Thursday, October 30, 2008

Some Interesting pics>>>>

Rainy days in Shanghai are really interesting>>>>>this guy is wearing a plastic bag on his feet so that his shoe wont get wet!>>>>>>

The streets turn colourful>>>>>

Colours of the rain>>>>>>


At people's square, there is this recycling machine that will give you 1 cent when you place your empty plastic bottle in. This is to encourage the chinese ppl to recycle rather than throw away>> See the kid at the bottom? He pants has a big hole there so that the child does not have to remove his pants when he shits or pee. You can see many of them in Shanghai and they are called 小屁孩!

China's one child policy>>>>>>
Being the only child, they get the full attention of their parents...but is it good for them? These children are treated as 'Kings' and being their parents most treasured possesion, wont they be given what they want and get spoiled? The policy states that if both parents are the only child of their parents, then they are allowed 2 kids at most and if you break this policy, you will have to pay about 50-60 thousand yuan ($10,000+) sing per child! When I heard that, I got a shock! Singapore government is investing more than that amount for every extra child! And so, I believe the abortion rate here is very high also.
Now, there are many singles in China and couples without children who are not bounded by family commitments and are more of less 'free' to do as they like. In Singapore, for most parents, their whole life revolves around their children and most would complain that having lots of children is a pain....but I think children are a blessing from God. They bring about fullfillent to one's life. Looking at my landlord now, I am convinced it is always good to have more children. His one and only daughter is studying in Singapore (my poly) and already got her PR there and so, both my landlord and landlady are left to themselves. Initially when we came to their house, they were very happy to see us and said that the house was too quiet and that seeing us was like seeing his own daughter again. I really kinda feel sad for them and hope they will not have to live this way for the rest of their lives.

Our lunch breaks>>>>>and TGIF

The things both Hongyi and I have for lunch at 12-1pm>>>>>One of our favourite places is curry house!

Pearleen's beef curry rice>>>>>My Curry chicken rice>>>>>>
Hongyi's pineapple rice>>>>>

We also like to eat st sazeriya>>>>>I ate grilled chicken with tomato and cheese on top while hongyi ate spaghetti, soup and salad>>>>>Both our meals cost oni 3 sing bucks each>>>>>
I got a blueberry cheesecake for myself>>>>$1.50 singIts TGIF>>>>>we met up at xujiahui to slack
COol Blazer Kids>>>

We went to 新天地after that to observe the night view and stuff and headed for suzhou the next day! I will be uploading the suzhou pics soon!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Our off day>>>>

WED
Today, thanks to Hongyi, both he and I got a day off to get our visa done. (He told our extremely fierce supervisor that we had yet to renew our visa, and she told us off in that high-pitched tone of hers:' Why until now still haven't do, you want me to go to jail is it? Take tomoro off and get it done... Dun fool around with this kind of things ok? ' and so, we got our off day. We slept in till the early afternoon before heading down to get our visa done and we ate a lot of food that day.
  1. After doing our visa, we ate at KFC and I got a burger for myself (sg dosen't have it and its tastes fantastic).
  2. After KFC, we went to Cheng huang miao to eat Xiao long bao. I ate 8.

  3. Then we ate black sesame tangyuan. I ate 4.

  4. We proceeded to the dessert shop. I did not eat anything.

    cheng huang miao at night>>>>>>>Going to eat Xiao long>>>>>> And lastly, Backlane of our house>>>>>

Siqian ordered this>>>>>薏米lao I ordered this tou fu soup>>>>> And hongyi got this fried chicken>>>>>
We all shared but my favourite was yi mi lao...we became '3 months pregnant' after our eating spree that day.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Monday>>>>Hongyi's birthday!

Haha...today is Hongyi's birthday! We ate at 八百伴 for buffet dinner in a restaurant called 大鱼. Man! the food was superrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr nice!!!!!! for 150 yuan (30 sing per person) you can just order anything you want from the 'book' (menu) which contains a large variety of the various types of japanese food and different drinks! we ate like there was no tomoro! We ate salmon, raw beef, prawn fritters, chawamushi, cod fish, tuna, octopus, unagi etc etc etc. my favourite was the unagi! it was really good! hahaha...anyway, we played games too and I tried hard to sabo him but in the end, haiz...i think it boomberang back on me and i ended up being the victim! hahaha....
As mentioned, the buffet included ordering anything in that 'book' menu at any quantity and so, there was also free flow of alcohol!
Me, Sean and Siqian later lied to him saying we needed to go to the toliet and we brought in the birthday cake and celebrated his birthday for him!
Haha...this meal was a treat from Hongyi to us and till now, I kinda feel bad letting him pay so much. Anyway, just wanna say thanks man, for the luxury of being able to enjoy such good food. Wish you all the best in your future endeavours!

The 6th weekend!>>>>>CRAZY ME!!!!

FRIDAY NIGHT!~Saturday morning
I did a lot more crazy things this weekend!!! My work ended on fri at 6, intially, my intention was to hit the gym, however, since it is TGIF, I went out with Siqian and Pearleen to eat instead and after we went home, they kept psychoing me to sing ktv with them at 12 midnight! I was not agreeable as I was rather tired. I finally agreed when Siqian made a point by saying that there were oni 5 more weekends and next week we will be at Suzhou and the rest of the weekends we will be shopping...sounded logical to me and so, i went!
At the waiting area>>>>>
Inside the ktv room!>>>>>>

Yang Ming>>>>>>Siqian's collegue and now, our fren aso>>>>

Singing the night away!

We sang our heart out and in the end, siqian and pearleen ended up dozing off at around 5. haha...oni me and yang ming sang till 6am! afterwhich, we all went home and Si qian left for work immediately without rest! hahaha...as for me, i slept till 10.30am when my phone rang. I could tell it was singapore calling here and what i did not know was uncle michael (a very good friend of my family) was in shanghai and so, he asked me to meet him for lunch and I went with him and we ate steamboat at Raffles City! after that, I brought him to Qipulu to show him the cheap things there and I left him to shop while I headed down to California fitness to join Hongyi and Poh suan. Afterwhich, we went home to freshen up and change for dinner as....
....Violet (our host's daughter) gave us a treat at this very posh concept restaurant! You got to figure your way into the restaurant and no one will open the door for you, and to get to the toilet, you got to pass through a mirror maze! (So for those who are drunk, you will feel really dizzy). The food was fantastic!
Carrot, cucumber sticks>>>>>>
Pickles, Nuts etc etc>>>>>


We went down to drink testubes after that and played 5-10>>>>loser drinks and for that day, Hongyi and Violet drank the most!
I really feel very blessed to be able to enjoy such good food and I do not take all this blessings for granted but rather, I thank God constantly for bringing me here, giving me such good friends and letting me enjoy such experiences!

End of Weekend 6>>>>

The 5th weekend!>>>>>

During this weekend, we spent some time out at people's park together on sunday>>>>

Posers>>>>>>
Tangyuan (one big one for 20cents sing)>>>>>
We tapao the tangyuan and went to eat at Subway with the rest>>>>>
After which, I went to church with Sean and we met up with the rest at yong qi to cut hair>>>>
haha>>>>they suggested I 'pull' my fringe to the front and so, i did!>>>>>
And the result is.....BOB-Head Rachel!>>>>>>




The guy who cut my hair was a professional and here in china, you only need $8 sing to get a professional to cut for you! haha...rebonding by a professional oni requires a 120 sing here!
Haha...that's the end of the 5th weekend we spent in Shanghai!

Monday, October 20, 2008

MUSIC CHINA 2008....!!! 11 October>>>(4th weekend)

There was another reason why I came to Shanghai....and this was it! Music China 2008 Piano convention at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in 龙阳路 station at Pudong. My dad runs a piano retail business and so, I went there to do a bit of sourcing...


When I stepped in, the Steinway exhibition was the first thing I saw! Man, I was excited! Its the dream piano of every pianist and 90% of the world's most famous concert pianists uses this brand. The price? Well, the grand piano you see below can easily cost you a $200,000 sing dollars. And to all my retail course mates out there, this brand is mentioned in our Marketing Fundamentals textbook in case you did not notice before>>>>>
Me playing on a Steinway!>>>>>>>
Here are some unique pianos that I saw:
Dolphins>>>>>
Airplane design>>>>hope the sales take off!
Hearing the Gibson guitar for the first time, I was really mesmerized by its sound quality...it really has the 'rock' feel and the sound is just simply FANTASTIC !>>>>



After the convention, we went to eat Yoshinoya back at People's Square>>>>>
This only cost me ($2.80 sing)>>>>>

Followed by going to eat tangyuan>>>>>the four of us here are craving for Bedok 85 food!!!!!

That's about it for that day>>>>hahaha....will keep updating more!