Old Shanghai Teahouse

Walking around the Old Town of Shanghai we needed a sit down and took the recommendation from the Lonely Planet for a cup of tea at this tea house full of Chinese antiques from the 20s, 30s and 40s.

A bamboo menu was handed to us and the owner in very basic English pointed out "good tea" to us. I think I went for a pu erh and Donncha went for a green. Then the lady of the house brought the tea!

It all looked neat but what to do with it?! Thankfully she came back pouring hot water over everything. I was chuffed that my tea had the smaller cup and fancier pots :)

Donncha's shocked expression that this tea was going to cost us B$30! We must have been given the tourist menu as I don't suppose the locals behind us would be paying so much - but hey it was a nice place and the tea was to say the least fancy!

And complete with rather ancient hot water flask which even had a wooden stopper!

In conclusion a very relaxing place for a lovely cup of tea ~ but I must admit though mine looked good I ended up drinking Donncha's green tea which tasted better!

Old Jazz Band @ Peace Hotel Shanghai

We managed to watch these old boys perform on our last night in Shanghai. Most of them are in their 70s and 80s and put on an entertaining show - even though one old boy kept looking at his watch probably thinking it was way past bedtime! And despite being an early session, the place was packed. Sorry about the poor pictures but we only had the phone.

Shanghai Pictures - The Maglev

Shanghai - what a city! Unfortunately I couldn't access blogger there so I will try to put up some pictures this week. The best thing about the trip was being able to walk for miles and miles without usual complaints of sore feet, tiredness and constant wee-wee stops (mind you in Shanghai our boys would have had a field day - phrase "When in Rome..." comes to mind here!). Unexpectedly, the city was easy to make our way around and very safe - I think we did miss a couple of crucial tourist spots on our tour but we were more than happy with the daily Shanghai scenes we saw. What we didn't prepare ourselves for were people. It was (unknown to us until we got there) the Chinese National Day with a week's holiday. And it seemed the whole city went walkabout. Needless to say we were both overwhelmed and in awe.

To start and finish the trip we went on the Shanghai Maglev, the only commercial operating maglev train which operates to and from Pudong Airport and the city. The 30km distance is covered in just 7m 20secs!

We caught the 15:32 (which left on the second)

Peaking at 431km/h

A Happy 10 Years

Most people ask us when they meet us, how we met, where we got married but we have rarely shown the photos of our wedding. Our wedding took place 17 months after we first dated, of which 14 months were spent apart in different continents (Thanks to Net2Phone ..... an earlier version of Skype !) Little did we know where life would take us then.... we took the challenge together and ten years on, we are looking forward to many more years together as a family!

Thank you Iman, Jack and Ayden for fulfilling our dreams. At the beginning of the month we celebrated our ten years and this week we go duo once more on an adventure to Shanghai.

Tooth Away Day!

The moment Iman has been waiting for years finally arrived yesterday (with a bit of help from me). Loosing her first tooth at 7 yrs & 8 months is good going considering at the same age I probably already had multiple extractions!

And equally excting for Iman was finding out the toothfairy left 10 dollars for her first tooth ~ a special one off treat just for waiting patiently for the moment - cos she has another wobbly probably coming out in the next few days. Coincidently Cousin Zahra lost a tooth too yesterday!

And look who's caught up!

There was a big bicycle shuffle in the compound yesterday. Cousin Zahra has a new bigger bicycle and she proceeded to give her old bicycle to Iman who in turn gave her orange bicycle to our two wheeler novice Jack. So Jack handed his little bicycle to Ayden who did not waste much time trying it out. He was very proud to show everyone his new skill today. A bit wobbly at times and though he's learning to use the brakes, he's still quite keen to drag his feet.

(Excuse the shoe polish like marks on Ayden - it was a wet afternoon and the boys were climbing the walls and even tried out face paints on themselves)

Unfortunately despite my pleas for him to slow down ("No Mama... I CAN go fast...") our little cyclist had a little accident very soon afterwards giving him a small injury on his cheek. Hopefully he's learnt his lesson?!!!

Jack's Wheels

Check out what our little guy learnt to do all by himself one afternoon just a couple of days before Hari Raya. He literally asked our gardener to take his trainer wheels off and cycled away!

All Ireland Champions - All Angles Covered

Most of you who know me, will know that I come from Cork and as with all Cork people, I subscribe to the belief that we should win the All Ireland every year (but in a quietly confident manner). However, as a back up, I can always claim my mixed heritage (Irish Style - my Mum is from Tipperary) so this year, we have the double - Tipperary in hurling and Cork in the football. The kids love their jerseys and are proud to wear them - pictures here taken in Dingle during our week there.

Hari Raya photos 2010

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2010

Wishing all our friends and family Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. Maaf Zahir & Batin.

iSurprise!

When Donncha told me over the phone that he had bought me a nice surprise, I was thinking on the lines of Molten Brown or possibly a handbag.... So I was totally bowled over when he turned up with an iPad! And I love it!!

New school year 2010

The best thing about a long holiday is the kids are genuinely excited about going to school. So much so this morning that they were in the car before I had time to take proper photographs. And I knew they both weren't going to cooperate much with a camera in school so I had to just take it as they were. Iman is proud to be starting Year 3 and Jack has started Year 1. It was nice to see all the familiar faces in school and also plenty of new parents around (familiar faces too - this is Brunei afterall!) And after drop-off, it was just me and Ayden again... I have a few months left to enjoy his company in the mornings.

Post holiday blues

It never feels like it at the time but at the end of a holiday you always wonder where the time went and 7 weeks is a long time! We truly had a fabulous time in Ireland (and London). It's been great for Donncha to give an insight to where he grew up and also for me to introduce things from my younger years ~ Curly Wurleys, Calipos and Chipsticks just to name a few!

Still don't actually know how I managed but we packed everyting in. The Byrnes came down to say goodbye. We will miss Ruairi and Clodagh. A quick cup of tea at the airport with Grannie and Grandad *hugs* and we were off!

In London the kids were all excited to get to the hotel. We chose to stay out in Twickenham. Why sleep in a stadium? We were looking at hotels for ages and really did not fancy a cramped airport hotel room so we looked around the area and found this to be excellent value and we were not disappointed cos the rooms were really nice and getting out of the marshmallow at 4:30 the next morning was not easy.

And Twickenham high street itself was lovely with plenty of nice restaurants and we had a superb Indian ~ you just can't beat a British Indian!