Friday night = Karaoke night in Yang Pu district (close to the office), or KTV as its known here.  The venue for our attempt was a building entirely full of 50+ “private” rooms solely dedicated to Karaoke, with an obscure mix of songs being belted out at top volume from room 636.  The Chinese guys don’t half love their power ballads – with some powerful singing to match.  Radiohead, The Killers and Robbie Williams’ interminable “Angels” of course sung by the British lot (the last one nowt to do with me).  Bronwen celebrated the return of her voice by nearly losing it again during “That’s not my name” by The Ting Tings (selected by her thoughtful husband).

A trip to the Shanghai Brewery and a strange little bar for a few games of late night pool with Bron and JB ended the evening; finally making it to bed just after 3am.

A return to Indian food took us to Vedas in Jing An with Rachel on Saturday night; probably the best Indian meal I’ve had in China, and with the most expensive bill.  To continue the expense, Rachel took us to The Apartment (modelled on a New York loft-style lounge, it says here in the blurb).   A particularly popular place for ex-pats with wall-to-wall bodies; fortunately we had access to a reserved seating area.  Reserved via the means of purchasing expensive drinks…  All-in-all a top night out, but the cashpoint beckons very soon.

But it’s not all about the pubs and bars in Shanghai, honest.  Thursday provided our second Chinese cooking experience, with spicy Eggplant being the highlight this time.  Despite its insipid sounding title, this was the dish most of us had been looking to try and recreate at home.  And tonight I think we’ll be giving it a go.

Today (Sunday), Bron and I visited an exhibition of arts and vintage clothing in a local charity event.  A cool, hippy sort of venue, ruined by the presence of many Westerners displaying the inexplicable habit of carrying small dogs as fashion accessories.  They’re dogs.  They have legs.  They are not handbags, babies or muppets.  I know you’re very fond of your pets, but please put them on the bloomin’ floor; let them walk, sniff, do whatever it is that dogs do.  Or buy a fluffy toy instead.

We may have stopped off in a bar on the way home, but I may have needed a post-rant drink.

And a plea to future Shanghai shop designers; sheer glass panels may be wonderful for allowing people to see into shops, but they make lousy doors.  Especially when they open out into the pavement.