Photography Exhibition, Snickers and Jing'an Temple

It's amazing how the promise of a long weekend makes the week before a bit easier to get through!  The week whizzed by, not least because the wonderful Becky is back covering Ellie for 2 weeks while our maternity cover Una waits for her work VISA to get sorted.  Becky is my best pal here, so it's great having her at the next desk along again.  It was her birthday on Saturday, so on Friday we had cupcakes shaped like dogs (see below) to celebrate.  Andy got her a surprise trip to Xi'An to see the terracotta warriors, so Matt and I are dog sitting for a few days.  Snickers is just so cute!  We've taken him for walks, and sat with him to keep him company. He is very easy to look after, but it has made me realise how much more work dogs are than cats!  Cats are easy peasy!

It's a bank holiday weekend, hence why I am posting at 2pm on a Monday instead of in a year 4 lesson!  I just love a long weekend!

On Friday after school, it was the picnic in the park work social.  It didn't start until 4.30pm so Ann and I went to Tequila Club for a margarita while we waited.  We met Matt there afterwards, and got some baby cuddles with a very grumpy Tizzy - apparently babies hate both of us!

On Saturday morning we headed off to a photography exhibition that we had got free tickets for from school. Some of the photography was wonderful. My favourites are below.  Some of it was utter rubbish, and Matt spent most of his time claiming that he could do a better job, and that 'African tree' his favourite photo from Swaziland would have been better than every photo there!  I must admit that some of it just didn't sing to me - I guess that's the whole point of art though isn't it!

The exhibition centre is a very cool building, and I enjoyed the architecture more than some of the photos!

Sunday was a lazy day, catching up on sleep and cat (and dog) cuddles.  We went out for lunch to the Flying Fox, our local Irish pub, then just watched Only Fools and Horses for the afternoon.

Today, we went to Jing'an Temple.  We walked past it on Saturday, but decided we didn't have enough time to go in before Matt's hospital appointment (he's hurt his forearm).  We decided to go today instead, and because it's a bank holiday it was free entry, instead of £5 each.  I love it when that happens!

The temple is pretty cool because it's all decked out in gold, with some great gold lions, dragons and elephants all over it.  We have been told that the temple seems very commercial normally, and a bit of a tourist trap, but because of the bank holiday it was packed with worshipers, and it was fascinating to watch locals praying and to see the monks going about their daily business.

It's been a lovely long weekend, and only 4 days until Cambodia!!!

Baby Shower and French Concession

This week was a pretty good one at work.  It went really fast, as it always does!  I'm making real progress with my 'Couch to 5K' running program - now on week 5 and starting to feel like it's making a difference.

I had my first week of Archaeology club too, which was fun.  I've got a couple of nutters, but I always get a couple of nutters. For some reason, Archaeology just appeals to the crazies!  They are all sweet kids though and they all had fun.

On Thursday, we threw a surprise baby shower for Ellie, who is the head of EAL.  She had absolutely no idea, and was thrilled that we had thrown this party for her.  My crocheted blanket was part of her hamper, and she just loved it, so i'm pleased.  Her last day of school was Friday, and then the baby arrived (2 weeks early) on Saturday!!!  His name is Luca and he looks just gorgeous.  We're just lucky she didn't go into labor at school!

This picture made me laugh, because I didn't realise it was being taken. I got to work, put on my black cardigan and then realised that Snowball had been snoozing on it at some point and that I was absolutely coated in white fur.  My team mates had to take the sellotape to me!

We had a great weekend! We had a proper lay in on Saturday, which was much needed after a busy week.  I went to the gym and Matt went for a long massage.  Then in the evening we went to Sechuan Citizen, a fabulous Chinese food restaurant that also does the basil drop cocktails that we love so much.  We went with our Sechuan Citizen buddies, who also love the restaurant, and ended up at their house listening to rock music, singing really loudly and drinking whisky. A fun evening.

Today, Matt went out early to a sports bar on the other side of the river to watch a boxing match with his pal.  I met him afterwards for a wander around the beautiful French Concession area of the city. It's all tree-lined avenues and fabulous tiny lanes full of interesting shops and restaurants.  We ran into a couple of friends from work at this great lane-side bar, that was just a hole in the wall with a few bar stools playing loud music and serving enormous cocktails.  We had so much fun, and even got our photo taken to go on the wall!

I even had Fish and Chips for dinner! Delicious!

Now, we're at home with our gorgeous kitties watching the Formula 1 Singapore race.  What a great weekend.  Only 9 working days until Cambodia!!!

Brunch and Cricket

It was an interesting week last week.  On Tuesday evening after work I met up with a friend from College who I haven't seen in nearly 10 years! He now works as a flight attendant and was in Shanghai for 3 days.  It was wonderful to see him and we caught up like we had seen each other last week.  It was so nice to reconnect with an old friend.  We went to the bar that Matt and I had our birthday party in, and then to a dumpling place for some yummy dumplings and beef noodle soup. Yum!

It was on Wednesday that I started feeling unwell.  A few kids in my year 3 class had sore throats and I managed to catch it. Several teachers are now off sick.  I was off on Thursday and Friday with such a sore throat that I couldn't even think.  I began to feel better by Saturday though.

On Sunday, I was at the Westin Hotel's posh brunch to take some photos for their advertising campaign.  The deal was that I take photos for them, and they give away a photoshoot with me as one of their prizes at the brunch.  I enjoyed myself, although there was quite a lot of waiting around for the various entertainment to start.

Matt played cricket on Sunday in the final and they won! Yay!  Here he is, with Snowball flaunting his medal.  :-D

We went to the cinema in the evening to see Mission Impossible: Fallout (silly, but fun), and as soon as I sat down was when my second cold started. So I sniffed my way through the movie! Feeling slightly better today after being back at work though. It was a bit of an odd week I must say!

RENT the Musical

It's been a busy week as usual at school.  The children seem to be settled in pretty much by now. I can't believe we are starting week 4 tomorrow already. Time flies!

I went out for dinner on Saturday night with some girl friends, which was lovely. We then went to see RENT the musical, which I hated.  I think, had I been super drunk, or perhaps on some sort of hallucinogenic, I may have enjoyed it more.  We all spent the first half, with not a clue what was going on.  The second half was slightly better.  The singing and dancing were wonderful, but the story line was terrible! Definitely won't be seeing that one again.

Before that, I went out to a tiny farmers market in Puxi, on the other side of the river, and for brunch with Becky and Vicky, which was lovely.  A very busy Saturday for me.  Matt spent a rare Saturday at home on his own, and very much enjoyed himself.

He bought me some lovely flowers...

Matt is now out playing cricket. I've just taken Sooty to the vets for his second lot of injections.  His cold has lasted for 2 weeks, which is too long, so Matt took him to the vets yesterday. He had to have 3 injections, 3 today and another 3 tomorrow. At £90 this is the most expensive cold anyone has ever had!!!  Here he is feeling sorry for himself at the vets...

Poor snuffly fur baby. He seems to be feeling better already, which is great.