Expo Countdown

World Expo preparations in Shanghai have been in high gear for a while now. Posters are up everywhere and I particularly liked this recent one, a quirky take on environmentally-friendly transportation choices (taxicabs with Fred Flintstone-esque legs, unicycles) and a slogan of "Love the Earth, Let's go!"

Weird, but fun.

Welcome Sophia!

We have a cat! Her name is Sophia.

We adopted Sophia from our friend Mara, who relocated to the Netherlands. Sophia is about 2 years old and is very sweet. She's exploring our apartment and is getting more and more comfortable in her new surroundings. The first night, she hid under the sofa and would not come out until we went to bed. By the fourth night, she was sleeping in our bed and open to affection.

She does have one weird trait - an attraction to the inner part of the elbow where she will lick your shirt and knead her paws. We think it's a nursing urge that she never fulfilled when she was a kitten, as she was a stray in a park.

We are enamoured with her presence and she is definitely part of the family!

Farewell for now, PhoKing

PhoKing has always been a trusty neighbourhood restaurant for us, offering a simple selection of comforting Vietnamese noodles at a reasonable price. Every time we have a visitor, we always end up there for at least one meal. Alas, we walked by the restaurant last weekend, to find it closed and the note at the door said they were shutting up shop because of problems with the management company of the building in which they are located. Apparently, there were cleanliness issues and the owner of PhoKing is clearly disappointed and frustrated with the lack of response and action.

Interestingly, the Chinese note adjacent to the English one was brief and only said that changes were in progress (duh). I bet the management company would not have allowed such a candid note in Chinese. Ah well, we'll be on the lookout for the next restaurant in this location, but hope that it will be clean.

First things first

Happy New Year!

Our new year's eve festivities weren't much different to what it would have been back home - venture to a bar/club with loud music, alcohol of some sort, then a long wait for a cab back home...am I being a bit Scrooge-ish here? The highlight of my night was seeing the sky filled with lanterns, like fireflies floating above the buildings along the Huangpu River. It made the night seem a bit magical!