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.
The last time I was in Shanghai, I had picked up a cold, and was in no condition to enjoy it. In fact, I really disliked Shanghai. Makes me sick, I grumbled. The air is filthy, I moaned. This time, I was prepared to spend a miserable week trying to survive the pollution and escape with my life (and so on, I was rather dramatic about it).
I was in Raffles City yesterday. It’s laid out very similarly to Raffles City in Singapore. There was a Bread Talk. There was a Bee Cheng Hiang. There was an Andersen’s of Denmark. If I was the homesick type, I would’ve been crying with joy at the little slice of Singapore CapitaLand had brought to the cosmopolitan city that is Shanghai.
In other news: coming from Xiamen, I feel like a country bumpkin visiting the big city for the first time. And I do feel a cold coming on, now that the trip is almost over.
MC: Their first album sold eight million copies and they’ve been touring ever since, this is their first time in China!
CJ: (whispers) Do you know who this band is?
Me: (whispers) Yes, they had a big hit seven years ago. Haven’t really heard anything much from them since then.
When I first heard the MC announce the superstar greatness that is Hanson during dress rehearsals, he said they were a hip hop group, so I wasn’t thinking of those three young lads of those heady Mmmbop! days. Who knows what these hip hop acts will name themselves these days, anyway. But then I was backstage on the day and saw the oldest boy in the dressing room.
Mmmmmmmbop! (da da, mmmmmmmbop!) shall follow them all the days of their lives, I think. At least in my mind it will.
They weren’t bad. The middle brother, the singer, still has a good voice. It’s adorable how he wiggles his leg as he concentrates on playing the piano. And he’s the only one who still has long hair.
It appears that model competitions are about seeing how many indignities a girl will suffer (with a smile and a jaunty cock of hip) in order to win a contract.
Thanks to Dan, his significant other, and their pal J, I had my first Xinjiang meal in an authentic Xinjiang restaurant in Shanghai last night.
Good Lord, they eat a lot of mutton in Xinjiang. The mutton barbecued on a skewer reminds me of satay. Just bigger. All the dishes were pretty big. Maybe everything’s bigger in Xinjiang.