The Joys of Unpacking!

FINALLY, after 3 LONG months of being in China and 6 months total of battling paperwork and Visa's we've actually received our air shipment.  It was a day/moment that I wasn't actually quite sure was ever going to happen at the rate we were going... but it did!  

I don't think I've ever been so happy and so sad in one day.  

See it's a catch 22 here, I'm so happy we have our "stuff" which will make our lives much more comfortable here, however, the unpacking makes me so very homesick for England and the US.  It's the reality that we actually are in China and going to live here for real that has just "hit" me.   Oh and of course the first thing I pulled out of a box was this picture of Brewer.  That made me cry... yes I've become a crazy dog lady and I miss him more than anything!

Although unpacking hasn't been all bad.  I've been finding some really crazy things in the boxes and I have to ask myself at least 3 times a day....  "How in the world did that get in the China Air Shipment"???

Orange sweat bands anyone?   These will definitely come in handy in August when it's BLAZING hot! 

Wine out of a real wine glass?   YES PLEASE!!!

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes... ohhh how I have missed them all.   Sorry, I'm not sure we will have room for visitors here since the second bedroom is now my shoe closet! 

Bill is an excellent Tea Maker in case anyone didn't know that! 

And I'm a Wine Queen!

Although we only have one safety vest to share between the 2 of us!

It's finally starting to feel like a home!  Just in time for me to go back to the USA in 20 days!!! 

Down to One Mirror

I guess you could say I'm lucky to have 1, however I'm still quite bummed out that today one of the mirrors broke off my ebike.

I was at a stop light and grabbed the mirror part to adjust it a little bit and well the entire thing ended up in my hand!

Having 1 is more than what most Chinese have on their ebikes but I actually used my mirrors and driving to the meeting I was on my way too and to lunch was not very pleasant with only one mirror.   The good news is we have DUCT TAPE in our shipment which arrived yesterday and I'm pretty sure there's some super glue as well.  I see an ebike improvement project in my future!
I then return home from lunch to find NOT 1, BUT 2 other ebikes parked in my parking spot!!!!  This happens EVERY SINGLE TIME I LEAVE.    I don't understand why the Chinese think it's okay to park in other peoples spots.  When we got the ebike we went to the office and purchased a parking spot with an electrical outlet.  We are number 26....  when I leave I lock my outlet shut because it's mine, I pay for the power for me, not for everyone else.  It baffles me why people think it's okay to just park in other peoples spots and to use their chargers!   My friend Gini's bike is the white one against the wall, it's happened twice now that I've noticed her bike is unplugged and her charger is plugged into another bike... I know she doesn't allow people to do that so I always plug her back in!   Sorry for the rant, it's just annoying and while I started on the ebike topic I figured I had to share the way people think it's okay to park anywhere they darn well please.  Notice the 4 chargers on the wall below - how is it acceptable to fit 6 bikes in 4 spaces?!?!?!  Only in China!

Dogs are much easier to care for than plants!

Yep, I managed to kill a plant in 3 days!

I just can't seem to keep plants alive or grow anything for that matter.  I was seriously considering purchasing some nice plants for our apartment, mainly because a few friends of mine have sent me articles on certain plants that "clean" the air in your house.  Mother-in-law tongues and lilies are both known to help clean the air indoors if you live in polluted cities.  And that we do!  I thought I'd buy some of each of them instead of an air filter but at the rate I'm going with live plants I'm better off buying the expensive air filter!

I'm sorry to report that we didn't do much this weekend so I don't have much in the way of new crazy China stories to report.  We saw 1 crazy thing on our walk around the lake on Saturday... A TURTLE ON A STRING NEXT TO THE ROAD!   Bill and I both did double takes and unfortunately neither one of us had our phones to get a picture.  Later that evening we went to dinner with some friends and they told us that normally there is a man selling the turtle.  Poor turtle, I wanted to let him go but he was dangling over the road so Bill advised me that I should leave him be.  Plus we didn't know if he was a snapper or not.   Next time I'll get a picture and try to set him free!!!

Here's a picture of the Saturday night jello shots my friend Gini made before our dinner at Paulaner with other expats:

Happy Memorial Day to all our friends and family!!!  

Celery from the US, can it really be?

Today when I was at Metro grocery shopping I grabbed a stalk of celery threw it in my cart and kept on shopping.  When I got home and started to clean it off I realized that the packaging says it's from California!!!   I did a little dance in the kitchen because I was so excited and happy.

Typically when we buy veggies and plan to eat them raw I always cringe, with all the food scandals and all the articles I keep reading about the cadmium levels in the soil, the lead in the soil, this that and the other pollutant in the soil I often wonder what we are putting in our bodies and if there will be any after effects.   Today, however we can rest easy and have ants on a log (celery and peanut butter with raisins) with the hopes that we aren't going to be glowing in a few days!

By golly gosh...  did I get lucky with that purchase today!  It's the little things that make each day doable here.

When Pigs Fly... OR Die!

Today on the way home from the Shanghai Hongqiao Flower Market the bus I was on passed a farm truck with the back end full of dead pigs.  I kid you not, they were DEAD, they were laying in the back of an open big truck, at least 20 of them!   I did not have my phone out and we were moving pretty fast so I couldn't get a picture but I did a quadruple take and YES they were pigs and YES they were dead!!!  As of today I've 100% given up pork!
Other than that site on the way home the flower market was an entertaining day!  The trip was with the expat women and so you shopped at your own pace and the ladies that I stuck with decided to include YUMMY sandwiches in our day from Hongmei Lu Pedestrian Street.

Here are some pictures:
Last time I checked the Packer colors were GREEN and GOLD, not red and black.  Grrr get it right China!

The puppy was chasing a butterfly.  Just like my Brewman would do, it was cute!

 This middle section of the market burned down a couple months ago due to a fire.  Pretty sad.

This one's for you Mikey, it's a necklace/jewelry holder but of course in Red, White and Blue!

This picture is VERY deceiving, it is a very very small box that contains a CRICKET that is for sale.  Yes apparently it's cricket season and they're for sale now.   Can't you just go outside and catch one?  It was disgusting!

I thought about buying this basket for potaToes, however I guess you're suppose to put potaPoes in this basket and I don't know what or where or how I'd find potaPoes.

Yes, you can even buy live turtles!  

Here's the plant section with potters outside.

 And more plants!  It was a jungle in there.

I decided to bring home this cute tea pot with some greenery in it.  (Thanks Mom for the b-day card that's in the background, it actually made it to China!!!)

And some succulents, however I have no clue how to care for them so they'll be dead by August is my guess.  (I bought 2 plants when we first got here and they were both dead when we returned from Australia, 3 months is a long time in plant life for me!)

It was a great fun day out in Shanghai.  Time for a Birthday Beer now!!! 

Additional Sydney Pictures

Here are some additional Sydney pictures that weren't in the last post.

 Dude, where's my car?

Get Brewed With The Lord!

The last part of our Australian adventure ended in Sydney.  I'm going to keep the post relatively short and add as many pictures as I can so you can see the sites of Sydney.  It is an amazing town and we'd definitely venture back there again if we can.

We stayed at The Lord Nelson Brewery which is claimed to be the oldest continually licensed hotel in Sydney.  The t-shirt slogans are "Get Brewed With The Lord" and we certainly enjoyed The Lord's beer!!!

We went on a bike tour our first full day in Sydney to get a lay of the land.  On the tour we were able to bike across the Sydney Harbour Bridge twice which was really unique.
 First trip over the bridge!

We saw the Opera House (didn't go inside) but all around the outside.  It was windy!  We had to walk our bikes through the Botanical Gardens which were really nice.

We saw Captain Cook's ship.   James Cook was a British explorer who made 3 voyages and founded Australia.

 View of the city from Darling Harbour where Captain Cook's ship is docked.

We enjoyed some freshly shucked Oysters at the Sydney Oyster Bar.  (Oyster Shots as well.)

 Here is our view of the sun going down on the bridge and opera house while we enjoyed our oysters.

We also managed to eat Kangaroo sliders that day however we didn't get a picture of them.  They tasted like venison/bison (a gamey type meat), so not too bad.

On Saturday (our last day) we took a day trip to Bondi Beach where we walked along the water, watched surfers, and then did a 6K trek to a southern beach town Coogee.

The beach patrols station listed the air temperature being 20C (68F) and the water temperature being 21C(70F).  We dipped our toes in the sand as we hadn't brought our suits and it actually felt pretty nice!

Eventually we took the bus back to Sydney and stopped at the famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels food cart for a famous Tiger meat pie topped with mushy peas, mash and gravy.

Now it's back to reality.