The Westin Brunch

Sam and Amy are in Shanghai!!! Yay!

It was a busy week for Matt and I in the lead up to their arrival on Saturday.  We had two training days on Monday and Tuesday, which were very useful for Junior School, and it seems less so in Senior School.  I ended up going home early on Tuesday, with an epilepsy-related headache (all fine after a sleep).  I was feeling pretty run down after our busy weekend in Japan, so i'm not surprised something happened.  I then got a throat infection, so was off work on Wednesday and Thursday.  I was OK-ish by Friday, but determined to push through, so that I would feel OK by Saturday.  I was still unwell at the weekend, and today my voice has completely gone, but Amy picked up a cold on the plane too, so we were sick together!

I had arranged a photoshoot on Saturday morning for a teacher at school, with her husband, 2 year old and their ancient dog, which was lovely.  They live in the building opposite us, so we just did the photos in the grounds, where there is some nice greenery.  It was a fun session, and having the dog added an element that I haven't had before, so that was a nice challenge.

Sam and Amy arrived at about 10.15am, after their night flight, and not getting more than a couple of hours sleep!  I was pretty strict on their napping allowance, as the best way to get over jetlag is just to push through until the evening.  We had a cup of tea and a chat at home for a while, then went to the LifeHub to the Blue Frog for lunch.  Then, on an adventurous whim, we got the train to the skyscraper part of the city for a little wander around.  Then we had a Starbucks by the river, looking at the Bund.  They were pretty sleepy by this point, so we headed home, and everyone had a 90 minute nap, while I edited some photos with Snowball on my lap keeping me warm.  Saturday evening, was pizza takeaway and the movie '21 Jump Street'.

We were up and out by 10.30 on Sunday, and heading to the Westin hotel for their famous brunch.  This was Sam and Amy's birthday presents, so they had been looking forward to it for ages.  It was New Zealand themed this week, so lots of the drinks were kiwi flavoured and green (and delicious).  Matt of course, started his brunch off with the usual grapefruit juice and gin.  The food was wonderful. We had steak and eggs, smoked salmon, mini burgers, curry, pasta, oysters, lobster, caviar, and then dessert.  I had 9 different desserts on my plate at one point - very tiny slices of each, but still!  You've got to try everything!

The entertainment was the orchestra, opera and then some women doing yoyo skills, a man balancing a huge ceramic pot on his head, women spinning 10 different plates each, at once, and a father/daughter gymnastics couple, with some serious core strength skills!  There was even a haka dance at the end.  Very enjoyable.

We went for a short walk to the Bund after brunch finished, and stayed by the river chatting for a while, watching the beautiful golden sunshine on the river.  Then we headed home and watched Men in Black.