Spring has sprung!... kinda

Over the last few days I've noticed something. The roads are still quiet. People are still on holidays and not everyone is back at work... yet. It is so strange to see it so quiet and see little shops closed.

It has been getting warmer. The snow is 99.9% gone. Where there once used to be big huge chunks of it on our apartment premises, there is now none :( or very little left. I know it's been getting warmer because (apart from the snow melting more):
1) I can feel it (there seems to be a significant difference between 0 and 5 degrees),
2) the hubby mentioned it to me and has been wearing less layers to work,
3) the ayi mentioned it to me
4) the landlord mentioned to me
5) now when I go to sleep the aircon/heater is not at 30 degrees but at 23 degrees (down from 26 previously). Actually I turned it off totally the night before last, but found that a little bit uncomfortable on my face (kept feeling like I was going to sneeze but didn't) so I left it on last night, but at a lower temperature.

There are lots of posts I could do but I am too lazy to upload my photos. :( Plus also the internet has been acting up lately!

6 degrees... it's a heatwave!

It's 6 degrees - positively a heat wave! ;)

The snow is steadily melting and soon it will all be gone. I must admit I feel a tinge of sadness seeing it gone because it is such a special and rare occurence to me. When I first came back from Taiwan there was still quite a lot of it around but now it only exists on rooftops and even then not much is left. I can see a lot of 'wet patches' left on roofs where there used to be big slabs of snow.

Actually, there are still chunks, clumps and slabs about the place, basically in places that are constantly in shade and never get any sun. But most of those are dirty grey chunks, not that beautiful pristine white you associate with snow...

One good thing about Shanghai's weather is that it is almost always sunny. I know it rained heaps while I was in Taiwan (likewise it also rained heaps in Taipei - no doubt caused by the same high/low pressure system in the area) but generally speaking you don't get that horrible constant grey drizzly weather you get in some places (not mentioning any names Melbourne and Europe ;) ) I sometimes wonder if I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) - that kind of weather really, really affects me and my dad said it affects him too. We used to live in Melbourne before Sydney and he told me he couldn't stand it, hated it in fact, which was one of the reasons we moved.

Weather and climatic changes are a funny yet scary thing... I keep having thoughts about that movie "The Day after Tomorrow" and something I read about the Three Gorges Damn (due for completion in 2009) being blamed for causing catastrophic weather patterns in Southern China recently. It's one of the few man-made structures visible from space (it is that big).

The thoughts that if that dam really did cause such huge changes in weather patterns.. well it's just mindboggling and damn scary.

Read more about the dam here and here.

It's effin freezing

Just got back home. Can't sleep. Can't get the heater to work properly - why why why?! I can't even feel my hands anymore. It is 6 degrees C inside our house. There is lots of snow (mixed with dirt) clumped on the ground everywhere outside. Looks quite funny. A bit like bubble bath after it's stuck to the side of the bath.

More Shanghai snow pics

I love photos. I don't just love taking them, I also love being in them, and looking at them. But more on that later... People know I am a photo-addict so they send them to me and show them to me.

Another friend in Shanghai sent me some of her recent snow pics. Take a look. As I type this weather.yahoo.com tells me it is "0 degrees but feels like -4 and there is 'light snow' in Shanghai"







Thanks for the pics, Susie! :)

Snowing in Shanghai - I have pictures!

A friend just sent me these pictures of the snow in Shanghai. Isn't it beautiful? :) Everyone I asked told me "It rarely snows in Shanghai, maybe once every 3-4 years. Even when it does snow it melts pretty quickly." But they say this is the biggest snow in 7 years! Thanks for the pics, Tracy! :)

Snowing again in Shanghai...

I have heard from a very reliable source (ie friend) that it is snowing again in Shanghai. It's strange.. every local will tell you it does not snow very often there. Maybe once every 3-4 years. However, when I visited Shanghai for the first time in February 2005 it snowed one night while I was there and now it's snowing again. Maybe it only snows when I am there (or not..er..)

According to weather.com it is 2 degrees C but feels like -2 and there is 'light snow.'

Picture taken 9:40pm 13th January. Picture from shanghaidaily.com



Picture taken 15th January. Road workers use industrial salt to melt ice on Middle Ring Road. Picture from shanghaidaily.com

It's snowing in Shanghai?!

Is it snowing? Can somebody tell me? I just looked at some weather websites and it tells me it's snowing there.

Man I miss all the good stuff!!

Meanwhile in other news I'm in Taiwan (Kaohsiung to be precise) and am not having a good time because I am sick :( I coughed up a big fat viscous yellow and bloody phlegm ball this morning, went to the doctor who thought I had TB. WTF?! I said I doubt that I had that. Then he diagnosed me with an upper respiratory tract infection (ie cold/flu type thing) with sinusitis and then told me I needed an operation on my nose. So as you can see it's been a great vacation so far!! Luckily I don't need to have it done straight away but if I don't I'll have major ENT problems for the rest of my life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

What I've done lately...

23 Dec - Went to Xujiahui to take photos of the lovely Christmas lights and trees at night.

24 Dec - Went to a wedding. There were about 250 guests. It was nice and romantic but for us guests nothing really to do. Plus the room was just filled with smoke and making me quite sick. The food was very good though and the band (which was right behind us on a big stage) were awesome.

25 Dec - After a late night didn't feel like doing much. We swapped presents and that's about it.

26 Dec - Went to Novel Place, Xujiahui. First we went to Green Massage at Suite 102, 88 Xingen Lu just off Tianyaoqiao Lu (near Novel Place). We had a 70min all over body massage for 132 RMB each. The place was really nice. It looked like a spa you'd get in a 4-5 star hotel. The lighting was low, and everything seemed tranquil and nicely designed. They gave us silk satin robes to wear (mine was a purpley brown colour, and hubby's was a khaki green colour) and we put our own clothes away into a locker. The way the locker locked is the same at our gym, with a magnetic device.

Then, we were ushered into the massage room with 2 tables inside. They gave us a beautiful wooden Chinese oval shaped box to put our key inside and then this box was put underneath the beds. It was definitely the most thorough massage I think I've ever had and the best butt and leg massage. Afterwards we put back on many layers of clothes, paid, before venturing out into the cold air.

We had dinner at Blue Frog and we think we ordered exactly the same thing as the first time we went to Blue Frog. I ordered nachos (70 RMB). It is fantastic!

Afterwards we did some grocery shopping at City Shop just opposite it.

27 Dec - Stayed at home and bummed around not doing much.





28 Dec - Caught up with a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. We tackled the mega huge "Qipu Lu" wholesale stores. I'd read and heard about this place but never been because 1) it's a bit further out of town and 2) I heard how huge it was so I knew I'd need a lot of time, energy and MONEY. I had time but didn't have that much energy or money but still.. I went there with her and it was great fun. We saw some fake label clothes but I had a sneaking suspicion they were the real deal. I know skeptics would say "Sure, how can you tell? Are you sure?" but I really think I can tell. First of all the styling is Western, the sizing is Western, the quality of the fabric and the sewing, but also the tags both sewn on and the cardboard tags. The printing on fake clothing is usually pretty crap and riddled with spelling mistakes etc whereas on real branded items it's not. Sometimes there are even barcodes and prices listed on the tag (in American dollars).

Afterwards we went back to her place for tea and for dinner. We chatted about everything under the sun, watched a bit of tv, it was great fun and I didn't get home till almost 10pm.

29 Dec - Another bumming around at home not doing much day.





30 Dec - Met up with the same friend again and our hubbies met for the first time. We had dinner in a Japanese restaurant and then hubby and I had a massage (foot, since we'd just eaten). It was FREEZING as anything when we came out.

31 Dec - Wasn't quite sure what to do for NYE. Didn't want to go to the Bund as I knew it'd be mega crowded. Ended up having dinner in Itoya on Huaihai Lu. Yep that's 2 Japanese restaurants in a row! (Btw the food at the first place is good but not as good as Itoya. The service at the first place is really good and the service at Itoya was crap). Then we walked down to Xintiandi. It was pretty crowded with people and the roads were blocked off and there were police everywhere. Since Chinese people don't drink alcohol much it was very tame compared to what I'm used to in Sydney with stupid drunken idiots everywhere thinking they are 'funny'.

I recalled the first time we went to Xintiandi in September and how hot and humid it was and now it was freezing and very dry. So dry that hubby and keep on 'charging' each other every time we touch. Same with strangers too. My hair (now waist length) keeps flying everywhere too and sticking to things. Static electricity is kinda erm.... annoying?

Anyway we got there just before 10 and it was still OK. We realised we had 2 hours to kill. We didn't have a plan and just wandered into that small shopping centre at the end of the XTD block. We went up to the top and I saw a manicure place. I suddenly had this idea it would be good to do as I could kill a lot of time with it. So that's what I did and hubby just rested in a chair there.

After about an hour (including 20mins waiting for an available staff member and 10 minutes drying time) it was done. I got a hot pink colour (don't know the name) by OPI. It was pricey but heck we were in XTD! I also got little diamante thingies - one on each hand, but one of them has already fallen off :( It cost 150 RMB in total.





After that we went back out and went to the famed French bakery, Paul. (photo from shanghaiist). It's only a very small bakery (as most bakeries are!) and really really crowded. Nevertheless we were served quickly and we ended up getting a raspberry custard tart, a slice of apple pie, and two croissants for 90 RMB. Pricey - yes, delicious - you betcha!!

Then we went back to the other side of XTD to get ready to watch the countdown on the big screen. By that time it was about 11:40 or so and it was getting more and more crowded by the second. Towards the last 10 minutes it really was like sardines in a can. Stupidheads also thought they wanted to move through the crowd at the last minute and not getting very far. Also I couldn't see a great deal due to tall people, people wearing bunny ears and lit-up devil's horns on their heads, and people holding helium balloons. Still, the good thing about the crowdedness was that it made us all surprisingly warm. My hands (despite wearing thick fleece lined gloves) had gone from frozen to thawed our warmness. Mmm... toasty.

So we watched the countdown, they we saw and heard fireworks. The fireworks were only a block away but behind some buildings so we couldn't see everything but it was OK. Enough excitement for me I thought. :) After that there was a mass exodus of people pushing towards one direction so I guess we just followed everyone.








Hubby thought it would be impossible to find a taxi, I chose to think positively and what do you know. Voila! We got one almost straight away. The traffic wasn't too bad either. We passed Xujiahui on the way home and saw there must've been a big even there too. I was almost kicking myself we didnt go there instead! There was a massive stage outside Grand Gateway and lots of policemen around. They were just starting to pack up the stage when we drove past and I saw 20 policemen standing around.

Eventually, we got home at around 12:45am.

I will say one more thing - I'll never complain about Sydney being cold ever again. This is the girl who thought 15 deg was very cold and 10 deg is downright freezing. After surviving the last couple of days where it has consistenly hovered around the 0 degree mark I will never take for granted Sydney's moderate climate ever again. Also I still find it so hard to understand how a place that gets to 38 degrees in summer can get to -5 in winter!

Also I have been wishing and wishing .. why won't it snow?
I've tried to read up on why and now snow forms but find it all a bit complicated. I think it has to be rainy or cloudy for it to snow? Since it's been sunny the last few days and will also be the following few days, I doubt it'll snow. Boo hoo.