Merry Christmas

To everyone out there who's feeling lonely in crowded places.

Have a peaceful time.

Two degrees and counting

The first deep winter since New Zealand in 1994.

Brrr....

Satellite TV

Never mind the uneven water pressure in the shower leaving me feeling like cold sashimi from Hokkaido and hot chilli crab from Singapore at the same time.

I've got satellite TV now, muahahaha...

Taiwan, HK, PRC, US, The Philippines and pretty much most networks along the Pacific Rim.

Wifey's much happier now. Instead of bland government-sanctioned news and dramas about heroes of the Sino-Japanese War, she has Cantonese serials et al. And I have my BBC and Nat Geo.

Being a TV junkie never felt that good.

Reflections across The Bund

Spent part of the day walking around the area east of the Whampoa River and enjoyed it somewhat. The buildings around the Oriental Pearl Tower are new and not as densely-built as the rest of Shanghai. I can actually see the sky without four or five grey buildings encroaching my field of view. The idea of living in Pudong actually appealed to me until I realized that there are no wet markets in the area. The rent's probably paid in USD too.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable day overall, without any scatological episodes. Rotavirus is a b*tch.

Reflections along The Bund

After reading about it in JG Ballard's Empire of the Sun, watching a Chow Yun Fatt series on it and thinking about it whenever I read about World War 2, I've finally set foot on the famous stretch along the west bank of the Whampoa River.

And what a disappointment it was.

Grey.

Smoggy.

Touristy.

If you're thinking about it from 1984-ville, forget it. Queen Elizabeth Walk and The Padang exude a greater sense of history.

So much for that.

Connected at home

Well, Wifey has managed to get the apartment connected to the net via China Telecom DSL. I must say it's much faster experience than what the resort offered. The property agent says it's 1 Mbps. It certainly feels close to what I used to get back in 1984-ville with 1.5 Mbps. So I'm going to stop complaining for a while, at least until the next cold front hits (ETA this weekend) and temperature drops to single digit readings.

I must say we hit jackpot with this property agent who fixed this apartment for us. He's young, energetic and goes beyond his call-of-duty to help us fix the TV and net connection. He's also helping some other non-Mandarin speaking poor sod get his money changed and other stuff. You can't find any housing agent in 1984-ville who is willing to do all this, even for a fee. I highly recommend him (the agent, not the poor sod) to anyone who's looking for an apartment in Shanghai.

One thing about people in Shanghai. They seem to be NOT unhappy, which is not saying much until you realise that folks back in 1984-ville do not smile at all. So far, ALL service staff whom we've encountered smile as a norm. The thing is, they all have the same inscrutable facial expression that's inherent to ethnic Chinese people. It's what I'd described as the Monday-morning-face-on-the-subway-to-work but they are more ready to break into a smile when you engage them in conversation.

I have a lot to learn from the Shanghainese in the coming months...

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<img src="http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:jgrDS9tpjWgaQM:http://www.teamviewer.com/images/headerright/download.jpg">

this is so maddening, with only 2 pipes out of a country of 1.5 billion people!!

argh...

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