The Grants - the sequal

We were lucky enough to be paid a visit by another branch of the Grant family this month.  Gina and Andrew (Richie's parents) called in on their way home from visiting Richie's brother and family in New Zealand. 

I showed them round Shanghai and introduced them to xiaolongbao, Shanghai's famous soup dumplings, and cocktails with a view!  We did some sightseeing around the old town, had a trip to Costa and spent several hours in the fakes market! 

Even though they were only here for four days they managed to see the main sights and have a massage!  It was another chance to share Shanghai with family and to show off this fab city.

 

A Tale of Two River Cruises

On Oliver and William's last day off school we decided to go on a river cruise on the Huang pu in Shanghai.  It is a great way to see both sides of the river.  We arrived an hour early for the boat and so did what has become a regular habit for us-we went for coffee!  It was glorious sitting in the sun watching the boats go by.

During the cruise it felt a little cooler due to the breeze but the views were fantastic and we all provided on board entertainment for the tourists! One couple paid more attention to William and Oliver than to the views from the boat.

 Jo and I were quite in demand for photos!

The previous day I (Sam) had experienced an altogether different boat trip experience when I attended my first Chinese Wedding.  One of my colleagues, James,  who had organized our dance at the Chinese New Year banquet was getting married and he invited all of his dance friends!!

Chinese weddings are slightly different to British ones, as they typically happen in 3 stages.  First of all the couple do the legal part of signing the marriage paper work, but this is often done about a year before they actually have their wedding ceremony and reception.  Part two is the wedding photographs, which as you will have seen in many of our previous blogs happen in any number of beautiful or random public places.  Finally they have the ceremony and reception with their family, friends and colleagues.

James invited me to join him for the whole day and accompany him and his best men in the wedding car to go and pick up his wife and bridesmaids, but as we had guests I opted to just meet him at the boat.  I arrived at the dock and after a chat with the ticket collectors, was allowed through and boarded the boat.  I was greeted by a life size photograph of the couple and was given a raffle ticket and was asked to sign a guest book.  I then made my way up to the top deck to meet the couple.  James introduced me to Alice and we had our photo taken

Once everyone had arrived the couple went below deck and after a little bit of waiting around suddenly some very loud and dramatic music started playing, which was the cue for the couple to make their way up and the ceremony began.  The ceremony was not dissimilar to a british civil ceremony, although instead of a registrar there was a compare talking over a microphone, in a TV host style, with various backing tracks to set the mood.

After the ceremony we all made our way below deck for the banquet.  I was on the Ford table and there were a couple of other tables with people from his current and previous companies and then some with family and friends.  The meal was a traditional Chinese wedding banquet so the dishes just kept on coming.

After the meal the speeches started, which is when it got interesting.  Firstly the groom got up to speak and this was followed by the bride’s brother-in-law; cue over-head projector and music video and karaoke.  Next the two best men were called to the front and instead of giving a speech the compare got them to have a race to see which one could stack cups.  This was followed by them having to dance along to Gangnam Style. 

Following this I discovered that our table was next up to perform!  The girls had prepared a song so we all had to stand up at the front and sing.  Once complete I went to sit back down, but it turned out we were also to have a competition, so the compare split us into two teams and we then had to stand in lines with a bread stick in our mouths and had to see which team could pass the most onion rings from one end to the other in a minute.  Our team won, so we each got some chocolates and Kleenex baby wipes (James now works for Kimberly-Clark!!).

We then returned to our tables and the the bride and groom went to talk to each table.  However the main focus of this was that the groom has to down a shot of Chinese rice wine (which is similar to vodka) with each table; when he got to our table it was then decided that he should do 2, one Red wine and one rice wine, and then finally an extra one with me, I assume as I was the only westerner!  In Chinese, instead of saying cheers, everyone shouts Gan Bei, which literally translated mean Dry Cup.

Finally the groom made one final speech, which mainly involved him crying and saying how lucky he was, the rice wine had clearly had an effect. 

A Shanghai Christmas

 

 

 

 

The Christmas season started in Shanghai in late November with William and Oliver's Year 1 and 2 Christmas production 'Hey Ewe', an alternative nativity! 

Once again they performed it in the Junior school theatre.  This year they were all less shell shocked and trod the boards like true professionals.

Sue and Suresh arrived at the beginning of December which was exciting, particularly because it was Suresh's first visit to Shanghai and we were looking forward to sharing it with him. 

There were a few mad days of sightseeing and then they headed to Guilin for a few days.  Oliver and William broke up from school and began to help me prepare for christmas.  We had decoration sessions with Henry, Charlie and Ria and we also baked lots of mince pies just before the oven broke again! 

Sue and Suresh arrived back in Shanghai and the weather began to get colder and more Christmassy. We went for afternoon tea on the 39th floor of the JW Marriot which was a fantastic way to start the festivities.

 Our new oven arrived just in time for Christmas eve. We speant a lovely day on Christmas eve with the Hughes family.  We managed to cook the ham before the door of the new oven broke rendering it useless.  Luckily our neighbour offered their oven!

 

On the evening of Christmas eve a group of us went to our local for a few drinks which was fun at the time but didn't feel so great when we were up at 6 the next morning (before William and Oliver!!!) for Sam to run the turkey round to next door!  We then slumped on the sofa waiting for the boys to wake up and realise it was Christmas which they did by about 7!

Making trifle

The morning was spent playing with stocking pressies, eating smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and drinking bucks fizz.  The food preparation ticked along nicely and Sam disapeared at intervals, in his dressing gown, to next door!







The rest of the day followed the traditional route of food, a walk, pressies and more food. 

Watching the pudding go up in flames!

On Boxing Day we dispensed with tradition and Sam, Sue and Suresh went for a walk along the Bund and the boys and I met them for a dumpling lunch!  After lunch we hit the fakes market!

The following few days were spent doing some more sightseeing and on Sue and Suresh's last night we had a takeaway.  The following morning I travelled to the airport with the luggage and the rest travelled on the mag lev at speeds of 400km per hour!

New Year was celebrated with a party of friends who had stayed in Shanghai for Christmas at our house.The boys had Henry staying as poor charlie was in hospital (he is now fully recovered) and Sam and I aimed to get to bed as soon after 12 as possible. After everyone left at 1 we cleared up and decided that a skype session with the party at Poyle Road (Smiths, Clarks, more Smiths, Jarman's and Matt!)  would be a good idea.  At 2am here 6pm there we had a half our chat, it was impossible to tell who had had more to drink!!!

The three boys woke up at 6!!!!!  I'm not sure how Sam and I managed to keep going after so little sleep but we went to lunch at a friends and kept going by taking the boys for supper at the pub!

 

 

The next week before school began was spent relaxing and catching up on sleep!