Published by Swiss James on 03 Jan 2009 at 10:05 am
2008
Here’s my round up of the year.
I started off the year in in Letterkenny, Oirland where I was pitched up in a remote cottage following my brothers wedding.
It was great craic (fake irishmen: please note the spelling) although if you want to get a Chicken Tikka Masala at 3am on January the 1st, I’d recommend not being in a village of 250 toothless fishermen.
On returning to Shanghai, Emma convinced me to take a trip to the freezing wastelands of Harbin where they brighten the place up once a year by holding an ice festival.
“How cold was it James?”
I hear you ask. So cold that there was frost on the end of my eyelashes.
So cold that when I saw a man peeing in the street, I wanted to shake his (left) hand for bravery.
Very, very, cold.
Spring Festival time again- out with the Pig, in with the Rat (or was it Mouse?)
Spitting, flags, fireworks. They're all here!
I spent Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. Took the overnight sleeper train from Shanghai to Shenzen (and I’m still getting google hits for it) which was almost as much fun as the destination itself.
"Hello is that Disney's copyright department?"
Hong Kong really does deserve its reputation as a great place to shop, it’s also a fantastic city to eat, and if you’re looking for a place to watch fireworks explode over Hong Kong Harbour- it’s absolutely world class.
Hong Kong Harbour
I came to Shanghai to work on the new Terminal 2 at Pudong airport, so you can imagine my relief when Terminal 2 actually opened and didn’t explode.
Terminal 2 at Pudong
In the end it turned out to be kind of an anti-climax, I was on the second shift of engineers who clocked on at around 7am to clear up any problems that happened during switch over. But there weren’t any real problems.
Damn. If only I’d been working on Terminal 5 at Heathrow instead.
The other big news of the month is that I saw two middle-aged Chinese guys being nice to a cat and neither of them were WoAi.
No, they weren't fattening up their dinner
The Smiths sang “November Spawned A Monster” but I say it was April15, 2008.
That was the date when I decided to take two random photos I’d taken at the weekend, and pretend they were part of an ongoing feature called “Shoe Tuesday”.
The first ever Shoe Tuesday image
Oh I thought it was a laugh at first, but yesterday I spent 10 minutes of my life chasing an 11 year old girl up three floors of a shopping mall because she was wearing a plastercast in the shape of a giant roller boot.
I’m not sure who’s laughing every Tuesday, but it isn’t me I can tell you.
This was the month when Emma left her bag in a taxi on the way back from the airport. The driver fell asleep, I ended up in the back of a police car.
You’ll really have to read the whole thing.
It was a strange incident that, in a way, shows the full spectrum of what life as a foreigner can be like in China.
Especially since the way I think about that night depends on whether I choose to remember how nice the police guy in the station was
Please don’t think badly of China, we are trying to find your bag, I hope you have a great time here.
I like Lady Diana.
or to remember the attitude of the Emergency phoneline operator (i.e. the 999 / 911 woman)
Emma: Hello, I’d like to report a missing bag
Hatchet faced old Witch: Why are you in China? Do you have a visa?
It was also the month of my trip to a resort (called Xanadu!) near Hangzhou. Ahh, good times.
Xanadu in Hangzhou
During the merry old month of June I got heavily into timelapse and spent an entertaining (for everyone around me) hour or so stood on Nanjing Dong Lu taking a photo of the street every 20 seconds.
Some results can be seen here, and another result was that I owed the long suffering Emma a trip to Beijing, my first time in the capital.
Three Bald Men
It’s lovely there- a lot more peaceful than Shanghai, and with cheaper sandwiches too.
Back home for the summer and a barrage of questions from friends and colleagues:
So do you have some kind of shoe fetish?
Seriously, what’s with all the shoes?
etc.
Once again, it’s a joke that somehow got out of hand- I’m as confused by the whole thing as you are.
July was also the first time I played the world’s greatest video game: Rock Band, got lost on my bike and nearly drowned in my own sweat, realised I could feed my turtles with a toothpick, and discovered how monkeys quit smoking.
a t-shirt for evil hags
OK I’ll admit it- I was totally wrong about the Olympics.
At the start of the year I thought the whole thing was nothing but hype and minority sports that no-one cares about. I was ordered to spend the opening ceremony from a secure location in the airport to defend from any cyber-attacks on the software (true story) and was blown away by the spectacle.
As the games wore on it felt like something historic was really happening, and that I’d be a fool not to take the short plane hop over to Beijing to see it for myself.
Three great sporting nations
In Beijing I had an amazing weekend, got tickets to go to the Birds Nest stadium, and saw something I’ll never forget: the first round of heats for the Women’s Pole Vault.
(Oh and Usain Bolt winning the 100m final)
I was in Nanjing enjoying a terrifying weekend of cable cars and taxi queues when I heard the news that my brother’s first baby, Eve Erin Creegan had arrived.
September was also the date of the first ever 150 club night out (a night out where the total cost of all of your clothes must be less than 150RMB), a free business trip to Kunming and the Stone Forest, and the month in which I bought a cool new lens for my camera.
Yi in wide-angle
On balance though, I’d still have to say that Eve’s arrival was the highlight.
Medical emergency! This is the month when I was rushed to hospital (well OK, I rushed myself to hospital) when my elbow suddenly turned infected and swollen.
If I’m honest, part of me thought that the doctor was going to cut open the wound and millions of baby ants would crawl out of it. Instead though, they gave me some pills and it just sort of got better by itself.
Disappointing.
On the upside- I did get time to fly back to England and say hello to the new arrival.
Eve Erin Creegan
Looking at this photo again, she looks so tiny! The beautiful smiling Eve I was playing with at Christmas must be twice as big as the newborn here.
Ah it won’t be long before she’s stealing cars and writing poems about how no-one understands her.
I started the month picking glass out of my feet following my disastrous halloween costume: (John McClane in Die Hard), but ended in triumphantly raising a good solid chunk of money for Prostate Cancer research by growing an awesome ginger moustache.
 Me as John McClane |
 Me as Tachey McAwesome |
Truly it was a wonderful Movember.
Shoe Tuesday turned ugly as a series of battles broke out: high-top sneakers versus shoe/trainer hybrids, boot warmers versus furry Crocs.
It’s a disturbing trend and no-one quite knows where it’s going, but we’ve opened Pandora’s box now, and it’s no use crying over spilt milk.
With a couple of friends away, we looked after Shanghai’s fanciest turtle- Dos, who spends his getting flipper manicures as he eats peeled Shrimp at Turtleham Palace.
How the other half swim
Let’s hope he enjoys it whilst it lasts- by the time this econmic crisis is over, he’ll have been boiled up for soup and served up at an Investment Banking soup kitchen.
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id just used your pic with the tshirt on my blog….if that’s ok.
April 15, 2008 is the greatest day of my life, so far.
THAT, was a great way to catch up on your blog. I’m glad I found it, good stuff my friend ….