Week 19 - Thumb Plaza, Lianyang

Mike and I were out celebrating the end of the school year with his colleagues, and decided to walk home. It had been raining while we were there, and the lights were looking beautiful in the puddles. Mike took this long exposure shot, and I walked through it. So did a lady wearing elegant high heels... Sort of eerie.

Week 18 - Duolun Road

Our last ditch tourist outing for Mum and Dad's trip was to Duolun Road Cultural Street, in the Hongkou district. It's full of sculptures of writers, and there is a Modern Art museum, and loads of little trinket shops, one of which reportedly has the largest collection of Mao Badges. We went while Ellie was at school, and it was just a morning outing. We had coffee and cake in this building, the Old Film Cafe, but these girls, and also some very well dressed men were doing a model shoot and we kept seeing them as we walked along the street. I thought their qipaos were beautiful, and they looked so elegant in their various poses.

Week 17 - M on the Bund

I have wanted to go to this restaurant since arriving in Shanghai (almost). It is run by Michelle Garnaut, an Australian chef and Kylie Kwong visited the restaurant in one of her TV series. Anyway, with Mum and Dad visiting, I finally got to go!! We left the kids at home, and Mike was working and the three of us went out for lunch... the table setting was exquisite, and the view fantastic. We were sitting out on the terrace with phenomenal views down the Bund and across to Lujiazui. Lunch was delicious!!! This photo of course is of the view, through our glasses of Taittinger - what else would you drink?

Week 16 - Womende jiating

Womende jiating means our family in Mandarin. This is my family - my mum and dad, my sister, my husband, my kids and me.

We were all together for one week in Shanghai - Marnie flew in from London to see us while Mum and Dad were visiting too. Our house was full, but it was so good to have everyone here! Of course we talked about arranging a full family photo a number of times during the week, but this was taken just before we called a cab to take Marnie to the airport to fly home again!