Only in Asia

Only in Asia does kids play-dough sets come in "Sushi" and "Teppanyaki" varieties.

First day of preschool

Done and dusted. A shaky start (bad mood - sorry no first day photo) but that soon cleared and we made it to school on time despite heavy traffic. Tanja stayed with her for the morning, leaving around lunchtime and I picked Zara up at 2.30pm. This morning, after clearing my entire schedule for the day (joke) expecting to stay with her, took her into the classroom and after a minute or two she whispered to me that it's time for me to go. A great start - hope it continues like this. She's growing up!

After ranting about foreigners on motorbikes with no helmets (see last week's post), here we are posing on one. Swallow the pride. The bike isn't ours - it belongs to a friend. But we do have it on loan for the next three weeks while the owner is back in Canada. It's an electric bike - so it has a big battery in the back and rather than fill it up with petrol, it gets plugged into the wall. Runs almost silently too. We have helmets and look forward to zipping around the neighbourhood a bit to try the bike out. If you can believe it, Chinese-made electric bikes just like this one retail for around $500 Australian dollars. No licence needed, and registration is a matter of a couple of dollars a year. Tempting.

Mini chef

Zara joined some other kiddies and made pizza last week-end at an Italian restaurant. An article has been posted on the Shanghai Family website:

http://www.shfamily.com/blog/2011/08/22/amazzzing-pizzza-bright-and-early/

Rain rain

Has unseasonably rained most days this week. Our Saturday morning walk through the Xintiandi area of Shanghai resulted in two wet kids - to the amusement of cafe staff.

Big roads

Shanghai roads are like nothing I've seen before. Elevated roads everywhere. And all the traffic lights have counters showing how many seconds until it turns green (or red).

School orientation 2

School orientation

We went to Zara's new school on Monday for parent's orientation ahead of the official start next Monday. Very impressed. Zara's teacher is coincidentally a Tanja as well (same spelling). Things on the school front remain all good so far, according to Zara. Next week will be the real test though.

(Photo almost looks cheesy enough to go into a school promo glossy brochure!)

Ice-cream from corner store

Thank goodness for sat nav

Crazy, insanely busy and confusing intersection near our place - as viewed on GPS.

Ballet Concert

Press the triangle to begin playing the video - then click the 'full screen' button at the bottom right-hand corner of the Youtube window below to enlarge the view.

Beginner's luck?

My first attempt at a NY baked cheesecake. Turned out looking surprisingly tidy. Taste test later tonight.

Paris Baguette cafe - Hongmai Lu

Mirrored ceiling.

Crazy lao wais

Lao wai is colloquial mandarin for "foreigner" and Shanghai has a huge number of them. One of the biggest populations of western expatriates in the world, I've read. And there are scores of these wayfarer-clad white bandits riding around on motorbikes and regular bikes without helmets! A bit like Kuta beach in Bali or Patong on Phuket, but somehow hipper and classier. It seems that all the road safety education that was drummed into my generation of school kid is forgotten as they zip through the crazy traffic without any thought of consequences. This photo seems to epitomise it: twenty something guy texting away on iPhone, listening to music abreast the latest Chinese knockoff copy euro scooter. I see *stupid* guys like this all the time. (Maybe I'm a touch envious as I schlep a very heavy-laden Phil n Ted's stroller up gutters and down stairs).

End of ballet

Zara's summer ballet class came to an end last week, culminating in an impromptu concert for parents.  Here's a photo of her giving her teacher a peck on the cheek when receiving her certificate.  Stay tuned for the video of the concert highlights - hope to get it uploaded in the next couple of days.  Zara's not sure whether she wants to re-enrol in ballet this semester - even though she seems to enjoy it.  Maybe it's four year old attitude coming through.

Chopsticks

This shop sells chopsticks, chopsticks and chopsticks. Not cheap tacky souvenir chopsticks that tourists buy and take home. These are high quality, expensive ones (red carpet entrance gave it away) used by Chinese people for every meal of the day. I guess it's Shanghai's equivalent of the local Stanley Rogers cutlery store.

The Nest

Today will be Zara's second last day at "summer school" (aptly named The Nest). Chinese school holidays are coming to a close, after a long 10 weeks. The Nest, although small and local (it doesn't even have a website!) has been fantastic. The picture below is Zara in the front yard. She will officially start pre-school at the German International School of Shanghai next Monday (29 August), going 5 days a week 8.30am to 3pm. We found out yesterday that the school bus will pick her up at 7.10am each morning. Gulp. Some serious planning is needed to get her to the bus stop by that time. We're going to give it a go anyway.

A better flycatcher?

Very basic but remarkably effective. A Chinese home-made fly catcher. The secret ingredient.... rotting fish guts in the bottom tray.

Chipped tooth

This 'self-portrait' taken by Max while he had my iPhone may be the closest thing you get to see of Max's newly chipped tooth. But it'll be that way until he's about 5 or 6, so everyone will get a gander in due course.

Fisherman's friend

This is a bronze fisherman at the ground floor of the building where Tanja works on Nanjing West Road in the centre of Shanghai. Whenever we meet her at lunchtime or after work, the kids usually grativate towards this old man. Max was once chased by a Chinese guard for swinging on the fishing rod. There are giant live koi fish (like goldfish) swimming in the pond. Koi fish symbolise success in Chinese tradition.

iPads

While browsing in the Apple store this morning, I was amazed how many iPads were being sold. This is a picture of one of the cashiers - the table behind her has iPads stacked up, and another Apple employee is wheeling a trolley with another 2 or 3 dozen of them on. In the couple of minutes I stood and watched, I reckon about 12 or 15 of them were sold (one person bought 7). As they say, selling like hotcakes.

All roads lead to....

Apple! I am curious how Apple managed to convince local authorities to paint a diagonal pedestrian crossing leading straight into the store. This is one of only two Apple stores in Shanghai and one of only five across China. I predict this number to at least quadruple before we leave in 3 years.

Rain rain

Heavy downpour this morning, accompanied by good proper lightning and thunder. Reminiscent of damp monsoon days in Delhi - especially the instant flooding of streets. The difference for us in Shanghai is that we now have a commute to battle - no more working and living behind the same four walls.

Peace

Zara picked up a new skill at Disneyland - the Asian two-finger happy photo Peace pose. Straight after this was taken, she asked what it actually means. Maybe you can also make out Max's 'fro - the humid weather makes his blonde curls tighten up, drawing even more attention from Asian girls with cameras!

The Gappiest Place on Earth

Disneyland wasn't all tinkerbells and fairydust for us. Little Max slipped while getting out of the pool and chipped a noticeable amount from a front baby tooth. Can't quite get him to smile for a photo though.

Disneyland 3

Disneyland 2

Disneyland

We are at Hong Kong Disneyland. First day today - kicked off with breakfast with the characters. Max didn't want a bar of it.

Funny driving

Normally, if one wanted to turn left, one would get into the left hand lane. That principle doesn't apply to some of Shanghai's roads - check the blue traffic sign. Kind of a Melbourne right hand turn situation in a way. Sometimes I can't quite believe I've been granted a Chinese drivers licence without any road testing.

Super typhoon

Super typhoon Muifa to hit Shanghai this weekend

People of Shanghai, take heed. Typhoon Muifa (梅花), which has been upgraded to a SUPER TYPHOON, the ninth in the country this year, is expected to hit Shanghai this weekend, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

As of yesterday, Muifa was still more than 1,000 kilometers away from the city but ismoving northwest toward Zhejiang Province at a vast speed of 15kph. It is expected to enter the East China Sea today and hit the province within 72 hours.

As of yesterday, winds were blowing at 198 kilometers per hour at Muifa's core. Officials and experts compare Muifa's impending wrath this weekend to 2005's Typhoon Matsa, which killed four people and caused economic losses of 100 million yuan ($15.5 million).

It has already made its rounds in northern and central Philippines, where it killed five people, displaced tens of thousands of families and caused damages of roughly $81 million.

Over the next few days in Shanghai, thundershowers should be frequent and we should be seeing cooler temperatures, with the highest below 33 degrees.

Typhoon

Typhoon Mufia is Shanghai bound, expecting to cause havoc "later in the week". Hoping that doesn't mean Friday afternoon, as we are flying to Hong Kong, bound for Disneyland. Today though we are definitely feeling the typhoon - raining heavily accompanied by thunder and lightning. (Note planter box of healthy looking mint).

Sweaty work

This man operates an ironing business. His shop is about the size of an Australian bathroom, yet he has dozens and dozens of shirts hanging from the roof and a single ironing board and steam iron at the front. The shop opens right onto the road and has no other visible windows or doors to allow any airflow. On a 36 deg high humidity Shanghai day, ironing someone else's shirts, the man deserves a moment of blog fame...

Cadbury

Proud to report that our several kgs of choc arrived safely in the shipment. It's safely stored away in a shelf of the 'Australia' cupboard.

Have wheels, will travel

The bureaucratic processes associated with getting our car wrapped up late on Friday afternoon and we did some driving over the weekend. It helps during these humid summer days.

Unpack 2

Unpack 1

Confucius say...

For the kitchen? Or simply the box's destination?

15 cubic metres of Christmas

Our boxed effects from Australia arrived today, 7 weeks after we landed in Shanghai. The kids are particularly excited as it heralds the arrival of their toys and games they haven't seen for a couple of months now.