We're going on a chicada hunt...

What a beautiful day! 

We're going to catch a big one! 

We're not sacred (much!)! 

Having been plagued by the noise made by the cicada's in the trees around where we lived William and Oliver decided to take Alice and Charlie on a hunt to track down a cicada.  We managed to spot a few in trees but the four children were delighted when we found a dead one on the path!  He is now 'living' in a shoebox in the hallway with food and water that are changed daily!  His name is Spencer!! Charlie declared he was going to take him home to England - going through customs should be fun!

A gathering of Grant's in Shanghai

Kaytie, Alice and Charlie arrived in Shangahi on Monday morning.  We were very impressed with how efficiently the Grant's had managed to pack!

Not a lot of sleep had been had on the aeroplane, but we were determined not to let any of them sleep during the day in order to overcome the jet lag!  Sam stopped for very strong coffee to keep Kaytie going and we fed everyone and took them swimming to distract them from the tiredness.  They all made it to bedtime - just!  Charlie crawled in to Kaytie's bed and fell asleep at 615pm!  He didn't wake until eight o'clock the next morning!

Over the next few days we went swimming, played at the soft play, went on the Shanghai ferry (very expensive at 20p each!) , explored the insect house and most importantly introduced them to xiao long bao!

Kaytie and I even found time to squeeze in a pedicure and a cocktail!

Richie arrived bright eyed on Saturday morning after bagging himself an upgrade!  This was a good thing as we whisked him off out for the evening to watch England allow the Welsh to beat us at rugby!!

Jim and Emma come to China

Jim and Emma arrived in Shanghai after a week of sighseeing in Beijing and Xian.  Sam went to meet them at the airport and almost missed them!  He realised that he is more used to being met and this was his first airport pick up.  He ended up at international arrivals at the wrong end of the terminal!  At least he now knows where to go to collect Kaytie, Alice and Charlie next week!

As the Emmison's arrived we whisked them off to the Fakes and Fabric market.  Jim was measured up for a couple of shirts and a pair of shorts and Emma developed a longing for a Mulberry bag! 

 

They were pretty tired after nonstop sightseeing in Beijing so they spent a gloriously sunny and unbearably hot day by the pool on their first full day.  Luckily they were not too tired for pre-dinner drinks in the pub with me!

  

After a trip to the world's highest observation deck the following day, William, Oliver and I introduced them to the delights of dumplings and in particular, Shanghai's famous dumpling the Xiao Long Bao.

The afternoon was completed with a boat trip during which the biggest storm I have seen in Shanghai broke out!  Oliver, William and I had sensibly declined the boat trip and had gone for an ice cream instead.  When we picked them up they were pretty soaked, much to the amusement of William and Oliver.  The rain was so heavy that a road on the way home had virtually become a river!

Jim and Emma spent a day sightseeing in the old part of Shanghai on Thursday.  They met Sam from work and he took them on the Shanghai metro in rush hour!  However, the crush was soon forgotten as they sipped cocktails overlooking the lights of Pu Dong. I joined them and we took them for an 'upmarket' Chinese.

After a busy (it was PACKED!) morning at the aquarium on Friday, Emma and I hit the market one more time where her bag longings were finally satisfied.  We had sent the four boys to the pool so there was noone to curb the spending!  In the evening we decided to try out local cuisine and went to a Shanganese restaurant round the corner where there were some interesting items on the menu.

  We didn't stay out too late as Typhoon Muifa was on its way and we had strict instructions from our compound management to clear the garden of anything moveable!

On what we thought was Jim and Emma's last day we showed them the delights of the Carrefour fish counter and more of the area where we live. 

We then spent the afternoon at the pub!  That evening we discovered that their flight had been cancelled due to the typhoon but luckily they managed to get on the Monday flight.

On the Sunday we visited the Shanghai History Museum.  It gave and interesting and sometimes biased account of the history of Shanghai and China.  If museum signs are like this it would be interesting to see the text books! 

Early on Monday morning we said goodbye to Jim and Emma.  We were sad to see them go and Sam took them to the airport and returned with Kaytie, Alice and Charlie!

There's nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.

On Saturday night Robert, a colleague of Sam's, arranged for about 25 of us to go for dinner followed by a boat trip up the Hungpu, the river in Shanghai.  The plan was to eat early and be on the boat by 7pm so we decided to take William and Oliver too.  We had to convince them that we were not going to be swimming in the river and therefore they needed more suitable clothes!



William



Oliver



 

We all met in a Bavarian restaurant for dinner where we had sausages with saurcraut and the boys had meatballs.  The restaurant and food was so well done that we felt like we were in a Munich Beer hall!

After the food we went to the dock and got our tickets.  There was an electronic sign flashing up the time of our boat.  Unfortunately the time got later and later until we eventually boarded at 8! The wait was not helped by the fact that it was the hottest day of the summer so far!  It was still nearly 40 degrees at 8pm!  William and Oliver were pretty tired but managed to stay awake and it was worth the wait. 

It was amazing to see Shanghai  from the river at night.  The Bund looked very impressive

and the towers of Pudong looked amazing.

Everyone was impressed that I managed to put a special message for Sam up on one of the buildings!

At the end of the trip we asked one of the crew to take a group photo.  Photograpgy was clearly not her forte as in the first few attempts she just took pictures of our feet!  Finally we did manage to get a good photo, although this time some people were missing their feet!

An antique or not an antique? That is the question!

For the past few months we have been on the look out for a large Chinese vase to use as an umbrella holder.  We have seen some that were pretty good but have never found exactly what we were looking for.  Therefore, at the weekend we decided to pay a visit to the Dong Tai Lu Antiques Market.  We had driven past a few times and were keen to go as it is a good example of an Asian street market in one of the few traditional lanes left in Shanghai.

As we arrived we were on our guard as we had been warned that this was the place for getting lots of hassle off the vendors.  However, we were pleasantly surprised.  They did call out but there was nothing like the scale of hassle that you get somewhere like Mumbai.  It was fairly busy but the initial crush thinned out.

 

It became clear quite quickly that the the term 'antique' was to be taken with a pinch of salt!  There are over 100 'antique' stalls spread over two roads which make up the market.  As we walked along it became clear that a lot of the goods were mass produced Chairman Mao memorbillia!  This was the place to come if you needed a statue of Mao and they were available in a variety of sizes! 

There were also copious copies of the 'Little Red Book' which is full of quotations from Mao explaining the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party to the people of China.  We gave that a miss!  You could also get crickets in cages just in case you wanted to join a local cricket fight but we decided against that too!

William and Oliver were fascinated by every stall and the bric a brac it contained.

Oliver quite liked a pair of old binoculars he found and William seems to have developed an intrest in 'art'!

Although both boys seemed keen on photographic art at one stall and I breathed a sigh of relief when they reached for the picture of the pandas...

Eventually we came to a stall which also was part of a shop and that we had been recommended.  We found a lovely vase and proceeded to haggle.  Our opening gambit is always that we live here and if we get a good price we'll come back and will bring our family. The owner's opening gambit was that we were looking at a unique piece of Ming Dynasty pottery!  We negotiated for a bit and finally settled on a good price after agreeing that we would bring our visitors and that they would pay tourist prices!!  

If it does, by some fluke, turn out to be an antique we'll be selling it and snapping up a mass produced replacement!

Oliver and William were on good form but bric a brac and antique shopping can tire everyone in the end.  Although we weren't sure if they wanted a rest or fancied themselves as sellers as this was about as active as most stall holders got in the heat!

Scorchio!

Following the end of the rainy season the temperature in Shanghai has soared,  Most days it is in the mid 30s and every so often it's hitting 40.  Earlier this week we had a bit of a storm and it cooled (!) off to 28 degrees!  We are not finding it as bad as we have thought and are adapting to it by taking life slowly - like the locals.  I have also gone a bit native and use a parasol!  It is brilliant and makes it more bearable and is UV 40!

Other ways of cooling off include air con shopping centres and soft play areas, although they are still a little hot.  Apparently they are waiting until the real heat in August kicks in before cranking it up!

A few of us have been meeting at Lisa's for play dates and she has had some great activities to do including making rice crispie cakes.  Although a lot of the mixture ended up getting eaten!

We have held a few play dates at ours.  The main entertainment we offer is a great view of the building site next door!  It has proved quite a hit.

It has also provided us with an education in the health and safety laws of China:  there are none!  One thing Chineses builders are though is fast.  There was nothing the other side of the wall when we got here in January!  The other morning as we were watching the progress Oliver suddenly noticed that one of the builders was urinating off the roof of the house all over the power cables!  William and Oliver delighted in giving him a big wave!

Another good hot weather activity is messy play, it is the reverse of the UK.  We use all of our wet weather activites in the summer!  It can get a bit too messy at times!

At Lisa and Darren's compound they have an outdoor pool we can use and it's only a five minute walk.  William and Oliver cooled off in there with Henry and Charlie.  I can see we will be going there lots this summer and recomending it to our all of our visitors!

And of course if it really is too hot, there is always ice cream!