"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." ― Dr. Seuss

Book week along with UN day is a pretty big event on the school calendar especially as it requires a lot of forward thinking for the dressing up on Book Day.  As soon as we started discussing it with the boys at the start of term they decided that they both wanted to go as Fantastic Mr Fox.  Sam and I got on Taobao where you can order pretty much anything and found some fox masks.  Some girls in the office had dressed as foxy ladies at the Chinese New Year Party and had tails (not too risqué) that they lent the boys.  

                                  

                                  

Through out the week there were lots of book related activities culminating in the book parade on the Friday.  I had told the school that I wasn't available to work as I wanted to watch the boys.  However, I received a phone call to say Oliver's teacher was off and I couldn't refuse the chance to join in the parade with them.  I had to cobble together a costume, luckily I been a witch at Halloween and the year 2 team were going as characters from Hans Christian Anderson.  

                                  

The school also held a bookathon during the week to raise money for Heart to Heart, a charity providing treatment and care for children with heart problems.  Last year the boys had decided to read 101 books and I was very relieved when they told me that they wanted to do less this year, until they told me it was 100!  However, between the four of us we managed to do it.

At the same time as book week M on the Bund, a famous Shanghai restaurant, runs the Shanghai Literary  Festival.  My friend Alex and I managed to get tickets to hear Alexandra Zaprudra talk about her book on the Holocaust.  I have been to a few events at the past two Literary festivals but this year marked the first time for Sam, William and Oliver.  We went to a children's workshop on The Dark Horse by Sarah Brenen.  All of us love her books and it was great to hear how she wrote it and also to hear her read it.  

                                    

Oliver and William throroghly enjoyed it and even asked a question each.  They also enjoyed getting their books signed.  

       

       

Horse Play by Sam

Despite being out of China for Chinese New Year, we still managed to get involved in the celebrations in Shanghai, both before and after our holiday. The lead up to CNY in the office is rather like Christmas in the UK, with various team lunches and after work drinks, which culminates in the office Annual Party. In China all companies set aside budget every year to organise a party and it certainly seems that generally no expense is spared. The evening consists of a formal Chinese banquet, lots of lucky draw prizes (this years prizes at Ford included suitcases, ten iPad minis and two MacAirs) and every department putting on a performance to provide the entertainment throughout the meal.

Two years ago I performed a dance and swore never to do it again, unfortunately, rather like Steve Redgrave, I proved unable to keep to my word. A colleague asked me if I would be willing to get up on stage as part of a large group and sing a song. This didn't sound too bad, so I agreed only to discover a couple of weeks later that I was actually to be part of a 4 piece 'boy band'. 

                                      

As we were made up of two Brits and two Chinese, we decided to perform a song that could be sung both in English and Chinese, so not only did I need to try and sing in tune I also had to make sure I could pronounce the Chinese properly. We had a few rehearsals and organised our outfits to tie in with the theme of the night - The Golden Age. 

                                      

                                      

                                      

It was a great night and we seemed to go down fairly well with the 800 strong audience.

                                       

Having called ourselves ShanghHai IT, at the end of our performance we tried to make sure people didn't think we were taking ourselves too seriously.

                                       

We came a close second in the vote, only losing out to Marketing & Sales by one vote and let's be honest, it is their job to entertain!!

                                       

William and Oliver's school also do a number of activities in the week or two leading up to the CNY school holiday, the main event being a day when the children go to school in clothing representative of China and then have a morning of Chinese activities around the school, which the parents are invited to attend. Oliver and William enjoyed going to the different classrooms and solving riddles, playing games and following the Chinese tradition of hanging a thought or hope for the coming year on a wishing tree. 

                                   

                                   

They collected stamps as they completed the different activities and when they had enough they were able to end the morning with some candy floss. 

                                   

On returning from our holiday, we decided that we would once again head to the old town to see all the decorations that they put up, especially all the lanterns. We decided to go on the 15th and final day of the new year celebrations, the Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the lantern festival. Families get together for a meal in the evening and the traditional dish to eat is rice dumplings in a sweet soup. Candles and lanterns are lit to help guide wayward spirits home.

To begin with we headed to our favourite dumpling restaurant, it was very busy and whilst we waited to be seated we were rather surprised to see another waiting family tucking into a McDonalds!

                         

                                    

After eating we went to look at the lanterns.  Despite the fact that they barricade the area and sell tickets to enter the old town, it was still absolutely packed.

       

 However, regardless of the crowds it was definitely worth it, because the lights and lanterns were spectacular set against the wonderful old Chinese architecture.