Shanghai.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I love Shanghai. I LOVE Shanghai!!

Shanghai is so beautiful. It's a strange strange city, but it's amazing and I love it. My Mandarin is horrific and yet I seem to be understood... and I can more or less understand what other people are saying. More or less. Heh. Amazing.

I love Shanghai. It's so SO different from Hong Kong, and yet it is so interesting. There are a zillion different sides to this place, and it's huge - and the traffic is horrendous. But WOW. Did I already say how much I love Shanghai?!!

I'm staying at Tomorrow Square - a brand new block of JW Marriott hotel and executive apartments. I'm in the apartments. Do you know how long it is since I have had me own bathtub? Since I have had hot water in a shower for more than eight minutes? Since I've seen an oven - and a proper one too, not the miniature ones that you can get for $400 in Pricerite...?!!! Since I've had a wardrobe? Since I have washed my own clothes...?!!! DUDE! This place is amazing.

In between the meetings and the location scouts and phonecalls (because I am on a rechargeable phone card, I know exactly how much money I am spending on phone calls - well this is the minimum amount, the amount of money that is being spent on the Hong Kong mobile remains to be seen - and let me tell you, it's a lot. I think I'm using about RMB300/day. I think it's because I'm calling Hong Kong all the time. Or Hong Kong calls me. My HK mobile is gonna be so expensive I tell you *shakes head* not my fault. Dude. It's madness. But I digress. In between all the 'official' things I have to do, I managed to go shopping today for essentials. Because I am living in an apartment, I need to buy groceries and things like that... went to this American supermarket today... it has so much! Even stuff I can't find in Hong Kong!! MUST recommend the supermarket -

City Supermarket at the Ritz Carlton, right next to Starbucks (yeah man, there are Starbucks stores all over the place - not as crazy as Singapore or even Hong Kong, but enough for me to feel comfortable that should I need a caramel macchiato there will be one close enough by... haven't managed to get one yet though). City Supermarket. I bought Fig Newtons today. And Nestea. And Campbell's Cream of Mushroom. Nice. My new boss bought... well we spent over RMB1800 and let me tell you, my stuff didn't even account for RMB150. Maybe not even 100. Cheese and bread and butter, washing powder and washing up liquid and dishwasher powder, olive oil and pasta sauce and garlic pepper, San Pellegrino and Heineken and Coke... the list goes on. Phwoar.

We went to a flower market today. My new boss needs flowers and plants and things to make her apartment more homey. We bought these amazing orchids. I was told, before I came here, that I must always bargain. I couldn't bargain today at the flower market. I tried. But I couldn't. We got two pots of orchids, beautiful beautiful orchids in really nice pots... RMB500. How can you argue with that? I didn't think I could, and when I explained to the boss why I couldn't, she thought it was quite alright because the big pot that we bought for RMB280... she said in the States it woulda cost $200. US. Jaw drop!!!

I can't get on msn. Despite my claims before I came up here that I would be on msn all the time, I can't seem to get online. Very depressing.

Right. Bed time. I'm KNACKERED. Almost couldn't get up this morning for a 7am meeting *shakes head* madness. At least tomorrow things will be better. A 9am meeting is always better than anything earlier than that...!!!

Thank you Linnet for the email (sorry you're right my email is kinda crappy but it was because I had no internet access and therefore my account was totally overloaded and therefore it bounced back to you twice. apologies!!) Thank you Christian for trying to find a chiropractor (thanks Lin for the info that you gave him!!) Thank you to all those wonderful people who are praying for me... Janice I miss you like crazy and I can't wait until you come up here!!! Ah yes a zillion thanks Lin (again!) for church info. I was meaning to ask you but kept forgetting... ... ... ... ...

If need to contact me at all, I'm reachable on my mobile which is on roaming here. Text messages are good too :)

Huggles huggles huggles. I love Shanghai! :) God bless. Good night.