Shanghai says big 'Gidday' to Sydney

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SHANGHAI and Sydney, Australia's biggest city, signed an historic agreement this week that will open the door to a myriad of business opportunities.

Morris Iemma, the premier of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, revealed yesterday he had signed a "Friendship Co-operation Agreement'' with Shanghai authorities which he says will open the door to many significant possibilities.

He told more than 200 guests at the NSW Premier's China Business Mission "Gateways to the Future'' function at the Portman Ritz Carlton that this new relationship would extend to business, tourism, research, education and culture.

Mr Iemma led a 40-strong delegation of New South Wales businessmen and academics into town this week to seek out business and other opportunities in the country that is Australia's biggest trading partner.

He told guests at the function 25 different Australian companies and nine universities were represented within the delegation.

Mr Iemma said China had a long history of investment in New South Wales but the relationship between Australia and China is more than 150 years old.

More recently however Sydney and NSW had become major tourist and education destinations for Chinese people, he said.

In announcing new relationships between the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales with Chinese universities this week, he said more than 85,000 Chinese were attending educational institutions in NSW.

Meanwhile, Iemma expressed deep sympathy for victims as he pledged AU$600,000 (US$576,210) to the relief fund.

Speaking at the NSW Premier's China Business Mission function in Shanghai, Iemma said the "heartfelt sympathy" of everyone from New South Wales went out to the earthquake victims and their families.

Iemma also praised the way China had handled the earthquake crisis.

Dry dry dry

Pretty soon I'm going to have to turn on the air conditioning inside the house. I'm pretty comfortable but I find my palms being sweaty a lot. Also, the air is mega dry (not that the a/c will help with that part).

This morning I had an attack of eczema on my face again. It was twice as big as the lump posted here. When my ayi saw it she gasped in shock. Luckily it's gone down a bit now.

I just checked Yahoo weather and it's 27% humidity now at 4pm. In Beijing it's only 15% - wow!

Apparently it should be between 35-50% for comfort. Other sources say 40-70%. Personally, I find around 45-60% the most comfortable. I don't know why people keep saying that Shanghai is humid, last summer I noted that the humidity rarely went higher than 65%.

Ayis are the best

On Monday morning I went out and when I came back I had discovered my ayi occupied herself by reorganizing my wardrobe and she folded all my underpants! LOL. Noone's ever done that for me before, least of all myself. (she did it for hubby too but it doesn't look as pretty as mine ;) ) I remember seeing a Facebook group called "I miss my ayi" and I'll sure miss having one when I go home. She's like a mother only she doesn't have all the annoying qualities a mother has such as nagging.

'PS I love you' the film

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I'd been waiting for ages for this to come out on DVD and finally got it last week. I mean why watch it at the cinema when you can own a copy for just over a $1! Of course it's not as good as the book (in fact, it's nothing like the book!) but in its own right I thought it was a pretty decent film. I didn't like how Dan and Chiara were portrayed though. They seemed so stupid and Chiara was barely even needed, she didn't add anything to the film. Taking Holly's father out of the picture was a weird move too.

The DVD extras of the deleted scenes were really interesting. One of the most poignant scenes in the book is the travel agency scene (won't give too much away) and I was looking forward to seeing that in the film but it wasn't in it, however, if you see the extras you can see that they did film it but it was cut out. It's not done that well though and a bit disturbing which was probably why they took it out.

As everyone says Gerard Butler was totally right for the role of "Gerry" and totally hot in the movie, and Hilary wasn't too bad either.

I would rate it 6.5-7 / 10.

Breadtalk's Peace Panda to raise money for Sichuan / Random news

* Three day nationwide mourning period starting from yesterday at 2:28pm, exactly a week after the earthquake hit

* 61-year-old woman found after a week of being trapped, alive but had to have both legs amputated, seriously injured and delirious

* Olympic torch relay through Shanghai (originally 20-21 May) to be delayed

* Death toll nearing 50,000

* From beggars to billionaires, all donate money to support the earthquake victims

* We must not forget our poor friends in Burma, who've also suffered a great loss due to the cyclone there, and they have an even higher death toll :(

* I have to admit that since the September 11 attacks nothing has moved me as much as the Sichuan earthquake. Obviously living in China I'm being bombarded with the news and images whereas if I was in Australia I'd barely hear anything about it. I can't watch the news on tv, even a few seconds brings me to tears.

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The other day I found these at Breadtalk. They are adorable! Sure they cost a bit more than the other buns (10 RMB) but half or all (can't remember and couldn't be bothered to try to read the poster, click on image to enlarge) of the proceeds go towards the Red Cross to help the earthquake victims.

They are like the anpanman (red bean inside) but with chocolate on top. I also love how all the faces are totally different. Really cute and tasty! :)