An ayi*: a lady who comes to your house to tidy, clean, shop, cook, order water, pay bills… Pretty much any domestic chore. So thanks to Valerie (downstairs neighbour) we’ve appointed an ayi to visit three afternoons a week. The challenge for us is that she doesn’t speak a word of English, and our Mandarin … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
It appears going jogging first thing on Sunday morning – tired, hungover and with a cold – wasn’t such a good idea (who’d have thought?). As a result, Bronwen has had no voice for the last few days, which made both Sunday’s visit to the Japanese restaurant and Monday’s first Mandarin lesson somewhat of a … Continue reading
Two things I would like to be capable of when I return to the UK: holding a (brief) conversation in Mandarin and cooking more adventurous Chinese meals than “Add soy sauce, pak choi and a bit of chicken to a wok. Stir and serve”. To resolve the former, we’ve booked a trial Mandarin lesson for … Continue reading
There’s a scene in Die Hard 3 where Bruce Willis is forced to wander the streets of Harlem wearing a sandwich board featuring a very offensive slogan, particularly so for the local residents. Five minutes after leaving the house today I realised the print on my t-shirt included a number of Chinese characters. I’ve had … Continue reading
ShanghaiSims 