Testing, testing ...

This was shot a week ago on the day of my birthday party. Was just testing the camera ahead of the big night and Tommy was a willing guinea pig.

Birthday Smoothie

My company has quite a nice perk – staff do not need to come to work on their birthday, so yesterday, I had probably one of the best birthdays I can remember. I started with a self made strawberry mango smoothie which I drank while watching the two latest episodes of the best show on TV : Mad Men.

Dim sum at the Mansion Hotel

I didn’t have anything planned, but a friend also had the afternoon off and asked if I had lunch plans, so we ended up having a dim sum lunch at the Mansion Hotel, which is a lovely, old style hotel on Xinle Road near Xiangyang Road.

Chocolate cake at Hof

After lunch we had a walk before heading for dessert at chocolate heaven, aka Hof on Sinan road. I was surprised to find it was completely full at 3.30pm on a week day. It’s incredible how many people here don’t need to work.

Hof is close to Fuxing Park, so after dessert, we went for a walk in the park to burn off some of our lunch time calories. I was feeling pretty tired by then, so I headed home to get some rest before the evening activities began.

Pre-dinner Dom Perignon at M1NT

After a short nap, I met a few friends at M1NT for a bottle of Champagne followed by dinner at M1NT. I have to say, it was a very enjoyable was to spend an indulgent birthday evening. The food was excellent, my favourite being their battered soft shell crab appetiser which I’ve had before.

After dinner, we moved to the club section for more drinks and a cigar before heading home where I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. Between 4 of us, we managed 3 bottles of wine, a few glasses of whisky and aperatifs, which I thought was very impressive. Needless to say, this morning, I wished the company policy was that staff did not need to work the day after their birthday!

That’s well and truly it for all birthday related activities (I promise) until next year. I just have to add that this year was probably the best birthday week I have ever had and I think the difference with previous years was not working on the actual day.

Can you believe it – I feel like last year’s birthday party was just last month, and yet it’s already another year. And so on Saturday I had another small birthday gathering of 50 or so close friends. The venue this year was Velvet Lounge, a nice little lounge bar that I used to go to a lot, many years ago. And it’s still a surprisingly good place to spend a Saturday night.

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Always relaxed

You know what’s good for calming down a heated internet debate? Why a Caturday featuring the adorable Hui Hui of course! And a happy mothers day to all the non-British mothers out there!

Growing up in London as an ethnic minority, I had to put up with a fair amount of teasing and some English kids would sometimes stretch their eyes with their hands to make them narrower, I suppose in reference to the notion that Chinese have small, narrow eyes. But that was many, many years ago and I’d almost forgotten about it till I came across this ad from a Taiwanese cosmetic surgery company (clearly it’s not mainland China as nobody would have 3 kids). The idea is that the parents have had work done on their eyes to make them bigger while the kids, clearly haven’t. The slogan reads “the only thing you need to worry about is how to explain it to your children”.

Is it me or is this wrong on so many levels. I mean, isn’t it a bit like someone advertising a treatment for black people to whiten their skin, saying something like “you too can enjoy the benefits of being a white man”? Or am I taking a humorous ad far too seriously?

The other thing that strikes me is that in the picture, the parents actually look like normal Asians and it’s the children that look strange. I have never seen any kids with eyes that small!

(Thanks to loyal reader CP for sending me this)

View from VUE - best view in Shanghai?

I mentioned this in passing in part one, but VUE Bar at Hyatt On The Bund is a contender in my opinion, for most breathtaking view of Shanghai as you look out at Pudong on your left and Puxi on your right. I took this picture a few years ago using a point and shoot, so imagine how it would look with a better camera!

Vertigo inducing view of the atrium

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The 3 amigos at Element Fresh, Silver Court

So you may have heard my brother was here for two weeks with his friend Ben. It was a vacation for them, but for me it was two weeks of playing host and tour guide by night, and working at the office by day while they slept till mid afternoon! Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time the two weeks were up, but I think I fulfilled my duty as we ticked off a wide variety of activities in a relatively short space of time. Here are some of the highlights, which could probably help anyone expecting visitors to Shanghai this summer and wanting to put together an itinerary …

Beijing Roast Duck @ Lao Beijing

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My brother has been visiting for the last two weeks and as you can expect, there’s lots to blog about there, but that can wait as today is Caturday and we have a special guest appearance this week from Charlie Mao, who was looked after by loyal reader and occasional commenter, Heinrich, before he had to return to his home country.

As you can see, she’s a gorgeous animal with the same pure white fur patches that Tommy has (but Hui Hui doesn’t) on her legs and chest.

I must admit, I’ve never seen a cat lamp shade picture like this before. I’m going to try one out on Tommy soon.

These are just a sample of Charlie Mao pictures which I blatantly stole from here if you want to see more.

Thanks Heinrich for sharing and hope all is well in Norway.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

My little brother and his friend Ben are visiting for two weeks, which is why the posts have dried up (again). It’s been full on nightlife action from the moment they landed last Friday, in a desperate attempt to cover all Shanghai has to offer in just 2 weeks.

I love showing newbies around and seeing Shanghai through their fresh eyes. Young Ben found it amazing that our taxi driver the other night kept falling asleep at every traffic light and had to be nudged when the lights turned green.

At one such stop light, Ben decided to take a photo to share with friends back home before waking him up and continuing our journey to the next bar.

I think I’ve been here too long. I didn’t see what all the excitement was about!

More on the antics of Rich and Ben will follow shortly, so stay tuned.

Many local businesses think that using a western sounding name is all it takes to be a hit. And maybe it works with some of the locals searching for some European sophistication but don’t know any better. Croissants de France is a good example. My former French colleague used to call them “Croissants de France de Chine”! One clue is the old ladies they hire who wouldn’t know what a baguette was if it hit them in the face. Another is the way the whole store becomes a moon cake shop as mid-autumn festival approaches. And the final clue that it may not be a genuine French bakery is how they’re using festive new year cups less than two weeks before the May holiday!