrive mid-Nov. I have no idea which route the boat took, but can't imagine it went North at this time of year. Just to finish the food theme, here's the photo of a bit of sculpture I took last night.

Weather Thingy

I've added a couple of weather thingies to show the current conditions in Shanghai and in Perth. Can you work out which is which?

The Weather

Looks like it's going to be a pretty good weekend - still no jumper needed!!

My National Holiday Trip

In China, the first 3 days of October are a National Holiday, so no work for me on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday this week! As I mentioned earlier, Christine, one of my Chinese teachers had invited me to spend a few days with her family. I was not impressed when my alarm clock went off at 4:30 on Monday morning - I was meant to be on holiday, but no - I had a train to catch. Christine had warned me to be at the train station at least an hour before the train left (scheduled for 6:30), so I had to get a taxi to the station - the metro doesn't start running until 5:30. Believe it or not there was a massive traffic jam around the station at 5:30. It was amazing, 5:30 in the morning on a bank holiday Monday!! Anyway, I gave up sitting in the taxi, and walked the last few minutes to the train station. I arrived at the station to find a completely different entrance to that I'd spent hours at trying to buy a ticket the week before! No matter; I queued up, got my ticket checked, my bag X-rayed and found my way to my waiting room. Then I waited...and waited. I still don't know why I had to be at the station so early. They didn't let you board the train until 10 mins before it left. Ach well, the experience was good for me - character building! So, at last I got on the train.

The trip was fairly uneventful. The carriage was very noisy - as I've come to expect everywhere in China, but I just plugged in my new MP3 player (which is about half the size of a box of matches) and listened to my own noise. After 4 hours, the train arrived in Lu Cheng and I was met by Christine and her brother Geraint. The promised trip to her village on the back of a motorbike didn't happen - we all took a car out to her aunt's house for a family party. After being introduced to the family, we went for a walk round the paddy fields - as I said I'd never been in one. Did you know that there are lots of snakes in paddy fields? There was a bloke hunting snakes in the field we went to visit, and he'd just caught one. He was so proud showing it off for the camera, before he put it in the basket on the front of his motorbike (with the other half dozen he had already caught) and drove off. I had to think of him later as we sat down for a great banquet, which included eels! Lunch was really amazing. The dishes just kept coming and coming. I ate as much as I could, but I put up a really poor show on the eating front compared to everybody else, but by the time my few days were over I had firmly established my reputation for having a small stomach. No, I don't think it's true either!

Later on in the afternoon, we went wandering through the paddy fields to a pool and went fishing. My attention soon wandered, and I ended up strolling through the paddy fields, keeping an eye out for snakes. I couldn't believe that I was there. I remember being taught about paddy fields in China while I was in Primary school, and here I was standing in one. Who'd have ever of thought?? I also remember learning about Chinese fisherman using cormorants to catch fish, but that's another trip. Our fishing trip was the classic type - rods, hooks and no fish. We'd been very optimistic and had taken a net out with us, and some kind soul dug up a couple of sweet potatoes from beside the pond so that I didn't return empty-handed. My announcement of 'look we got two fish' was met with laughter. I'm not sure if it was at the 'fish' or at my bad Chinese.

After another bumper meal, we headed back to Christine's, and I was ready for my shower (with hot water from a solar panel) and bed. It had been a long day! The next morning I did try to eat my rice porridge for breakfast, but didn't make a big dent in it. It's a specialty of the region, and when the Chinese kings traveled to the South of China they would stop off to eat the porridge. An acquired taste, I found. Next, I helped Christine with the washing. Or rather, I watched Christine sit on the doorstep and wash the clothes by hand, before taking them over to the village pond to rinse them out. We met quite a few of the neighbours on this trip, and word of the arrival of a foreigner started to spread! I was the first foreigner ever to visit the village, and it was a very strange experience. During the course of the day, everybody in the village found an excuse to come and visit us. Some people just stood and stared, others spoke to me and some of the younger kids ran away crying!

On Wednesday, I entertained the neighbours with my badminton and table tennis skills, befor esitting in the shade reading my book. Yes, even at 11 am it was uncomfortably hot in the sun. Well, it is October!! I had news from Russia - they're already scraping the cars in the morning!!! I haven't needed to wear a jumper yet, never mind a jacket. So, after lunch, I jumped on the back of a motorbike, no helmet, nowhere to hang on to and we headed off to the main road to meet up with some folks who were taking us to the nearest city - Danyang, a small place of 800,000 people. That's about the size of Glasgow, and I'd never even heard of it. It's famous for shoes and specs. I've never seen so many opticians! Across from the station there was a whole shopping centre - and every shop was an opticians. Christine was thinking about getting contact lenses, so we visited a couple. She was chatting to the assistant and I decided that I'd try out the eye test. When I had my medical for my visa, I had to have an eye test. When I go to the line I couldn't read any more I said so, and the doctor said 'really?', so I'm a bit concerned about this turning 40 lark, and started on the slippery slope. Anyway, I was standing testing my eyes on the chart, decideing that I didn't really have anything too much to worry about (but will get an eye test next time I'm home, just in case!) and I looked up to find a group of shop assistants watching me and laughing their heads off. Silly foreigners!

So back to work on Thursday. It was a bit of a struggle getting up 'cos I arrived back about midnight, so 5:45 came around a bit quick. I certainly seem to take this Chinese belief of early to rise to heart. I still need to work on the other half - the early to bed bit. It's great, it's the weekend again already! Wonder what mischief I can get into ?

Weather Forecast for the Next Few Days

I found this wee thingy to let you know what my weather in Shanghai for the next few days. Looks like it's going to be good for my trip out to the country! I did get a phonecall this morning to say - bring a jumper, the air conditioning on the train is way toooooo cold!

Number of Visitors

Mesothelioma

First Week at Work

Not so bright, but very early on Monday morning, I started my first working week in Shanghai. The bus for the factory leaves from in front of the hotel just after 6:45am. The bus normally winds its way to the factory for 8 o'clock - Shanghai is enormous an d the factory is in the outskirts. There are officially 17 million people in Shanghai, and they just laugh when I say that there are 5 million people in the whole of Scotland! I've been having lunch about 11.30 to 12 o'clock. Even at that time, there's not much choice left. The chinese people eat very early, and are all keen to quote - early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise (or at least the chinese equivalent!). The canteen lunch is, of course, chinese. A bottle of water, rice, a portion of vegatables and a serving of meat and onion in a sauce, plus a piece of fruit costs me around 3 Yuan - 20p. The chopsticks are free. The bus leaves work just after 5, getting back to the hotel around 6.30 pm.

My plan was to have a very quiet week, to get to bed early every night and survive the alarm going off at 5.45 am that way. It was a good plan, but I've no idea if it would have worked! Monday night, I spoke to Christine (Chinese teacher) and confirmed that I would visit her family next week during the National Holiday (Yes, next week I'm on holiday Mon, Tues and Wed - pretty good second week at work, I thought). So, next step - go and buy my train ticket. When I was planning my trip home in February, I sat on my couch in Russia and booked my train tickets around the UK. A couple of days later they arrived at my mum's and I got them when I got to Scotland. Not quite so simple in China. I had to go to the train station. OK, I have a map, I have a metro pass - off we go. I got off the metro at the Shanghai Railway Station stop, no problem - but where was the station. I expected to arrive on the metro and then go up to the station. Hmm, not quite. I followed signs through a rabbit warren of tunels, and eventually popped up to the surface in the middle of an alley. I had been cheating, and following people who had luggage, but they were going in both directions now. I guessed right, then changed my mind and went left, and found out I'd been right the first time! I eventually worked out where the entrance to the train station was - but you had to show a ticket to get in - so the booking office wasn't inside! I found the booking office. There were 3 queues, and I chose one. I stood in line for 20 minutes, then in my best chinese asked for a ticket. I also produced the bit of paper Christine had written the name of her town on. So far, so good. Problem was - he wouldn't sell me a ticket. I worked out that I had to go 'over there' to get it. Over there was 'over there'. So, I went 'over there' which was outside, and saw a sign saying ticket office in english (OK, it said ticket buying, but I understood). I followed the signs, and came across another queue. I'm getting a bit wiser so, asked someone if I could buy a ticket for the 2nd Oct to Lu Cheng here. We, me, the bloke I approached, and the crowd we attracted, realised that this was the bus ticket queue, not the train ticket queue. OK, but where is the train ticket queue - oh, 'over there', thanks very much. 'Over there' was where I had just come from! After a few more chinese conversations and much arm waving of 'over there', I ended up back where I started - but 1 queue down! Ater 20 minutes or so, I got my ticket!! It cost nearly £2 and 3 hours, but I got it!

The week's excitement wasn't over, as I had a welcome meal out with my new colleugues last night. We went to a new restuarant in Shanghai called the King of Ducks. Guess what's on the menu? Yes, we had duck. We also had many other chinese specialities. In the photo above, I am tucking in to duck's tongue. Interesting!!!

Chinese class is over

So, today was my last day of intensive Chinese. For the last almost 4 weeks I have been spending every morning and afternoon learning Chinese (well, except weekends, and except my holiday to Beijing, and except the days I spent hunting for somewhere to live, or visiting the Chinese immigration office). In total I managed 84 hours of Chinese. My level is still very basic, but I've certainly made progress - anything is better than nothing!!

This morning one of my teachers, Christine, took me on a field trip. Firstly, I had to bargain with a shop owner over the price of cushions. I managed to get the price from 15 Yuan to 12 Yuan. As I bought 2, Christine said I should have got the price down to 10 Yuan each. I thought £1.60 for a pair of silk cushions was OK! I don't feel ripped off.

Next step on the field trip was a clothes shop - groan. It was fine though 'cos there was a big white cat to play with (I've been watching this cat for the last few weeks and he spends most of his time with his nose pressed up against the cage containing two white finches!!). Anyway, we just worked on my colours and sizes, didn't buy anything.

Final stop was lunch. We went to a Sichuan place. We had already discussed that I like my food là (spicy), and Sichuan food is well-known for being spicy. The restaurant was a bit different – you picked up a plastic basket and went to the vegetables, which were all on bamboo skewers. I got to take the vegetables I could say in Chinese, plus a few others I’d never tried – bamboo shoots in China are different from bamboo shoots in Scotland. I now understand how pandas can live on bamboo shoots. They are about 5 inches long and at least 3 inches in diameter. They seem very fibrous, and pretty tasteless to be honest! Then on to the meat; the meat is also on skewers, and kept in a fridge. I managed to say beef, but there wasn’t and, so I had to settle for pork. I didn’t fancy eating the chicken or the fish. It was a bit too ‘local’ for that. So after all that, we then paid – 40p, and waited for it to be cooked. Christine did ask me if I liked pig’s blood………I said no, but I was left a bit intrigued. You could help yourself to the condiments – salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, chili and chopped-up raw garlic. When mine arrived, I decided that unadorned was fine, even although I’d managed the words. It was very tasty, and hot – both temperature and spicy. I enjoyed it, even although my face went all red!

Well, need to stop there, I’ve just been invited out for a few beers by a couple of my colleagues – rude not to go!!

Rhona in Shanghai - the first few weeks

Well, here I am in Shanghai. The first few weeks have passed in a bit of a blur, helped along by learning Chinese all day every day.

I arrived in Shanghai 3 weeks ago - 3 weeks ago already! The biggest impact at first was that it is the complete opposite of Davydovo. I look out of my hotel window and all I can see is skyscrapers! Not quite the silver birch forest of rural Russia. Also, there must be well over 100 places to eat within 5 minutes walk - from Brazilian BBQ to Indian curry, as well as chinese, of course! Shanghai is buzzing; there are people, traffic (mainly taxis, bikes and mopeds) and noise everywhere.

So, my first visitor has come and gone. Sheila arrived a couple of weeks ago, and left this morning. I really enjoyed having her here, and she seemed to have a good time. She left me a list of places to visit when I have time.... We managed to make it up to Beijing for a 4 day weekend (see my picture at the Great Wall). We saw lots, but were a bit foot-weary. It was hot, hot, hot too, which didn't help the stamina. We managed to see loads though!!