I have learnt not to expect much privacy living in a lane house. Everyone sees my washing hanging out, they know what time I come and go and they see everyone arriving. This week however, I was surprised to see that someone with very little consideration of her own privacy, moved downstairs into the room… Read More »
Nature just isn’t beuatiful enough according to the Chinese. Not only do they dye the ears and tails of their dogs, and sometimes, in the year of the tiger, paint stripes on puppies to sell them, but they paint flowers too. Often you will see beautiful tight rose buds dipped in glitter. What could be… Read More »
Last weekend I went along the West Bund cycle path and I was very impressed. This Sunday was glorious – the first day without a coat this year – so I took my old Chinese bicycle down through Yu Yuan Gardens on FangBang Lu, down to the Fuxing Road wharf and across the river on… Read More »
What a beautiful day it ws on Sunday. I had been sittig at my desk until 2:30pm and then, when I had completed the audio edited which I had been putting off, I headed out on the metro to West Bund. It seemed everyone else was there too, enjoying the first sunny day of spring.… Read More »
I found the worst cafe in Shanghai at 1933, the old abbatoir. It’s a beautiful Art Deco building popular with photographers but these days it’s full of shops and cafes and much of the old charm and photographic beauty of the place has been degraded. I took a couple of German friends there and we… Read More »
I hate the man who lives underneath my bedroom. I really hate him. He bangs on the ceiling with something very heavy whenever he thinks I am walking too heavily across my bedroom. I have taken to sliding across the floor instead, fearing his wrath. Saturday morning came and I was in bed when I… Read More »
I had been to Chongming before but never made it to the wetland park. It promised to be the first warm weekend of the spring and so I blocked out all of Sunday for the expedition. Thanks to the workmen in the flat underneath my bedroom I was up early and having breakfasted, I grabbed… Read More »
I take the bus most days and there is something I have noticed. Whenever passengers push on (they always push on, no matter how many free seats there are), they sit on a double seat but instead of sitting by the window they sit by the aisle. This means that anyone else who comes on… Read More »
Sadly my landlord, who lives Australia, has decided to sell the flat. He sent an agent around to have a look. He spent less than a minute here and then said he would be bringing people around at the weekend. 1pm Sunday I was to expect some people. Well 1pm came and what I hadn’t… Read More »
It constantly surprises me that men can get so pleasure from watching other people playing. In the same way, young people watch others playing computer games. On Jiashan Lu every day there is this large group of men gathered under a tree. It has been really cold recently but they brave the weather to sit… Read More »