Random photos

Rail maps at People's Square showing the new lines.. crazy stuff.. the People's Square station has 20 exits!!






View of Cloud Nine mall through a taxi window



Some place I have no idea where but I liked the colour.



Qipu Lu





Gorgeous book cover of a children's storybook



Carrefour today:

If you translate "Spice girls" into Chinese and then back into English it becomes "Spicy Girls" so it's Chinglish I guess. I found it amusing because my mother calls that group the "Spicy Girls" too!





There was some crazy shoe sale going on. 10-20 RMB (about $1.50-$3) a pair! I did take a quick look and the styles weren't too bad but the queues were horrendous and the quality wasn't that great.. but the price is just unbelievable! Only in China, eh?



Something about giving away free bags. Carrefour's bid to help the environment. They are probably warming us up for when they stop giving out free plastic shopping bags. I feel so stupid now thinking it started tomorrow, when it started yesterday! (the 6th). I could've claimed my free enviro bag today but didn't :(



We got new kitchen taps! Yay for Mr Fang.



Some crappy dinner I made - lamb chops, fried rice and lettuce. The hubby liked it, though, amazingly.



I've also added photos to my Paul's post yesterday (the 6th!)

Paul bakery - now available for delivery

Woohoo!

The new Sherpa's menu came out recently. From 1 May you can order from Paul. We have the Hongqiao area Sherpa's (since we live in that area, duh - actually we live in both the Puxi and Hongqiao areas according to Sherpa's map) and I just ordered from them. It'll be sent to us from the Carrefour Gubei branch (which I haven't seen in person yet).

On the menu was "Ancien" bread but since there aren't any corresponding photos I have no idea what that is. A google search didn't find much either except for a link to Paul. LOL.

Ahh... how I love Paul's bread and pastries! drool!

ETA: Sherpa's just called me back and said they've run out of the Fougasse with olives.. d'oh!

--

Edited to add: pictures!




The gorgeous looking new Carrefour store. I love the interior design. It's just like being in Paris except with Chinese sales staff!

Carrefour Gubei Half Price Day May 1st

I haven't read anyone else reporting on this yet so so far.. You heard it here first.

On May 1st Carrefour Gubei (not sure about the other Carrefours in Shanghai) will have a half price or 'buy one get one free' off all food (hey don't quote me on this though).

To counteract the "anti-French" thing currently going on, the manager is going to see if people can resist a sale.. when it's been known that people have queued on the paths outside for hours because the eggs were on special... just a few RMB jiao/fen/cents off!!

Well my opinion is that of course no Chinese can resist a sale as great as this. I don't think I'll be going. I want to stay alive and not trampled on by mobs, thanks.

PS I sent hubby a link to that Shanghaiist article and he was too scared to go to Carrefour but tried his luck on the weekend and absolutely nothing happened - haha.

Tacos in 10 mins

I'm becoming a champion taco/burrito maker. I just managed to prepare, cook, present/serve, clean up and eat it in 35mins. I need to do it quickly because I hate cooking. The quicker the better. Even better that my husband says it's good!

I buy the ingredients from Carrefour or City Shop. Only City Shop has tacos though. Carrefour only has burritos.

Sometimes I don't even have everything I need and I improvize. Ie I used soy sauce for the chicken if I don't have the proper flavouring thing. I also cook the taco sauce in with the chicken.

The chicken is the only thing that takes a bit of time. The rest is just chopping up: tomatoes and lettuce. The cheese comes shredded already.

Amazingly, the taco shells crisp up nicely in the microwave!
You can do burritos as well. The preparation/ingredients etc is exactly the same.

Phew, I'm so proud of myself I managed all that in 35mins (and I'm usually a mega slow eater!)

In other news I went to the Shanghai Center again. I had an appointment near there, 15 mins walk away. Since I needed to go to the supermarket and Paul's is in the same complex I couldn't not stop by. One day I will try everything in that amazing bakery! But for now I have to try to not cry at the prices.

So I had a Paul's danish for dessert. Effortless! :D

The price of food!

I'm not imagining it. My ayi has mentioned it to me but I kinda 'forgot' about it (because, well 5 RMB is a lot of money to her!).. but man! Everything has been going up (something to do with the weather down south I think?) - Rice, meat, fruit, veges. Imported food not so much but that was always expensive anyway.

They say it's cheap to eat in China.. well only if you like Chinese food!

Last week I went to City Shop in Gubei. First time I've been in all the time I've lived here (LOL). I bought so many bits and pieces and it ended up costing me almost 500 RMB! I nearly had a heart attack! I was actually looking at prices too when I was buying stuff and usually choosing the cheapest option.

Everything that I like to eat is damn expensive eg cheese, breakfast cereal/muesli, Western style bread (ie bread that is not sweet) and pastries.. etc.

A box of ordinary cereal (from Germany or UK) costs up to 100 RMB!
A packet of 250g shredded Coon Cheese (from Australia) costs about 40-50RMB. It costs less than that for the 500g size in Australia! ARGH!

This really really sux cos hubby and I both do not have huge appetites and do not really like Chinese food all that much. Plus recently we have barely eaten out at all and been cooking a lot more at home but really, eating out is still SO much cheaper than cooking at home.. so why bother?

So anyway then I went to Carrefour a few days later and only spent about 150 RMB.

Yesterday I went to Zara on Nanjing West Road. I just felt like going to Zara and never been to that store before. It was absolutely FREEZING yesterday. It must've been around the 0 degree mark for sure. Anyway there was no sale on and I didn't find anything I particularly liked/had to have (plus they were selling Spring/Summer clothing like t-shirts and sleeveless dresses, and I was thinking WTF? Because it's still SO cold)

Anyway so then I walked around looking for somewhere to eat. Since it was 3pm now (Yes I tend to eat breakfast and lunch very late) not a lot of places were opened. I ended up going to the top of Plaza 66 and had lunch at Zen. It was OK but I was not that impressed. First of all, the water in the tea tasted like tap water, even though according to them it wasn't (and it cost 5 RMB for the pot), second of all they took forever to come to me when I tried to grab their attention (when there were hardly any customers there at that time and enough staff) and thirdly, well there was no thirdly. The portion of my lunch was huge and I took the rest home and had it for dinner.

Then I went next door to the Shanghai Centre to go to Paul's. The most delicious bakery ever! But boy oh boy are they expensive. The smell in there drives me crazy and I want to buy the entire store! But alas the prices are a real turn off. In the end I got 3 things and it cost 82 RMB - a berry tart thing, an apple thing, and a breadstick thing with olives and herbs in it.

Then I went to City Supermarket and bought some stuff. I was disciplined this time and didn't go overboard (after my last experience) and spent around 100 RMB. I was supposed to buy rice but the variety wasn't that great and to be honest didn't want to carry such a heavy thing so this morning got my ayi to buy it for me from the supermarket across the road from our place, when she went to buy other stuff.

On Monday I asked my ayi where she got her puffy goose down jacket from and she told me she had it made at this place... I couldn't believe it. It looks so professionally done like something you'd buy in a store and I never thought you could do this. I have wanted a longish goose down jacket for so long but was trying to be 'good' since I already got that white cashmere coat made and I already own a goosedown coat (but it's only waist length). During CNY I tackled the shops (BAD mistake, it was crowded as anything) and tried in vain to search for one amongst the crowds. I have so many criteria and just gave up. Plus it was impossible to try anything on and I HATE the rude unhelpful salespeople.

Anyway so my ayi told me I could get it made at this place and she only paid 190 RMB. I nearly died!! $30 for a custom made goose down coat? Can you believe it? I paid about $200 for mine in Australia and it's not that great. She even told me she thought it was 'ugly' haha. (I bought it in 2004 just prior to going to Europe). Well there are like NO choices in Australia.. and are all freaking expensive. Anyway so I was getting really excited dreaming in my head of colours and styles.. then this morning she tells me that that place has closed down since Spring is coming! ARGH!

I know it happens in every place around the world but I really really hate how in winter they bring out summer clothes and in summer they bring out winter clothes. I remember seeing these goose down coats when it was still 38 degrees in summer. ARGH!

Our Christmas tree

Lamp: Stranne lamp we bought at Ikea a couple of weeks ago (199 RMB).
Decorations: I bought from Carrefour today (26 RMB).
Time spent: 5 minutes.
Results:

Before:



After:



Close-ups:







Hours of enjoyment: Heaps! :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Yaohan, Best Denki and Singing Aeon (and Jusco)

It's amazing when you travel to a new place you learn more and more and sooner or later the jigsaw pieces begin to fit together. I experienced this so many times in Shanghai already.

Whilst we were in Naha Mike was sick with a cold and we desperately needed a cable or card reader for me to upload my photos and clear the SD card, and a plug adaptor thing.

I went to the busiest street in Naha thinking I could find this but the only thing they sold were souvenirs and trinkets. I then wandered into a department store thinking I could find it there but nope. I went up to the first person I came across who was a beautiful short lady working in one of those cosmetics counters. She didn't know a word of English and I barely knew a word of Japanese. I pointed to the slot on my camera and mimed a long object and said "USB cable". She took me to a Fuji photo place nearby and they didn't know where to get one either. She then took me back to the department store and came to the conclusion I could get it from a store called Jusco. Since our hotel was near the monorail station it was only a convenient 3 stop trip too.

So I stopped at a nearby eatery to bring Mike back some lunch, had a rest for about an hour and then set off again. Prior to going out I asked at the hotel front desk and they suggested I go to a store called "Best Denki" or as they say "be-su-to den-ki". She said I had to take a short taxi ride to get there.

Not having a clue what Jusco OR Best Denki sold, I looked them both up on Google on the hotel's free internet computers. I came to the conclusion that Jusco was a general store like Kmart and Best Denki was a sole electronics store. It was a hard choice to choose which one to go to but in the end I decided on Jusco simply because it was easier to get there and I could look at other stuff too (like groceries or clothes).

So I went to this Jusco and was in absolute heaven. It was similar to Carrefour in Shanghai in that it sold general household goods and had a big supermarket attached.

It sold everything under the sun for a reasonable price and it was all just so beautiful, sparkly, cute and perfect.

It turned out that only the supermarket was called Jusco and the budget department store was called Singing Aeon and had musical notes as the logo.

So where is all this leading?

Well, I am still wishing I was in Japan and pining for anything Japanese. I did a quick search on Google and it seems that there is a Yaohan store in Pudong. So I go to wikipedia and look up Yaohan.

It turns out that is it no longer called Yaohan in Japan and was bought out by the Aeon group, ie Singing Aeon. As well as that, Yaohan had an electronics store called Yaohan Best which started in Singapore and is now called..... (drum roll)... Best Denki.

So it turns out that no matter if I went to Jusco/Aeon or Best Denki to buy the cable and plug adapter it was actually the same company all along!!

Just some random trivia I found about Yaohan Next Age in Shanghai - it is the second largest department store in the world, surpassed only by Macy's in New York :)

Ahh... such is the life.

Today I had quite an enjoyable and interesting day.

Started off by getting up early and leaving the house at 8am, then coming back and getting ready to go to the gym at 10am for a pilates class. Meanwhile, got an email from my sister saying she needed an invitation for a birthday party she is having. She wanted it by 11:30am. Umm.. it was now 9am and I had to get ready for the class. Not long later, I get my expat wife friend chatting to me through gmail and asked if I was free to meet up for lunch. I had planned on going to Carrefour and some other shops but I hadn't seen her in maybe a month so I said, OK, sure.

So I frantically designed this invite, emailed it off to my sister, went to the gym class (was a bit late), did an hour of pilates (and boy does my neck and back hurt now, not to mention I realised my stomach muscles suck, and my hamstrings are totally inflexible!) Got chatting to a middle-aged lady that I met before, 2 weeks ago when I turnee up for a Chinese dance class which unfortunately was the last class. It was such a funny class I was trying so hard not to laugh at the movements and then when hubby got home I performed them for him, then he mimicked ME and we were both laughing hysterically! :D

Then I did 10 mins on the treadmill, walked back home and got ready to leave. Also was frantically tidying the house for my guest!

She picked me up and we drove to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. It was kind of Buddhist style in that everything was made to look like meat, and in some cases even tasted like meat. The restaurant was surprisingly busy and crowded. We both also loved that it was non-smoking (a rarity in China!) and everything was organic, fresh, and clean.

Afterwards she was going to take me to the fake market (after I asked where she got her nice handbag from) but instead decided to go to the hairdresser instead. I was glad I had not washed my hair (no time) so I followed her and got my hair washed and blow dried too. We were there for over an hour! In that time I also got an extensive head, shoulder, neck and upper back massage. All for 23 RMB. The other day hubby got a haircut for 10 RMB and was raving about how good it was so it goes to show you that price doesn't always dictate quality in China!

The guy washing my hair wanted to sell me some really expensive Kerastase vials of some 'anti hair loss' liquid. He started getting me all paranoid about my hairloss but it was so ridiculously expensive of course I didn't buy any! He also asked whether I was from overseas and why I had 'returned' to China. I said I am not returning because I never lived here! haha. Anyway we left and I felt very relaxed. I got professional blow dry and my hair had never looked better. It looks so straight and shiny.

I forgot to mention that whilst driving from the restaurant to the hairdresser the strangest thing happened. I started telling my friend about the day I took a bus to Huaihai Lu (and the trip took an hour <_< ) and walked for 6 hours straight in the boiling hot sun. I was crazy. Now I can barely do 10 minutes! I walked from Maison Mode / Times Square, onto Changle Lu, then Maoming Lu and then back onto Huaihai Lu and Parksons. On the way I passed so many places I wanted to go to it just wasn't feasible to keep getting on and off a taxi, train or bus so I just walked the whole way.

I meant to do a post about that mammoth day that night or the day after but I was sooooo exhausted that even 24 hours later after I arrived home I could still barely move!

On Monday I went to Carrefour after going to the Chinese herbal doctor (TCM) (which is my Monday morning routine), and was basically killing time wandering around the upper floor (which sells non-food items). I saw a bargain desk and I had to have it! I have been killing my back sitting on a hard wooden dining chair and wanted a desk chair but instead I found the perfect desk, for a bargain 159 RMB so I got both the desk and a desk chair. The computer desk has a slide out drawer (good ergonomics and all that) and is the exact same honey wood colour as all our other furniture so it matches. The chair is padded with armrests and castors. It is super comfy and has good lower back support. I asked a sales assistant if they had any in stock (not seeing any on the floor) and how I would get it delivered to me. He said that there would be more coming in and when they came he would deliver AND assemble for me. I said I didn't need it assembled (since hubby loves putting things together like all guys do) and he said it was only 10 RMB extra so I thought why not. So right now, the man is here busy screwing in all the parts together. He is super fast too. In the time I have typed up the last 4 paragraphs (and I'm a very fast typer) he has almost finished putting the desk together. It cost us a whopping 50 RMB to have the desk and chair delivered and assembled.

I love China! ;) :)

Bruschetta

In an effort to be a good (50's style) wife I have tried to do more and better cooking lately. For anyone that knows me I detest cooking! Ugh. And I am weird in that I have not much interest in food nor eating. I hate grocery shopping.

So anyway, here is the bruschetta I made last Thursday, a week ago. What do you think? We have no oven nor toaster but a flat cafe-style toaster doobiewacker. I used 2 cloves of garlic, some spring onion, quarter of a red onion, one whole tomato, and some "olive" bread I bought from Carrefour (already sliced because I'm lazy). I finely diced/chopped all the ingredients. Then I added a dash of olive oil to the bread, spooned the mixture on and sprinkled on the Italian herbs (Masterfood brand - from Australia!)

You can add shredded cheese on top too. :)

It was so delicious, even if I do say so myself. The bread was perfectly cooked and crunchy and the toppings were tasty. The red onion was the magic ingredient, I think.

Now... what the diddly am I going to make tonight?

(PS this stupid layout on Blogger when uploading pictures sux!)

Metro City and Grand Gateway again

On the weekend I finally got better - Yay! All that drinking of garlic in hot water every day/night coupled with taking disgusting Chinese herbal medicine did wonders and 9 days later I finally got rid of this damn cold.

On Sunday I decided to venture out and Mike and I went to Metro City to get his Smiley Face red bean buns from Breadtalk.

After that, we had lunch in the food court in the basement of that mall. It was the first time both of us had been there. I had been in that building before when I was buying my laptop cooler, but not down to the food court. We were both pleasantly surprised. It is the same chain of food courts that we had already tried in Gubei Carrefour and Zhongshan Park, called "Megabite." You must purchase credit which is put onto a thick plastic card a bit like a credit card and use that to purchase your meals. Most meals cost about 18 RMB (Less than $3 Australian or US$2.50). However, we decided to try a Japanese restaurant inside the food court. I have been a lover of Japanese food since I was a young child and I can tell the difference between the authentic and non-authentic stuff. This place wasn't exactly 100% authentic, but nevertheless the decor was fab and the food looked even more fab!

We were not disappointed. The presentation of the food was amazing and it was delicious and came in fairly large portions. The decor of the restaurant was wonderful too, fitted out in a modern meets vintage style with mirrors and neutral colours like grey and camel, but with striking modern looking chandelier lights on the ceiling. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me but you weren't permitted to take photos there, or else I would have! The total cost came to under 60 RMB (or about $9 Australian).

After that, we went across the road (underground, via the subway. You cannot cross the huge fiveways intersection unless you want to be squashed flat) to Grand Gateway. I wanted to check out the supermarket with Mike.

Every expat talks about and goes to Carrefour in Gubei because it's one of the biggest supermarkets in Shanghai and also stocks most foreign goodies. However, after going there.. what.. 10 times?.. I am soooo sick of it and dying to see and 'try out' new supermarkets. Well I had been last time but didn't look at much and didn't stay long. This is Lianhua 联华.

We didn't bring with us a shopping list (oops) so we didn't end up getting a great deal since all the necessities (meat, fruit, veges) we like to buy fresh and our 'ayi' (maid/cleaner/cook/housekeeper, nanny too if you want) also buys them for us.

After that, Mike went off to play basketball with his work colleagues and I went home in the taxi with all our groceries - including the cool mug Mike found and bought for me!





Taxi etiquette - First to push in, first served

There is a queue right outside GG for the taxi but unfortunately, most people in China don't understand what a queue is. With this in mind. I've taken to becoming a "push-er in-er" too.

So anyway I see this middle aged well-dressed couple waiting in an orderly fashion so I queue up behind them. They get impatient and walk off... A taxi comes along and stops right in front me so I'm about to get in, then the couple come BACK and at first I think they are just another Chinese couple pushing in, then I realise it was the exact SAME couple so I thought should be nice to give it to them since they were waiting longer than me... Out of the taxi comes an American(?) businessman with all his luggage and he says something about the taxi waiting for him and then taking him to the airport. Noone knows what he is saying except me.. and I tell the couple in Chinese.. and they start saying あそうですか in Japanese. D'oh! OK so I'm still waiting patiently for this taxi and I see one coming up the driveway into the mall. Then this stupid girl out of nowhere comes out of the mall and the taxi stops in front of her! ARGH! Of course she wouldn't have the decency or politeness to give it to me. So I wait. Again (kinda getting fed up by this stage given I'm carrying heavy bags of groceries!) Well finally, after what seems like an eternity I get a taxi - Yippee!

While I was out and about I thought to myself, "Hey it isn't even that hot" (remembering the last time I was out in the same place) but then when I got home I was so exhausted and realised the heat had zapped my energy once again!

(PS - put up my Weather Pixie today).