Christmas Part1

Well, its that time of year......Christmas, a time of giving and receiving and most importantly being around the people (edit this)........person you love. Note the removal of plural "people" to singular "person" as this Christmas is to be a little different for Alyce and I.

There are a number of individual events which will be reflected on in the one entry. They range from Christmas shopping in a country that does not believe in Christmas, an early Christmas dinner with friends, a cocktail making course and my team Christmas party.

So to shopping......I think Alyce and I had no idea what to expect when it came to Christmas in China. Will there be decorations, could you buy wrapping paper, could we buy a tree if we needed one. The answer to those questions was a massive YES! From early December when Strabucks changed their cups to a Christmas theme I knew we would be in business. over the last month, Shanghai has gone Christmas crazy, the shops are all decked out, people are dressed like Santa, you can buy anything.....and I mean ANYTHING to do with Christmas here. Think about it, everything in the world essentially is made in CHina, that goes for Xmas decorations as well. All this and the people here have no idea what it is haha......thats actually not true, a friend of ours mentioned the younger generation are understanding xmas.

We spend allot of time wandering around the shops looking at things. We went on Huaihai Rd and found a massive tree, see the picture of Alyce next to it. On every corner there are decorations, amazing lights and fake snow. The Raffles Mall actually has a big "thing" (no idea what it is meant to be) that blows bubbles out of it onto the footpath so it feels like its snowing on you.

We actually went to Yu Yuan Bazarre as well which was an experience. It is our little day trip when we have nothing to do.....the place as you will know mum and dad is enormous. And all through it are crazy little markets that sell anything you can imagine and whats more its cheap. We stood outside a little shop which had some decorations, I assumed it was a little shop. Once we walked in it opened up into an amazing Christmas store which sold everything. I have added a picture of the front and again once you are inside.

Leading up to Christmas 7 of us (Myself, Alyce and 5 friends) organised a 'orphans' pre christmas dinner. Basically a chance for us to share the festive spirit a few weeks before Christmas and before people made there way to where ever they were spending Christmas day. So we went to Taikang Rd (again mum and dad you know it) to a place we had not been before. We made our way upstairs and prepared mentally for a 5 course Christmas dinner and wine. I however was not drinking as the football team bus was picking me up at 8am for the game. The food was pretty good, the service was sensational and it was a really nice night, spent with friends we had made while being in Shanghai.

That Sunday (2 days later) we went to a Cocktail making course with the same bunch of friends. It wa focussed on Chocolate cocktails which were actually quite nice. We decided to get a train to the place the course was held but after having no idea where to go once we left the station we got a taxi to take us. The taxi pulled up and pointed into an apartment complex, assuming the taxi guy knew what he was talking about we paid him and wandered into the complex. We followed small signs and arrived at a door which took us 4 levels underground. Through two big doors and we were there, but where is there??? It was actually a bomb shelter. We were reliably told by our very nervous cocktail teacher that in fact it is a class 5 shelter. For those that dont know, this means it can withstan the impact of a nuclear bomb. So here we were, in a bomb shelter, surrounded by wine and spirits which apparently could house 100 people for 100 days. There were about 20 people in there so I figured we had over a year of drinking ahead should it all hit the fan and Shanghai got bombed. We made 5 cocktails in all, 3 normal, 1 shot and 1 hot cocktail which actually tasted like mulled wine....quite tasty actually.

Seemed like a good idea....

The title of this update makes it obvious that something happened that well, at the time sounded fun, exciting, a great opportunity to get involved......but as often happens, the day came and we were greeted with a HUGE sense of, "I really cant be bothered". The activity you ask.......well a fun run, yep a FUN run. Not sure there is a such a thing but mentally unstable people insist on calling them fun. Actually it was the Shanghai Marathon, which is apparently quite a big one globally. So the background is that Nielsen sponsored any employees (and partners) who wanted to get involved. Basically they would pay the entrance fee, each participant would receive a Nielsen Shirt, sweat bands, tattoos, wigs etc..etc. The company also had heaps of flags made, big and small which people managed to run with, the cheer squad also had these flags to keep us motivated as we ran. The events were a 4.5Km Health Run, 22km half marathon and the full marathon for the idiots. Alyce and I signed up for the health run because we are all about health. So anyway, the day came, as usual these things are on a Sunday morning.

Alyce and I got ready and ran to the station because it was so cold. We got on the train at 7am, with allot of other runners and headed to my office where we were meeting the Nielsen people. We had about 100-200 people participating I think.

We all made the short walk into the city for the start of the race. It was absolute chaos as thousands of people crammed into narrow streets for the start. Apparently starting the race in a nice open area was not given the thumbs up. Before I go on I must mention a hilarious fact, the entry fee for a Chinese person was about 20RMB and the entry fee for a Westerner was 150RMB.....what a bizarre thing to do.....charge westerners more to do the same thing. Can you imagine if that happened in Australia......sorry Mr Wang, that pie is $25 for you.

Anyway, the company paid so who cares. So we were off and running and I must say it was an amazing event. The whole way down the 4.5km course there was music, dancers, tai chi ladies in their outfits waving and banging drums. It really only could happen in China, the people are so passionate about their city and even though it was so early there were 1000,s of people cheering us on which made it fun. For reference, the white wig you see in the photos is actually my real hair, it has gone white from the stress of working in China.

So to the results, I am proud to say that Alyce and I both completed the run in between 20-25 minutes, I could not see the time when I finished and I don't think Alyce saw it when she finished either. Reflecting back it was definitely something worthwhile doing, next year I may be tempted to try the half marathon......or maybe we will just sleep in!