The sea always looks more appealing in the dark. Of indeterminable colour and levels of cleanliness, the moonlit sea offers a different perspective to that available to the normal hordes of daytime beach visitors. On Saturday evening, following our trip to Qingdao’s beer festival, the group of people we’d adopted(/been adopted by) headed down to … Continue reading
The man in the photograph perfectly demonstrates a clothes-style I’m reliably informed is referred to as the “Beijing Bikini”. Since it’s so bloomin’ hot outside, rolling up one’s top to allow the air to cool one’s belly seems an eminently sensible idea (a fashion unique to men in China it appears). Having spent 2 hours … Continue reading
Bees. I probably won’t order them again. Honeybees; those treasured pollinators and honey producers appearing on a food menu inevitably pulled the right curiosity strings. That they came with portions of grasshoppers and bamboo worms was an added bonus. Pre-shelled, de-striped and similar to small peanuts in appearance, eating them felt very, very wrong. The … Continue reading
Our house shakes. Randomly. Sometimes no shakes for hours; on occasion, several second-long rumblings within a few minutes of each other. Sufficiently subtle as to not interfere with anything in particular, but noticeable enough to question whether geologists have missed the tiniest of shifting tectonic plates beneath Shanghai. No trains pass underneath the house (Metro … Continue reading
Olympic canapés, Olympic mini-pizzas and Olympic fish & chips (well, calamari to keep up the circular/ring theme) – the culinary genius of Mr Seed provided the undoubted gastronomic highlight of our short trip back to the UK. Complete with Olympic Spatchcock Chicken to represent the four nations making up the UK, joined as they are … Continue reading
Publicly ackowledging a dislike for cheese generally produces a look of abject horror and disbelief matched only by the sheer bewilderment shown when I disclose I’m also not particularly fond of wine. It’s as if my taste buds were somehow poorly educated, or that I must simply be mistaken. With this in mind, I head … Continue reading
ShanghaiSims 