Chinese Wine

As many of you know, we like our wine. Today was a long day for both of us so we decided to order delivery service from the clubhouse in our complex. The food is okay and the delivery is fast. Since we were missing wine, I thought I would walk to a nearby wine boutique and pick up a bottle or two. To my surprise, the cheapest price I could find was over $50 for a bottle of Penfolds - that sells for $10 at home. I couldn't do it.

On the way back I stopped by the Chinese version of 7-11 called Buddies. Picked up a couple Cokes and noticed a shelf of Chinese wine. After doing the math and realizing it was less than $5, I couldn't pass up Greatwall Merlot, vintage unknown. For $5 I'll try almost any wine.

It actually wasn't that bad. It had a little more sediment than I think would be allowed in the US but at least it had a real cork top. I think the cork tops makes it a real wine. Certainly the 12% alcohol content is enough to kill anything living when they bottled it, right? In the end, we couldn't finish it off. We put it in the fridge so maybe it will be better cold tomorrow.

My favorite picture

I love this picture of Madeleine. She is looking out of our main balcony at the street below.

A few cute pictures of Madeleine

Here are a few pictures of Madeleine I've taken this week. This first is Madeleine running around the small park in our compound. The second is Madeleine in the midst of her new hobby, furniture moving. The last is our first night here, just checking it out. Enjoy!

Clothesline

Come on, everyone does it. It only hurts a little the first time. You don't want to be the only one not doing it.
Alright!! I did it!! I hung my clothes from a clothesline on the balcony of our apartment.
There are clothes hanging everywhere in this part of Shanghai. Out of windows, on rooftops, across balconies and between trees on the sidewalk. I literally have to duck under blankets and sheets walking around town.
We have a very small washing machine that is also a dryer. When I say small what I really mean is tiny. Two towels or two pair of jeans is all it will hold. Forget about washing a sheet. The dryer function takes forever, about 2 hours, and the clothes come out damp. So, I have given in and hung a clothesline on the small utility balcony of our apartment. I really never expected to hang my clothes outside to dry. Just another adjustment to make to Shanghai living.
After almost a week I think we are making the best of the rest of the changes and differences. The baby cot that we have is really a playpen not a crib so my safety comfort level is low and Madeleine is sleeping in our room. Hopefully we will have a better baby cot in Singapore. It is also an adjustment having a kitchen with none of the staples I am used to in my own pantry. We decided the other night that we would eat in. I had bought some pasta and tomato sauce in the jar at the grocery store and that is what we had. It filled our bellies but that's about it. I would NEVER feed Lee that at home!! At home it is pasta from scratch and homemade sauce. The ingredients for that dinner alone would be $100 not including the kitchen tools I would need. It looks like a lot of eating out!!
As Lee would say, it's part of the adventure.

Laughter is the best medicine

A short post as it is 11:30 PM Sunday in Shanghai. The first real laugh I've had in quite a few days I had tonight at Lee's expense. I asked him how to open the door to the balcony, trust me it is unusual, and we both stepped out to enjoy the view. He showed me the gardens below and we were just looking around and the next thing I know I hear a BANG!! Lee had turned around and run right into the glass window. I tried to ask if he was OK and all that but I was laughing so hard. Poor boy. He has been such a good daddy and husband taking care of us in a new city. We have had our hands full with Madeleine and her time zone adjustment. Add to that, she is a total Daddy's girl and I am sure he will be happy to go to the office tomorrow!!

Jetlag Hangover

Madeleine is suffering from jetlag worst than us. It took her 9 hours to get 5 hours of sleep last night. It probably didn't help that she had 2 naps yesterday that both ran 2-3 hours each. I finally gave up at 4:30am so we got up to watch the sun rise. Good thing ESPN had the Yankees vs Red Sox game on (at 4:00am) - we only have 6 English stations and 2 are sports.

Arrived in Shanghai

Finally arrived and checked into the apartment at about midnight last night. Simon met us at the airport along with a driver with a van. Good thing because all of our luggage would take at least two Chinese cabs.

Once Simon left us, we just sat there wondering where to start. There's no food in this place aside from 2 complementary bottles of water - saved for bottles. Madeleine slept 2 hours before arriving in Shanghai so she was wired - after all, it was 11:00am by her clock.

Once we finally crashed we slept hard for about 5 hours until the sun came up. Since there is no daylight savings here (they tried it once and everyone was late for work so they changed it back), the sun comes up at about 5:00am.

We were up and on the streets by 7:00 this morning and nothing was open. Thankfully we found a Starbucks (for silly Americans) and had some pastries and fruit. We walked a few blocks and watched a group senior citizens exercising in the park. Madeleine and Theresa are napping now and once they get up we will venture out for groceries.

The apartment has met our expectations so far. As with most of China, we have ancient Chinese housing on one side of the building with new modern shopping on the other side. It's clean and safe that's what matters the most.

Hello from Tokyo

Hello from lovely Tokyo!! The land of my cell phone doesn’t work but the internet is universal. Now wait a minute, will the internet work on my phone? Never mind, after 11 hours in the plane my mind no longer functions.

So, the details. Madeleine slept a total of six of the eleven hours plus one of the three hours from Houston to LA. Four of the hours on the JAL flight was at least in the bassinet. Not too bad but of course it wasn’t in one stretch. The guy sitting next to me and the baby was at least nice enough to move seats and let us have one extra for Madeleine. We never actually sat her in it but it made for a good crap catcher. Lee has been great!! He did a lot of Daddy duty as Mommy’s brain sort of gave out at hour nine.

The only other excitement was thinking I had left my cell phone on the behind after we exited the plane, but of course it was in the bottom of one of the five carry ons!! So as I write this it is four AM at home and Lee and I probably don’t have two hours of sleep between us in the last 24. One more flight and home sweet temporary home.

Practice Flight

We spent the last weekend in Greenwich, CT with Theresa's family. It was great to see all of our family and introduce Madeleine to her cousins and extended family. The weather was great and Madeleine was the center of attention of course. As a side benefit, we got to practice travelling with a toddler. It's been almost 6 months since we last took a flight with her and she was much less mobile at that time. She was a handful but still an angel. Now the packing really begins with less than 3 days to go.

Shanghai Apt Booked

Confirmed our reservations for the Shanghai apartment at a small boutique complex called Shama xintiandi. It's in a district called the French Concession which is predominately western but still outside of the Expat community. It's an area we are familiar with and still has old world charm with trees and parks which are hard to find in Shanghai. The subway station is only a couple blocks away and we should have some nice services at the complex. My office will be about 15 minute drive and we are halfway between the international airport and the domestic airport.


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Headed to Asia

As you may have heard, our family is headed to Asia for 3 months for my work. This will give me a chance to spend less time in the air and spend more time as a family.

We will spend the first 4 weeks based in Shanghai, China and will be staying in a serviced apartment. During the weekends we hope to visit Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as I will have business in these areas.

The next 8 weeks will be in Singapore. From there, we hope to visit Phucket (Thailand), Bali (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and some part of Australia.

Check back every now and then and we will share our photos and stories.