Guinness 9 ball Asian tour launch party and Plaza 66 TMSK 66

July 3rd

Last night my husband and I went to the Guinness 9 ball Asian tour launch party in Shanghai. It was held in the Big Bamboo bar. The invite said "Dress: Black with touch of personality." Well the both of us got dressed up and wore our best black outfits. I wore a red headband and hubby was going to wear a clip on koala on his collar.

We got there and was terribly surprised and shocked that noone was really that dressed up! Everyone was really casual and hardly anyone wore black! Not only that, we didn't even need an invite :( Other than that it was OK I suppose but I couldn't stand to be there very long as it was just WAY too smokey. The entire two floors were reeking of it. The free Guinness was flowing but pity I don't drink beer. I had two sips just out of thirst but yuck. At least it doesn't smell like wine does though. I really can't stand the smell of wine.

Anyway...

One of hubby's colleagues turned up with his wife, and also a friend of his and his wife. They planned to have Hunanese cuisine in Pudong but we declined their invitation to go because it's just way too far from where we live (almost an hour) and it would cost quite a bit to get home given we'd have to take a taxi.

So we went walkabout in order to find somewhere to eat. Not hard given this is China! There are eateries everywhere and we were in the heart of expat central. We saw a nice Chinese place (Lynn) and hubby really wanted to go there but we kept looking. We ended back on the main street of Nanjing Xi Lu (Nanjing East Road) and waltzed into Plaza 66. It was almost 9pm and most stores were starting to close. For those that don't know, Plaza 66 it the ritziest shopping mall in Shanghai comprising of stores such as Tiffany's, Gucci, Dior, Prada, LV etc.

We both assumed that any restaurant there would cost an absolute fortune to eat in but we took the elevator up to the rooftop to take a looksie anyway. We were pleasantly surprised. There were three restaurants to choose from and we ended up choosing one that served three different cuisines - Shanghainese, Hunanese and Italian. I liked that there was a non-Chinese choice there! It was called TMSK 66 (dunno what it stands for).

Given the time we were the only people sitting in the whole restaurant. Actually, the restaurant is divided into two sections - one smoking, one non-smoking. Naturally we chose the latter. Since Chinese people generally eat pretty early at 9pm we were the only ones in the non-smoking section and there was one other party in the other section.

The decor was really something! It was kind of spacey, high tech and 'trippy'. It is so hard to describe so you may as well just look at my photos :) The cutlery and crockery all seemed to be custom made and designed too. The white ceramic bowls/plates had tiny holes cut out and in the hole was embedded a blue glass bead. The lighting was absolutely amazing and set up a great mood. We also noticed the music. We planned to ask what CD it was but forgot, so I rang them up the next day and they told me it was by "Buddha Bar". Since finding this out i have downloaded many tracks from these fantastic albums!! They are instrumental and are really great 'chilling out' sort of music and fitted in with that restaurant's decor and ambience so well.

The food was amazingly well presented and we plan to go back again soon!

Oh for the record we had 2 entrees/appetizers, 2 mains, 1 freshly squeezed juice (apple, carrot, pineapple and honey - amazing) and the total cost was 262 RMB or about US$35 or AU$40. What excellent value!

Bear with me.. I will have to upload the photos later. I don't know who or how many people are reading my blog (judging by the comments basically noone and judging by clustrmaps heaps of people! ;) )

My husband also got free tickets to watch the Nine Ball game. On Sunday he was all ready to go and then at the last minute got me to read the ticket. Except that it was all in Chinese. The only parts that I could make out were to arrive half an hour before it starts (oops) and there is to be no smoking, drinking or eating inside. Since he was now late he decided not to go and just watch it on TV haha.

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Uploaded the photos as promised! Pics of the party at Bamboo Bar, Plaza 66, TMSK 66 restaurant and food

Weekend weather

On the weekend the temperature plummeted to about 26 degrees which felt positively cold. Haha. Usually when I have had the air con on all day and go into one of the other rooms (which have theirs doors closed) I go in and it feels like a sauna. However, on the weekend we didn't even need the a/c (shock horror) and the other rooms felt much cooler! It was a weird feeling.

Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll

Been having soooo much trouble accessing my Blog for the last few days, weeks.. Just then I finally got back into it and the language was back in Chinese - ARGH. Either my computer is stuffing me around or the Great Firewall is/was. Anyway.. these are posts I wrote ready for posting before.

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China - the land of the fakes! Piracy

OK we all know about China's fake industry - LV handbags, Chanel sunglasses, Gucci wallets, Ralph Lauren Polo t-shirts, North Face jackets, DVDs, etc etc..

Little did you know that China has fake EVERYTHING. If this isn't enough to scare people off I don't know what is - hahaha.

Here are some fake things I have heard about recently.

1. Fake eggs

See this link

Makes me sick thinking about it but hopefully we haven't bought nor eaten any fake eggs!!

2. Fake Colgate toothpastes (which are genuine Colgate!)

Although there is a Colgate factory in China, apparently the ingredients of the toothpastes are not the same as in the US, Australia or other Western countries. Apparently there is a dangerous ingredient inside. Great! Just when I thought a reputable global brand meant that something was 'safe' and when we had bought about 6 tubes when we first arrived... <_<

3. Fake Apple iPhones



This one is quite ingenius actually. And note the Windows chime... hilarious! The Chinese have rebadged the iPhone as tPhone and included a removable battery plus a host of other extra features. At first glance it looks exactly like the iPhone too. Check out the YouTube video.

and now...

4. Fake "Harry Potter" books!

See this link

Facebook mania

What's the worse possible thing you could do to someone who is already internet addicted?

1. Pull the plug on the internet connection (OK some would say that's the BEST thing you could do...)
2. Give them something else to 'play' with that uses more of their time.

Well, a few days ago, for the first time I experienced stupid internet drop outs. It was very painful not knowing whether it was going to work or not. A technician even came and checked it out and it was fine. Then, a few hours after it left that dreaded flashing light came back - ARGH! I am not sure but it might also have something to do with the modem overheating in this crazy heat. It has been hot for about about a month now but only this week has it gotten really hot. The last 2 nights were the first time I actually could not fall asleep because it's too hot. I usually turn on the air-con 10-30 mins before bed, then leave it on as I'm drifting and when I find myself almost falling asleep I turn it off. However, it hasn't worked the last two nights because it's just too hot! ARGH. Anyway...

I have finally entered the FaceBook world.

I was a bit 'slow' given I practically live online. At first I had no clue what it was about. It seemed you needed to register to see anything and at first I just couldn't be bothered.

Then a few months later I decided to check it out again and registered a bogus name. Prior to that I looked at screenclips I found on Google images but it wasn't enough so I decided to join up and have a poke around. Nup, still couldn't do anything! You need to add friends to see their pages and they need to accept you. OK so I started small and added 2 friends. Now I was finally getting the idea of what it was all about!

I never joined up the myspace craze because I just hated the page layouts. I hated the loud designs and the music and photos slowing the page loading down. I couldn't even stand to look at anyone's myspace page. However, facebook is much nicer. The design is clean and easy to understand and navigate.

A week or two after my initial poke around (where I was only looking and not doing a great deal) I decided to search for people. A few weeks prior I had already done a quick search for some people but it was a pain in the butt because a lot of my friends have common names so the results turn up 50 or 100 results and I have to sort of guess which one is them?? Or make them out from a tiny photo! So that kind of put me off. It was another reason I kinda didn't want to use my real name since mine would be the only result with that name. Also, my sister's boyfriend decided to scare me about how FB collects your data for statistic purposes or something or sells it to people.. I dunno if it's true or not...

Anyway, round two. Six Degrees of Separation. The results from my 'stalking' behaviour:

I looked up people from my past from 10 or more years ago. Most did not enable a public profile (bummer) but some did. I looked up the guy I had a crush on in Year 10 (now engaged and not looking nearly as good looking as I thought he did when he was 15!), I looked up my first boyfriend (who seems to have a lot of 'friends' on his list). One name looked familiar and it turns out she is a girl I knew from a forum (she only visited a handful of times I think but I remember her name).
Then there is the friend I made 10 years ago when I went to on a travelling tour of Taiwan with a 'youth study group'. I went through his friends list and there was a girl on I knew, also from a forum.
Now, I've added some girls I went to high school with and there is a girl X on their list. I don't know who she is but her surname really stands out because it is 3 words. This sounds stupid but I remember this girl who worked on a big-name Australian fashion magazine because of this strange 3-word surname so I go through X's friend's list and sure enough, that magazine person I was thinking of is on her list! (probably her sister).
Back to my first boyfriend (oh so long ago!) I noticed on his friends list were a lot of people that I knew on a BBS I used to frequent. I was a bit annoyed the only person I really wanted to find out about did not enable his profile, but everyone else did.
I'm sure I'll find more weird six degrees of separation stuff...

So far I'm liking facebook because it is kind of like email, MSN (and other IM systems), websites, chat sites, forums, blogs, flickr, you tube, schoolfriends/friendsreunited all rolled into one. But it's good because you can allow or disallow people to see YOUR profile page (which you can write messages, add photos, play games and score against one another, etc).

So anyway, I found all these people that I used to go to school with and lost contact with and figured I HAD to join just to see their profiles and their pics. Amazingly, out of my high school peers 1) Most seem to be living overseas at the moment, 2) Most are not married and those that are have only married recently and do not have kids. Interesting, given everyone is about 30. I think it's just the type of people though. I had another friend from high school who got married when she was 22 and now has 3 or is it 4 kids.

Just had to get this all out before I forgot.

ARGH! I don't know what the crap is going on. But everyone I looked up the other day.. I mean every single person.. well their profile is now gone private. It just seems weird that all of a sudden these people (who have nothing to do with each other) have decided to put their profile on private?

Insane crazy heatwave weather!

Every day I check the temperature on various weather websites. It's become my obsession. It's just crazy. I guess I've been too spoilt for too long living in Sydney, where the climate is so moderate. Where people think it's hot if it's over 28º or cold if it's under 15º (myself included). Well It's been in the mid-30s here for almost a month now. Which may seem OK but it actually feels more like 40+ and I'm not making this stuff up either! Even Yahoo Weather agrees. To me, going outside is like standing in front of one of those hot air handryers in public bathrooms - a huge one, for hours on end.

The poor workers who have to work outdoors...(like construction builders). I really feel for them. Standing or walking outside for just 5 or 10 minutes is hell on earth. How do they manage to work outside in the blistering heat (where the sun is also very strong and shining brightly every day) for hours and hours on end? I heard that if the temp. is over 35º they get paid a little more than usual and if it's 40 or over, they don't have to work.

Thank God the humidity is not that high. It is only about 50% and not more than 60%. However, the sweat factor is definitely there. You just sweat. And sweat. And sweat. And sweat... I have seen people walking or riding a bike with a wet face towel over their head - good idea! The weirdest feeling I get is when I walk into a freezing cold air-conditioned building after being outside and my arms become as cold as ice yet my chest, back and head are still sweating like mad. Such a lovely feeling - not!