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!!!