ISpyShanghai

# 2 In a series of the business cards in my wallet.

Who? Da Marco

What? Italian Restaurant

Where? Inside a block of apartments, Jiangsu Lu (one stop from Jing-An)

Metropark Service Apartments
103 Dong Zhu An Bang Lu, Changning
东诸安浜路103号京华酒店公寓内(镇宁路江苏路间)
tel: 021 62104495

Why? The pizza here- blue cheese and sausage flavour, is great. Normally I cannot be swayed from the pizza topping that Jesus would choose (Tuna & Mushroom) but I make an exception here.

All of the other stuff I’ve eaten- seafood platters, unusual salads, umm little breadsticks- were solid tasty Italian food too. The wine is totally reasonably priced, and two people can eat there for 300RMB, which is more than you can say for most good western restaurants in town.

The deserts are crap, but they’re Italians so what can you do?

And…If you arrive early with a booking and your table isn’t ready, they gave you a glass of Prosecco at the bar.

If you turn up without a booking and there are no tables ready, they give you a glass of Prosecco and a stern telling off.

As much as I enjoy slaving over a hot camera to bring you the latest in kitten heels, radical lace configurations, and flip-flop-technology, sometimes I have to throw the floor open to the hoi polloi: readers shoes.

First up we’ve got the latest from the former colonies as a young chap
who refuses to be named1!11! spotted this delightful 1970s sofa / stack heel hybrid at a Jason Mraz concert.

Mr Mraz (if you’ve not heard him, imagine Savage Garden wearing a cool hat)
“is extremely popular with Asian girls, most of whom were shod in the below fashion“.

And boy, if there’s one thing we know about fashion, it’s that where Asian Australian girls lead, the world will surely follow.

Next up comes Lawrence from Computer Solutions, a fine IT company who promise* not to send the naked photos they find of you on your laptop to the newspapers.

Lawrence saw this gladiator bondage sandal at a recent fashionable event for fashionable people, and if the shoe doesn’t raise your eyebrow, the nail polish surely will, hold tight:
click to read on… »

Ack- I’ve been talking about doing this for a while, and now I’m not sure whether doing this now is bad timing or not.

Anyway- here’s a Ukulele cover version of Billie Jean by the late, great Michael Jackson.

The reason I’m laughing like a crazy person over the first verse of the song (and smiling like I’m high throughout) is that Emma was behind the camera pulling funny faces and dancing. It ain’t no disrespect!

For anyone who can’t get that video (still no youtube in China!) here’s an MP3.
Billie Jean- (ukulele version)

When dirty foreign apes first arrive in China they think certain stuff is cool: Chairman Mao watches, bikes overloaded up with polystyrene boxes (sorry Nik) and Haibao.

After a while though you get tired of that stuff, and start to find the next tier of Chineseosity cool: Shanghai watches, electric bike accidents and Haibao Mexicano.

Many of these second-tier cool items can be found in a shop called The Thing.

click to read on… »

Vauxhall Volkswagen Santana 1 - Electric Bike 0

(also Ornamental ponds 1 - Taxis 0)

#1 In a series of the business cards in my wallet.


Who? “JinSaDao”

What? A Xinjiang Restaurant

Where? A shopping mall in XuJiaHui.

No.218 2/F Tengfei Building
333 Tian Yao Qiao Lu
tel: 021-64260901

天钥桥路333号腾飞大厦2楼218

Why? Good food, nice surrondings, “traditional” dancing until 8:30pm. Pretty cheap (as Xinjiang food generally is). Close to Harleys and Blue Frog for after-dinner tipples.

And…once, right, when I was there, a guy in the corner table was sick on the floor for approximately 40-45 minutes.
His friends were getting up, walking around the restaurant and coming back to see if he was still going.

click to read on… »

I’m going to start from the mildly interesting and build up. By the end of this post, parts of you will explode.

click to read on… »

This weather- oh let me tell you!

It feels like I’m living inside a tray full of steamed dumplings, with another 8 trays on top of mine.

It’s hot, damn hot. And humid, damn humid.

This was what the sky looked like on Saturday afternoon in Pudong.

Just before we ran into the Super Brand Mall to try on hats / escape the rain, there was a cloud of dust that swept right into everyone’s faces. Not pleasant.

Looking at these photos again, I can see they look heavily photoshopped; they’re not, that guy really did have 5 buttons undone.

You’d be forgiven for looking at those clounds and imaging that when they opened, it hammered down for 40 days and 40 nights.

Nope.

Instead we got a quick burst of heavy rain, but nowhere near enough to clear the air.

Apparently it will be this intolerable for the next 20 days.

click to read on… »