A Shanghai Jubilee

Our planning for the Jubilee weekend began when we were back in the UK last May!  We realised that we would be in China for it and that we would have a party and therefore need decorations!  Luckily Mum and Dad came to our rescue and gave us the decorations from their Royal Wedding Street party.

The Jubilee weekend began early on in the week with burger and pudding making.  We were up early on the day marinating meat and preping salads.  We then had a few hours off while we helped our friends celebrate their boys first birthday. 

 We then rushed home and decorated the garden, got William and Oliver to bed and the BBQ started.  We had a great evening with our friends celebrating the jubilee.  Several countries of the Commonweath were represented and we partied to some very British music.  We nearly came unstuck with the music as one of our gatemen turned up at 915pm and asked us to turn it down.  Apparently our next door neighbours had complained!  This will be remembered during Chinese New Year when they set off fireworks all night for a week!!

We had a couple of surprise visitors at the party!!



Unlike the UK we only had a two day Jubilee weekend so were detemined to make it very British. We had toad in the hole for lunch on sunday, took Oliver and William swimming and then ended up at Blue Frog. The boys had supper there and we used toasting the Queen as an excuse to take advantage of happy hour!




On the official day of the Jubilee, Brits Abroad held a champagne Jubilee coffee Morning at the Waldolf Astoria on the Bund.  It was held in the salon in the old part which used to be the British Club in Shanghai, a perfect location! 


 

Faster than Formula One!

William and Oliver have been studying transport this term in school.  In keeping with this theme a school trip was arranged to travel on the Maglev (a superfast magnetic levitational train) which connects Shanghai and it's major airport.  A journey which can take between half an hour and an hour by car takes seven mintues on the Maglev.  As Gao Yi keeps telling us "it is faster than Formula One".

Parents were invited along on the trip and Sam and I were both keen to go as we had not been on it before.  We went to school with Oliver and William, registered and got on the school bus to go to the station. 

William and Oliver are always very excited by trips on the school bus.  I drew the short straw of having to sit with Oliver who, in his excitement, was not much company!

We had a list of items that we had to spot along the way in return for stickers, this got quite competative at some points, with Sam running all over the place to spot things!

Once the train got going it did not take long to reach it's top speed of 431km per hour.  It was amazing travelling so fast on something held on its rails by magnetism!  Passing another train and tilting around bends was an experience!

Once at the airport we walked through the terminal continuing to spot items from our list.  We stopped in a quiet area for snacks and coffee and then headed back to the train. 

The children were then loaded in to the bus and whisked off for a picnic and games in the local park.  The boys were clearly exhausted after school, as when I suggested going for an ice cream I was told that their legs were too tired to go anywhere but home!

A Very British Weekend!

DUCKs or Dulwich Collage Shanghai (DCS), where Oliver and William go to school, is a fairly new school in Shanghai, it will celebrate it's 10th anniversary next year.  However, it's parent school, Dulwich College London has a much longer history and annually celebrates it's Founder's Day in the summer term.  For the first time DCS decided to hold a Founder's Day last weekend.  It was called 'A Very British Occassion' and was open to all Dulwich familes and was free! 

When we arrived at the school we headed to the rugby pitches and were suprised by the scale of the event.  There was a huge outdoor stage which looked very proffessional. 

There was an arena and lots of other tents.  In keeping with the British Theme there was, among other events, a maypole dancing display, model castles, 'medieval' storytelling, fencing, a carosel, a pork pie stand and, to Sam's delight, a hog roast!

William and Oliver had fun posing with the British cutouts!

Oliver and William had a lovely afternoon running around looking at things and playing with their friends.  We all then settled down to a picnic supper and were entertained by various bands. 

The highlight of the evening's entertainment was a concert by the senior school choir and the school orchestra.  We listened to some classical numbers, including The Dambuster's March and some popular numbers, including a Beatle's medley.  To round off the evening, and complete the British theme, the orchestra played Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March.  As Land of Hope and Glory began we were treated to a fantstic fireworks display.  It was so impressive that it seemed instantly clear why the fees have gone up this year!!

Sam ended the evening on a high after watching Quins win the Premiership and returned home late with tales of how he had decided against buying a £98 bottle of champagne at the end of the evening (thank god!)!  Apparently it was decided it wouldn't sit well on top of all the beer they had drunk!

The following day to complete the 'British' weekend we went with our friends Meeta and Giz and their daughter Ria to the seaside, well a coastal forest park.  All the children were excited to see the sea (William and Oliver requested to take buckets and spades) but we had to make it clear to them that this would be no British seaside but a major shiping lane where the Huang Pu and Yantzee rivers meet the East China sea.  Exotic it sounds but exotic it was not!! 

Indeed we were dubious as to what we would find as we approached through an industrial area and narrowly avoided collissions with lorries.

However, the park was fantastic and actuallly had an English country garden feel to parts, with its well stocked boarders and wild flower meadows. 

There were lots of places to explore and we saw some wildlife, including a rabbit.  Ria organised the boys in their games. 

There was no pier with a helter skelter but we did find some dodgems and a bouncy castle.  We had a picnic by a stream, followed by a walk through the forest and an ice cream.  A very British end to a very British weekend!

Oh and of course a trip to a Chinese park would not be complete with out a wedding photo!