Where we go to Chinese karaoke and visit a London suburb

Life continues to shock, surprise, inspire and overwhelm us, but we are settled more into a routine now. Our trip to Beijing is fast approaching so we are excited about that. Other recent highlights (apart from the Thames Town trip below) include a night out to a local karaoke bar with a group of Chinese teachers and students. You rent your own room, get some snacks and beer, and belt out your favorite tunes. We both sung karaoke for the first time - Andy started strong with an Oasis song, Evan with Eminem, before we both went down hill - Katy Perry, Abba and Starship!!! Evan did a rousing version of Let It Be to recover some cool factor. Andy didn't look for Bananarama - would have been too tempting ("Hot on the streets and the pavements are burning ...")
Off to the river tonight as it is a lovely warm evening - going to the food stalls street (let you know if that was a good idea later ...) and then to stroll along. Test is Wednesday - Evan doing great (Andy so so - mamahuhu as they say here).
Oh and new favorite phrase is "Old cow eating new grass" - means older person with a younger lover!

Anyway, some more recent photos as promised -

 These are the scary furry fun scooters at our local park - we particularly like the lamb with the purple boots and the arms raised in a "I'll get you my pretties" posture ... (note no helmets)

Night time in Pudong - the Pearl Tower next to Andy's workplace

Night view across the Huangpu River to the Bund - we like to sit here with an ice-cream and watch the world go by and get offered laser flashlights, glow in the dark roller-skates and flashing helicopter toys.

Andy finally understood what Evan had been trying to explain for a while - that having a fancy phone with a camera had many benefits - he can now put it to good use to snap pictures such as this - yes!!! An old man pushing a red setter in his own wheelchair (wife was providing pushing instructions from a safer spot).

Another favorite spot - sitting under the skyscrapers snacking on cheap local food - this is the green ball of glutinous rice that is eaten as a sweet treat (!?!) at the Tomb Sweeping holiday. Not impressed - can you tell?

Visiting the Moganshan Art District - very cool and lots of trendy galleries - good place.

Last week was our trip to Thames Town - a new suburb of Shanghai built as a replica of an English town - including it's own River Thames. Was really quite authentic and a bit homesickness-making. However,to stop the complete fantasy, there were many brides and grooms all having Western wedding pictures taken - we must have seen 50 couples - in all kinds of outfits - from the elegant to the downright tacky. The church picture has about 5 different couples in if you look closely.

OK - that's all for now! We'll keep updating with all our adventures and stories!!!

Off and on-line - acrobats, wheelchair dogs, dangerous teletubbies and tomb sweeping in the meantime

Lost our internet again .... but now it's back (Evan persisted ...) So update time (before it goes again!)

Our last entry was two weeks ago - so last week was a National Holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day) - a day to remember dead loved ones by caring for their graves and ... well ... it seemed like having picnics and hanging out in the park and shopping. We went to the National Cemetery as we had the day off - seemed like a good thing to do - huge monument to the communist martyrs - didn't have an ice cream but a good look around instead. We also (finally) got paid so we splashed out on tickets to the famous Shanghai acrobats that put their bodies into all sorts of positions and juggle and balance and generally make you very impressed (and a bit jealous that you never learned to do the splits) - back to yoga! We also discovered this amazing park near us with all manner of amusements and lovely things. But the highlight are these electric scooters (adult size) that you can rent and take your wee one on a spin around the park (without head protection) - each scooter is totally covered into a moving, 5 foot long soft toy - teletubbies, (scary) "Mickey Mouse" s, pink elephants and some sort of psycho-lamb thing that seems popular go tanking past you with children on and you have to jump out of the way. Quite fun. Got pictures. Will upload next time.

This week we are staying a bit closer to home. We have a teaching exam coming up in two weeks which we have to pass so we need to study. We are planning to go to the trendy art district tomorrow. Have a bit of a Sunday evening routine also where we meet up with some people we have gotten to know at a local bar where a strange movie plays for free - beer and weird movie - just our cup of tea. Seen a documentary about the Jones Town massacre (why not?!) and last night was a French movie from the 60's. Beer helps.

Most excitingly is our first big trip is now booked. We have a few days off in May and so are off to Beijing. Got our flight and hotel booked (lots of hassles but now done) and also a day hike on the Great Wall (away from the tourist spot). Great. Really excited.

Work goes well. We are doing quite well with Chinese - can order and shop and get around town using 90-100% Chinese. Working hard at it. Bought some children's books to help us learn and read the characters - quite a milestone in the shop when Andy realized he could read the first three words of the story - Little White Goose!!!

Random sightings continue - managed to get a photo of this one too - a very elderly man barely able to keep upright pushing a golden retriever dog along in a wheelchair in the road. Yes. And we have photo proof.

As for sightings of strange things on bikes -
2. Several 6' x 6' wooden pallettes teetering along.

Photos next time.
All is well. Internet and all.