The stress of moving

Finally, we got the house we wanted!!! We signed the contract last night and it's now final that we are moving to our new home for the next couple years. I am so excited to be moving to this new house but one thing I am not looking forward to is the actually moving!

Anyway, you can see the photos (only 2 for now but will add more) in my Shanghai photo album.

We're not moving until later in March as we need to move on an auspiscious date according to the Chinese Lunar calendar.

So I think I will be busy in the meantime, preparing for the move and some work in between. Planning on getting that small patch of grass sorted out and re-planted with new grass. Lots of plan for the garden.... :-)

All the banging....

The start of this week has not been great. They've started banging upstairs - right above where I am working! Apparently they're fixing some floors or whatever in time for the next tenant! Argh! Cannot get my mind on work and I would really like to get our company website worked out soon in time for our move to the new address.... Unfortunately the banging and drilling upstairs won't end until around middle of next week! Great! NOT!

Forgotten

Something I forgot in my previous log were surprise calls from 2 friends whom I've not spoken to in years.

A Chinese former classmate from when I studied in Nankai University has called up and she now has a baby! Wow! She's also lucky to be working and living in the same compound that she can just run on home when something comes up. I think that is one advantage of working in a government organization.

Just to get sidetracked a bit, the other day I was trying to find some informationa about office spaces and how the legal system works in China however there were issues not even mentioned in government websites! Answers I got were info gathered from staff at these government offices. The rules are somehow not written in plain black-&-white anywhere... I suppose these things also happen in other countries....

Anyway, the other friend was a former classmate from Tacloban who is now practising medicine in the US. He was asking me about living in Shanghai and coming to Shanghai to work. It would really be fantastic if he did manage to come to Shanghai. A couple other friends I've known or indirectly known while in Taipei are also in Shanghai. The world is getting smaller...

Valentine's Day

All the hype leading up to Valentine's Day..... (sigh!) the Chinese are so into this 'western' holiday. The brief time I was out today (in a taxi on the way to pick up lunch at the Portman), lots of boyfriends and girlfriends out on the streets with their bouquets of flowers enjoying the very nice Spring weather in Shanghai.

In any case, I got my bouquet of a dozen long stem roses from my hubby early this morning. It would have been an even greater surprise if the delivery man did not get lost trying to find our flat. And since he told me he was delivering flowers, I figured it was a surprise from Simon. :-)

Everyday I cannot get my mind off the plans I have for our new 'home'. Unfortunately the signing of the contract seems to have dragged on longer than we had hoped... Been dreaming of how to improve the condition of the garden, where our stuff will fit into the house, and what we need to purchase. Simon has surprised me by his interest in getting dog. Mind you I would LUVVVVV to have one unfortunately the landlord is not very keen on that and until we have our own place in the future, the idea of having a pet has to be put on hold....

Simon's just booked our flights to the Philippines. Yes! We are finally going to Tacloban City even for just a week! I am looking forward to that but in the meantime, we need to sort out a few loose ends - visas to stay in China, visa to the Philippines, and finding someone to look after things here while we are away....

Just in process of uploading photos....

Down with a cold

Unfortunately I'm down with a bad cold today. The sun has been shining and it's just been great weather in the Shanghai the past couple days.

We're still busy looking at possible new home and office. We've made an offer on a garden home and it has been accepted but we won't get the final confirmation until after we have put forth some of our conditions... Simon and I are hoping that we get this house as it's basically got what we want. We've been so wexcited hearing the great news but at the same time cannot get too excited otherwise we may be in for a disappointment.... so keeping our fingers crossed that things will be okay after this afternoon.

Cannot believe how expensive properties in Shanghai are! Yesterday went to see a house which was being rented out for US$3200!!!! The living space is only in the ground floor and only about 120sqm. The landlord thinks that because it's got a big yard (which is officially shared with the upstairs family but no easy access to the garden so by default this garden goes to the ground floor tenant) she can charge that price. Very ridiculous.

Been busy knitting and have my hands on 2 projects at the same time. Crazy. But I still need some guidance from my 'knitting teacher' doing some of more intricate part like adding a neckline of a jumper (sweater) so have to wait until she's around to continue. The other work is a scarf which is looking really cool... When do I get the time? Well, I do my knitting while watching TV and these days I feel 'empty' when my hands are not working on my knits.

Simon always tells me to 'go on with my knitting' which is a British saying to 'get on with my "business"', everytime I bug him. That was before I started knitting.

We've also been watching lots of US TV shows which is available on DVD in the evenings. We just finished the 2nd Season of 'The Shield' and have just started on the 3rd Season of '24'. Working on my knitting while watching TV.