Insect Kingdom and loadsamoney!

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So we ventured out into the sweltering Shanghai morning to go and see some bugs!! We made it to Insect Kingdom after a long and traffic jam filled journey in a taxi to meet our friends Suzanne, Nathan and Emily. Mark, Suzanne's husband, has had to go back to the US for a week so we are doing some stuff together. Insect Kingdom was good, there were lots of fish(I know, not insects I hear you cry!), reptiles, snakes, some monkeys (again, insects?!!),a load of tortoises and terrapins, along with some proper horrible bugs which I couldn't bear to mention! It kept the kids busy for a while, then they spied the gift shop and we had the usual stroppiness as they tried to choose something to buy which didn't cost the earth!

After we left, we made for the Super Brand Mall! Now, I have to tell you that all this is in the Lujuazui area, right near the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the business area, so everything is mega expensive. In the Mall, there was Next, Mc D's, Burger King, Pizza Hut and many more! We are trying our best to not buy mega expensive western stuff and make the most of local bargains, so we restrained ourselves! We had lunch in a Japanese restaurant which was good, but busy, then had a wander along the riverside on the opposite side to which we walked last week. It was really peaceful but so so hot and we even had to have ice creams! After a while we had to give in and a get on the metro and went to see the massive Carrefour. OMG, it is amazing! We restrained ourselves until our big shop on sunday when we move in and only bought a few items for tea and some indoor slipper things for william to wear at Kindergarten. We are really looking forward to shopping tastic trip on sunday.

When we got back, our real estate agent was here with our contract and all is now signed and sealed....we will be moving in at 10am on sunday....WOOHOO!!!!! We will be straight off to Ikea and Carrefour, Sunday is perfect timing for us so we can go to the Expat coffee morning again tomorrow and relax a bit before the the big haul of moving in.

We have just had a picnic tea in our rooms and will be trying to get everyone to bed on time tonight, as we are all a bit pooped indeed!

A couple of factoids for you all today......you might have noticed I am wearing my glasses more than normal, well that is because I have really sore eyes. We think partly due to the high amount of chlorine in the water (which also dries your hair out sadly, even worse for those of us with highlights!!) and partly due to the Air con. Also, as we were discussing the fact the as the traffic lights are about to change, there is a countdown so you know how much time you have left. This was particularly apparent when we were crossing a really large road and almost had to run but at least knew how long we had until we would be run down!

That's all for now folks...off to do some maths and english with the kiddiwinks now...gotta keep practising!

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