39/365

Cookie-cutter expat villas in a gated compound. With one month rent
costing the combined monthly salaries of myself and Phil, we couldn't
live here even if we wanted to!

39/365

Shopping in pyjamas- a common sight in china. These ones are
especially quilted for those cold winter days.

38/365

A foggy and miserable Sunday in Shanghai.

37/365

The window seat in our bedroom. We just bought the foam and got the
covers made, resulting in a nice place to sit on a lazy weekend.

36/365

People lining up to by bus and rail tickets to their hometowns for
Chinese New Year (starting 14 February). Ticket offices have had
queues for weeks.

35/365

Some run down shops near our place were recently destroyed in order to
widen the road, and lo and behold this typical Shanghai house was
hiding behind them. Occasionally the demolishion here reveals
simething interesting.

34/365

Chinese New Year decorations on the pathways at the kindergarten I
teach at.

33/365

A Shanghai city bus seen through a rainy taxi window.

32/365

Project 365, Day 32
Painting my livingroom. The painter we hired to do the job decided to
go back to his hometown for Chinese New Year so I'm painting it myself.

31/365

Project 365 Day 31
Chinese New Year decorations on our neighbour's door.

30/365

The dreaded wait at the bank.

29/365

Alarm clocks made by the children in my nursery class.

28/365

Back to our regular Shanghai winter gloom and glare.

27/365

Project 365 Day 27
A rare blue sky in Shanghai

26/364

Project 365 Day 26
Firstly, Happy Australia Day (or Happy Invasion Day, as the case may
be).
Today's photo is of a sign seen painted all over Shanghai. The sign
'chai' means to demolish, and the buildings it is painted on are
slated for destruction. They are being pulled down for many reasons,
some out of concern for health/saftey, others to make way for roads/
subways, but most are just pulled down to make way for a brand new
highrise. It is a real shame because the old culture of Shanghai is
literally being destroyed whole city blocks at a time. The residents
of these buildings are compensated, but not at a level that would
allow them to live in the same area, so in effect it relocates large
numbers of a lower socio-economic sector of society to the
outskirts of the city.
In effect, the symbol is seen as the mark of death.

25/365

Project 365 Day 25
Despite it's sometimes advanced technology, bamboo scaffolding is
still a very common site in Shanghai.

24/365

Project 365 Day 24
Kids at a Chinese New Year art project I was helping to run yesterday painting (the bottom half of) a Chinese dragon.

"I'm an analogue girl in a digital world"

Follow-up

This is a follow-up photo for todays 365 post: the finished piece. Not
bad for their age if you ask me.

23/365

Project 365 Day 23
Instead of planting according to the climate, the incredibly smart
city planners of Shanghai plant tropical flora then wrap them against
the cold for half the year. Looks good, huh?

22/365

Not an uncommon site: groceries unceremoniously carted around on their way home to become dinner. Yes, those are chicken legs.

21/365

Project 365 day 21

Anyone complaining that girls grow up too fast these days should come
to china- the general complaint is that women don't grow up fast
enough. Obsessed with Barbie and Hello Kitty, women in Shanghai hold
on to their youth so tightly it has claw marks in it. My current co-
teacher has a doll which she plays with and buys clothes for, my
former co-teacher gave me a Hello Kitty knife fork and spoon kit for
Christmas, and Phil's former receptionist carried her tea around in a
pink Cinderella thermos.
This "bouquet" is a perfectly acceptible gift for your girlfriend-
yes, that's a bunch of skewered pink teddy bears surrounded by
glitter and feathers.

20/364

Project 365 day 20
A street-side bicycle repair shop

19/365

Project 365 day 19
A hair salon drying it's towels on the footpath.

18/365

Sometimes paying your bills can be hard enough, deciphering them in
another language can be downright madness!

17/365

Project 365 Day 17
Shanghai is a city of endless construction at the best of times, but
this construction is currently being done at a frenetic pace in a vain
attempt to complete all public works before the Expo.

16/365

Project 365 day 16
My good friend Denise on the left and her 'friend of a friend' Cathy,
who I discovered lived two streets away from where I grew up in the
Blue Mountains, Australia... It's a small world after all.

15/365

Project 365 Day 15
It has been so cold the last few days that the large fish pond at my
school has frozen over. The fish are at the bottom in serious
hybernation mode- I wouldn't want to be in their shoes... Or flippers.
I have been amusing myself by throwing a pebble into the pond in front
of my class and watching their eyes go wide with disbelief when it
just DID NOT SINK! I love how easy it is to blow the minds of two year
olds.

14/365

Project 365 Day 14
Another "city improvement" in preparation for the upcoming expo:
talking maps in taxis. For a few years now most shanghai taxi
companies have had advertising screens on the back of the front
passenger seat- something that anoys the hell out of me. But the
newest thing in the cabs using the Touchmedia screens is to have maps
with directions to a list of popular tourist destinations. There is
also a button to press to hear the directions in Chinese.
I can't say I've ever used it, and I'm not sure it would be of that
much use- the screen doesn't come on until the driver turns on the
meter, yet the driver usually won't turn on the meter until he
understands where you want to go. Classic chicken vs egg conundrum.
But who knows, it could come in use sometime.

13/365

Project 365 day 13
A man riding past a roadside display which are popping up everywhere
in preparation for the upcoming expo in Shanghai this year. In this
one, Hai Bao- the little blue guy- is dressed and holding firecrackes
ready for Chinese New Year.

12/365

Project 365 day 12
This photo was taken out eating hot pot with friends. As a rule (after
so many years in China) we generally don't eat Chinese food. Aside
from being sick of it, it is very difficult to order vegetarian food
in the meat loving Shanghai even whenbyou speak Mandarin.
Hot pot is one of the exceptions we make, especially at this
restaurant which has individual pots, organic vegetables and meat, and
100% vegetarian cooking broth for vegetarians like me!
The general idea is that you select your broth and a variety of
vegetables, tofu and meat, and a choice of dipping sauces, then you
cook all your food on a hot element on the table in front of you. I
must admit to finding the veg broth fairly bland, but if nothing else
it's fun, and has a good communal feel when you're with a group of
friends.

11/365

Project 365 Day 11
This morning I dreamed Phil and I were packing for a weekend of summer
camping by the beach. When my alarm rang I woke up to a very
depressing Monday morning in Shanghai. I very nearly quit my job on
the spot just so I could crawl back into bed. Eugh, I hate Mondays at
the best of times but this is just miserable!

10/365

Project 365 Day 10
Karaoke (known in china as KTV) is one of the most popular pastimes
for Shanghainese people. Far from being a very public experience that
it is in western cultures, in Asia you hire a small room with a few
friends. We went last night to rock the mike for a friends birthday.
When in Rome, huh?
This is only one small corridor of a rabbit warren of rooms in a chain
KTV venue containing a few hundred private rooms.

9/365

Project 365 Day 9
China has a lot of so called 'fake markets', named for the knock-off
products they sell (the products are fake, not the markets!). The
products are cheap but generally quite well made, and it is usually
very hard to tell the difference between one of these fakes and the
geunuine thing. There are several large, multiple-floor markets in
Shanghai alone, here is a photo of just one stall in the Pearl City
Market in Gubei area.
Of couse, as selling fake knock-offs is illegal, I myself have never
indulged in such an activity.... Hehehe.

8/365

In shanghai I can afford to do things that I would consider a luxury I
Australia- such as having regular manicures and pedicures!

7/365

Project 375 Day 7
Our aquarium, otherwise known as "what happens to old communist
propaganda statues in a modern China"

6/365

Project 365 Day 6
Shanghai morning (aka the obligatory Asian bicycle shot) taken once
again from my taxi window.

5/365

Back in Shanghai- a stone lion guarding the front of a restaurant.

4/365

Project 365 day 4
The streets of shanghai from the taxi as we went home from the airport last night. Right now I am back in a taxi heading to work, although it feels like my head only just touched the pillow. We are tired, cold, missing Australia already, but overall we ate happy to be back I'm our home.
It is a strange thing indeed to realise that your "home" is in a strange and foriegn land.

3/365

2/365

Take two... Again... Grrrr I'm having serious technical issues here...

2/365

 Another one still from australia but about our life in china (sort of)- as I do not live in Australia anymore I do not have a home here- hence we are staying in this caravan in my parents backyard. It's been ode quarters for two weeks, especially since Phil is 6'2" (189cm) tall! But we've come to think of it as a bit of a home away from home. In spite of this it will be good to get back to our apartment in shanghai with our OWN bed (although small and of the typical hard as a brick Chinese variety we've gotten used to it!)   

2nd attempt at 1/365

1/365

So here is the first photo in the Project 365 essay- although I said I would make it China-based, I am currently visiting family (and throwing our engagement party- yes Phil and I are finally making it legal!) in the Blue Mountains, about an hour west of Sydney, Australia. Indirectly this picture is still related to my life in China: living as we do in the hustle and bustle of Shanghai, it is top on our to do list to catch some peace and quiet and get back to nature whenever we are on holiday. This natural waterhole is called Jellybean Pool and is located in the Blue Mountains National Park, about ten minutes from my parents house.  

Project 365: Day 1
(and at 11:35pm I'm just in time!)

Project 365

My new year's resolution is to participate in a 'Project 365' assignment, in which I will attempt to post a different photo each day for 365 days. Being based in China, I have decided to make my participation in the activity a photo essay on a year in Shanghai. Mostly I will be posting photos directly from my phone, so I will appologise now for the quality of the photos.
My sister, Liz, will also be participating in the project (it was at her suggestion that I decided to join) and she will be documenting her life as a carer for her husband. Check out her blog A Caring Project
I do hope you enjoy the project.

More testing

A test in preparation for a mobile photo blogging project in the new
year

back in the saddle

Ok so I AM still here. I am also still in Shanghai, still teaching, still painting, still alive.

I would apologise for my absence here, but I've done that before and then life gets in the way yet again. However, a few things have indeed changed. I have returned back to teaching in the mornings only and will have much more time to write.

But I am totally disconnected from the blog world. The Chinese Government's internet restrictions are becoming worse and worse. For a long time we have had to use proxies to view certain websites (blogspot being one of them) but it just became a way of life. Now the range of websites being blocked is increasing, as the effectiveness of the proxies decrease. Facebook and Youtube are blocked (I know, I know, what do I do with all that extra time on my hands, you say) and even the one proxie I have found that still works fairly regularly is mind-numbingly slow. So not have I not been writing much, I have also not been reading or commenting on many of the blogs I used to be an avid reader of.

This is all to change. I promise to write here more, things in Shanghai are still weird and wonderful. and I have much to report on. But if any old friends (real or internet) are still out there, please say hello. It'll give me the motivation to get back in the groove again. Alternately if there are any new readers lurking out there- go on, introduce yourself! I promise I won't bite much.

Hellooo??

I'm back. Is anyone still reading this??

A change in the view

Usually when people come to visit you in hospital they bring flowers. Perhaps magazines, balloons or even fruit. My visitors brought me the common cold.
But I digress.
Nine days ago I was lying in the sun on a pristine white beach in Boracay, Philippines. Four days later I was lying on white bed sheets in a Shanghai hospital.
Last Tuesday night, 24 hours after we arrived back in Shanghai, I started vommiting and having stomach cramps. By thursday evening it had gotten so bad I went to the doctor, who admitted me for observation overnight. Five days later I'm still here.
The short explanation is that I had a small bowel obstruction which has mostly corrected inself without surgery- thank god- and a case of pancreatitis. The doctors are not sure if the obstruction came first and then the pain killers they gave me for that inflamed the pancreas, or if I had some micro-gall stones unseen by the ultrasoud when I first came in which then affected the obstruction infection as they inflamed the pancreas.
In any case I'm in a lovely western-run clinic with all the mid-cons. Usually in public hospitals here you literally need to bring your own sheets, food and even medicines, so I'm feeling pretty happy that we have insurance.
Up until today have not had anything to eat or drink since last thursday, but today I have been allowed to drink 100mL of water every four hours. I have to say that if I'd known that my lunch on Thursday would be my last meal so to speak, I would have eaten something other than vegemite on piece of toast!

random thoughts evading an all encapsulating title...

Firstly, apologies for my hiatus. Again. One reason is that I am just so busy these days that I just never seem to have the chance to write. Then, one week becomes two, and then three... and well I'm sure you've all grasped the concept of time and how it flies- even when you are not having fun!
Secondly, I started this blog as an outlet and a point of interest for all the weird and wacky things I see here in China. But after having lived in Shanghai now for over three years (has it really been that long?) I tend to feel more and more that I just don't see the things that are totally wacky to the rest of the world. This, combined with a lack of time to write, has resulted in a rather stagnant blog of late.
The weird and wacky things are still happening though, and I have recently decided that I need to make more time to document them before they one day seem lie just a dim past dream. I don't want to look back one day and think, wait a minute- did the repair man really stand on the ledge of a 13th floor window with no safety belt? Did I really know people called Peter Pan, Shiny and Sun Ray? Could I really have been charged in a restaurant for Ass Pie? At least I'll have this blog to look back on one day and realise that all those weird and wacky things did happen.
In truth I have become accustomed to many things, but some stuff still surprises me. For example I was in the back of a taxi the last week when I noticed a new shop had opened in my neighbourhood. Judging by the shelves of random roots and pickled/dried animal parts I assumed it to be a traditional Chinese medicine dispensary.
That, however did not quite explain the 7 foot tall stuffed deer that was standing outside the door. The fully grown antlers led me to believe it was male, and just when I start thinking "Oh how sad, someone shot Bambi's daddy", I look to the other side of the door to see a fully stuffed little fawn. I guess it's more merciful this way- Bambi can't miss his dad if he is stuffed and on display with him for all eternity on a busy footpath on Fahuazhen Rd, Shanghai!
Unfortunately when I went back to take a photo of the surprising Shanghai wildlife, the large deer had disappeared, replaced only by another small fawn. Either he was too cumbersome to move in and out of the shop each day, or someone sold him as a cure for arthritis.
Meanwhile, speaking of traditional Chinese cures, I am suffering from Labyrinthitis again. It is not as bad as the last time I had it, but is still very disconcerting and not to mention nauseating. My Chinese co-teacher told me yesterday that when her aunt was suffering from the same condition (a condition I might add that has no effective medicinal treatments other than time), her local physician advised her to eat a fresh human placenta to cure it. When she decided against the idea, her family procured one for her anyway (I didn't ask how but I have heard that they are big on the abortion clinic black market- and I wish I was kidding about that). They boiled the placenta into a soup and fed it to her without her knowledge. My co-teacher suggested that I do the same, as it cured her aunt. Or perhaps time did, as this condition tends to only last a few days to a couple of weeks anyway.
In anycase, I won't be going for dinner at her house any time soon.

Alive and... well...

Ok I am alive. Sorry for my complete lack of activity here over the last month- I started school again (teaching) in August and got caught up in the hectic exhaustion of teaching twenty 3 year olds. As you do.

I also started French classes again. I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea to work full-time, and then do 6 hours of language classes two nights a week. By the time I get to class after work I can barely remember my own name, let alone how to conjugate for the passé composé! I figure, so long as I don't go completely mad in the meantime, it's all good.

That's the alive portion covered. As for the 'well': I went to the doctor this morning with yet another cold and suspected chest infection and the first thing he said when I walked in the door was: "You must be a teacher". Yep.

So there you have it: Alive and relatively well.