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Published: November 30th 2008
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It's not often you get to spend a winter's evening standing outside for 3 hours listening to an Ozzie dwarf (as my dad would have said!) singing about how lucky she is is to be wearing next to nothing in zero degree temperatures, but that was what happened last night! Yes, Kylie came here to Shanghai and I was lucky enough to go and see her! Sadly, our ayi couldn't babysit for us so Ian (who was extremely devastated!!) had to stay home while my friend Victoria came with me. We went with Nazli and Michelle from school, and their husbands too. We arrived quite early and were thankful that we had googled the stadium just before we left and found out that it was outdoor. The weather is really cold at the moment and we needed to be wrapped up! The stadium was very empty, if I was Kylie (I should be so lucky.......) I would have been quite disappointed, but she put on a good show. It was mainly new-ish stuff, like 'Spinning Around' and 'Love at first sight', but great for boogying and keeping warm. At one point, she did do 'Step back in time', which was remixed
to be even more funky than when I was 13, and then she did do 'I should be so lucky' during the encore, at which point I rang Ian and Victoria rang her brother in England.....I think all they heard really were our dulcet tones but the thought was there! It was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion, I was quite hoarse from my singing and squealing (surprising I know) and Nazli was getting very carried away indeed! There were a mix of people theree, mostly expats, we all agreed we had never seen so many expats in one place. An array of ages, the teenage girls sitting behind us were heard to say as Kylie came on stage that "I have no idea who Kylie Minogue is but this is really cool"!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our week has flown by this week and we are amazed and excited about the fact that December arrives tomorrow. Ian started work at our school on Thursday, he is working Thursdays and Fridays until Xmas covering IT lessons. He doesn't want to do any more than that as he is in the final few weeks of his MA thesis, but he is enjoying the exposure to classroom
hell, I mean management! He had my class on Friday, who had been thoroughly briefed and were excellent apparently......I am still not smiling til Xmas, those of you in the teaching profession will understand that one!
Sophie and William are well into the throes of xmas songs and performances....William's xmas concert is next saturday so we shall all be going, but it has cost a fortune and we had to pay a small fortune for his costume in itself! He is singing 'Deck the halls with rolls of jolly' (normally know as 'Deck the halls with boughs of holly'!) and 'We wish you a merry xmas'. Apparently he is loving practising on the front row, but we fully expect a repeat performance of sports day when he decided he doesn't love the limelight after all. Sophie is singing Jingle Bells in both English and Chinese, and is also an elf in a small performance. We are having our xmas celebrations on Thursday 18th, although it is called 'Winter Festivals' not xmas, due to varying religions and so on (!?!)
Yesterday we went to our friend's Emily and Nathan's school (SCIS) for their Xmas Bazaar. It was really good
with lots of unusual gifts to buy and we started our xmas shopping. It was interesting to see their school also. We then went to have William's haircut as it has got a touch long. It was really funny as he had to have it washed it was so long, and he had to lie down fully to have it washed...twice! He looks very cool now, see pics! We came home and relaxed here for a while in the afternoon and had 3 more power cuts in the process. Apparently using the aircon to heat the flat and any other appliance at the same time is way too much electricity to be using for a normal family (????????????!!!!!!!!!!!) so we are having the electric capacity increased in the next week. It is becoming more and more annoying and cold! Today, our landlady kindly came and fitted some extra curtains for us to try and insulate the living room and Sophie's room. Unfortunately the ones in the living room were way too short and will be coming back tomorrow, but Sophie's ones are lovely and cosy.
Today we have had a lovely day. We were lazy this morning then went
to our friends Kevin and Victoria's house where we deposited Sophie and William while we escaped for several hours to complete our xmas shopping. It's not an easy feat, trying to bargain with a stubborn Chinese person while you have a 6 year old butting in with amounts of money which she thinks we should be paying!!! It was good to get it all done in one go, we feel very holier than though, but we have a full suitcase already! We even managed to go for a civilised lunch and even had a conversation! On Hong Mei Lu Western street, there is a kind of xmas market, which looked to be quite promising but was a bit of a disappointment really. The best bit was mugs of gluhwein!
We arrived back at 6pm to rescue Kevin and Victoria to be met by the 'Pizza man' and 'pizza lady' munching the pizzas they had made while destroying Kevin's kitchen! Kevin had helped them to cook while Victoria found solace in some sewing the very sensible thing she is! They had been shopping and bought us a xmas present each, also took their pocket money and bought a novelty item
each. They had been shopping for pizza ingredients and driven their own trolleys around City Shop! They had played on the super play area at their compound and seen half of school, and they had been to Costa Coffee for a hot chocolate. In short, they had had the best time ever and had behaved really well (phew!). Victoria did admit to us eventually that there was one moment when we had not been gone long and William had got himself locked in the toilet! And it was one of those which couldn't be opened from the outside....we can just picture the scene of Kevin trying to coax William on how to unlock the door while Victoria was getting slowly panicky.....eventually as you can guess he made it out to everyone's relief! Anyway, needless to say we are greatly appreciative to the Gorringe's for a slice of peace.
I am now trying to mark 3000 papers (only a slight exaggeration!) while Ian shouts expletives at the TV as the big Manchester derby is on.....fingers crossed.......
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