I Love China

Sweet ride!

I don’t want to make light of the economic downturn that has affected the entire world. Here in England, the media are really painting a picture of doom and gloom. Many retailers have gone bust or in to administration, including Woolworths, Whittard Tea, Officer’s Club (mens clothing), MFI (furniture retailer), Zavvi (music retailer, formerly Virgin Megastore) the list goes on.

But to be honest for me, things have never been better. Firstly, the RMB has appreciated sharply against the British pound since I last visited. It was 15 rmb to the pound just a few months ago, it’s now closer to 10 rmb. On top of that, retailers usually start the sales after Christmas, but this year, due to the poor economy, almost every retailer was offering deep discounts several weeks before Christmas.  So on my very first day in London, I picked up two suits at Emporio Armani, both at half price (600 pounds down to 300 pounds).  The original price in London was already way cheaper than Shanghai, so imagine how attractive 50% off and a stronger RMB would be. And finally of course as a non-resident, I will get the value added tax refunded at the airport when I leave the UK on Sunday.

WoAi gets behind the wheel for the first time in 2008.

With all the savings, I’ve had money left over to hire this Porsche for a few days. Some people were a bit horrified when I told them how much I spent to hire a car for a few days, but then you have to bear in mind this is my total motoring expenses for the whole year. If I lived in England, I’d spend more than that just on fuel in a year, then there’s road tax, insurance and depreciation to add to that. Remember guys, I take the bus to work every day when I am in Shanghai, so don’t give me any grief about this!

Details: Car hire by Prestige Car Hire.
Car is a Porsche Cayman S (2008 model) – 225 pounds (2300 rmb) per day plus delivery and VAT.
Leather jacket 395 pounds (4000 rmb) from Emporio Armani.
Jeans 40 pounds (400 rmb) by Gap, London.

It was 30 years ago tomorrow, on 29th November 1978 that Viv Anderson was the first black man to play for England. (He was also the first player to be signed to Manchester United by Alex Ferguson, from Arsenal.) I wonder how long it will be before we see the first yellow man in an England shirt? Some of you might not know this, but I could have played for England …. but I wasn’t good enough! I reckon my nephew Tate has a good chance. He’s certainly got the energy for it.

England’s newest hope?

Have a nice weekend. Tomorrow sees the return of Caturday!

A lot of people underestimate the importance of accessories.  Belts, cuff links, jewelry, ties, scarves, gloves all add that little finishing touch to your overall look that is so often overlooked.  So today I’m going to kick off a Fashion Friday accessories series that begins with belts.

Formal black calves leather belt (60 pounds) and buckle (15 pounds) from Elliot Rhodes, 79 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London.

Firstly, the belt you wear with your tailored trousers or suit is NOT the belt you wear with your jeans.  For a start, they are a different width.  The belt pictured is 35mm which will fit most suits.

Distressed black leather belt (60 pounds) with buckle (20 pounds), Elliot Rhodes, London.

This is a 40mm width belt, so it’s a bit too big for your suit but is perfect for that pair of worn jeans you love to wear at the weekends.  You can’t see from the photo but the buckle is actually made up of Chinese characters that reads “zhong guo liu xing” which means “popular China”.

中国流行 belt buckle by Elliot Rhodes, London.

Just as many Chinese wear tee shirts and clothes with meaningless English phrases on them, meaningless Asian script is extremely popular in many western countries on things like tee shirts, tattoos and yes, even belts!

Elliot Rhodes are belt specialists.  They know their belts.  What I like about them is their system of belts and buckles.  You choose your belt first then you choose a buckle to go with it, or several buckles if you have the cash.  They of course have different lengths available, but if your size is not in stock, they will cut the belt to fit you perfectly with just the right amount of “tail”.  This is an important detail that sadly is too often overlooked by Chinese men.  I’ve seen so many guys in Shanghai with belts that are way too long for them to the extent that the tail goes right round to the back of their waists – come on guys that looks ridiculous, sort it out!

Buckles can be changed in seconds, giving a totally fresh new look to that old belt.

Being able to change buckles is like having two or three belts in one.  The above buckle works well with jeans during the day, but when I go out at night clubbing, I want something a little more eye catching, so I also got this gun metal buckle, which my cat Tommy is modelling:

And I know you’d all be very disappointed if you didn’t see any photos of WoAi himself, so here’s the man himself sporting this very same belt with a classic jeans and tee shirt ensemble:

For those interested in such things, all photographs (except the last one, obviously) were taken on my dining room table with a white card background covering the table and a single Guang Bao professional flash head with a 1 metre by 0.7 metre diffuser box.

Thanks for reading and you all have a really nice, extra special weekend, wherever you may be.

I’m not a big Facebook fan, I use it moderately rather than spending 25 hours a day glued to it like many people, but it is useful to be able to see what friends are up to from their Facebook captions. And following my little KFC incident, it’s nice to see that that I’m not the only angry laowai having a bad China day. Here’s what one of my English friend’s (living in Shanghai) had as her caption the other day:

“….. hated her trip to Tesco … esp when the woman tried to pay for her stuff when mine was still being scanned through!!!!”

Sorry to hear that love, but it does happen here quite a bit. And as a pre-emptive strike against our new friend, Richard Guy, I suppose I should point out that a bit of queue jumping here in Shanghai is certainly a lot more preferable to what happens in supermarkets in England, where a 57 year old man was killed just a few days ago!