I’m back in the UK.

My flight was supposed to go from Shanghai to Heathrow to Manchester- but it was raining in London so they cancelled the second leg of the trip and I had to abandon my bags to get the train up to Mum and Dad’s house. Am currently trying to work out how to get that bag back, but since there is a slight breeze today, there’s every chance that British Airways decided to just throw it in the sea.

So that’s the end of my first stint in Shanghai- six and a bit months from January 2 till July 20th. It’s been a mad time so far (I’m due to live there until March 2008), and if I’m totally honest, I’ve enjoyed it much more than I expected I would. The oppourtunity to live and work in China came up when I was still living in Seoul, South Korea and when I first touched down at Pudong airport back at the start of the year, I felt that there wasn’t a big enough gap between the two trips- and I was a bit burnt out on the whole Asian ex-pat thing.

At Dongtai market

Shanghai, though, is such an incredible place to live, that I knew I’d made the right choice about 48 hours after arriving there. It’s hard to talk about Shanghai without dissolving into superlatives (journalists don’t even seem to try)- 20 million people, 24 hour fruit shops on every corner, restaurants costing anywhere between 1 and 100 pounds, food that bites back, construction work throughout the night, bars that only close when you leave and bars that only open if you know the secret combination for the door.

Catherine likes tea
Some of the tea in China

My lifestyle, even on the humble wage of a software engineer, is like that of a 1920s millionaire. I’ve had conversations about what one should wear to visit a tailor, whether the maid is stealing my mineral water, and the outrageous cost of silver topped walking canes (to fend off street urchins). Six months have gone past in the wink of a monocle, and I can’t wait for the next six. Mind you, I needed a break. It’s great to be back in a country where the question “How much does this cost?” isn’t the start of a 20 minute battle of wits and a taxi ride doesn’t resemble the car chase scene from “Bad Boys 2″.

Dino Beach walking adverts
The photos bear no relation to the post today, they’re just some that I like.

England is as green and pleasant as ever, I’m eating a bacon sandwich with a cup of tea as I type, and in about 6 hours, I’m going to Spain with my family to celebrate Mum and Dad’s 40th Wedding Anniversary [feel free to tell them 'congratulations' in the comments, my Mum reads this site more often than me].

See you when I get back.

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