Never quite sure how much detail to go into in a blog… So let’s just say I lost the whole of Wednesday somewhere.  Food poisoning/dodgy bug/who knows.  Was bound to happen at some point.

The week had started on a high note – great first “real” Mandarin lesson on Monday evening with Bron, followed by a meal in a nearby Szechuan restaurant.  This despite Bron being convinced the blackened chicken was really frog (judging by the size of the bones), which is often to be found on the menus here.  The Chinese are effortlessly skilled at the art of using chopsticks to eat meat on the bone via some very dextrous tongue and teeth action (meat on the bone goes in the mouth, stripped bone comes out).  With us, it’s kind of meat on the bone goes in, tiny bit of meat gets torn off, rest comes out.

The benefits perils of knowing somebody living nearby means a late night drink is always an option.  Still difficult to get used to smoking in bars being permitted out here; Tuesday night’s bar (hidden away at the back of an American-style Bistro) was more smokey than Whitelocks in Leeds circa 1995 (and that’s going some).  To borrow a quote from Rachel, “My lungs are sad”…

And something amongst that lot was the cause of Wednesday’s lost day…

(The photo, by the way, is of Hengshan Moller Villa: an old mansion house now converted into a hotel from just up the road from us.  We do have green in Shanghai!)