Anyone for dog? (literally, so please don't read if you're squeemish!)

We have recently discovered our local wet market where we can get a week's supply of fruit and veg for about £4! The first time we shopped there we cause quite a stir but we now have our regular stall holders who recognise us and for the rest we are last week's news!

Sam and I went this morning and had a spot of breakfast before doing our shopping -  a delicious vegetable pancake. The market is a great place to practice our Chinese and we now manage to complete all of our purchases in Chinese, which causes much amusement. We are often asked to say things a few times and to a crowd who have a chuckle and attempt conversations with us!

The market sells just about everything from household goods to meat and fish.

We only buy our fruit and veg there at the moment although we did take a look at the meat section, but it is not always clear what part of the animal or indeed, what animal you are buying!  And clearly some of the live animals shouldn't hang around too long!!

There is a corner of a foregin field that is forever England...

I had my first trip, with my friend Lucy, to Marks and Spencer, aka M&S, St Michael's, Mark's and Spark's, in Shanghai this week. I had avoided going there as I thought that it would be a 'fake'. How wrong I was! Walking in was like being transported back to the UK!

The clothes were the same although more expensive.

There was even a food hall which stocked familiar items.

I resisted the temptation to have a coffee in the cafe as I'm firmly a Costa girl, but I did buy some crisps and chocolate coins for Christmas!

It was fun to go there but I won't be making regular trips as we have gone a bit native in our choice of shopping locations.