Smile and wave, boys.

Some of you were with us when we went up the CN Tower in Toronto some (best unspecified) years ago which has a section of glass floor in the observation deck which allows you to look down several hundred metres past your own feet. Last Sunday we went up the Oriental Peal Tower in Shanghai (see photos in previous post that looks like something from Chernobyl) where they have just recently added a glass-floored level to their observation deck. In the CN Tower the panes of glass are of small area and visibly of great thickness. In the Pearl Tower the glass panes are of considerable area and don’t appear to be particularly thick. It takes a significant level of trust in Chinese design, manufacturing and quality control to take a walk around 263 metres above the ground. It seemed sensible to send the boys out first to test that everything was ok.

Somewhat inconsiderately Arthur’s pushchair decided to lose a wheel at the beginning of the week, making the trip to and from school (four times a day for Arthur) a bit too much for his frequently tired and permanently short legs. Getting spares was going to take months at best, and buying  a new pushchair seemed extravagant for a small person already the wrong side of 3½. So plans to buy bicycles were accelerated and I bought a mountain-style bike which looked really pretty cool for the 10 minutes before the child seat was fitted. We nearly bought Matthew a bike yesterday but decided that the 20″ frame is just a fraction too big for him to control safely at the moment, so we have bought a scooter instead with a promise to get a bike in a few months’ time.

One of the things you notice on dry days in Shanghai is how dusty it is. It’s not hard to see why as there are major construction projects happening everywhere. A lot of building work was accelerated to be ready for the Shanghai Expo which is now underway, but there is still an awful lot going on. We can see half a dozen from our apartment alone. Our route to school takes us down a main road with construction sites on both sides. When I go to collect Arthur at lunchtime after his half-day, the pavements are thick with the migrant construction workers having their lunch or sleeping in the shade under the bushes. Lunch is provided for them from convoys of tricycle trucks and the pavement is soon strewn with the detritus of pork bones, fish bones, rice, disposable chopsticks, plastic cartons, and polystyrene boxes. But in no time the overall-clad city cleaners have restored the site to the amazing level of tidiness that impresses one about the whole city. Everywhere you walk in Shanghai there are people in blue or orange overalls quietly sweeping, tidying and gardening, accompanied by their big two-wheeled barrows and their brooms made from the branches of roadside trees.

A thought experiment. Imagine you were in a restaurant in England when a family from an ethnic minority came in for lunch. What would you think if every member of the staff took turns in sitting next to the family’s children to have their photographs taken by their colleagues? Fortunately the boys are getting a little more used to this behaviour, although not yet managing to imitate the Madagascan penguins. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.

A long time in politics

Forgive me, dear readers, I have been neglecting you. Some matters cropped up back in Britain which required my attention. The place seemed to have gone to pot since we left. I think I’ve managed to sort everything out now, but do let me know if the country stops working again won’t you?

We’ve been in China for nearly six weeks now and in our apartment for nearly four. I think the excitement of the novelty of being here has worn off, although there are still moments when I have to pinch myself that we really are living our lives in Shanghai, thousands of miles from home.  The almost seamless nature of global communication via BBC World, e-mail, news websites. and even Facebook really blurs the separation from England, and yet reading about friends who have been drinking in my pubs, ringing my bells, gossiping with my Mums, and walking in my Lake District is a constant reminder that I can’t do those things and have to enjoy them by proxy.

Arthur has started school! Not real school of course, he is still only 3, but he is in a kindergarten class at Matthew’s school from 8:00 till 11:30 each morning.  He has settled there very well and incredibly quickly. Having been deprived of playgroup for so many weeks he was certainly more than ready to widen his social circle again. Like Matthew’s, Arthur’s class is very cosmopolitan, and has both a Western and Chinese teacher so it’s a completely bilingual setting. A frustration for me is that I haven’t been able to find a Mandarin Chinese course that I can fit in around the boys’ school and Dorothy’s work. I’m exploring a couple of other options, but my Chinese is still unfortunately 不是很好.

Tomorrow is “Global Child Day” at Yew Chung school. Each nationality represented at the school has a stand with activities, food and dress from their country. Children are issued with passports which they can get stamped for taking part in activities at the various stands. The British Mum who has organised the UK stand has managed to persuade BMW (!) to let us have a Mini for the day as the centrepiece of the stand. I think scones and strawberries will be the beacon of English cuisine.

I went exploring in Lujiazui yesterday morning – the financial district of Shanghai and home to the tallest of the supertall buildings which boast of Shanghai’s prominence to the rest of the world. It was one of the clearest and brightest days we’ve had so far and I found a very pleasant, and immaculately maintained, park amongst the skyscrapers to read a book for a while. My book is set in York in 1541 so it made for quite a contrast with my surroundings.

We’ve just learned that one of the books in our shipment has been confiscated because it contains restricted maps. We’ve no idea which book it is.  The only maps I can think of are a book of Lord of the Rings maps.  Could there be some confusion between Middle Earth and Middle Kingdom?!  So that may have delayed the consignment but hopefully it will arrive sometime next week.  We didn’t put all that much stuff in the shipment, but it will be good to have more cooking stuff and Arthur will be particularly pleased to have more books to choose from.

Dorothy is away tonight – visiting the Nielsen office in Guangzhou.  It looks no distance on the map but is actually a 2 hour flight away. She should get back late tomorrow night so we’re all looking forward to the weekend.  Well, it is the FA Cup Final. Play up Pompey!

The Darling Frogs of May

Real contrasts today. A welcome dose (albeit a remote one) of the best of English followed by hard-core Oriental.

For the last fifteen years or so, May 1st has meant getting up at 4:30am in order to ring the bells of Magdalen College, Oxford as part of the traditional May Morning celebrations there. Thanks to Skype and the Oxford ringers we didn’t miss out on the event despite being over 5000 miles away. Jonathan and Chris set up up a laptop in the middle of the ringing room at Magdalen and we joined them on a Skype video call. It was great to see and chat to lots of our friends, and a complete shock to see Claire Bell moving about more than 4 hours earlier than she would normally condescend to emerge from the duvet. Hearing the College choir singing followed by the raise and Stedman Caters on one of my favourite rings of bells brought a lump to my throat and was the first time I’ve felt any hint of homesickness. But it was fabulous to be part of it again and I took great pleasure in the look of envy on Martin’s face as I beat him to the first beer of the day by over an hour by cracking open a Tsingtao live on air.

Later in the afternoon we headed across town to have a walk around the tree-lined French Concession area of Shanghai. It ought to be called the Irish Concession judging by the number of Irish bars and Guinness signs in evidence – there must have been some tension in the air when Thierry Henry cheated Ireland to knock them out of the World Cup a few months ago. On our way back home we decided to have dinner at an intriguing looking restaurant near Changshu Lu. Not a word of English spoken and no English to accompany the pictures on the menu, but everybody else was having what was obviously the house special, a great big and spicy bowl of frogs! And there could be absolutely no doubt about it – cooked completely whole with every muscle and bone clearly identifiable. I wish I’d taken a photo of one of the little chaps, looking like miniature monsters, complete with all their finger bones. And yes, very tasty too. Can’t wait to take David Hull there next year.

On a Skype call with (Auntie) Frances the other day, the video image took a while to emerge. When it did, Matthew exclaimed that she looked like a model. But before Frances could react to the compliment, he explained that the pixellated image made her look “blocky, like she was made of Lego”. Magic. Sorry Sis.