Brisbane

After 16 odd hours of travel, we made it to Brisbane! First stop, Petrie to meet Flynn. He is every bit as cute (and well behaved) as we had heard.

Flying kangaroo

There's something nice about being in a foreign city and seeing the familiar red tail of a Qantas plane taxi into a gate. It has been quite a few years since I've flown Qantas international - so I am curious to see what it's like. I've heard and read that the service has improved, with Cadbury hot chocolate and Magnums apparently now on the dessert menu! Max is pressed up against the window watching the plane taxi, with a San Fran bound United 747 in the foreground.

Homeward bound

Tonight the kids and I are flying back to Australia for nearly 4 weeks, leaving Tanja in Shanghai to slog it out (at work) in the busy period leading up to Chinese new year. The main reason for the trip is to see our new baby cousin Flynn, and to catch up with friends and family in Qld. I am posting this from Shanghai Pudong airport where we are waiting to board the Qantas A330 that will fly us non-stop to Sydney, then connect up to Brisbane. In this picture, the kids gladly oblige, once again, for a snap-happy curious Chinese traveller.

Half marathon

Running has been one of the things that has occupied my time since moving to Shanghai, in between being Stay at Home dad of course. I have bravely (stupidly?) registered to race in the Shanghai marathon in December - although will only attempt the half marathon (21kms). Looking at the proposed course, it should be quite a scenic run. Because of the flatness of Shanghai, it is a good precursor / trainer for the Beijing marathon next May, part of which is on the Great Wall.

Supervisor

Max supervises the work going on at the front of our compound - a new sewerage line being installed apparently.

End of school day

3.30pm, or thereabouts, is school bus time for Max and I - waiting for Zara to come home. Her bus leaves the school at 3pm and takes around 30 minutes to reach our place. Sometimes it's longer if the traffic is bad, but Max doesn't mind as it gives him longer to talk to the guard stationed at the front gate. These days we have to remember to take a jacket as it can be quite cool in the afternoon shade.

Chinglish

Chinglish is the wonderful meeting of English and Chinese languages. Just as us foreigners massacre the Mandarin language when we give it a go, Chinese often translate English with results that are not quite grammatically correct. Here, a vending machine in metro station scrolling "Take Away Me" encourages passers-by to pick it up and run away with it! The 'real' meaning is easy enough to get though. I have a feeling there will be more Chinglish to come on this blog as we get around the city.

(Blurry photo regretted).

Cheeky kindy boy

Dumplings (again)

Tanja ponders the menu at Din Tai Fung - a restaurant famous for its dumplings - and awarded one Michelin star for its efforts. The food was delicious and we promised ourselves to take everyone who visits us here.

Chinese checkers

People's Park, downtown Shanghai.

View from two wheels

Here we are sailing down Hong Qiao Road. This major road in shanghai and many others like it, has dedicated bicycle lanes, separate from the rest of the road with brick dividers. Great safety initiative!

Bath bubbles

Five fingers

Taken Thursday afternoon - on our compound.

Waiting waiting

Zara takes the school bus to school each day, an arrangement that works well on the whole but is not without its challenges.  The bus leaves around 7.20am from a stop a couple of hundred metres from our place, so Tanja walks her down, waits and continues on to work.  Unfortunately the bus stop is on a fairly busy road so the bus can only afford to pull up for a matter of seconds before drivers behind it unleash a wrath of horn honking.  Zara leaps on and away she goes, returning again around 3.40pm in the afternoon.  In this picture Zara is looking at the oncoming traffic, waiting for her blue and white bus number 36 to come sailing down the road.

Bike

Success this morning in buying a bike, chain and basket. This pic is not my bike, but it's very similar to this one... a China Post postie's bike.

Weather update and dumplings

The past week or so we have noticed Shanghai start to cool down.  Summer is well and truly behind us and winter not too far away.  So the in-between is autumn, with mild sunny days, with a hint of wind by afternoon.  Today's temperature has hovered around 22 degrees - perfect weather for getting out and about on Shanghai streets.  With this in mind, I've decided to buy a bicycle.  Not a hardcore road racing bike or a rugged heavy mountain bike, but just a simple and inexpensive street bike.  The models I have seen come with a wire basket at the front, simple rim brakes and a sprung (read: comfy) seat.  Shanghai is totally flat, so there's really no need for gears and the roads are fairly busy, so no need whatsoever for speed.  I visited an outlet of Giant Bicycles today but had no luck - the sales guy had no sales skills, and even though he spoke a little English, it seemed that he wasn't at all interested in doing business with a non-mandarin speaking foreigner.  Maybe I approached it wrongly. I'll give it another go tomorrow at another store.  Slightly inconvenienced though as I completely expected to ride out of the store on a bike, and had come prepared with the bolt-on baby seat for the back - with the intention of picking Max up from kindy at 12 noon.  So instead of riding away, I carried the babyseat in my hand and walked the 2km or so from the bike store to the kindergarten.  On the way, I passed a little shop selling steaming, hot dumplings - not the small dim sum variety wrapped in thin, almost transparent casing, but the big fluffy white variety - almost bready in texture.  At 1 yuan per piece (about 15 cents) it was too good to pass up.  I asked for one with pork meat in it and it was simply delicious.  Standing in the mid-morning sun, burning my tongue on something akin to a Chinese version of a Brumby's meat pie, life seemed pretty good.  Apart from the wretched heavy baby seat on my left arm.

Pet spa

Another day in the life of a Shanghai cat. Pet spa spotted on the rooftop of our local supermarket Carrefour.

Beach holiday 5

Gardner art - in the grounds of the Sofitel hotel.

Beach holiday 4

Beach holiday 3

Mango and sticky rice: a Hua Hin institution. Sadly neither of the kids were interested in trying it.

Beach holiday 2

Beach holiday 1

Max decked out in Hua Hin's finest night market attire.

Cheese incident

Sorry no picture to go with this, but I want this on record so that it can be brought up again at an opportune time such as a 21st or wedding.

It should be remembered as the day that Zara decided that a Kraft cheese slice, (you know the slices that come wrapped in individual plastic) would look better stuck to the wall. So in her wisdom, she slaps the entire slice onto the white wall of our hotel room in Hua Hin.

Whenever Max commits mortal sins of similar gravity, Zara tsks him and says "what would the Prime Minister say about that?". One can only wonder what Ms Gillard would think of Zara now.

Away we go

Early morning (4.10am) alarm to dash to the airport to catch a 7.30am Thai Airways plane to Bangkok. A week at the beach awaits!