New year fireworks above Yu Gardens from WoAi's window

Well, my week of doing absolutely nothing has flown by. I am ashamed to admit I spent most of the time sitting on my sofa catching up on a few TV shows (Boardwalk Empire season two is highly recommended, especially if you enjoyed the debut season). It was everything I expected it would be – cold, boring and noisy.

New year is the only time I ever get bored. I actually don’t understand people who say they’re bored, because for me there’s never enough time to do everything I want to do. But new year is different, a special case, because many people are away or with their families, many places closed, or they’re open but quiet, meaning lacking in atmosphere.

But I won’t complain too much. In a way it’s nice just for one week in the year, to just do nothing. The ultimate break … from everything! And I don’t envy the millions of people who had to make the journey back to their home towns in less than ideal conditions (and for many of their poor foreign boyfriends / husbands who had to accompany their better halves back home). At least I got to spend some quality time with Tommy and Hui Hui which I’m very grateful for.

The fireworks seemed more subdued this year and hardly any buildings caught fire! In fact, there seems to be less and less fireworks each year. I wonder if it’s partly due to the increasing number of people who go away for the holidays now to places like Thailand, Burma and Cambodia for example. Or perhaps I’m just getting used to it now.

The one highlight of my week off was two very lovely evenings at the Long Bar at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Both nights they were surprisingly busy (only bar seating was available). It’s worth a visit for the people watching alone. There seemed to be several mismatched couples (by which I mean, older man with stunningly beautiful, inappropriately dressed, younger girls) which is always fun to watch. The men invariably look like they’re trying too hard to impress the lady when it’s blatantly obvious she’s not there for the witty banter! My guess would be, the men spend the first few days with the family, but by day 3 or 4, they can “escape” for a few hours to see the mistress.

I have to say the Long Bar is one of my favourite places in Shanghai to sip on a cocktail while listening to their resident jazz band, which I’ve never actually seen before until this week. It does make the place slightly noisier than it used to be, but I’d have to say, in a good way. I believe the singer, Naomi, is sticking around for another 2 months so pop down and check them out (except Sundays) if you get the chance.

I’m not especially looking forward to resuming on Sunday morning, but I am happy that normality will gradually return and life can start up again.

So how did you all spend your week off?

View from WoAi's apartment window

And so here we are, the final half hour of the rabbit year with the year of the dragon waiting in the wings to take over. The Pearl TV Tower has turned red, like a Chinese lantern, to mark the occasion. I’m very pleased it’s finally here and the mad taxi shortages will soon be over for another year and the weather (hopefully) will gradually start warming up. This is I think my second consecutive new year stuck in Shanghai, so I think next year, however much it costs, I’m going to make sure I get away from the cold and the fire crackers. You may remember it was back in 2009 that I had the perfect new year break in Thailand.

I’m not too crazy about the 6 day work week followed by 7 days off followed by ANOTHER 6 day work week either. But I won’t moan too much as I risk being labelled a new year Scrooge. So in line with tradition, I’ll just wish you all a prosperous new year and hope you you’re all enjoying yourselves, wherever you might be this week.

Now, where did I put my ear plugs …

Best of friends

After all that fighting last week, we’re back to our lazy, laid back selves. And of course, the best of friends!

Waiting and wanting

So the iPhone 4S was launched in China at 8am this morning from Apple stores (and from midnight last night from China Unicom with contract). Much like every other launch in every other country, there were huge queues and the occasional scuffles. I saw three uniformed policemen this morning “escorting” a very angry man away from the Nanjing Road store at around 9am.

What was different though was the large number of people waiting in line to buy an iPhone purely so they could then sell it on at a profit once the stock has dried up, as it inevitably will.

According to Shanghaiist, crafty entrepreneurs had offered free breakfast and 100 RMB to anyone willing to stand in line to buy an iPhone in order to circumvent the limit of 2 phones per customer. Just another day in China!

It's my box, find your own!

It’s not all peace and harmony in the WoAi household. Here they’re literally at each other’s throats, but it’s all just horsing around to punctuate the long periods of lying around doing very little. They love each other really.

I find it interesting that everyone has strong views about various airlines. This one is dreadful, that one is the best, and yet there’s never any one airline that gets consistent praise or criticism, so something must be wrong. British Airways gets so much criticism and many people rave about Virgin Atlantic, so I decided to break with tradition this year and fly home on Virgin. Here’s what I found.

The Good:

Seating – They fly Airbuses from Shanghai to London in a 2-4-2 seating configuration. That means if there’s two of you, you can have a couple of seats all to yourself and not have a third wheel hanging on one end (BA flies Boeing 777s in a 3-3-3 configuration which isn’t good for couples but makes no difference if you’re travelling alone).

Continue Reading…

It’s been such an eventful year in so many ways. Here are some of the highs and lows as we say farewell to 2011.

Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple in January before sadly passing away later in the year. In February, we had a new addition to the family as Caturday fans around the world welcomed Hui Hui initially on a temporary basis and now a permanent member of the WoAi household. And British band Sade won a Grammy for best R&B performance. March brought sad news with the Tsunami in Japan and people in China panicking and stockpiling salt, while the Barbie store in Shanghai closed its doors for good and I got to see Eagles in Shanghai.

April was pretty uneventful, although I did have an office move and lost my own office after over a decade of having a door to close and in Britain, we had a royal wedding to cheer us up as the country moved closer to recession and Kate’s younger sister Pippa stole the show.

May of course was the event of the year, WoAi’s annual birthday bash. I can’t believe it’s almost time to start planning the 2012 event. And it’s also the month the iPad 2 was launched in China and I bought my first (but likely not last) iPad. It wasn’t all good news though as Oddbins, next to Charlie Chan in Cambridge, closed down.

Mrs WoAi senior visited in June and so did the Playboy bunny girls from Macau and I received good news, securing 6 tickets for the London 2012 Olympic games.

There’s no other way to describe July other than plain horrible. We lost Amy Winehouse aged 27, a mad man in Norway went on the rampage killing about 90 people and in China, the Wenzhou train crash sent everyone rushing back to air travel. And it all happened in just one weekend. To make matters worse, Hui Hui almost killed herself with a used crisp packet.

In August, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO (he was previously on indefinite sick leave) and Hui Hui had her minor operation at home on the dining room table.

September brought us a new Apple store in Shanghai (bringing the total to 3) and we had our own little train (subway) crash, although thankfully far less serious than the Wenzhou crash a few months earlier.

In October, we lost Steve Jobs and his biography was released just weeks later. Back in China, the world was shocked and appalled by the story of 2 year old Yue Yue who was hit not once, but twice, by passing cars as passers by ignored the dying baby as she lay in the street. A dark day for China.

More tragic news in November as a TINY mini van carry 64 people crashed, killing many young children.

December has been decidedly better. I finally managed to purchase my first property, choosing London over Shanghai. And today, Jonathan Ive, designer of the iPhone and iPad among other Apple devices received a KBE from Her Majesty the Queen for services to design (he already received a CBE back in 2005).

But that’s not all. My father was also honoured by Her Majesty the Queen today in her new year’s honours list and made Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). We will be having a glass or two of Champagne this evening to celebrate a fantastic end to a year of ups and downs.

Let’s hope 2012 is more up than down. Happy new year to you all and see you in 2012!

Caitlin and uncle WoAi

Apologies for the long silence. I’ve been in London since Sunday spending time stuffing my face with all the food I can’t get in Shanghai (it’s a long list), hanging out with my family and doing the customary shopping for my winter wardrobe, with the emphasis on warm clothes to combat what is certain to be a cold January and February in Shanghai.

3 years old and already a keen photographer

Normal service will of course resume soon, but in the mean time, I’d like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, wherever you may be.

The 2012 Caturday calendar is now available from Red Bubble, just in time for Christmas. Caturday fans, get one for your friends and one for yourself. I’m heading home to London tomorrow (weather permitting!) for some quality family time, so my next post will be from the UK.

Are you for real?

If you were hoping for a post about Curtis Jackson, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. You all know that fake designer bags and watches are widely available in China. Every time we have visitors from the UK, they get very excited when they find “Louis Vuitton” leather bags for the equivalent of 30 US dollars compared to the price of genuine luxury branded bags that can easily reach one or two thousand dollars. But if 30 dollars for a fake GUCCI bag is still beyond your budget, fear not, we have the solution for you : fake designer paper shopping bags!

Gucci, Gucci, Goo!

According to the China Daily, many online sellers are offering these bags for around 5 RMB a piece, so you can walk around town looking like Paris Hilton on Rodeo Drive, even though unlike Miss Hilton, your bag is full of hairy crabs and chickens feet!

If you’re keen to get hold of some, this seller is selling 50 Calvin Klein bags for 100 RMB (just 2 RMB each) or if you want something a bit more classy, you can get 50 Burberry bags for 275 RMB.

Now, where did I put my Tesco shopping bag …..