Catshanghai

I heard a funny story over the weekend about European exporters copying a Shanghai based fashion designer.
We enjoyed hearing our friend Cho Cho tell us about a European customer who bought some of her clothes from her shop. Cho Cho runs the Neither Nor label and she has a few shops in and near Changle [...]

I passed out in Century Avenue Metro Station on Sunday afternoon after feeling light headed.
I’m not sure what triggered the episode. We had been walking around Century Park on a fresh autumn day whereas the metro station was piping hot, stuffy air. I had little warning. After feeling a little weak and light headed, I [...]

Here are some choices for English language short form television in China:
1. Terrestrial TV Channels
CCTV 9 is China’s state sponsored English language news and cultural programmes. Nothing here will rock the boat with Beijing and it has the distinction of hosting the most tedious TV show to have ever graced the airwaves - ‘Dialogue’
ICS is [...]

I have just finished Hsiao-Hung Pai’s compelling, but disturbing account of Chinese immigrant workers in the UK. Reading this book made me ashamed of my country and made me feel about the ugly face of globalisation.
According to Hsiao-Hung there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese people working in the UK without legal status. They are [...]

We have exciting news. Jenny is pregnant. Our first baby will be born in Shanghai next May.
I have been reticent about making this news public. Many western couples only tell people after twelve weeks. After the first trimester the pregnancy will become more obvious and the couple can be more confident that the baby is [...]

Our appartment was flooded after a badly fitted bathroom pipe snapped at the end of August.
The water gushed out during the early hours of the morning while we were sleeping. It was a shock to be woken by a knock at the door and a realisation that the floor was covered in 4mm of turgid [...]

I live in Puxi but I need to get to my school in Kangqiao, Pudong. Here are my realistic commuting choices.
I could ride a bicycle for 20 minutes before boarding a company bus that takes me to school. It’s a good workout that increases my heart rate without having to find a spare hour to [...]

We continue to enjoy Shanghai with my Mum.
Today we went to Red Town, Moganshan Lu’s art studios and on the Pudong side overlooking the Huangpu River.
Much of Shanghai is closed during the first week of October to celebrate the 59th anniversary or The Communists seizing power in 1949. Red Town’s sculpture space was closed, [...]

We’ve just come back from a relaxing two day trip in Nanjing, staying at Dongjiao State Guesthouse. It is quite an elegant hotel with rooms at 458 RMB a person, although breakfast and meals are extra. There is a swimming pool and hot spa area, but there is not very much to do there. We [...]

It’s been a busy few month and my blog has become derailed. I have been meaning to get back on track, but I have lost focus while I have also got out of the habit and routine of writing blog posts.
At the beginning, I wanted to write about life in Shanghai, as well as [...]