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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Fish without the chips
MP4 player (on the right)

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

Fish without the chips
MP4 player 9on the right)

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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!

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