August 2009

So I have lost Blog access in China. Thanks Great Firewall. If I’d known, I would have done this update while we were in the UK!! Instead, now I have to do it, save it and wait to post it!! Grr!!

We had a great holiday. We spent an entire month in Wales and London staying with Nannie and Granddad and Aunty Marnie and Pete. We couldn’t believe it has been 5 years since we were last here. (If you don’t remember, we were in Europe for 6 weeks with 3 weddings each in a different country.) How much has changed since then... there were a number of new people to meet, old friends to catch up with and still we ran out of time and missed out seeing some too! :(

We had a terrific holiday, London was awesome - we took Ellie to see the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum and wow - weren’t they incredible!! We enjoyed sightseeing and hanging out in London too.

We went to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Kingston-on-Thames with Marns and Pete and it was delicious.

We helped Dorothy and David celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary. It was lovely to have the De Borde family all together for a weekend.

We loved exploring Wales, especially visiting Cardiff Bay, Castell Coch and our trip to the Welsh seaside - Porthcawl.. We weren’t so impressed with the weather though - it rained half the time we were there! Some summer holiday - hey?
Bath was fun to explore - I loved seeing the elegance of the Jane Austen style tea rooms, the stunning Abbey and of course being transported back to Roman times touring the baths.

My first flight on the London Eye was breathtaking. It was a lovely day and we could see for miles! We had first been to a city farm which Ellie loved, even though she was dressed as a princess not a farmer. Thanks Marnie for a great day out!

Thanks everyone for a memorable trip.

Five days in China

So we arrived home after a fortnight in Queensland, and Ellie was delighted to see her room again, and in particular was thrilled to see that all her toys were safe and happy. Even though it was pretty late, she said hello to every single toy and pulled them all out over her rug. She also did a basic inventory of every room in the house, yes the bath was still there and so was the fridge!

Monday was a slow day, and we took our time all recovering and just being glad to be home again. Mike had found us a new apartment in Shimao, and all was looking good to having a relaxed week before heading over to the UK on Friday for the summer holiday. While we were away, he'd started preparing for our move, so many boxes were packed, and some things were dismantled. As far as the mundane parts of returning from holiday go, we unpacked the cases and started the washing. I started packing boxes for some more of the big move too, which we understood would be taking place on our return from the UK.

Tuesday was equally relaxed. We started preparing what we were taking on the next trip and we continued packing up peripheral things for the move. I took Ellie out that afternoon around to a friend's house, whose daughters Ellie had been asking about while we were away. As I sat there quietly drinking tea and talking about Australia, and just having a bit of a relax I had no idea what was unfolding at home...

Mike had finally heard from the real estate agent, who has known since May about all our travel plans, and found out that our current landlord had leased our place again from 1 August, as indeed our lease expired on 31 July. We also found that our new lease at Shimao wouldn't take effect until 1 August - as the school would not pay double rent for even a day! We then asked what suggestions they had as they knew we were going to the UK on Friday! With some negotiation, managed to arrange access to our new apartment to one room on Thursday afternoon, where we could store all our stuff while away. We also had to 'check out' of our current apartment, and graciously they agreed to check us out on Thursday night, but allow us to stay until Friday morning. Phew.

So calmly put Ellie to bed. Then frantically started serious packing - everything, all the plates, cutlery, cooking stuff, the things you do need on a day to day basis. Wednesday was spent packing everything else, but trying to leave Ellie's room appearing outwardly normal until the last minute. Bless our Ayi for staying back for a couple of extra hours to help with cleaning as we finished each room!

Thursday the removalists came at 11am and needed to make 2 trips to our new place. The real estate agent then had the audacity to ask us if she could come earlier to check us out, so she could go home earlier. I really haven't conveyed how poor the service was with these guys... how many times we reiterated that we were travelling, that we had kids to consider, that safety was paramount, that we didn't like brocade wallpaper or heavy Chinese furniture, that we wanted to be walking distance from school, that it needed a full size oven, that we wanted one bedroom to have a single bed (we have settled on just having the 3rd King Size bed removed), etc, etc. I really wish I'd pushed the check out time to later, just to be annoying, but we passed it all with flying colours.

Friday 9am, we dropped the last keys we had in the letterbox and headed out to Pudong airport again... goodbye China, hello Wales!!

PS - about the airport - it was a breeze with 2 adults! Ellie could run around with one of us, and the other sat with Jamie and the luggage...

... and back again

I was pretty sad to leave Mum and Dad at Brisbane airport. It was a wonderful 2 weeks with them, and they'd been wonderful carers of my darling kids while I completed a week long course in Hervey Bay. Ellie had been pretty cute too, saying to them that she'd "come back quite soon" when they said they were a bit sad she was heading back to China.

My flight to Sydney was lovely, and the views from the plane were stunning, but arriving in Sydney was bedlam. Our only saving grace was a trip on the motorised buggy that drives along the concourse at the airport to get us down to the international transfer section. All went swimmingly until we got off the bus at international - then there was suddenly NOBODY around. We were the last off the bus, and so all other passengers had gone, and the only way to get up was using escalators. There was a lift which was not operational. Ellie is not quite 2 and a half - she hasn't had that much experience with escalators, not enough to do it without holding a grown up hand... what hand could she hold? I was carrying the hand luggage, Big Ted and had Jamie strapped to me... in the end I put the luggage on the escalator, grabbed her, pulled her on, let go and flung the luggage off at the top and then grabbed her arm and lifted - lucky no dislocations!

Then we proceeded through the customs and immigration sections. Ellie had a harness on, something that I've always abhorred, but I needed it for on my own, and I knew it in advance. We were ushered into the 'quick' or 'special assistance' queue, but it was neither. And in the blink of an eye Ellie slipped out of my grip (while holding Jamie, the carry on luggage and Big Ted) and raced into the general queue. I screamed out for her to come back, and a lady in a uniform stepped OUT OF HER WAY. I lost it then. I yelled at the woman why didn't she stop her, with a few choice expletives thrown in for good measure as I barged past banging the carry on into people and dropping Big Ted. Fortunately another passenger in the queue worked out why I was behaving like a lunatic and grabbed Ellie's arm and held onto her until I got there. I then manhandled her (and Jamie, and the carry on) back to our space in the special assistance line retrieving Big Ted along the way. And as I went past the uniformed lady who had let Ellie escape told me she wasn't allowed to touch passengers - GRRRRR, I nearly decked her, fortunately no hand was free.

Through customs finally and got a trolley. Put all carry on and Big Ted into trolley and then hoisted Ellie into the baby seat. Finally felt like I was in some form of control. Then over the loudspeaker: "Paging X, Y and the De Borde Family, recently arrived from Brisbane. Your flight QF129 is awaiting departure. Please go straight to the terminal or contact Qantas ground staff". WHERE WERE ANY OF THE QANTAS GROUND STAFF?? Anyway, ploughed on and reached the gate, where I promptly burst into tears. By now both kids needed nappy changes, I needed something. Then suddenly all these lovely Qantas ladies were around, gave me a glass of water, took my luggage, and assisted me in changing the kids before we boarded.

Finally collapsed into my seat, got kids sorted out, and we were off! Shanghai bound! Luckily for me the lovely family who helped me out on the way over were on our flight home too. So arriving in Shanghai, they were most helpful in herding Ellie in the right direction, as well as making her keen to walk. When other kids are around Ellie is a great little walker, when there aren't she just wants to be carried.

Best bit was coming through into the concourse and seeing Mike. Ellie just ran to him. We were so glad that there were no issues for us with respect to swine flu quarantine, that had been my angst that we would have been locked in quarantine for the 5 days before we headed to the UK!!

I was so happy to have my family together again!!

From China to Australia...

Last month I embarked on a massive undertaking to take the two littles to Australia on my own. We were flying from Shanghai to Sydney, then to Brisbane. We arrived at Shanghai airport to find out that our flight had been delayed 2 hours due to late incoming plane. No problem, was OK to manage Ellie and Jamie for the extra time, with the added bonus - so to speak - of a dinner voucher, eating always helps fill in the time.

When the 2 hour delay was up, we meandered down to the gate, only to find out that due to a quarantine issue the plane was delayed a further half hour. By this time I had met a lovely lady who was also travelling alone with her 2 kids... her advantage (in my view) was that they were 8 and 10 and understood the delay bit and did not run away like a bat out of hell. My advantage was that these 2 little girls entertained Ellie, whom I could not run after while carrying all our carry on luggage plus Jamie! What was really unfortunate was that the plane was then delayed a further half hour 3 more times - so all up we were delayed for 5 hours!

Getting on that plane was a blessed relief, as Ellie was now contained. Also as it was now after 11.30pm she was also dog tired - so sleep on that trip was constant. I could then focus on how excited I was to be getting back to the west!!

Since living in China, I have held Australia in very high regard. Every time something has caused us some level of difficulty, I have always thought "That wouldn't happen in Australia". I have missed drinking water straight from the tap; I have missed the road rule that it is illegal to hit a pedestrian; I have missed being able to express myself clearly and concisely. Arriving in Sydney, my illusion was quickly shattered.

Herding Ellie through customs to the domestic transfer was awkward. No one official was there to help me, as with two small children collection of luggage off carousel was not easy, I had managed to acquire a Qantas stroller in the international airport, and a lady actually told me I couldn't take it through customs and over to the domestic airport (I decided that I was not going to be shot if I disobeyed that instruction, so I kept it anyway). I was disappointed at Sydney airport for the lack of service, the filth in the toilets and the general state of disrepair. (And it is considered to be owned by my ex-employer which made me all the crosser.)

Arriving in Brisbane was a joy! Mum and Dad were standing at the top of the boardwalk waiting for us to disembark. Finally things were easy - didn't have to worry about Ellie running off (although it took a bit to pry her off Dad's neck), they were there to help with the luggage, and then down to the Gold Coast for a week of relaxation! NOT!

After having had success with getting Jamie's citizenship sorted out, I then proceeded to contact various government organisations to get him included on our Medicare card and apply for the baby bonus. Unfortunately both of these things are unavailable to him. I had understood before we left for Shanghai that we were entitled to the baby bonus, especially as our income test was going to have dropped significantly... what everyone before I left that I spoke to neglected to tell me was that we had to be living back in the country before he is 6 months old - I thought I had language barriers in China! Medicare - again not eligible until he is resident, but once resident will be eligible immediately. At least St George let me open a bank account for him (opened with the AUD equivalent of his modelling job in China)!

We had a family trip to Seaworld - largely for Ellie's benefit. But even this was disappointing - it has been over 15 years since I last went to Seaworld, and I think they have not done any work on it since then! The audio system at the Penguins feeding display wasn't working; the audio at the waterskiing show was dreadful and the show was out of date and had little continuity; the food available was all expensive 'fast food' junk - and Seaworld have the audacity to announce that from 1st July you aren't allowed to bring food in; the toilets / facilities weren't spotless. Having said that we had a good day, Ellie loved the dolphins and the aquarium, and it was her first time having unlimited rides and she particularly enjoyed a Big Bird ride which was only for kids, so she got to go on it alone!

The other thing that bothered me in Australia is the rubbish. If someone drops something, or misses the bin, they leave it. In China litter doesn't seem to exist, but there are people who have jobs that are responsible for keeping a strip of public road clean and tidy, and they are proud of their job and do it well, and for that you see nary a cigarette butt. Similarly public bathrooms.

I had another moment in Coles which made me laugh. I was cooking a Chinese feast for my family and needed some Chinese cooking wine (3RMB in Shanghai) and looking at the selection of Chinese ingredients made me laugh. I remember being bewildered by choice when we first arrived in Shanghai, but now am aware of the slight differences between things and know what I like! I also had an altercation with a checkout boy - I won, but he wasn't happy, and it was all to do with a ten dollar note, and a pile of coins.

There were lots of good things too...

I loved catching up with so many members of my family and lots of friends while we were there. And appreciated the effort that you made to come and see us, especially to meet Jamie.

I loved the beautiful Australian countryside - we drove to Hervey Bay from the Gold Coast and some of the scenery was stunning - the Glasshouse Mountains and all along the Fraser Coast. (No we didn't make it across to Fraser Island - next time.)

I loved breathing fresh, clean air and drinking tap water, and not having a coronary each time Ellie had a sip of her bath water.

I loved driving on the right (read proper, correct, ie left) side of the road, and having a go of Dad's new BMW.

I love the blue skies.

Summer holidays

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… but I’m not writing masses of greeting cards at the moment. I think it is just me that is feeling Christmassy here in Shanghai, but it is helped along by random stores and street music playing Christmas carols – yes, in June.

Jinyang Road, behind our apartment, is a developing commercial area for expats, and to contribute to the ambience there is mostly always some music being played, and frequently this includes instrumental versions of movie and TV theme songs or Christmas carols – when we first arrived here it surprised us, but we just thought that getting organised for Christmas happened early (August) – as it turned out we were wrong, but that’s a whole different story.

But my current Christmas feeling really comes from the Christmas and school year down under. For as long as I can remember, the heralding of warmer weather and lengthening days was one of the indicators that the holiday season was about to kick off. When I was at school, the end of spring meant that we started winding down the academics and spending more time gearing up for the end of year performances, usually with a Christmas theme. When I was at university, the longer days coincided with the end of exams, and the start of the summer drinking sessions outside, and the planning of beachy getaways, usually to someone’s holiday house. When I was at work, the warmer weather meant it was time for catching up with friends, old and new, for “a drink before Christmas”. It always seemed so important to catch up one last time before the start of the new year.

Here in Shanghai, the warmer (read hot, stinky and humid) weather has brought on chats about the upcoming ‘laowai taitai’ (foreign wife) exodus. As a result, the social calendar has filled up as everyone gets ready to say good bye for summer. I have had a traditional Chinese foot massage with a friend who had a baby a week after Jamie, a ladies’ spa day (pedicures, massage and lunch) for the mums from playgroup, we have had dinners with friends, ‘last’ play dates for the kids and constant discussion about who is leaving when, and who’ll be on the same flight, or the next flight, and will we run into you at Pudong airport as we prepare to distribute ourselves across the globe. Prices have even gone up at the Fake Market, as the taitais stock up on gifts for people back home!!

I am glad that my time away is just over 2 weeks away from Mike. A lot of my taitai friends are leaving their husbands here to work through the summer and will be away from them for 6 or more weeks. Oh, the life and holidays of a school teacher! It is a lot for the mums to be sole parent away from home for that length of time, even though most will have their own parents to assist. I think it must be hard to be away from the routine, especially on your own.

I am leaving for Australia on Wednesday, with the kids, we come back for 5 days and then fly to the UK for a month. I am feeling quite nervous about the prospect of flying all the way to Brisbane, with a plane change in Sydney on my own with two, one infant and one tearaway toddler. I think it will be a very long 12 hours. But the light at the end of the tunnel is that I can’t wait for a trip to Coles and Priceline. I can’t wait to go into a shop and be able to ‘browse’. I can’t wait to feel confident crossing the road. I can’t wait to have no language difficulties. I can’t wait to get my feet in the sand, real sand, not builders sand in a sand pit. I can’t wait to see my Grandma and introduce baby James. I can’t wait for Ellie and Jamie to see their grandparents again. I can’t wait to be back in Australia!

Have a great summer everyone!!

International Communities…

It really is an amazing experience living in Shanghai, especially with children. Our daily routine includes a trip to the compound playground most afternoons from about 3.30, until Daddy gets home somewhere between 4.30 and 5.30. Our playground has kids of all nationalities, speaking a diverse selection of languages. We also meet a wide range of expats at our various activities such as music and through other friends.

We, being English speakers, greet the Spanish speakers with ‘Hola’, the French with ‘Bonjour’, the Japanese with ‘Konichiwa’, the Chinese with ‘Hello’ and other English speakers with ‘Ni Hao’.

After 9 months I am finally feeling confident in going into a shop and asking if they have something. And then telling them that my Chinese is not very good and I don’t understand their response, which usually elicits a smile and a very simple answer that they don’t have it, or they show me what I am looking for. It is the best way to learn vocabulary though, for me, to go looking for a specific thing and learn the word for it beforehand.

Once I knew where I was going I quickly built up my taxi speak, but always just told the taxi driver to turn left or right, usually without much notice. Now I am getting quite good at asking them politely, or asking to go to a particular intersection and then just giving the final directions. They all think I am crazy though, as most of the time when I am in a taxi, I have Ellie climbing around like a monkey, and Jamie in his cocoon (which looks like a sports bag) or strapped to me in the baby carrier and the most enormous pram they have ever seen, plus whatever other essential paraphernalia I am lugging around.

At our main gate, we have a lovely lady selling fruit from her bike, and with her help I have slowly learned the Chinese words for the fruit we like, so have apples, bananas, mangos, kiwis and papaya down, grapes are coming into season, so will have to learn them soon. She often sells tomatoes, but for some reason I cannot for the life of me remember that one ever. Xihongshi – I dunno, can’t get it… maybe now I’ve written it down I’ll be OK, but I’ve already looked it up 100 times, so no promises. I have a special sign language, and she knows I mean tomatoes!! The other thing she has been great with is helping me with my number pronunciation.

Our Ayi, Zhu Qing Yun, is also slowly helping me with my Chinese. Although she is a very keen learner of English, and her English is progressing far faster than my Chinese. I am sure though, that Ellie is learning well from her though, and Jamie smiles and laughs when she chats to him, so I bet his Chinese ends up being the best of all of us. [Mental note – mandatory Mandarin classes for the kids when we are home again!!]

I sometimes go to a Pump class on Friday nights, in which I am usually the only non-Chinese. I smile a lot at the instructor so that he thinks I know what he’s talking about, and I hope that I learn all the main muscle groups in Chinese by osmosis. So far I can keep up with the class as much as my poor body can keep up, so I actually have lots of time to make sure that the action matches the demonstrated action, rather than the descriptive action. Two babies and no gym work for nearly 3 years means that my fitness levels are not the highest.

Interestingly to me, since I have started consciously thinking about words in Chinese, I have found that my memory of French and German vocab from school has been jump started, and sometimes when I am struggling to think of how to say something in Chinese, it pops into my head as clear as day in French or German or both, and while I’m not proclaiming to be suddenly fluent in either of these languages, I feel I could definitely express myself as required. (And as demonstrated at station coming home from Nanjing.) I also understand a lot of what other Mums are saying to their kids in these languages, so I must have learned something at school, because I can’t understand those speaking Japanese or Spanish!! However, Dora and Diego have a lot to answer for as far as contributing to the additional language skills of my toddler. Ellie has been picking Spanish at the rate of knots!! I have heard her say sube (when climbing the rope ladder), rapido (when telling me to hurry up), arriba (when wanting to be picked up) and telling me we have to save the river dolphins when we are swimming!!

Another interesting thing is how English differs around the world. I now have a lot of American friends and aside from the basic 'cookies' vs 'biscuits' kind of vocabulary differences, there are a lot of things that are just slightly out of step, for example Americans don't tend to use or understand the concept of a fortnight. I have chatted about this extensively with one of my American friends, and she is determined to draw up a nice table with word variations, and once she has maybe I'll be able to post a link to it here!

I really hope we all become fluent in Mandarin while we are here. It is something I am definitely working on, and making a big effort with!! Will let you know how we go!!

Zai jian.

Long weekend

I love long weekends, even though I don’t actually go off to work anymore, because it means Mike is around and spending time with me and our beautiful kids. Back home I might not have known the deep history of each holiday (although I probably did), but I instinctively knew each one, and when to expect the next holiday or long weekend. Here in China, public holidays just seem to pop up… and instead of just being an excuse for a camping trip or even just a BBQ each ‘holiday’ seems to be associated with a physical celebration, a celebratory food, ‘something’ going on, and usually fireworks!

The fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Calendar is known as the ‘Double Fifth’ or Duan Wu. It is the Dragon Boat Festival. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the festivities on the Zhangjiabang River behind us from our balcony. It was particularly exciting to watch the Chinese version of High 5 performing, and Ellie and I were out there on the balcony copying all the actions!! Fortunately some were in English as well, so we knew when to spin, touch our toes and reach for the sun!

Mike also had 2 days left of paternity leave which had to be taken before the end of the school year, so made it a nice long break, so we jumped on a train and went to Nanjing. For parents of 2 small children we were a bit spontaneous, because we didn't book anything before we left... We turned up at the station and managed to catch a train, then when we got off the train in Nanjing we just started walking in the direction we thought the hotels would be!! Unfortunately the walk in prices were too high (asking RMB1700 per night at Sofitel), so Mike used my phone as a modem and connected his computer to the internet and booked 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza (RMB712 per night including breakfast!). We had a great couple of days - walked everywhere - around the lake, went to the Confucian Temple, and wandered around the tourist precinct, to Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum, and the site of the Nanjing Massacre (by the Japanese). Then, got train home again.

I had a bit of a language challenge waiting for the train to come home again... An older Chinese guy was looking at our double decker pram and then said to me "parlez vous francais?" I responded "un petit petit peu". Then he said he didn't speak English, so calling on my Year 9 French I managed to tell him that the kids ages, their names and which was a girl and boy, that Mike is a teacher in a school and that we were not Canadian but Australian and had been living in Shanghai since last August. My poor brain was quite fried by the end of it, because he was translating his French questions into Chinese to about 5 Chinese women also looking at our 2 sleeping kids, and so I translated my answers into Chinese as well. I was really quite impressed with myself, and Mike was just looking at me quite bewildered, and unfortunately couldn’t help me when I struggled with a word in both languages. The guy was a French professor at a Uni that was neither in Shanghai or Nanjing, but I am not sure where!

Nanjing was all very interesting, but I think what was nicest was just being about as a family. Getting out for a day’s excursion is something we do so rarely at home, that I think having 3 days in a row where we did stuff out of the house really made an impact. We even managed to have a “grown up” lunch when the kids were asleep in the pram.

Day trip to Sheshan

Last Friday, some friends who live in our compound suggested that we go on a day trip out to Sheshan, where there is a huge park with loads of activities for kids. It sounded fantastic – we arranged to meet the following morning and would work out logistics then.

In the interim, a rain forecast nearly put us off, but a “let’s wait and see what tomorrow looks like rather than rely on the weather bureau” meant that we were up and in the direction of ready to go on Saturday morning. Our kind neighbours did some maths and decided that we could all squash into their Buick van. Thanks to the lack of overloading laws in China we managed to fit in 6 adults, 5 children and a dog as passengers. This was not too bad as it meant that each adult held a child (usually one of their own) or a dog, heaps of space – we could have easily had another couple of dogs there, and maybe another child! Anyway, cozy it was, so lucky we’re all friends.

Sheshan is about 30km south west of Shanghai, and it is the only part of Shanghai that there actually is a significant hill. On the top of this hill is a Catholic Cathedral, called Our Lady of China where services are actually conducted in Latin. There is also a big radio telescope out here, which is part of the international Very Long Baseline Inferometry project (as is 'The Dish'). It was not either of these attractions though which was our Sheshan destination. We were headed to the Shanghai Sculpture Park, which is almost 90 hectares surrounding Yue Hu (Moon Lake) and bordered by the Sheshan Mountains, beautiful open space. Felt great to be out there, and not be able to see buildings in all directions!!

The park is divided by seasons into 4 sections, and not surprisingly we headed to the Summer section, which is basically a water park. There is a beach on the lake, with lovely sand (compared to that in our sandpit) and sculptures all along the beach, and a huge pool with fountains, bridges, islands and waterfalls, and all less than 60cm deep, so perfect for the little people. Ellie loved playing in the water and actually was in for about 3 hours, until her lips were turning blue. She was completely disinterested in lunch, and just wanted to stay in the water splashing and swimming. Mike and I took turns in being in the water with her, and drying out on the pretext of looking after Jamie. The other kids were in and out and entertained her as well. Other activities included climbing into an enormous tree house, which was really only offered as a bribe to get the kids dry, and some climbing nets, in which I felt really uncoordinated, but the kids managed to scamper across.

We then piled back into the car for the trip back home. Unfortunately additional traffic made the trip a bit longer, and with tired kids who weren’t strapped down, it was harder to keep them contained. There is a lot to be said for compulsory childseats, besides the safety aspect! When we arrived home, some other neighbours were watching open mouthed as we just kept climbing out of the van – it was like those Guinness Book of Records attempts squashing people into a Mini… we just seemed to keep on coming!

As it turned out, the day was perfect, not so hot and sunny that we were all fried after a day in the sun, and also not so hot and sunny that it drew an enormous Shanghai crowd, which also meant that our kids were not bombarded with paparazzi, so a bit of a holiday for them too!

The Great FireWall of China

I’ve hit a little snag. My updates to Blogger are no longer quite so straightforward. The Great FireWall of China has decided that a number of Weblogging sites are bubbling pots of risk and so internet censorship is rife! Basically anything with links to Tibet, Taiwan or the Tian’anmen Massacre are censored, interestingly they will show up on internet searches, but clicking the link prompts a connection reset message. As the 20th anniversary of the Tian’anmen Massacre is fast approaching, it comes as no surprise that Blogger is temporarily down.

Interestingly to me, having such strong censorship makes me more interested in reading up on these things, YouTube is also blocked, and I miss looking for fun children friendly clips for Ellie. I am definitely keen to try and find the video on the protesters, so it’s lucky that I’m coming to Australia soon!

I now feel really technologically advanced, as I am now somehow connected to a proxy server in the States. But connection is slow (even slower than regular China Broadband), so I’ll reserve it for just the bare minimum!!

Cinco de Mayo

I love living in an international community, because of the opportunity of learning about different cultures and celebrations all around the world. So this weekend has been a good one for us, as Friday (1st May) was Labour Day here, coinciding with May Day in the UK. Being a public holiday, was particularly lovely as it meant Mike had a three day weekend.

To make the most of the extra weekend day, we took the plunge and got ourselves organised and out of the house. For some reason, it actually takes us longer to get out of the house when Mike is home and technically available to help organise the kids, than it does when I'm on my own... I am not sure why. Anyway, our big excursion was to the Yuyuan Gardens - somewhere so pretty I was keen to see it in spring, and also have been pushing for Mike to go there!! We got the train to Lujiazui, then walked down to the ferry terminal (not really close) and got the open ferry across the Huangpu River, then walked through some alleys and past another park before we reached the Yuyuan Gardens.

I'd like to explain about the open ferry - there are two ferries which cross the river, one is airconditioned and only carries passengers and costs 2RMB (40c) per trip, it drops you quite close to the Bund, the big tourist attraction of Shanghai, and the other one is open air (it has a roof, but no sides) and carries passengers and their bikes (motor, pedal or electric powered) and cost 5 jiao (10c) for a passenger only. Kids under 1.2m are free, so the four of us crossed the river with our pram for 1RMB - what a bargain. Personally I preferred the fresh air and the real feeling of being on a boat, and our double decker pram caused a reasonable level of commotion, but I was a bit concerned that someone's scooter would fall on our pram and cause damage to those travelling within.

The open ferry drops you off a bit further away from the tourist area, but it was technically closer to where we were heading. We then meandered through a number of streets where the stores were overflowing onto the footpaths, and along an alley, reminiscent of the Hutongs in Beijing for their community feel. Mike and I had a little snack of some dumplings on the way - we really have become addicted to dumplings, but although tasty, these ones didn't rate in the best ever comp.

As we got closer and closer to the Yuyuan Gardens the sense that China was on holidays got stronger and stronger. There were people everywhere! We went into the Gardens and it was beautiful. The azaleas were blooming, and compared to my visit in February the garden was alive, as opposed to just waking from winter. I think having the sun shining, and warmth in the air made a difference too.



Ellie was attracted to a little girl in the garden because she had a heart on her T-shirt. The two of them were standing, and dancing, and playing on a pedestal that one of the temples is built on, and subsequently the two of them were photographed by more than 50 onlookers. It really was very cute, and lots of curious people came over to look at our pram, which is quite different to the standard prams available here, only to be blown away by "didi" (little brother) hiding in the back.

We meandered back to the river and headed home, this time crossing the river in air conditioned comfort! We met some friends for dinner at Latina, a Brazillian restaurant inside our nearest fake market. It was here that we had an early margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (a Mexican holiday commemorating the Mexican army's defeat of the French Army which had been undefeated for >50 years at the Battle of Puebla in 1862). This holiday celebration has crossed the borders into the States, with the number of Mexicans who have moved, and subsequently my American friends have introduced me to this too!

I'm not sure what the greeting is officially, if indeed there is one. So hope the following causes no offence:
¡Salud! - Cinco De Mayo!!