• sat through a particularly pathetic charity auction / gala (but I was in the same room as Posh Spice — oo-er!)
  • went to the Shanghai Museum (the one everyone goes to, too bad I’m not into cultural artifacts — a waste of 20RMB)
  • went to the Shanghai Museum of Natural History (best 5RMB I’ve ever spent!)
  • had dinner with Dan, his girlfriend Bliss, and another couple at People 7 (small food, fancy presentation)
  • had drinks at Big Bamboo (these big city people have shuffleboard in their bars — Shanghainese sure know how to party)
  • had french fries (seriously) at Cotton’s
  • wandered around an old Shanghai neighbourhood with original colonial-style tenements (see Dan’s photos from the day; my own will be uploaded when I get back to Xiamen)
  • sat by the fire with O’Malley’s meat pie, chips, and baked beans (and had a mini blogger meetup — Dan met Phil for the first time)
  • made a final pass through Xiangyang Market (Phil is a wizard at bargaining)
  • had tea, borscht, and good conversation at Phil’s favourite local coffeeshop

I return to Xiamen tomorrow (God willing). I’ve definitely come down with another cold — this time I blame the drastic change in temperature every time I walk into a building. Dan and Bliss have been extremely welcoming and fantastic (fabulous, baby) about showing me the city (I have seen the new toilet seat!), Phil has, as always (if meeting him twice counts) been a fascinating conversationalist (and also finding good food).

I’m glad they were around to show me their Shanghai. Cheers, guys.