Going home!

Today started at a "sparrow's fart" in the morning - 5am. I braved the icy cold temperatures and ran to the bathroom for a quick shower however I had to wait about 10 minutes for the water to get hot - not good when it's freezing outside!

Sue, Mark and Sam were up by the time I headed downstairs (Sam had been sleeping in Sue and Mark's bed for the past two nights!). I thanked Sam for letting me use his bed and he promptly told me that I should have slept on the floor - ok then!

Mark was kind enough to drive Sue and I to the airport as Sue also had an 8am flight to head back to Australia to see her Dad who is not well. Once checked in, we headed to Starbucks for a caffeine hit and some breakfast before heading through passport control to do some duty free shopping. I got stuck behind some Korean tour group so it took me forever to get through customs but eventually I caught up with Sue.

After shopping, we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways (although we were both flying to Hong Kong). The first slight was pretty uneventful (and better than expected as it was with Air China) and the transit through Hong Kong went smoothly. They even had a board with my name on when I got off the plane to show me where I needed to go to pick up my next boarding pass - efficient huh?

I didn't have a lot of time between flights so by the time I got through the security check, I just had enough time to walk through one of the shops before heading to the boarding gate to board the plane.

The Cathay Pacific plane was pretty crappy and old (they still had the ashtrays in the armrests). I organized a bulkhead seat but still could not stretch my legs out as there was not enough room. Other than that, the flight was very uneventful until just before we began our descent. The stewardess came around to offer everyone a last drink. Some how, she managed to drop an entire glass of water into my lap and onto my iPod. I was so shocked I just sat there! She quickly ran to get me some paper towel. I felt so bad for her and she couldn't apologize enough.

Now I'm writing today's blog as I sit on the KLIA Ekspres train. I can't wait to get home and see Ross and Black and Blue again!

As you can see from the photo, I made it home after 20 days away. In that time I had been to:

• Doha
• Bahrain
• Shanghai
• Beijing

A fun trip and it was great to catch up with everyone! Sondra, Caroline, Pascal in Doha. Alisha and Elyse in Bahrain. Glynis and Kevin in Shanghai and Sue and Mark in Beijing. I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to travel around and keep in touch with my friends. What a way to start 2009!

Relaxation

Today was another relaxing day. I chilled on the couch while Sue continued to unpack until lunchtime. Sue and Mark's friends, Kath and Elliot, and their kids (triplets!) dropped by to see the new place so we chatted with them for a while and ate the cookies that Kath baked. When Mark got back from IKEA, Sue and I headed to Starbucks to use the internet to finalize our flights and then on to Dragonfly for a bit of pampering.

At Dragonfly, Sue and I both had a manicure and pedicure followed by a full body massage - tough life :-). We walked out of there looking more beautiful and feeling more relaxed.

From there we headed home and caught up with Jack, Sam and their mate Clio. Mark had been busy organizing the garage and the study including the wireless internet. Sue and I walked over to the Chinese restaurant to order dinner for the boys and ourselves while Mark headed off to play soccer.

Although not normally a fan of Chinese food, the food we ordered - all vegetarian - was excellent. Clio's Dad, Michael dropped around after dinner to check out the new place so we had a couple of beers while chatting with him and mostly trying to arrange a set-up between him and a girl that we met on Saturday night, Daphne - we'll see how that goes :-)

By this stage I was exhausted again and knowing that tomorrow would be an early start to catch my 8am flight, I headed to bed for my last night sleeping in Sam's bed. Poor kid - think he will be happy to see the back of me as he hasn't even had a chance to move into his room yet!

Half day

Well, today wasn't a full day by any means. By the time I managed to surface it was almost 1pm. Sue and I were both pretty hung over. Poor Mark had been up to 1am with the removalists so he wasn't too sympathetic to our pain - and rightly so!

Sue and I headed to Hungry Horse for some food to try and aid our recovery. Then the rest of the day was pretty much spent on the couch watching TV including a great Aussie movie called "No Worries".

Not such a protective day. As you can see from the photo, Lucy the dog made photo of the day because not much else went on :-)

Roped into moving boxes

Moving day at Mark and Sue's. Conveniently (for them!), I had arrived in Beijing just in time to help Sue and Mark move from their place to another villa in Capital Paradise. After breakfast at "Steak and Eggs" (yes, that is the name of the restaurant), we spent the morning transfering boxes from one house to another and unpacking as much as we could while waiting for the removalists (aka Chinese guys with a truck) to arrive at 2pm. As you can see from the photo, Sue took the unpacking very seriously with dodgy sunglasses on and red wine in hand!

By about 7pm they had done about 3 loads of furniture with a couple more to go. Sue and I headed over to the hairdresser for a wash and blowdry before going out. Mark was kind enough to stay at the house to finish with the removalists while Sue and I jumped in a cab and headed downtown for dinner with some of Sue and Mark's friends ("The Irish").

We went to a Thai restaurant called "Purple Haze" which had amazing food and a good atmosphere. Sue's friends, Dell and Glen, and some of their friends were already at the restaurant. It was a pretty interesting bunch of people, especially the two Claudia's (Polish Klaudia and Mexican Claudia). Klaudia was a professional table tennis player when she was 14 in Poland and came to Beijing when she was 15 on an exchange scholarship to train with the Chinese national team (a Chinese football player went to Poland and she came here). So she's been here for 14 years and speaks fluent Mandarin. Unfortunately, she was badly injured so could not continue but went to University here in Beijing - interesting story!

Dell's husband and one of the other guys in the group run a bar called "The Stumble Inn" where we headed to after dinner. Glen was leaving the Stumble to manage another bar just around the corner from the restaurant so this was his last night. The Stumble Inn was a little bar below ground level. Predominantly full of expats who seemed to know each other, it seemed like a pretty groovy little bar.

We sat there for hours chatting with everyone, drinking and dancing. Sue's friend Dell reminded me alot of our friend Dee - it was kind of spooky.

Before we knew it, it was 5am and we were "stumbling" out of the Stumble Inn to try and find a cab to go home. A funny night!

Shanghai to Beijing

This morning I woke up after a horrible night with indigestion/ food poisoning. Not a good start to the day :-(. I organized my stuff, took some Imodium and headed off with Glynis to the Service Center to organize a taxi to take me to the Maglev station. After saying goodbye to Kevin and Glynis, I took the train to the airport, checked in my bag and headed to the boarding gate to try and recover as well as catch up a bit on my blog.

After a pretty painless flight, I landed in Beijing and despite a bit of miscommunication with the driver, I managed to make my way to Sue and Mark's school (Western Academy Beijing). Sue met me at the gate and we walked to Mark's room where she dropped me off until the end of the school day.

From there we headed to King's pub for a drink with a few of their friends to celebrate the start of their holidays. Sue and Mark had had a big night the day before so it was a quiet couple of drinks before heading home for take-away and foot massages - a great way to end the day.

I fell into bed exhausted!

Suzhou

Today began with check-up for Glynis at her doctor. Apparently Peanut may be making his/ her way into the world sooner rather than later! The doctor told Glynis that the baby would probably be born in two or three weeks - a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. She also gave Glynis the green light to travel to Suzhou.

After the check-up, we walked to the nearest metro station and made our way to the main train station to catch the train to Suzhou. At the main station, we managed to find our way to get tickets and they even had an English speaking counter. The tickets were dirt cheap - 15 RMB each. Once we had our tickets, we went to hang out at the waiting lounge with about a million other people (ok - a slight exaggeration) for an hour or so before the train was due to leave.

Although the train wasn't the fast train that we expected, it was only a 45 minute journey to Suzhou. Once we arrived, we spent a bit of time scouting out where we should go and how we should get there. Luckily we literally ran into a woman selling maps so we picked one up, headed to the taxi rank and made our way to the center of town.

After lunch, we decided to head to Tiger Hill - a monument and garden on the highest point of Suzhou. It was late afternoon by the time we arrived and the light and the temperature were just perfect for wandering around. It was really picturesque as you can see by the photo and definitely worth the visit.

We spent a few hours there and then tried to find a taxi back into town - easier said than done. There were a few taxis but they refused to take us into town as the traffic was too bad. Finally one taxi driver took pity on us and agreed to drop us near the center of town.

We forgot that most of the attractions closed at 5pm so not much was open by the time we got back into town. We wandered around a bit before getting tired and decided to try and get to the train station. We faced the same problem with taxis and ended up walking around for quite a while before one agreed to pick us up and take us to the station.

We had bought our return tickets already so it was just a matter of waiting an hour and a half before our train left at 7.20pm. We were all pretty tired so it was actually quite nice just to sit for a while after walking all day. This time, the train was a high-speed train so the journey back was a bit quicker. After negotiating the metro again, we ended up near Kevin and Glynis' place where we had a quick bite at Blue Frog before falling into bed exhausted after a great day.

Walking tour of Shanghai

This morning Glynis and I headed out in a taxi to downtown Pudong to do some shopping at the City Shopper store - a western style supermarket where you can buy all those small things like raisins, tahini, ravioli etc. Glynis and I trolled the aisles and then she headed off home by taxi and left me to continue on my way by myself.

I walked along the promenade close to the river. Because it was a clear and warm day, it was really enjoyable unlike the weekend when Ross had been in town. I took some great shots of the Oriental Pearl Tower and also across at the Bund before heading to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel which was an experience!

Once in the tunnel, I boarded a capsule and was subjected to a psychadlic light show while an English broadcast said random words like "Magma", "Fossils" - I guess the idea was that capsule was traveling through the layers of the earth. The journey only lasted about 2 minutes and was pretty lame but funny nonetheless.

From there, I thought I would try and walk along the Bund side of the river. I managed to find an underpass to the other side but when I got there it was absolutely packed with Chinese tour groups so I took a quick couple of photos and headed back to the other side of the road. I tried to find some of the buildings that the guide book suggested to take a look at but the construction was so bad that it became pretty impossible. I gave up and walked along Nanjing road to the subway.

From the subway, I headed to the French Concession Area getting off at the Changshu Road station. I surfaced from the metro and attempted to "feel" my way to Fuxing Road. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong way but I didn'twalk far before I worked this out. I backtracked and found my way to the intersection of Ulumuqui Road and Fuxing Road to start my little walking tour.

First stop was a tiny Tibetan store called "Sunlight". I managed to spend all of the Quai in my purse here on earrings and a necklace. I continued down Fuxing and headed down lane 37 to look at "Shanghai Trio" (Shop 8) - a small shop in a villa that was set up by three French expat women 10 years ago. They have beautifully made cloth bags, bed linen and are also bringing out a newborns line (which is actually why I went there to see if I could get something for Peanut). The lady in the store was lovely - she gave me juice and told me a little bit more about the business.

After leaving there, I headed back to Fuxing Road until I hit Songa Road. Here, I took a left and headed down the way to "Platane" - a groovy little homewares store. One of the owners is Australian which when plainly obvious when I came across a little koala made out of sheepskin. The funny thing about this toy was that he was completely flat! I just had to buy it for Glynis and Kevin's baby as well as some flash card type games in Mandarin about colours and numbers.

Back up to Fuxing Road and I wandered along looking a the various shops until I had come almost to the end of the road. I stumbled upon a little row of shops including a great homewares place and a groovy little cafe called Ginger. I stopped here for a late lunch of eggplant quiche and a fresh juice. It was beautiful sitting outside with the heaters and watching the other patrons (mostly French) and a few with their dogs.

Unfortunately, when I went to pay with my credit card, it didn't work and I didn't have any RMB left. The staff were really great and pointed me in the direction of the nearest ATM and trusted that I would return to pay the bill (which I did :-)).

From there, I headed back up to the Metro and got off at the nearest station to Xiantindi - Huangpi Road. I wandered into the Xiantindi area and sat outside at Kabb to enjoy a glass of sparkling wine while soaking up the remaining sunshine of the afternoon. I walked to the nearby park where many locals were out and about playing badminton, flying kites, excercising etc. The blossoms around the lake were in bloom and it was just beautiful to wander around and watch the world.

Across from the park is an antique market which I wandered through but didn't really have the motivation to buy anything. By this time, I had called Kevin and Glynis and Kevin said he would meet me at Jin Mao tower to make the most of the relatively clear day to check out the view from the observation deck. I caught the metro from Xiantindi and he left from their house and incredibly we stepped off our trains at the exact same time!

From the metro we walked to Jin Mao tower and bought an 88RMB ticket to get to the observation deck. The view was pretty good - much better than the other day at the Oriental Pearl Tower but we were pretty much done in 10 minutes. I had read about the Cloud 9 bar in the Hyatt hotel which is also in the Jin Mao tower so we headed all the way to the ground floor, changed lifts 4 times and headed up to the 87th floor Cloud 9 bar for a drink while watching the sun set over Shanghai.

This was a great place to see the view and would probably be where I would take visitors rather than the Oriental Pearl or the 88th floor observation deck. The bar was very groovy in dark wood, stainless steel and glass and followed the shape of the building - a bit like the shape of an Islamic star.

We finished our drinks and headed home to meet up with Glynis and order Thai takeout for dinner. It was a pretty early night as I was exhausted after a day walking around Shanghai - but what a great day!

Afternoon at 210 Taikang Road

Today we spent the morning relaxing until Glynis made me get off the couch and get ready to go swimming :-)

After our swim and lunch, we headed out in a taxi with Glynis and Kevin's friend Sanna to go to 210 Taikang Road which is an artsy district on the Puxi side of Shanghai.

The traffic was a bit nuts but eventually we got there. It was a great area to walk around and look in the little boutiques, art galleries and jewellery stores. It was also a really good place to take photos as the area was side-by-side Chinese residential areas so it was a real juxtaposition of modern and traditional.

After walking around for a while, we headed to Kommune Cafe for a drink. I was stoked to find Coopers Pale Ale on the menu! Kevin ordered the biggest hot chocolate I've seen. The photo is of the fish tank in the cafe which is full of Mao Zedong dolls :-)

Kevin and Sanna headed off and Glynis and I wandered around a bit more before heading back to the Kommune Cafe for some food. We then made our way to the nearest metro station which actually ended up being about a 20 minute walk. After a beautiful sunny day, by the late afternoon when we were walking to the metro it had really cooled down so we stopped at Starbucks so I could get a handwarmer commonly called a cappuccino.

Once we got to the metro, we realised that it was peak hour so the trains were super crowded. Luckily we only went two stops before changing lines and it was a bit quieter. We finally got home about 7.30pm. A great day!

A relaxing day

This morning we all woke up early to say goodbye to Ross as he travelled back to KL. I contemplated going back to bed after Ross left but instead pushed through and even did some exercise.

Glynis and I went swimming in the morning. I was amazed that Glynis at 8 months pregnant was able to swim for 35 minutes without taking a break! My body was stiff and sore so I had to stop every few laps to stretch - a sign of getting older I guess.

After our swim and a shower, we waited for Kevin to come home from Mandarin lessons before having lunch and then we all headed out to Shanghai Science and Technology Mueum. We didn't actually go to the museum, instead we went to the market underneath to look for some bargains. Kevin took the opportunity to practice his Mandarin with the stall holders while Glynis and I looked around the shops. Actually, Kevin ended up buying more stuff than Glynis and I which is quite surprising considering he doesn't like shopping :-).

In the first stall, we ended up arguing with the woman who was not happy with our bargaining. Kevin and I went to do the walk-out but Glynis felt bad so she went back in and paid her asking price. Really, in the end, we were haggling over 2 dollars.

The photo shows Kevin haggling with another stall holder over a back-pack. I don't think the stall holder was too impressed with me taking his photo.

After a couple of hours at the markets we were exhausted so we headed back home and to Starbucks. We spent the evening trying to watch Michael Clayton but we were all too tired. We'll have to finish it tomorrow...

Old Shanghai

Glynis made us a fantastic breakfast of pancakes, hot cross buns, fruit and yoghurt before we headed out to see some more sights of Shanghai on Ross' last day.

We jumped in a taxi and headed to Yuyuan Gardens in Old Shanghai. Being Sunday, it was completely over run with tourists (almost all of whom were Chinese). We wove our way through the markets to the center where the entrance to the gardens can be found.

The gardens were beautiful, definitely worth a visit. We wandered through the snaking pathways for an hour or so before fighting our way back through the crowds to Starbucks (yes, they are everywhere). After relaxing for a while over our coffees, we braved the crowds again and headed in a taxi to Xiantindi or French Concession area of Shanghai for lunch.

Again it was pretty busy but we managed to find a spot at Luna to eat. After a great lunch accompanied by a couple of beers (or a rum and coke if your name was Kevin!), we walked up the street to catch the metro home.

In the afternoon, the boys headed back to the massage parlour to get back and shoulder rubs. They were a little disappointed that they were in separate rooms this time! Meanwhile, Glynis made banana bread and began getting dinner ready.

After a great dinner of pork chops, we chatted for a while before heading to bed, tired and happy from another great day in Shanghai.

Tourists in Shanghai

This morning we had a relatively slow, relaxed start to the day. About 10am we headed to Blue Frog for breakfast then headed to Pudong to visit the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium and the Oriental Pearl Tower.

The aquarium was surprisingly good. We lost Glynis for a while but found her by the penguins :-). After wandering through the exhibits and going on the travellator under the huge aquarium, we headed up to Cold Stone Creamery for some icecream.

Next up was the Oriental Pearl Tower. While the boys bought our tickets, Glynis and I read the safety sign which as it's first rule included the following:

"The ragamuffin, drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower."

Gotta love bad English translation! Although I am not too sure exactly what they were trying to say.

After having a good chuckle at the sign, we headed inside. First stop was the 263m observation deck. It was a bit of a smoggy day so the view wasn't great but at least we could see the tall buildings down town and the river. Into another lift then up to the Space Capsule at 350m for a slightly different view.

In each lift that we got into, we were greeted by a young Chinese girl who gave us a brief outline of the tower. I can't say any of the girls were enjoying their jobs and their English was limited to their memorized speech - we tried to ask them some questions but got no response. :-)

After the Space Capsule, the next lift took us to the 295m observation deck which was kinda cool because at least you could get outside. From there, it was another lift to the ground floor. They really made you go through the ropes as there was no way to simply get down from the top!

By the end of the Tower experience, we were all pretty exhausted. We headed home, Glynis and I had naps while the boys headed to a massage parlour down the round for foot rubs. Although we had intended to go to one of the fancy restaurants on the Bund for dinner, we were all a little tired so we walked down the road to a Tapas bar which was great. On the way home, we stopped outside Green Court where a lady had set up her stall on the side of the road selling DVDs. Ross and I went a bit nuts buying DVDs to take home.

Once up in the appartment, we watched a bit of TV then headed off to bed just in time to listen to an awesome thundrestorm that moved over the top of the apartment.

Ross comes to Shanghai

This morning was an early start as I went to meet Ross at the airport. I woke up at 5.45am and walked outside to catch a cab to the train station about 6.10. After all the fussing about the night before trying to find the Chinese characters for the Maglev train station, I simply jumped in and said "Maglev" - who would have thought it would have been that easy!

At the station, the gates weren't even open yet as the first train was leaving at 6.45am. So I avoided the taxi touts who were trying to convince me there was no train and waited with the bus load of Chinese that had just been dropped off. The gates opened and I headed to the ticket booth, lined up with everyone else to have their bags scanned and then headed up to the station and boarded the train.

The ride out was a bit slower than last time - only 300 km/hr. I arrived at the airport, walked from the station to the terminal just as Ross text me to say he was out of customs. It worked out perfectly as I arrived just after 7am. It was so great to see Ross again!

We boarded the train, got off at the station, got in a taxi and headed back to Glynis and Kevin's place. We dropped off Ross' bag and went across to Slice for a cooked breakfast. From there, we jumped in a cab and headed to the Metro. Ross and I travelled into East Nanjing Road for a walk to Renmin Square. It was a glorious day - better than when I was last in there on Wednesday.

Once in Renmin Square, we wandered around for a while and then finally found the Shanghai Museum. The photo above is of Ross and I in front of the museum. They had some pretty interesting exhibits including jade carving, Chinese calligraphy, sculptures, furniture, and Chinese seals. We spent and hour or so wandering amogst the exhibits before we both hit the wall and headed home for lunch at Blue Frog followed by a nap.

By the time we woke up, Glynis was home, shortly followed by Kevin. We spent some time catching up over a beer before their friends James and Sanna joined us to go out for dinner. We headed out to the Indian Kitchen across the road where the food was good accompanied by Kingfisher beer. After dinner we wandered down the road to Big Bamboo, a local bar for a final beer before heading home.

A quiet day in Shanghai

This morning I spent organizing and uploading photos, checking email and Facebook before I finally got organized to do something just before midday.

I walked to Carrefour and picked up some supplies to cook Green Chicken Curry and also a local SIM card. I stupidly wore my new shoes which ripped the skin off my heels so I pretty much hobbled home!

After cooking the curry and changing my shoes, I headed down to the service center to get a taxi out to the Shanghai American School (SAS) where Glynis and Kevin teach. One of the staff from the service center checked with the female taxi driver to make sure she knew where she was going. So we headed off...

All was going well for about 35 minutes. Then I spied a look of doubt in the driver's eyes. We pull over to the side of the road, check the GPS again (yes, she had a GPS!), make about 3 phone calls and still she is not looking confident.

Another U-turn and she pulls the taxi up next to a truck with the windsheild blown out and asked a couple truck drivers if they know the way - no luck. So as a final resort, she gets out, flags down a car on the highway and asks him for directions. Luckily for the taxi driver, this bloke knew where we were going. He even let the taxi follow him all the way to the front gates of the Golf Course (yes, the school is in the middle of a golf course!).

Ironically, as we were following this guy, 15 school buses turned into the road and surprise, surprise, guess where they were going! We could have just followed them.

Anyway... I finally get to the school just in time to meet Glynis before she has to head to the auditorium to listen to some guy talk about "Best Friend - Worst Enemy". So we sat there listening to him for an hour which was actually OK because it was funny to hear the middle-schooler's comments.

After the talk, Glynis took me on a quick tour around the school - amazing facilities! We grabbed our stuff from her room, said a quick hi to Janna whom I worked with in kuwait (although she didn't remember me) and then headed to the bus for the trip home.

We dropped our stuff off and headed to Starbucks for a coffee before heading home. The evening was spent on the couch watching American Idol. I also managed to give my high school best friend Sally a call who works at the other campus of SAS as a middle school music teacher. I hadn't spoken to her for 11 years and it was great to speak with her again. Unfortunately she's heading off to the US tomorrow so we won't get to catch up this time. She's moving to Hanoi so who knows, we may get to catch up.

I also spent some time trying to figure out how to ask for a taxi to the Maglev train station so I can get there to pick up Ross tomorrow. Not as easy as it sounds!

Exploring Shangers

Today I headed out to brave the metro to visit downtown Shanghai. After being dropped off on the side of the road at Shanghai Science and Technology Museum by the taxi and being a little unsure of where I was, I managed to fend off the market stall vendors to find my way to the metro station.

Once on the train, it was pretty easy to navigate my way around. I got out at Nanjing Road East and wandered down the pedestrian mall looking in a few shops and generally taking in the sights. Even in the city center I had to fend off dodgy traders trying to convince me to come to their store for "sunglass, bag, watch".

At the end of the road, I went through the underpass and into Renmin (People's) Square. On my stroll around the park, I came across this group of men gambling - not uncommon at all in China.

I then headed to MoCA, the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a small museum but an interesting one with alot of multimedia installations as well as some sculptures and paintings. One of my favorite pieces included a scale model of some of Shanghai's architectural landmarks made out of scrap metal and car parts.

From there I headed to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. Although it sounds pretty dull, it was actually pretty cool. The highlight was the scale model of the whole of Shanghai. The model showed every building in Shanghai and also others expected to be completed by 2020. There was also an exhibition on the World Expo to be held in Shanghai next year. The mascot, Haibao, could be seen everywhere in the city.

After a bit more wandering around the park, I finally found the Shanghai Art Museum. What I loved about this museum was that although there were signs everywhere saying that you couldn't take photos it seemmed that everyone ignored that rule so I jumped on board with everyone else and took some photos of my favorite pieces. The museum was pretty small but I definitely liked alot of the pieces.

By this time I was pretty hungry so I headed to a little cafe called Barbarossa's in the middle of the park. Normally the view of the surrounding lake would be lovely but obviously they are doing a bit of maintenance so the lake was drained but the food was good as was the atmosphere.

I was pretty much museumed out by this time so I started to wander back across the park and up Nanjing Road back to the metro station. After a quick trip back to Shanghai Science and Tech museum, I jumped in a cab and headed back to Glynis and Kevin's place.

When Kevin got home, we walked to the nearest metro so he could show me the way for next time. It was amazing the difference from their side of the main road to the other. One is expat central and the other is Little China where we were the only white faces. Once we got back, we had dinner and chilled out watching American Idol. Kevin managed to break into my camera so I am happy to be able to put all my photos online.

First day in Shanghai

I woke up around 8am this morning, got out of bed, had some breakfast, checked some emails and by about 10am I was sleepy again! I had another nap until about 12 before thinking I really should get out and do something today.

I walked across the road from Glynis and Kevin's place to the Dragonfly Spa and booked myself in for a half hour shoulder, neck and head massage and a 1 hour foot massage - it was heaven!! It was just what I needed as I think all the travel recently has caught up with me. (That and a few night's out interpretive dancing!).

After the massage, I walked around the shops for a while before heading to Starbucks to pick up a coffee and head home for lunch. I realaxed and watched a bit of TV before thinking that I really should head to the gym as it had been several days.

I got changed into my gym gear, procrastinated some more and was still sitting on the couch when Kevin got home at 5pm! I forced myself to get up and ran for 25 minutes or so which actually felt really good.

Glynis and I headed across the road to Slice for dinner - pumpkin and goat's cheese lasagna for me and beef pie with mash potato for G. Meanwhile Kevin headed off to Mandarin lessons. After dinner we headed home with a caramel slice in hand to have with a cup of tea as we planned what I would get up to tomorrow.

Traveling to Shanghai

Today I spent most of the day on a plane flying to Shanghai. As soon as I boarded, I tucked my blanket in, got my eye shades out and plugged my Bose headphones into my iPod. Once we hit cruising altitude I was pretty much asleep and didn't wake up again until about 1 and half hours before we landed.

Everything went smoothly at the airport and I sat in the bar waiting for Glynis and Kevin to meet me. I ordered some lunch and called Ross and while I was speaking to him, I realized that I had left one of my bags on the carosel. I went back through the staff entrance and sure enough it was there sitting on the ground.

I didn't have to wait long until G & K arrived. We then headed to the Maglev train for the journey back to their place. The train was amazing and hit 420 km/hr! Shame the ride only lasted 10 minutes. From the train it was a quick taxi ride to their apartment block - Green Court.

We spent the evening catching up before Kevin headed out to his Mandarin lessons and Glynis and I headed over to Starbucks. We all fell into bed about 9.30pm.

Recovery day in Doha

After getting in from Bahrain late last night, I took the opportunity to sleep-in today. Sondra, Jess and Steph all relaxed too and once we were up we managed to make our way to the couch to watch mindless TV for hours before feeling the need to take another nap in the afternoon!

5 days of going out, sitting in the sun and little sleep had finally caught up with me. After my second nap :-) we headed to Villagio for a bit of pampering. We all booked in for manicures and I have to say that it wasn't the best that I have had. As I am typing today my fingers are sore!

We headed to Spaghetto's for dinner (Steph's favorite restaurant!) before heading home for a bit more relaxing on the couch. Sondra was kind enough to take me to the airport about 9.30pm for my flight to Shanghai. I spent the next couple of hours before my flight checking my email and writing a press release for the netball tournament.

I boarded the flight and promptly fell asleep...

Finals

It was a bit of a rough start to the morning being hungover and sleep deprived. Sondra and I managed to drag ourselves to breakfast and onto the bus ready for a day of finals. From the day before, we pretty much knew that we wouldn't get much game time today as the A-team girls were just awesome together so we spent the morning being water girls and helping out Agnes where we could.

The girls did really well and won their first game against Abu Dhabi B convincingly. Abu Dhabi A was the next team they played and probably the first time the shooters on our team really faced some stiff defence. Unfortunately the girls lost this semi-final game but not by much. This meant that they went into the play-off between 3rd and 4th place.

They played an awesome game with Bahrain A to come away with 3rd place. The Doha B team came 4th in the plate final and Doha Youth won the Bowl so overall it was an incredibly successful year for Qatar!!!

Elyse and Alisha came back to the rugby club to watch some of the games and catch up so we spent the afternoon together which was nice. Everyone was pretty much exhausted but the post-game adrenalin kept us going for a couple of hours so we enjoyed a few drinks together before heading back on the buses for the airport.

For some reason when I checked in they gave me an airport lounge pass so Agnes and I headed up there for a bit of quiet time before boarding. We got home about 11.30pm - exhausted but happy!!

First day of the comp

After an early start and a quick breakky, we jumped on the bus and headed to the rugby club where the tournament was being held. As usual, the facilities were great and we set up camp in our tent.

Today we were playing 6 games which started with the Bahrain Youth team. After a good warm-up and some ball drills, we headed to the courts for the first match. I sat the first half off and then went on as GK for the second half. It ended up being a pretty easy first match.

The day continued with 5 more games, each of which the team won reasonably easily placing them at the top of their pool. Between games I managed to catch up with Elyse and Alisha and also watch the Doha Youth and Doha B teams play. It was a pretty good day of netball all up although I only played one game.

In the evening, we had the netball dinner. We arrived about 1/2 an hour after it started and couldn't even get a table which was a bit shitty considering we had all paid money to be there. When they finally did find us a table, we were stuck right up the back, there was hardly any food left and we couldn't hear a thing. But we made the most of it by having a couple of drinks and then heading out to the dance floor. It was nice to spend some time getting to know the girls on the team - a great, fun bunch who are awesome at playing netball to boot!

About 10pm Elyse met up with us and Sondra, Phil, Elyse and I left the girls and headed out to JJs for a bit of dancing and a couple more drinks. It was a blast! We headed home about 3am for a quick 3 hours of sleep!!!

Heading to Bahrain

Today, Sondra, Phil and I spent the morning running around doing last minute things for netball including picking up the bibs, going to the tailors, buying a couple of last minute things and stuffing kit bags.

Sondra and I headed off to the airport about 12pm to meet up with the teams at 1pm. It was nice to see some familiar faces again and also meet some new ones. This was the first time I met most of the players on my team. Like last year, Sondra gave a speech and the airport and handed out the badges and other bits and pieces to the teams before we boarded the plane.

As you can see from the photo, the tradition of landing hats continued this year i.e. taking the pillowcase off the pillow and putting it on your head! Agnes, Mel and Sondra are featured in this photo and were all girls I played on a team with in Doha before I left.

Everyone was pretty excited to get to Bahrain and it was nice to get to there early in the afternoon so we could relax, enjoy the champagne welcome drinks and mingle with the other teams. Elyse came to the hotel to meet up with me and we caught up over dinner and a few drinks before I headed to Fiddlers to meet up with the rest of the girls.

It was a reasonably early night and we hit the hay by about 10pm in readiness for the big day tomorrow.

First day in Doha

So 7 and a half hours later and I am back in the land of dust and dishdasha's. Sondra and Phil picked me up from the airport before 6am (how nice is that!) and we headed to Rick's for breakfast. Sondra caught me up on all the netball going's on.

We headed back to their place to drop all my stuff off and then headed out for the day to run some last minute errands for the netball trip to Bahrain.

After dropping of kit bags to Wendy at Doha College, we headed to City Center so Sondra could get some new trainers and some other bits and pieces. The photo to the right is taken looking down at the ice-rink. I thought it was hysterical that some kids were trying to ice skate in a dish-dash!

After finishing there, we tried a few stores for gag items for each of the teams. Doha A are the mafia and hence have guns (albeit water guns!). Doha B are "Little Miss" characters and have hot pink feather boas. Doha Youth are pirates and have eye patches. Now it may sounds pretty easy to find water guns, feather boas and eye patches but this is Doha so it took a visit to seven stores to find it all!

Sondra, Phil and I spent the afternoon making up names for each player's name tag - not that easy! After some creative thinking, we managed to get one for each of the 36 players. We left Jess and Steph the task of printing and cutting out the tags while Phil, Sondra and I headed out to the Irish Harp at the Sheraton Hotel for dinner and a couple of drinks.

Pascal and Caroline met up with us there. Pascal and I spent most of our time catching up on events at work over a couple of glasses of red. Caroline arrived later and it was great to hear news. Sondra and I headed home about 10.30pm and left Phil with his mate who continued drinking until 2am.

I fell into bed and slept like a log.

New netbook and packing

Today I headed back to the gym after a few days absence. After a quick shower, I headed to Pavillion for some breakfast at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on my way to Low Yat to purchase a netbook.

After all my research yesterday, I could only find one of the three netbook models that I was interested in. I did come across a new model I had only briefly read of, the ASUS Eee PC S101H. It was certainly the thinnest netbook I looked at and definitely the prettiest with Swarovski crystals on the hinges, brushed champagne metal and high gloss black.

Despite it's good looks, it actually had all the features I was looking for plus a free memory upgrade to 2GB. The only criticism is that it only came with a 3-cell battery but I will purchase a 6-cell soon. With the 3-cell, it is still supposed to last 5 hours - I will put that one to the test.

It's probably pretty obvious I purchased the pretty netbook! As you can see from the photo it is quite a bit smaller than our other laptop!

I walked home from Low Yat and Ross came home for lunch. I then spent 5 hours trying to decide what to pack. This may seem extreme but I had to drag all my winter clothes out of storage, try them on to see if they fit, drag out my closed toe shoes and then decide what to pack for a 3 week stay in Doha, Bahrain, Shanghai and Beijing taking into account all the different weather conditions. I ended up with one large suitcase which is full but at least I didn't have to take two. I also have my carry on bag with a bit of room for a bit of shopping.

Ross dropped me off at Sentral train station to catch the train out to KLIA. So I am writing this on my new netbook while sitting in the lounge at KLIA waiting for my flight to Doha.

Public holiday recovery

Ross and I spent today recovering from the activities of the past few days. We woke up at 10, had breakfast and tried to tidy up the house which looked like a bit of a bomb site.

Other than that, we pretty much spent the day on the couch watching TV and reading. Ross managed to summon up enough energy to go to the gym but I however did not :-(

I made zucchini loaf which went well with a cup of tea for lunch. I also did a lot of research on netbooks today and will hopefully go and buy one tomorrow.

I also made a roasted vegetable and cous cous salad which we enjoyed with our (far too expensive for what they were!) steaks for dinner. As you can see from the photo, Black and Blue decided that they would also sit at the table.

A pretty quiet day. I also have start thinking about packing for my trip tomorrow...

Happy Birthday Ross!

Although Ross' birthday celebrations really started last night at midnight, his birthday "day" started by me waking him up at 6am. OK, this may not sound like much of a birthday so far but I planned to take Ross on an early morning hike so we could watch the sunrise from the top of a ridge overlooking the city. Champagne breakfast included in the deal.

However, due to the festivities of the night before, we were both a bit rough and struggled to function too quickly. I packed up the backpack with all the essentials (including last minute additions of Berocca and Nurofen) and then we headed out in the car.

I had a vague idea of where we were heading so set the GPS to where I thought we should be. It was still dark and we ended up past Zoo Negara (the National Zoo) winding our way up an ever narrowing road towards the ridge. We passed through a tiny kampung (village) which was pretty cool in the pre-dawn mist.

After deciding this wasn't the place we were supposed to be, I reset the GPS to another local. This time I had it right and we ended up at the Klang Gates Dam in Taman Melawati where the trek up to Bukit Tabur begins.

Because we took a slight detour before getting there, it was now well past sunrise but still early (and cool) enough. We followed a few other people up the near vertical path to the top of the ridge. It was magnificent! The ridge itself is made out of quartz crystal and the trail gives you views of the Klang Gates Dam and also a great view of the city. As you can see from the photo, we took some time up the top to soak in the view. I would like to say it was also serene but a very "chirpy" university group were also climbing the ridge this morning.

Neither of us felt like breakfast (let alone champagne!) so we sucked down the water and recovered from our hangovers from the night before. After the climb down, we headed home and felt pretty good about ourselves that we managed to do all this before 9am considering our delicate condition.

That being said, we hit the shower and then fell back into bed. I gave Ross his present (Shure Sound Isolating headphones and a bottle of 2002 Petaluma Shiraz) and the present that Ann gave him before we soundly fell asleep. I didn't surface again until 1pm!

I had organized a masseuse to come to the house for an hour and a half massage for Ross at 2pm so by the time he came out of that he looked pretty relaxed! We spent the afternoon relaxing on the couch before heading off to dinner at the revolving restaurant at Menara KL (KL Tower).

We picked Jason up at his hotel and headed out there. It was quite the experience! Beautiful views but it was completely full of tourists (no surprise) and families with toddlers. The tourists were pushing past everyone's tables to get the best views for their photos and the toddlers were running around and shrieking - not exactly the quiet dinner I had planned! The food was ok but nothing to rave home about. So basically I would say it is a good place to go for the view of KL at night but not really the place for a quiet or romantic dinner.

Jason, Ross and I headed to the bar downstairs in Starhill Gallery for a cocktail before walking home. I think Ross had a pretty good birthday all up :-)

What a day!

Today was an interesting day. It started relatively slow with brunch over The Apartment at KLCC where Ross and I met up with Jason. After coffee at Starbucks we took the train out to Chinatown to show Jason around then onto Low Yat for a bit of shopping. It absolutely poured down so we had to brave the rain as we were walking. Ross and Jason were soaked. I had an umbrella :-)

By this time it was 6pm so we decided to head to the Bavarian Beirhaus for dinner and a cold beer after all our walking. Brian joined us an we sat there for hours drinking beers and yacking. Before we knew it, it was after midnight and therefore Ross' birthday! The bartenders bought us a round of Jaigermeister shots just to help us on our way (actually, I think they were hoping that this would get rid of us as we were the last ones there and they wanted to close!).

On our walk home, we realised that they had shut the road and that a film crew was set up. We had stumbled into a scene for the movie "KL Drift II". So we stood of the footpath with the rest of the crowd and watch as two hotted up cars drove down the road and T-boned each other! It was quite impressive. We then watched the shot on the director's replay. The yellow car was completely side-swiped - pretty cool!

As we turned the corner, the police had their bikes blocking the road so I asked one if I could take a photo of Ross sitting on his bike because it was his birthday. As you can see from the photo, he let us which was nice. We continued the walk home. Brian went off to bed and Jason came up for a nightcap before heading back to his hotel. A very random day :-)

Catching up with friends in KL

This morning I headed out of the city to pick up my friend Julia for netball. We squeezed in a quick coffee before we went to the courts. It was a pretty good game today with it flowing pretty fast.

As usual we headed out for breakfast at The Blue Cow Cafe (which is really Fogal's) and I met a couple of new girls, Lesley from Sydney and Lovie from Auckland. It's always nice to meet new people. Lesley is new to KL and Lovie has been in Malaysia for 9 years - an old timer!

After leaving the girls, I headed straight into Qatar Airways to sort out the mess that they had made with my tickets. Finally I think I had paid all my taxes and now have my tickets which is a good thing considering I leave Tuesday night!

A quick shower back home and I headed out to the International School of Kuala Lumpur to meet up with Tara. We had a quick look around the student's art exhibition and then headed back to our place. Tara was pretty exhausted from a busy few days at the Fine Arts Festival so we had a gin and tonic and kicked back on the couch to watch some TV.

Ross came home with his mate Jason who is in KL from Aberdeen. He used to work with Ross in Dubai and Jason and his wife Julie were our closest friends while we were there. So Tara, Jason, Ross and I enjoyed another beer for Tara and I headed over to KLCC for dinner and to look at the Galleri Petronas.

It was Tara's first time at a sushi train. We had a quick meal and then headed to some of the homeware shops and then onto the gallery. One of the exhibitions in particular, Human Watching, was really interesting.

Ross and Jason walked over to meet us and bring Tara's bags. We walked to the Concert Hall at the Petronas Towers where Tara was attending the concert of the music students. We dropped her off there and Ross, Jason and I headed across the road to Quattro.

We ended up at the Spring Lounge where they had a great band and really good atmosphere. It true kitchy Malaysian style, the bar has a walkway where it rains every hour on the hour. Ross had to brave the rain to get to the bathrooms but luckily, they provide umbrellas! We had a few jugs of beer and caught up on old times as it had been almost 7 years since we'd seen Jason. It was great catching up with him again - I forgot how funny our conversations are when we all get together!

On his wander back from the bathroom, Ross noticed a promotional sign for an event at the Autumn Nightclub - In Heat - which appears to be an S & M event! We were a bit surprised to find something like this in a mainstream bar in KL!

I remember back in the day when test-tube shooters were all the rage. Apparently now "injections" are the go. Although we didn't try them, it looks like they are over sized syringes full of alcohol with names like Viagra, Vicodin, Opium etc. Classic!

We left the bar about 11pm, dropped Jason off at the Nikko Hotel and Ross and I headed to the Hawker stalls opposite the hotel for some garlic naan and tandoori chicken. It was great catching up with friends again! One of the nice things about being in KL is that there is more chance that people will be dropping through. What fun!

Not much going on

Today, I didn't do too much. Again I procrastinated going to the gym but when I finally did get off the couch, I had a great workout.

I continued copying Tara and JBs DVDs and watched a fair bit of mindless TV. I also headed out to Great Eastern Mall to pick up a few more groceries and came across Schweppes Diet Tonic Water - a great find. Sad I know, but Malaysia does not seem to believe in diet soft drinks!

Ross came home from work and then headed out for a couple of beers with work mates. I did a bit of chatting with friends on Skype until he came home.

I managed to get some decent Fogel's sausages - Lamb and Rosemary - so we cooked them up with some good parmesan and herb mashed potato for dinner. A great meal. Not the most exciting day :-) The only photo I managed to take today was the one of Black sitting on the bar stool.

Have tickets... will travel

Well, despite waking up at a reasonable hour (8.30am) and getting ready to go to the gym, I couldn't work up the motivation to get there until just before 11. I phaffed about copying DVDs, watching the Asian Food Channel and eating breakfast. However, I did get there eventually :-)

My workout was followed by some more DVD copying and lunch. I then forced myself off the couch and head to the Pavillion to pick up Ross' birthday present and do some food shopping.

To my surprise, when I got back, Qatar Airways actually rang me to say that I could get on a flight and that my tickets were ready. But of course, I had to pay an extra US$25 to reauthorise my tickets. I headed back down to the car to brave the KL traffic to get to the office before closing time otherwise they would cancel them again.

I did pretty well at figuring out which roads to take given that most are one way. Once at Qatar Airways, they informed me that I would need to pay the fee today so that Doha could approve the tickets and come back tomorrow to pay the taxes. That would be three trips to get my tickets - I don't think so! I paid for everything and was told that my tickets would be emailed to me. Insha'allah!

Anyway, not much else happened today - watched American Idol, cooked chicken with tomato and mint salsa, more DVD copying and now I am watching a really bad movie, Bride and Prejudice. The photo is of my DVD copying set-up on the couch. I didn't want to sit in the office for hours on end so I moved everything into the lounge.

Errands

After staying up til 3.30am for some reason (copying DVDs and messing around on the computer!), I woke up around 10am. I headed to the Pavillion to have a look for some ideas for Ross' birthday present - lots of possibilities!

I popped into Yo Sushi! for some brunch. I love this restaurant, as any sushi train, it is quick and quite cheap but I like the cute coloured plates and the ambience of the place. The photo was taken as I was sitting by the train.

After this I walked down Bukit Bintang to Low Yat Plaza to pick up some more blank DVDs and a DVD holder. I wandered around looking at every level and saw some cool things that I may have to buy next time. Yes, it's sad but I just love technology! :-)

A quick pitstop at the Coffee Bean and I was on my way to Qatar Airways to pick up my tickets for Doha and Shanghai. When I got there, they told me the tickets had already been cancelled! I was so mad as I am supposed to leave next week. So "insha'allah" they will call me to say that everything is ok although I am wait listed on the flight to Doha. As long as I get there in time for the flight to Bahrain!

I walked home after this and have been spending the afternoon on the couch with the laptop on my knees burning DVDs. About 4pm, a huge storm started to roll in from behind the Petronus Towers. The forked lightning was amazing! I put some pics I took in the slideshow above.

So I guess this evening, I'll keep going on my DVDs and do some foraging for dinner. Back to the gym tomorrow!

Last day in Manila

Today was my last day with Tara, JB and Eddie in Manila. They all headed off to school early in the morning (Eddie included) and I slept in then packed up my stuff before watching Project Runway over breakfast and pilaging Tara and JBs DVD collection to copy.

I then jumped in a taxi with all gear and headed to the International School of Manila (ISM) to meet up with Tara and do a quick tour of the school before heading to the airport for my flight.

I caught up with Eddie one more time in the nursery where he spends the school day. It's a really nice set-up as Tara and JB can pop in any time when they have a free to see him.

JB and Eddie walked me to the front gate and foud me a taxi to take me to the airport. Everything was pretty standard from then on - dodgy airport food and coffee, waiting in airport seats, looking at shops. I did however like the sign in this photo - particularly the part about "Anyone cracking such jokes..." - brought a little smile to my face :-)

So after the 3 hour flight, the KLIA Express train and then a taxi, I am back home with Black and Blue. Ross is still in Bangkok until Wednesday.

It was great being in Manila and catching up with old friends again. It was nice to have time to meet and get to know Eddie too. Coincidentally, Tara is going to be in KL on Wednesday through Sunday for a fine arts thing at ISKL. So I'll get to see her again pretty soon!

The recovery!

What a day! today was spent in full recovery mode from last night. We woke up about 9am, tried to pull ourselves together by having a shower and some water. Ross had to pack as he was leaving for Bangkok today.

We all headed over to Mickey's Delicatessen for a greasy breakfast of sausages, potatoes and bacon pizza - just what the body needed. Fred and Sandy - JB and Tara's friends - also met up with us and were feeling as seedy as we were which made us feel better. Poor Eddie was a little confused why all the adults could hardly open their eyes and that they were finding it hard to keep up with him!

After brekky we sent Ross off to the airport in a taxi and headed back to the apartment for some quiet time. Tara and I took Eddie down to the pool for a little while and then dropped him off with dad while we went to Starbucks and to the spa affectionately called "Foot Spank" by the expats (due to the noise they make while they are massaging (thumping) your legs). Elizabeth and Sandy met us down there and we enjoyed an hour and a half of soaking, scrubbing, slicing, and massaging - perfect!

It was back to the hammock for me at Tara and JBs apartment after that for about an hour until the masseuse arrived for Tara and I. Sensational! This lady gave me the best full body massage with stretches and back crunches included - a great way to end the day.

Tara and I stayed up to watch "Doubt" which was a bit disappointing but nonetheless it put us in the mood for sleep. A good recovery day!