Long week, very busy. Monday , forgot what I got up to, but I think I wrote an article or something. Actually, it was Michael and Ivy’s birthay, so we ate very rich chocolate cake, then I went off to the TV station to say some stuff, and back to work to do some writing. Took a cab to work in the morning with Nako, took a cab home in the evening with stuff for the Shanghai conference. Tuesday I called a cab, put the suitcases in the taxi and went off to the airport, dropping Naoko off at work onthe way. The flight to Shanghai was OK, sat next to Michael the whole way and chatted, listened to music, read the Bang Devils – 100 pages. Michael slept, I drank beer. Didn’t bother trying to watch the stupid movie. Got to Shanghai, got picked up by the driver that had been arranged for us, he sped through the city like a race car driver, we got to our fairy castle hotel in no time at all. Checked in, freshened up, rushed off to the main hotel for a rendezvous to go off to the speaker’s dinner. Sat around there drinking red wine, hobnobbing with senor bankers of local and foreign banks in Shanghai. Nice food in an old villa, great courtyard, elegant tables, ate crab and pickled sea food and other yummy stuff. Sat with a banker from South Africa and another guy from India, but working in a foreiegn bank in Shanghai. Some nice speeches, some card exchanging, and then a tour of the place. Nice old trees. water and fire coinciding (a fountain with little nooks for candles, actually, a huge urn for water, and a green leather Gucci sofa that Jackie Chan always wants to sit on when he comes. OK. Got back to the hotel, had a late meeting, then some sleep. Wednesday was a busy long day. Got up at 6, showered, didn’t breakfast, then off to the hotel. Speeches all morning, lunch, speeches all afternoon. An interview with a senior Chinese banker, and lots of moving around. Nice cocktail session in the late afternoon, then off to another ritzy dinner with the Shanghai Bankers Association at 3 on the Bund, some famous building that is just full of ritzy restaurants. This one was OK – nice view of the Huangpu River and the buildings all lit up, and a nice private room in the middle of the space just for us, with a nice bar, and all that. Drinking more red wine. Great. Chatting in Chinese, hearing speeches. Great food – Italian, I think, and some fantastic fricasseed cod. Back to the hotel, late meeting then I got to work on a report from the event. Ouch! Writing in the boss’ room, he fell asleep, I let myself out, then off to my hotel. The cab took less than 2 minutes to get there late at night. Funny – I thought the place was further away, but I guess not. Slept at 2, up at 7, then off to do work at 8. What a day – so busy, no time to shave, have breakfast or even lunch. Did a talk, some interviews, and then at 5:30 it was all over. Went to eat with the whole gang, we had lovely crab again, pan fried snake, other fun stuff. Lots of beer, new friends, good laughs, and then off to Xintiandi, where there are discos and pubs. We tried one, then finally settled on another. There was a Philipino band playing. They were quite good, but the first songs that they played didn’t exactly inspire boogie feet. Then, after a few glasses of champagne, it was off and running and dancing. Great fun. My boss was itching for us all to go out, including the ladies, but after me nobody followed. Oh well, I had lots of fun, got my exercise, made a few new friends, and when we left around 1:30 I was pretty worked up. Took a cab home, the cabbie got lost and drove us all over the place, even though we showed him the hotel’s card with the address and a map on the back. Incompetent. Oh well. Got to sleep late. Friday woke up at 8, went for breakfast at the hotel’s crappy buffet (the setting was marvelous, but the food and selection was uninspired). Went back and wrote a report for the day, that was good. That took a while, and we hooked up to the interrnet and had a really hard time getting our pages up. Frustration. Went off to buy DVDs down the road from the hotel. Found tons and tons of good ones: two Korean films Everybody Has Secrets and Oldboy, five Wang Kar Wai films (Chungking Express, Days of Being Wild, Happy Togetherr, In the Mood for Love, and 2046), Coffee and Cigarettes, Fahrenheit 9/11, Spiderman 2, Dodgeball, the Matrix, and Kill Bill Vol. 2. I also got Season 1 and Season 3 of 24. I hoped to get Season 4 of the Sopranos, but they didn’t have it. I was eying the Godfather box and the Star Wars films, but in the end I didn’t get them. Had a nicie lunch of Shanghai noodles with beer – 2 people ate for S$10, which is cheap. Off to the airport in a cab, on the way there we got a call asking us to come back and pick up stuff to take with us back to Singapore, but by that time it was too late. Oops! The flight went OK. A creepy Shanghai lady sitting next to me, chatting a bit, but she slept later on and I finished my book and listened to the Beastie Boys and Nagisa Nite. Nice. The book was OK. Michael seemed to have made a new friend who talked to him throughout the whole trip. Drank quite a few beers, but low alcohol level, nice premium Shanghai beer. Got through customs, met Naoko and Zen, took a cab home. Stayed up late checking emails and fun stuff like that, talking to Naoko aboug Shanghai, and other fun stuff. Saturday we woke up at 8, I dropped Zen off at his school, then went back home. At 10 we went to the school and watched Zen’s performance. It was fun – Zen came out and held up two wants with stars at the ends as part of a shapes song. He was in the back row. He didn’t do much, but he was smiling the whole time and having a ball. Different from last year when he was spaced out, cried, then walked off from his dance number. Then they came out and did the carrot-pulling farmer song/skit. He was the mouse, so he came last. Apparently, he was supposed to be dressed up as the dog, but didn’t like the look of his costume, so he became the mouse and came out last. Nice skits, good dancing among the 5-year-old girls, and afterwards we all ate a nice lunch and hung out… Zen played with some of the kids, then we went back to the apartment. Tried to get Zen to nap, but that didn’t work so well. We tidied up the apartment, then Yuping came over. We chatted a lot all afternoon, Zen was kind of misbehaving. Tired and sleepy, but wouldn’t sleep. Then at 5, as we were watching Spiderman 2, he finally dropped off. So late! We let him sleep until 6:30, then woke him up. And now we are about to go out for Indian food.
Shanghai Scenes: