Shanghai 2014

Shanghai

I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Shanghai for work this past month (August).  Most of it was in the JW Marriott Shanghai Hotel at Tomorrow Square (not complaining) but I did manage to sneak in about 1.5 days to pack in as much sightseeing as I could.  The 2 hour time difference worked in my favour as it meant I was up at 4am to tick off emails then drank a lot of coffee to power through the day and well into the evenings (yay for Starbucks being in my hotel).

I bid a farewell to 2 very sad-looking E's and had a small thrill when I literally ran into the current Australian Cricket Captain at the airport post check-in (I am such a klutz).  Then came the 11.5 hours of sitting, on a day flight which meant I did not want to go to sleep otherwise I would be up all night once I arrived in Shanghai.  So I watched a movie (eh), finished Once Upon a Time Season 1, and read most of my book… then we had to circle a few times and wait for our gate to open up.  Finally, I arrived armed with my Lonely Planet guidebook (I know I could download it but there is something about having a guidebook that makes me happy) and a print out of several emails from a high school friend/ Shanghai ex-pat (thanks, Jenny!).   Customs was very efficient but baggage claim and the taxi rank was not.  When I made it up to my taxi, he didn't speak a word of English and I didn't speak a word of Mandarin.  He couldn't read the name of the hotel (english and Chinese) that I actually had the foresight to have it written down to show him.  So I got to pretend like I had US $1 Million on the line (I'm referencing The Amazing Race - best reality show ever) and scrambled to find anyone near me to translate.  3rd time lucky.  Whew!  And we were finally on the road… apparently he was racing for that $1 Million, as I held on for my dear life and tried not to look.  Yes, memories of China are rushing back to me, literally.    He did manage to grunt and point to my hotel once it was in the skyline (and boy, was it in the skyline).

On arrival, it was a long way to the lobby (38 stories) and then to my room (another 15 stories up).  Room service and bed were in order.

Good morning Shanghai!

The view from my room (level 53)

Day 2: Reunited

Today was a day of reunions.  After FaceTime with the kids (and yes, I had to show MissE my hotel room again), I met with Miss P for breakfast and an exploratory walk.  It's been a year since she was in the Sydney office so we had quite a bit to catch-up on pre-event!

Miss P and I explored People's Square then (I swear it looked shorter on the map) the long walk down Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street (China's No. 1Street) to The Peace Hotel.  We quickly became experts and crossing the road.

Reflection of my hotel from People's Square Park

Laundry Day

Just a few minutes late, I met with The Chen's!  It had been years since we saw each other last (compared to spending most of my weekends with them in high school) so it was fantastic to meet again.  Lovely Dee spent her day trekking all over Shanghai with me - we had lunch at No.1 Food Hall (Nanjing Road), re-visited the Jade Buddha, bargained for souvenirs (thank goodness for her!), checked out the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower, ate dumplings at Din Tai Fung, and experienced a very packed Metro.

With the Chen's

Jade Buddha Temple

The Great Hall

Dragon

Oriental Pearl TV & Radio Tower

Crab Roe and Pork xiaolongbao

In the evening, I had dinner with early arriving colleagues and delegates at No. 3 on The Bund.  The views made up for the food - not really, the food was pretty bad.  We had an interesting experience with the taxi drivers turning their meters off from 8pm though and had to bargain our way back to the hotel from $100 RMB (it was $16 RMB going there).

Panoramic of The Bund at night

Day 3: Shanghai Mothership

Today I spent the day at our Shanghai office.  I really enjoyed both the training there (I rarely get to actually sit in trainings as I'm usually running around making sure everything and everyone is where they need to be) and visiting a different countries' office.  

View from our office in Shanghai versus Sydney

I enjoyed their typical office lunch.  And we laughed when the afternoon snack was a cucumber.  Even better, I jokingly asked my colleague in Singapore if he wanted one, he laughed and said "There isn't even salt."  What?!

BBQ Pork lunch box from the canteen

This evening, we had a cocktail function inside the hotel at the World's Tallest Library.  The views were incredible from the balcony.  Followed by dinner at the JW California Grill.

Guiness Book of World Records: The Highest Library in the World
(One flight up from Level 59)

The Highest Library in the World
Level 60

Turn up the lights in here, Extra bright, I want y'all to see this
Turn up the lights… Want you to see everything,
Want you to see all of the lights - Kanye West

Day 4: The Best Night Ever!

It was a long work day with rotating groups, product fairs, etc so when it started to thin out, we were excited to slip into casual clothes and sandals.  Our foursome decided to forgo taxi's and Uber a car to the French Concession/ Xin Tian Di.  My first Uber!  App downloaded.

French Concession at night

We had dinner at Ye Shanghai which was good and we loved the 1930's feel with the lounge singer.  After dinner, we window-shopped the nightlife (what up, Chinese Coldplay and one of the night clubs banging Juicy J) but settled on foot massages instead.  Oh, yes… just what we needed.  Post- foot massage high, we hit up Haagen Dasz for the sweet-tooths (me) and it was "the best night ever".

Day 5: We're tired… really tired.

Last day of the event and we are tired but definitely not hungry, so much food!  After pack down, we hustled to the markets and got it done in an hour.  I wasn't going to buy anything but a purple Michael Kors tote was calling out to me.  Darn, my handbag hoarding.

For dinner, we took the remaining delegates to Da Dong for Peking duck.  When in China, right?  This dinner was incredible - in both plating and taste of the food.

Peking duck

Geoduck in a ice bowl

As we were departing, the sky started to rumble and it absolutely bucketed!  The shoes off while running for the bus kind.
The girls and I had a pyjama party with ice cream while packing up the final items for our last night together.  

Day 6: Now, it's time to say "goodbye"…

As yesterday was winding down and I started to say "goodbye" to some of my new friends, I felt like I was at summer camp.  It was hot enough!  And today, I was saying "goodbye" to my besties during camp; there weren't enough hugs and "hope to see you soon's" even though I know it may be another year until we meet again.  Boo!
I still had most of the day before my flight (thank you delayed flight) so I went to Zhujiajiao, the nearest water town, to get lost down the alleyways.  Zhujiajiao was established 1,700 years ago in the Yuan dynasty, with artefacts dating back 5,000 years!  The town has 36 bridges and numerous waterways which has earned it the name the "Venice of China".  There are several tourist points, however I opted for visiting the garden and leisurely exploring down the alleyways.

Fangsheng Bridge & canal gondolas

Down the many alleyways, food stalls a bit of everything!

Caught from the river… lunch?

Kezhi Yuan ("To Learn" "To plant")

Feeding the fish inside the gardens

Zhujiajiao life

I stumbled upon this beautiful house and garden.  I am not sure what it is still
but the closest description is an ex-governor's house that has been
converted into a museum containing many stone tablets, Buddha's with it's
head and hands missing, and other art pieces.

Final stop before returning to Shanghai for my flight
My first fish cleaning experience… and free wifi for my work emails!

Finally, after a quick shower back at the hotel (goodbye massage shower) and it was time to head to airport.  My summer camp adventure was ending!
It was a great trip but my lungs were in serious revolt mode (read: I was coughing up sludge for a week plus).  I am so grateful for the opportunities I have now, but it was nice to be home!  Sometimes  hashtags are the best way to express yourself: #blessed #jobsatisfaction #wandelust #homesweethome

Mid-Winter Dreaming

Babycino smiles

July was a busy month for us.  We saw Eloise on school holidays, Eden turning 3 and we had several special events to attend.

Happy Birthday Eden!

Real men ride with Hello Kitty

Eden is 3!  Read about birthday festivities here and his Despicable Three birthday party here.  (This includes the link to his slideshow)

MissE: E is for Excellent

Miss E in her Winter Uniform

Term 2 done! Two terms to go…

Its school holidays again!  This time we received mid-year “report cards”.  She received many outstanding marks – yay!  We loved seeing her writing folder.

During school holidays, she had a mix of daddy-time, mummy-time, cousin-time (thank you Auntie L!) and vacation care.  Most note-worthy was waiting 4 hours to see the Game of Thrones Exhibition at the MCA.  You can see photos here.

Any excuse to post this photo

Daddy time

Iron Tiger

Eloise also went to grading – again!  We are so proud of her, she absolutely excelled at grading.  She is now a yellow/ black belt.

Eloise Pattern 1

Sparring during grade test

Promotion ceremony

To award her for all her achievements we went to Disney on Ice: Treasure Trove (see below).

* Update: Unfortunately we’ve hit a rough patch.  At the moment she is struggling to express her feelings without hitting, pushing or stomping on (my) feet.  Lovely, huh?  It's a work in progress.

MissE Says the Darnedest Things

We are back to having trouble with Eden staying put after bedtime.  Last month, I locked him in.  This month, we again told him that he would be locked in.  5 minutes after we said goodnight, we heard yelling and crying from upstairs.  Eden had gone into Eloise’s room and was asking her to call for us so that he wouldn’t get into trouble but she would!  The yelling was from Eloise saying “Get out!  I’m sleeping!”  You have to hand it to him, he’s smart!

A few evenings later, as we were putting him to bed, he started giggling.  We asked why he was giggling and he said, “I pee-pee-toe and didn’t get in trouble”.  It took a little bit to understand that he was saying “tipeetoe”!  Cheeky monkey!

Winterfest/ Cool Yule

Girls’ Day Out at Darling Harbour for their Winter Festival, complete with ice skating.  We tried the Thredbo snow slide (fun!), did our best Elsa in the “Frozen Forest”, went ice skating and finished the day at the Lindt Café over hot chocolate and sundaes. 

The snow never bothered me anyway!

Thredbo Slide

No fear

Ice skating

Lindt Cafe

Eloise did very well on her 2^nd time ice skating.  Our session was 45 minutes but 35 minutes was good enough for us, especially our feet.  Why are ice skates so uncomfortable???  Check out the speed racer!

Go Speed Racer, Go!

Disney on Ice: Treasure Trove

Yay!  The day was finally here for Disney on Ice.  This time, I got to pre-release tickets way back in February and scored row 5 seats.

 

I pulled Eden’s Woody costume together for $10 at last minute (eBay and Australia Post failed me miserably).  And Eloise was happy to have the opportunity to wear her Snow White costume again.

Lion King (Eden's favourite)

A Whole New World
(Not going to lie, my favourite)

Hello, Genie!

Snow White (Eloise's favourite)

The finale

I liked the show better this year as it was a bit of everything for everyone.  Eloise was thrilled that Mulan and Shang made an appearance at the end of the show.

Yay! Bernice & Alan

A few short hours after Disney on Ice, we had another event to attend: Bernice and Alan’s wedding!  It was a lovely wedding… Eloise now has some new “aunties” and Eden shook his tail feather.

At the ceremony

Family photo (a rarity!)

Mini-Golf

To close out a very busy month, we had a fun time at Matthew and Ally’s birthday party.  Check out the mini- golfers in action!

Her 3rd time mini-golfing, she takes it quite seriously

… And the bad boy of mini-golf…
celebrating after throwing his ball in the hole.

Me

July 9, 2005

MrH and I celebrated our 9^th wedding anniversary.  We had a romantic (not) dinner at TGI Fridays with Eden in tow.  LOL.  It was a busy weekend that weekend, so we celebrated the following weekend (although it was also busy – Eden’s birthday party) by attending The White Album Concert at the Sydney Opera House.  It was such a great concert!

Amazing Sydney sunset

The White Album concert

Sydney after dark

Remember my resolution to finish projects and clean up my crap craft room?  Me either.  I think I made up for it with baking this month (see Eden’s birthday).  I also participated in Baking Our Blues Away, a social media and Beyond Blue initiative, that encouraged catching up over baked goods.  #bakesharecare  I brought my colleagues brownies as often times we are too busy to check-in with each other even though we spend 8 hours together.

But we did finally finish the laundry room.  See the reveal here.

Until next time…

Sneak preview: I’m going on a business trip… excited to revisit a city that I haven’t been to for a while, learn from some of the great minds of the industry and see some of my colleagues in other parts of the world (that's you, Miss Parks)!