Neglect....

Hello...
So I realise I am a bad blogger....have just started and am already neglecting my blog and have not added anything for a couple of weeks. Truth of the matter is I have not been feeling too hot (virus apparently) and have been neglecting a lot of things. So my new resolution (who needs new year?) is to keep up with the updates.

Last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful I think. I did go to my cooking workshop and learn how to make sweet and sour, spicy tofu and dumplings. I have since repeated the sweet and sour at home and amazingly it was a success...go moss!!! Maybe my calling in life was to cook chinese food??? I also went to see Alice in Wonderland. No surprises with the story but the film was fabulous...3D is amazing and Johnny Depp...well who couldn't think he is a superb actor!!! The chinese were quite well behaved...they weren't as talkative as normal...they only have to read subtitles and not listen!

So last weekend was a public holiday here too...obviously not easter (although I still managed to eat my body weight in chocolate) but it was tomb sweeping day. Tomb sweeping day does exactly what it says on the tin...people visit graves, pay respects to their dead loved ones and er sweep the tombs. All I know is that it meant Dave had a 3 day weekend which was great.

One place I have neglected to tell you all about so far on my blog is the fabric market here. Probably because I have not been for yonks but I went this week to get some clothes made for my holidays. For all us fat birds in shanghai (i.e. anyone above a size 10) this place is a mecca. Its 3 floors of every kind of material possible, designs hanging up and tailors. So basically you go in and pick something they have hanging up, take them a picture or give them something to copy and within a week you will have the handmade garment hanging in your wardrobe...just bloody brilliant!!!!! And at much cheaper price that in the UK...although cashmere coats are still the real bargains here!!! It can be a very hit and miss place...some of the tailors are crap..they have no concept of big bottoms and big stomachs...they have a bit of an issue with boobs, and they laugh at your size sometimes (go with it, they are not being mean, the just think its funny and they don't know any other word other than fat). Anyway if you find a decent tailor this place is a gem. I had my bridesmaid dress made there for my sisters wedding and it was fab!!!

Today I am at home waiting for some furniture to be delivered...again hand made furniture is a bargain and bit by bit we are stocking up ready for our eventual return to the uk!!!

I talk about how great life is here and it is but, and most of my pals here would agree with me, one of the hardest things of course about living here is missing out on so much back in the UK and I miss my family and friends terribly and think about them every day. Thank god for texting and skype!!! I struggle sometimes feeling incredibly guilty for not being in the UK more than I am...I would love to be home more. At the moment it averages twice a year but the fact of the matter is I can't...physically the flights knacker me and I always get ill and secondly the cost is getting more and more from shanghai to london...it used to be really cheap but not so much now. Don't get me wrong. I love my life here but its hard sometimes. Word of advice to anyone thinking in being an expat....try and do it with someone who works for an airline :)))))