January fun!

Good evening!

I hope you are all having a good January and recovering from Christmas! Everyone got back into the swing of things straight away here; its been a really good couple of weeks at school and I FINALLY feel a bit more organised! Though I have probably completely jinxed that now!

The first weekend back I went out for my first Shanghai brunch - I can't believe it's taken me 5 months to finally get there! This was a Saturday brunch so it was slightly different, but the champagne was still free flow for 3 1/2 hours...! The rest of the people there weren't taking advantage of that but we were! And as a result...

And that continued on into the evening at various bars around Puxi and then to a Yunan restaurant called Southern Barbarian. We arrived halfway through the food, and were left with mashed potato(?), a tasty aubergine dish and some bugs. Yep, bugs. A choice of crickets, wasps or something else which I can't remember at the moment. However I am sticking with vegetarian January, so I couldn't try the bugs. Shame! After that came salsa dancing. No comment on that needed, haha!

Other highlights so far this month include going to see the Shanghai ballet's performance of Swan Lake. Apologies for the rubbish picture, but it was a lovely thing to see - I haven't seen a ballet before and it was so impressive. It was at the Shanghai Cultural Square in the French Concession which is impressive even by itself.

We wen't for a big breakfast at Glo London today. I have had it recommended by so many people and I wasn't disappointed!

Tasty veggie breakfast!

I am actually enjoying the veggie challenge, wasn't even tempted by the sausages (well maybe a little!)

Anyway, that is all for now! 

Speak sooooooooon! Zai jian!

First post of 2013!

Happy New Year!

People are always saying that they think New Years is overrated and an anticlimax. To a certain extent I agree, I think the actual night is usually a bit of a let down (present year excluded; lasagne, champagne and Articulate at Libby and Andrew's will never be a let down!). But I actually really enjoy starting the year fresh, it gives me a chance to think about the previous year, what I have achieved and what I want out of the next year. And it's always good to start new things with a whole year ahead!

What a wicked year 2012 has been! I think my top 5 moments of 2012 are:

- Celebrating Anushi and Akshar's wedding in India
- Completing my first 10k run with Kat
- Being a bridesmaid for Libby
- Moving to China and visiting Beijing/the Great Wall with Charlotte
- Being able to spend Christmas with my family and friends (after a lovely mini holiday in Thailand!)

And it looks like 2013 is shaping up to be a great year too, with lots of travel! Seeing more of China with Kat and parents, visiting Hong Kong, Japan and who knows where else in August! Plus being a bridesmaid for Kat in August!

But I also have some goals for 2013, I have been a bit resolution heavy this year:

- To be better at keeping my blog updated - even if no one reads it I like the idea of having a kind of journal I will be able to look back on in the future
- Complete at least two of my 50 in 50 tasks (veggie for a month and writing a letter/card every week for a year)
- Be better at facetiming/skyping friends
- To join another club/society outside of school
- To enter another challenge which will motivate me to get fit... Another run? Trek? Suggestions needed!
- To read more kids books - now I am teaching year 5 I never know what to recommend them to read! So ideally I want to read a kids book every month.

I know that is a lot of resolutions, but I am going to give it a good shot! Maybe review them in June!


Zai jian! X




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Last of 2012, but a resolution!

Ok, so my blog writing has been shocking recently, apologies for that. I am planning on updating it much more frequently next year, as it really doesn't take too long and I am also able to upload my photos now!

I won't go into detail about the last few months as I am sure I have spoken to most of you about it. But I am really enjoying being at home for Christmas, and can't wait to see all my friends in London over the next few days!

On a side note, I am looking for a new challenge for 2013.... Suggestions welcome!

X

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Location:Back in the UK!

Shanghai tourists

Charlotte has just left after a fantastic 9 days here in China! It was so great to see her and we had a very busy and touristy time in Shanghai and Beijing.
Here is a little update of what we got up to here in Shanghai :)

On Saturday we wandered around the French Concession, an area developed by the French in the 19th century. It is very pretty - lots of tree lined roads with little shops and cafes. The cocktails at the restaurant below were very well deserved after a few hours of walking!




We then went into Fuxing Park where we enjoyed looking at the fountains and lakes, as well as the spontaneous dancing and maraca playing that seems to be typical in Chinese parks!



This woman really knew how to shake a maraca with style!




We really threw ourselves into the tourist life on Monday and Tuesday after buying tickets for an open top bus tour! I really enjoyed it - it is a great way of seeing the big sights and it helped me get my bearings a bit better. It included entry into the Jin Mao tower and the Jade Budda temple, which were both very interesting.







An added benefit of the bus tour was that it helped us get away from the hoards of people that were in the city for the Golden Week holiday. Everywhere you went you were fighting with hundreds of other people for space on the pavement - unlike anything I have seen here so far!




On the Monday night Charlotte and I treated ourselves to a night on the Bund. We went to a restaurant called New Heights which was very fancy! Fantastic food, wine, views and company! Can't ask for much more!




It was a great way to end our tourist trip around Shanghai...next stop BEIJING!



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Cooking!

As you may already know, cooking has not been something I have done much of since I have been here. The temptation and ease of Sherpas and Element Fresh delivery after a long day at work are just too much! But I do enjoy cooking, so I have missed it.

Therefore, when Charlene suggested a Chinese cooking course for her birthday I jumped at the chance!

Chef Mike was our guide for the day, and our first dish was xiaolongbao - the traditional Shanghainese dim sum. They are different to normal dim sum because they have a soup inside them! The pastry (I'm not sure pastry is the right word, batter maybe?) was very easy to make - just wheat flour and water, but it was all very technical with how they are rolled out and shaped. Eventually you should end up with 8 perfectly circular shapes to fill with meat, but ours were a bit more "abstract" (to put it kindly!)

The filling in pork mince, onions, mushrooms and lots of sauces and herbs - vinegar, soy etc. there was also a load of chopped up pork jelly (yum!!). That proved to be the secret to the soup inside the dumpling - as the dumplings are steamed the pork jelly melts and turns into the soup! You have to twist the pastry around the meat filling in a fancy way of folding and pinching, which we managed with varying degrees of success...



My dim sum ready to steam (looking very pleased with myself!)

We also made pork wontons, which were made from ready made pastry (pah!) they were very easy to make, and the filling seemed pretty similar. They also looked quite impressive with only a small amount of effort.




These ones are boiled for a few minutes and then added to a soup.





Again, tasty! But really hard to eat with chopsticks!

Realistically I probably won't make them again myself - no idea on how to even start to find pork jelly and I don't want to think about what I might get by mistake!! But it was a really fun afternoon and it was great to get cooking again!

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People's Square

My aim whilst I am here is to visit a new place each week, and also to not return to the same restaurant twice!

I started this a few weeks ago, and my first destination was People's square and Renmin Park. It is a plaza with a mixture of traditional, colonial and modern buildings and skyscrapers, with a park just to the side of it.

Renmin Park was a lovely surprise, once you are inside you can't really tell that you are in the middle of such a busy city. The only clue is the sight of skyscrapers peeping over the top of the trees.




It is very calm and I enjoyed watching the old men playing cards, surrounded by onlookers.




I then turned the corner and came across the marriage market. As the name suggests, parents are there advertising their children in order to attract a suitable marriage. There were so many people there, I would guess over a thousand! And so many adverts for their children, I only wish I could read what they said.




There were lots of couples talking animatedly, I can only imagine they were discussing how suitable the matching of their daughter and son would be.




It was very interesting, but it did make me think of those sons and daughters who are having their future decided when they aren't even present.

Anyway, Charlotte is here at the moment! We are having a very touristy day with an open top bus tour so I am there will be plenty to talk about!

Zai jian x

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A long time coming!

Apologies for the long gap between my posts. I recently got a new camera and I am trying to work out a way of easily adding the photos to my blog. However, using an iPad is no use as there is no USB port and using my work laptop is no good either as blogger is blocked and VPNs aren't allowed. (VPNs direct your internet through a private network and therefore avoid the bans on Chinese Internet, otherwise known as "The Great Firewall"!)

The past two weeks have been great! I hope my weekends carry on being as fun as they are now!
Highlights of the past couple of weeks;

- Visiting People's Square and Park - eating street food whilst watching old men playing Chinese checkers. Wandering past hundreds of couples displaying information about their children to entice a potential husband or wife for them. Photos to follow!
- Chilled out BBQ in Yanlord
- Trying loads of different types of dim sum (I do have photos of this, as I had to take them on my phone)



Shrimp and sticky rice dim sum



Me and Charlene perfecting our chop stick skills!

- Irish music in a tiny bar called the Wooden Box, followed by dancing in a shockingly bad club!
- Residential trip with year 5 to Nanbei Hu. The kids had a great time on the leap of faith and we all had fun kayaking. The nickname "miss bum in the lake" is likely to stick for the time being! It was nice being outside and getting to know the kids a bit more, as well as the other teachers! Nothing like bonding over cockroaches in your bathroom and toilet incidents on the coach!!
- Ladies day at Aussie Rules - free champagne, great food and fit men in shorts. No complaints from me!

So there is a short and sweet round up of my last few weeks! I will try and add some more posts in more detail in the coming weeks!


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