ISpyShanghai

Here’s my round up of the year. 

jANUARY

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.

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Hoorah!

Well, maybe I didn’t make my money target for Movember (although there’s still time to donate…) but I did make the front page of the Guardian website.

I’d like to thank God, my Mum, Dingle…

Movember Moustache

Quick recap for anyone who only checks in here once a week:

• All November (AKA “Movember”) I’m growing a moustache
• It’s for charity – with the money going to Prostate Cancer research
• f you donate to me you get a password to view a special post where you’ll see how the moustache looks today

Now admittedly, growing a moustache isn’t hard- no harder than growing nose hair in fact- but it is very very annoying.

When I eat soup I have to wipe the thing down after every spoonful, it tickles my nose when I’m asleep, and more than anything I have to really watch what kind of clothes I wear with the damn thing.

There doesn’t seem to be any reason to it, but when I wear certain shirts or jeans I look either like a Spartak Moscow fan, or Mr Gay UK 1985.

[N.B I'm not talking about new, cool, "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" / Tom Ford / Toby Maguire kind of gay, but oldschool  Freddie Mercury / "The Blue Oyster" bar kind of gay. Not a good look.]
It’s a minefield, and I’m struggling to get through it to the end of the month.

Luckily though a young man called Nige has come to the rescue.

Nige writes:

Dear James,
I was recently strolling through the backstreets of Shinjuku when I saw a familiar Italian Plumber: (Super) Mario.

Knowing that his bushy moustache is very close to your own personal style, I decided to follow him and pick up some fashion tips.

After a few streets or running and bouncing his head off bricks, Mario dived into a traditional Japanese Onsen to jump on some mushrooms and have a quick soak.

Here is a photo of the shoes he left at the door.

All the hairy chest,
Nige

Super Mario Golf Shoes

Thanks Nige.

So now I know which shoes go with the ol’ soup strainer, it’s just a matter of tracking them down in Shanghai.

Nothing to see

Well you knew this would come didn’t you?

My moustache is doing my head in- it’s all itchy, ginger and generally wrong. So unless you donate some money to prostate cancer research, you don’t get to see it.

I’m sorry, but that’s the kind of world we live in these days.

Donate here

In spirit this is part of the Movember charity drive, although I’m cutting out the middle man and donating straight to Prostate Cancer research.

movember.com