March 9th: A Little Coffee (Shop)

March 9, 2013 by Simmo

Things to miss in Shanghai that I didn’t expect I would, part 1 (another occasional series)*:

There’s a little coffee shop at the foot of the building that houses our office: Jeric Coffee. Inside, the walls are adorned with post-it notes showing customer comments; with postcards showing photos of old China, Paris and London; and with images of Aubrey Hepburn and other film stars. It’s a unique combination of styles and colours; it is bright, welcoming, and most definitely not Starbucks.

Ever-present is Fay, civil engineer and barista. She is also likely to be departing soon, leaving the building entirely devoid of Westerners and ridiculously friendly coffee shop employees with an inimitable flair for décor.

Our branch of the tiny Jeric Coffee chain is without a doubt the happiest, friendliest coffee shop in Shanghai.

The coffee is not bad either.

*Time in Shanghai coming to an end – apologies in advance, but a few more blog posts like this one will be forthcoming. Capturing all the little everyday bits of Shanghai that we won’t have in a couple of months.

February 28th: Ending

February 28, 2013 by Simmo

And so it ends.

With somewhat of a shorter trip than planned, Bronwen and I will be returning home to the UK within the next couple of months (no, I’m not going to go into further detail on why within this blog).

Inevitably we have mixed feelings on this – psychologically not quite ready to return yet, but will obviously be happy to be home. Particularly as the UK economy is now looking so rosy and none of the credit agencies are entertaining the idea of downgrading the UK’s credit rating. Oh.

So following JB’s week of leaving events, Richard consoled a few of us on Monday night by agreeing to lose at pool to the fearsome team of me and Bron (following a curry). We will no doubt see Richard again when back in the UK, but it’s on nights like we realise we have little time left to spend with our Chinese friends and our other expat friends we’ve met locally. We broke the news to Andrea and Grace on Tuesday night at yet another curry (with Rachel), and will no doubt have many more nights like this one over the coming weeks.

Felix came over tonight for a band session. Yet another reason to be gutted about leaving Shanghai, since (recognising this is a somewhat biased opinion) we have a few cracking songs. And some even better ones. We’ll try and record them all before Bron and I leave and force them on the world a little later.

The blog will live on until we return. I may kill it soon after.

Me, Tim, and the boys from IT

February 24th: Going, going…

February 24, 2013 by Simmo

One man can only leave so many times…

Mr John Burgess, advocate of Guinness and of pool bars everywhere in Shanghai, will shortly be gone, leaving behind him a weeping trail of trading department ladies (and men). And leaving following the highest number of leaving dos of anyone I’ve ever met.

Bron sings “Superstar”… again…

Wednesday night featured JB leaving do number 87, back in Masse (favourite bar in Shanghai) for a last Wednesday night drubbing at pool (with me the recipient). On Friday we ventured into a KTV bar for another leaving do with most of the trading team and a few others, featuring such quality karaoke songs as Lionel Richie’s “Hello”. And, of course, “Pretty Boy”. The night ended in a small bar called the Wooden Box where Bron and I met Rachel around 1am (after French folk band people had finally given up with their extended Corsa advert).

Rob, Tim, me, Bron and Sarah saying another goodbye to JB

Saturday night’s leaving do was in Mr Willis, a fairly posh restaurant (for me, that is, since I ended up wearing a shirt), also joined by the Bradfords and Jo. This following JB’s last ever trip to Masse for an afternoon of pool and goodbyes to the staff there (in a Cheers sort of way, we can now enter the bar and have a pint poured without asking for it).

Tonight (Sunday) we’re going back out with most of the Argos UK team to say goodbye to both Richard and JB, since Richard also leaves China for good in a couple of weeks. This is probably (hopefully) JB’s last leaving do, but he doesn’t fly until about 1pm tomorrow so there’s always time.

Today is “Chinese Lantern Day”, marking the end of the Chinese New Year festival (the 15^th day of the first lunar month of the Chinese year). Fireworks are currently going off everywhere – hopefully we’ll see some and not be hit by any on the way to the restaurant.

Chong – sorry to do this to you, but this was one of my favourite text conversations from the last few months (from Friday):

“Do you and Bronwen fancy playing badminton on Sunday morning?”
“Possibly, but we’re not very fit”
“Neither are we so it should be OK”

Shortly followed by:

“Do you and Bronwen have bats?”
“Good point – no we don’t”
“Neither do we. Should we just go for brunch instead”.

So we met Chong and Isaac for brunch instead early this morning – far better.

Meanwhile, “The band” (we don’t have a name yet) has now reached four members, following the introduction of a bass player and the second visit from a drummer. 8 songs nearly complete, and a couple more on the way… 3 hours of playing guitar this afternoon means my hands are pretty well destroyed but I could get used to this.

So John’s gone… Richard’s gone… Maybe another update on the blog tomorrow…

JB says goodbye to Masse,,,

A tram, in Shanghai. Not really.

February 18th: England, Home of Simple Pleasures

February 18, 2013 by Simmo

Warning: Airport lounge alert.

Thanks to the combination of a full price economy ticket, several thousand airmiles and cash for airport tax we currently find ourselves in the Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow Terminal 3. In the lounge they have unicorns, baths full of wine and a Piers Morgan dartboard. The staff float around on pink clouds offering manicures, exotic eyebrow extractions and black puddings.* Other than not actually getting on the plane, there’s no better way to start a plane journey for somebody who continues to be terrified of flying. But I now have my way of dealing with this (not for public consumption on a blog).

Many thanks to all our friends and family who looked after us or came to see us over the last couple of weeks as we completed our mini-tour of the country (for those considering a visit to England, I would highly recommend our route of Olney–>Woburn Sands–> Olney–> Worksop–> Southport–> Liverpool–> Banbury–> Olney–> Peterborough–> Epsom. Worksop optional – hen parties only). For some we know you changed your schedule to take holidays or “work” from home, and we really appreciate it. We didn’t get a chance to see everyone so will definitely try to do so next time we’re back, whenever that might be.

I’m ridiculously tired and as ever, returning to Shanghai with mixed feelings. If nothing else, I need to get back to Shanghai to protect my waistline after nearly two weeks of pies, curries and other British delicacies.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve discovered that at my age, simple pleasures are the best. The day after landing, we were sat in The Bull in Olney, me with a pint of British bitter, grinning like an idiot. We’ve done little else than drive to see people, eat and drink with people, then drive somewhere else. It’s been exhausting, but worth every single lost hour of sleep. And with a mini-keg of beer on offer at the O’Grady’s and a never ending beer fridge on offer at the French’s (in addition to housing some lovely people), Olney still feels like home despite having other people currently living in our house.

*Some of this paragraph may be inaccurate.

Olney on a Cloudy Day

February 2nd: Hunan, Yunnan, Vietnamese, French. And a pie.

February 3, 2013 by Simmo

Change is afoot. After a year in Shanghai, Richard and JB will shortly be returning to the UK, leaving a significant dent in the UK Argos team, and a pool-playing, Guinness-drinking shaped dent in our social life*. After a stupidly large lunch with Jo, we spent most of Saturday saying the first of many goodbyes to Richard and JB by playing pool in our favourite local bar (Masse) , accompanied by Shawn. A couple of our local friends, Isaac and Chong also made an appearance to increase the numbers for a far less hectic Saturday than we’ve had in a while.

Me, Bron and JB in Kartel

5 hours playing pool – Bron even had enough time to abandon us for some kind of nail trimming/painting adventure before returning to drag JB and I off for dinner with Jo, Rachel, Emily and Julia in a local French restaurant. La Saleya was one of the first restaurants we visited after moving here back in April, so good to finally go back. Shanghai’s 24-hour attitude to socialising was neatly demonstrated by agreeing to meet up with Craig later that evening. I say evening; we met him for a few cocktails at 12.30am.

A guitar day again on Sunday with Felix, this time to audition a potential new drummer (James). I was intrigued as to what equipment the drummer would turn up at our house with – fortunately a box of electronic tricks, and no giant drum set.

Friday night had a distinctly British feel to it, both from the company (the Argos expat team) and the entertainment: three British comedians. Followed by Elousie’s genius suggestion of ordering a pie at 10.30pm at night.

Bees, Beef Jerky and “Malt Chips”. An obvious combination.

Tuesday’s catch-up with Isaac, Chong, Marcel and Hannah took us back to Southern Barbarian for more bees and other Yunnan delicacies. This time, the bees definitely looked a little more bee-like. A shame that Marcel and Hannah are merely passing through Shanghai, leaving later this year to continue their MBA course in other countries.

On Wednesday evening, Shawn took Richard, JB and I to one of his favourite Hunan restaurants for one of JB’s many such leaving events. Hunan food is the other, lesser-known spicy Chinese cuisine – for some reason Sichuan food is popular in the UK but before moving here I’d never heard of Hunan. Excellent food, as always.

I spent Thursday night fighting with electronic equipment which was obstinately refusing to work. Not as much of a fight as Bronwen had with the hairdressers though. 7.30pm she entered the hairdressers. 11.30pm she exited. And to think I’d ordered a delicious Vietnamese meal for us at 9pm thinking “She’ll be back soon”.

After so much travel over the last couple of months, spending two consecutive weekends in Shanghai felt a little wasteful. But I think we probably needed the break.

*I’m not sure if that makes sense either.

Definitely more bee-like.

January 27th: Christmas. Every Day.

January 27, 2013 by Simmo

“I wish it could be Christmas every day” sang Wizzard back in 1973, and at every Christmas since then. Here in China, it is. Every day in the office lifts we’re treated to the same mix of 20-second snippets of Rudolph, Frosty and a few other Christmas songs. Interspersed with Gangnam Style. Every day.

Here in the office, and in most of the shops, Christmas decorations persist. A few trees have disappeared, but Father Christmas is very much still present in shop windows and advertising hoardings. Since Chinese New Year is only a couple of weeks’ away, the general consensus is the decorations will disappear following the end of festivities. Last year the Christmas music in the lifts disappeared halfway through April. Maybe this year they’ll just leave it longer. 365 days of Rudolph and co. Christmas every day indeed.

———————————-

I haven’t been to the cinema in years. Normally quite happy to wait for the download/DVD/Blu-Ray to become available and watch a film at home without the hassle of, well, other people crunching, snorting, sniffing, coughing, slurping, talking their way through a film*. But, on Tuesday night, we joined JB and co. at an Imax cinema near the office to watch Skyfall.

No messing about in cinemas in China. Get in, sit down, watch film. No Pearl & Dean, no trailers, no movie trivia, no “Please turn off your phone messages”. Comfy seats, jalapeno flavoured popcorn and a far better experience than I was expecting. A pretty damn good film too.

I’ve heard other people complain about the “ambience” of cinemas being ruined by the constant appearance of small pockets of light as people check their mobile phones. I deliberately put the phone on silent (not vibrate) and in my pocket, but I have some sympathy – it’s like an itch for 2 hours: “Check me, check me!”. I resisted.

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Some meat, on a street. I have no idea what most of it is.

Wednesday night saw the sad occasion of my last regular post-language-lesson pool evening with JB, following the news he’ll be returning to the UK in late Feb. We’ll miss JB – always up for a pint and a natter, even if he’s pretty useless at pool.

Felix’s attempts to find a drummer for our nascent band meant a trip to a basement studio on Thursday night to try out a few songs with a new drummer. Felix’s other advertisements for band members have so far resulted in one promise of true love and another of marriage, so a genuine drummer was a rarity.

Although it’s been great to spend a weekend without getting on a plane and heading out of Shanghai, it’s been a hectic one. Following a relaxing night in De Refter with Bron on Friday night, we spent most of Saturday afternoon playing Mahjong (or Majiang) with Anny and Frank. Obviously not for money, since I believe Anny would have easily fleeced us. I think we’re slowly learning the rules, although the number of tiles we’ve yet to involve worries me a bit (adding complexity to an already fairly complex game).

Saturday night meant a trip to Emily’s apartment to help her celebrate Australia Day. A little bit of Men At Work, a few Australian food delicacies but sadly no Kylie. Since we’d been up since 6.47am (the exact time when I was woken up by the nearby building work), a 3am Sunday morning finish wasn’t what we’d planned. A great party though – thanks Emily!

After a little more guitar playing today, we’ve been out wine tasting (in my case, to be social). To be more descriptive: we met up with some people in a wine shop to help ourselves to the contents of five bottles of wine. Not really what we were expecting, but then again, this is Shanghai. Following a Thai meal with Rachel, Bron and Rachel disappeared off for a massage, leaving me to go home to write this blog.

When the local government reading says “Severely polluted”, there is no doubt.

On the way back I could see stars in the night sky. After ridiculously high levels of pollution all week, this meant a literal sigh of relief. We can breathe again (for the moment).

*I am not in an airport lounge. Parity has been restored.

ShanghaiSims

Two Brits living in Shanghai…

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