Week 34 - Water Town, Zhujiajiao

This week, I have been playing Shanghai tour guide to Milly (front left), an old school friend from Melbourne, and we went on a day trip out to Zhujiajiao on the Shanghai outskirts, with my friend Helen (back right), and Laura (back left) who is a three week newbie expat.

We enjoyed exploring the Water Town, climbing over a few of the 36 bridges, roaming through a garden complete with a little farmyard, temples,  summer houses and water features, admiring the trinkets and dongxi stores, looking at the various gourmet (or otherwise) snacks and having lunch in a tiny restaurant overlooking the river, and going on a canal cruise.  The driver of the boat kindly took this photo, with the most famous Zhujiajiao bridge in the distance.

Week 33 - Sound the Octoalert, Jinqiao

My kids are so technologically competent, it's scary.  Didi, our little one, can scroll through the list of shows downloaded on BBC iPlayer, look at each picture and find the one he wants.  Today, it was Octonauts... specifically with the Electric Sting Ray.  And Jie Jie, our big one, was happy to watch with him, but decided she needed a photo of Captain Barnacles, so using my camera took a photo of the laptop.  I love that you can see their reflection in the screen, and Didi's little hands folded in front of the computer.

Week 32 - Marriage Market, People's Park

Yes, Marriage Market - these people are parents trying to find partners, and more specifically spouses, for their children.  Every weekend Mums and Dads come to People's Park, in the centre of Shanghai, with advertisements about their kids, eg date of birth, height, education, job prospects, housing status, GSOH, etc, and arrange meetings and dates for their kids.  They usually have a photo at hand to show prospective in laws.

Week 31 - Farewelling Friends, The Bund

After three years in Shanghai, we have seen people come and go.  We had been in Shanghai for less than a month, when I had a chance meeting in an Irish Pub with Betty, sitting two along from me.  And if the truth be known, it was really Jie Jie's interest in playing with Betty's two boys, the younger of which is 6 weeks younger than Jie Jie... so an instant playmate.  Betty invited us to a playgroup the following week, and made it easy for me by offering to drive us there, and really that was the start of my Shanghai social life.  We subsequently both had another baby, so our Didi and her Mei Mei, now out of the baby stages are also good friends.  Tonight was a wonderful evening, again at Lost Heaven, for cocktails and dinner and sending Betty, Darren and the kids (except the kids weren't there) off to a new life in Minnesota.

Good luck guys, thank you for everything, and we will see you again, before the kids are off at college!!  Shanghai won't be the same without you!!

Week 30 - Sunset over Pudong, Jinqiao

This was such a lovely night, the clouds were high, and the smog was low, so we ended up with quite a nice sunset.  You can just see in the distance the hole in the top of the Shanghai World Financial Centre.  The end of summer is bringing some lovely weather now... gone are the humidity and high hot temperatures.  Lovely autumn is starting.

Week 29 - Our Pool, Jinqiao

Jie Jie is a really good swimmer now after many, many swimming lessons.  I decided it was finally time for Didi to start.  Because their Mandarin is now so good, I opted to get them to have swimming lessons in Chinese.  It is so convenient, because it is in our pool, in our compound, less than 200m from our front door.  And it is about half the price of having an expat English speaking teacher.  Didi is already making progress!!

Week 28 - Last day, Islington, London

Summer always seems to make the kids grow.  Compare this photo to Week 22 - we have NO PRAM!!!!  Big achievement of this holiday was to (largely) ditch the pram, and make the kids walk.  We are back to making sure we have a baby carrier with us for long distances for Didi, but on the whole we are pram free.  We had an interesting experience in the British Museum where both kids fell asleep and we sat on a bench for about 40 mins!  And another when we arrived at a restaurant for lunch, and Didi was out - the kind maitre d' gave us a booth to enable him to lay down.  When he woke up, he made short work of Jie Jie's leftover lunch.

If you look carefully behind the family you can see 2 bobbies, with very big sticks.  This was the day after the riots in London.  We didn't get a free TV.  We did have a fantastic holiday in the UK, and especially enjoyed catching up with all our friends and family.