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Published: August 31st 2008
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I can't believe it is Sunday night already and we are back to school tomorrow morning! We have had what can be termed the most normal weekend that we have had in a while this weekend, which has been lovely. I left you Friday evening where Ian had gone out for a haircut...I have to hand over to him to tell the story...
Ahem : "Well it was a dark and stormy evening as I stepped out into the drizzling rain. I turned right out of the apartment complex and walked 20 metres to the nearest hairdressers .... a posh, modern looking salon, where the sweepers wear orange t-shirts and the 'stylists' wear tank tops, but all have early 1980's haircuts in the style of Duran Duran! I walked in and confidently said ni hao. Realising I had used up my supply of hairdressers mandarin I made the interntional sign for haircut and the staff, who obviously didn't realise I had used up my 'Brit goes to the hairdressers vocab,' asked me all sorts of questions as I smiled and nodded and made the sign again. At this point they told me to sit down in the chair by the
door. They then got out a calculator and typed something on it, (a common thing here which still amuses me as the last time I passed a message by calculator it was 55378008!) and showed me the screen. Now I can only assume that this is an expensive Shanghai salon and they are used to customers swooning at the cost because no sooner had I nodded in agreement to the amount, which was 50 RMB btw - 5x what William's haircut cost, than I was motioned to stand up and go somewhere else. Now what followed next was a hair wash / massage and then I was taken to another part of the salon, sat down, and met my stylist, Keevin. Now Keevin, not having been present for my previous haircut sign, but probably deducing that that's what I was there for, asked me all sorts of further questions which I was unable to answer other than shrugging and giving him the international sign for 'a little bit'. After a couple of minutes Keevin decided to accept my haircut guidelines and started the topiary procedure. A couple of minutes into the cut I suddenly started to doubt the quality of
my international sign language and wondered if my sign for 'I would like you to cut this much off', might have been misinterpreted as the similar but entirely different sign for 'I would like it this long please'! However as a staunch and proud member of the British race I obviously ignored this and pretended all was going well. After a long cutting process Keevin got the hairdryer out and gave me the most hilarious 10 minute blow dry styling which I wish I had had a camera for and made me want to burst out laughing. But I am a culturally sensitive chap and realising neither Keevin nor the orange t-shirted assistant looked like they were pranking me stifled my giggles. As he finished he motioned me to stand up and I was taken away for another hair wash, only to be brought back again and sat back down in the chair. Keevin now produced a cut throat razor and sorted all my bits out, before starting the blow dry process again, but opting for the same style. I thanked Keevin and paid my 50RMB, or £3.60, and immediately rang Jo and told her to ready the camera. I
don't feel the picture does Keevin justice, all I can assume is the stormy evening gave my hair a slight edge that he had tried to remove, but you can judge for yourselves my first chinese haircut - it reminds me of my friend Alex who always used to get Euro boy haircuts when he lived in Germany, well here is my China boy trim!
After Ian came back from his haircut, we had a few teachers from school come round for a few drinks. It was a really lovely, relaxing evening and we all really needed it! We have had a very hard few weeks and down time is essential. Yesterday morning we were up early as our ayi came at 8.30am, but our Landlady could not come to help us talk to her as she had her baby on Friday evening! So our neighbour, Amy, came round to help. She brought her son, Thomas, who is 4 on Tuesday and has invited Sophie and William to a mini party at the play area on the compound to play and have cake! Amy helped us arrange with our ayi that she will be coming 8-10am to clean the
house (8.30am on a saturday!) and then 4-6.30pm to collect the children from school and cook us tea. Ian is, in theory, going to be working at the Secondary School Campus teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) which will mean him not finishing until 6.30pm Mon-Thurs, so we needed help collecting the children. We are still waiting on confirmation terms and conditions before we know for definite. Our ayi is lovely, we found out she has a 10yr old son who she sees once, maybe twice per year!! He lives in a province about 6hrs away from here with his father and grandparents and she lives here on her own. Hers is not an unusual story, it seems many women do this, and her husband is probably working away building or farming. It is a very humbling story.
Anyway, Nathan and Emily came to play for the morning as Suzanne and Mark had gone to an Orientation morning at a Community Centre here, but I had to go to work and I just felt i couldn't spend another few hrs in any kind of training after this week! Anyway, they were able to spend some time child-free, and
filled us in on all the top tips! I spent a few hours in my classroom (see pics) and am nearly ready to start tomorrow. It is a work in progress, and being Grade 5 (10-11yr olds) we need to give the children much responsibility for the creation and upkeep of it anyway. And the IB really ask us to display work in progress on our boards so that everyone can see the progress being made, studentsand staff alike.
In the afternoon (when Suzanne and Mark had collected the children and returned home to interviews ayi's) we went to a restaurant called the Blue Frog, which is very Western, and was having a 'Back to School' party where there were family activities and the kids had their faces painted and helped "bash" a pinata. This is a Spanish thing which is hanging from the roof and is full of candy (see pics again!). We had a wander around the Pearl Market opposite after this and bought a few items, including a lovely jade pendant for Sophie and a jade and silver bangle for me..jade is seen as a protective thing here and Daddy wanted to get a special necklace
for sophie, which she loves.
Today we went and met Suzanne, Mark and co in a place called TaeKangLu....a lovely collection of small alleys, very traditional Chinese streets with lovely quaint streets. I could have bought loads but was very restrained and will be returning to do my Christmas shopping! We wandered through to a park in the Xintiandi area also and then we came back to Gubei and our weekly Carrefour shop. Sadly, Sunday is the day everyone in Shanghai does their shopping also and it was heaving! At one point I was extremely stressed trying to find Cotton Wool, of all things. There I am, wandering up and down the aisles, asking staff is they spoke english and getting nowhere fast. Eventually I looked it up in my phrase book and returned to Ian and the children, at the massage chair aisle, victorious with my purchase.....it's the little things!!
This evening we have been across to the Fake Market opposite our compound to buy a few new shirts for Ian to work in, which was entertainment in itself. As I sat on one of the stools in the stall, it collapsed and left me yelping on
the floor, while the woman had run off in search of suitable shirts for Ian. We don't think she has insurance though unfortunately! Ian got 3 lovely Paul Smith shirts for about £13!! Anyone who wants to put their order should start thinking so we can bring a case full back at Christmas!
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Sam Bratley
non-member comment
Oh noes! The censors have blocked Keevin's stylings.