Another road less travelled


If you think that Shanghai is about skyscrapers, World Expo, fastest growing economy and financial hub...think again

The other side of Shanghai where you will never get to see as a tourist, as an expat...








As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers and the sharpest thorns, as the heavens are sometimes overcast -- alternately tempestuous and serene -- so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasure and pain. - Edmond Burke

Here's looking at you, kiddos!




The kids' school had a project fair in school and I thought it was such a great idea. Instead of just doing projects to score marks, the school had an open Saturday where projects done by the students are made available for their parents and friends to view. Even the K1 & K2 students were involved!

Ann's project was about the African animals, these were her masterpieces...


Love her drawing on the tiger


Pretty friendly cheetahs



More of her works


Homemade animal costumes. The white one belongs to Ann


Jellyfish and swordfish done by another class


Animals made by using recycled materials such as tissue boxes, bottle caps etc...


Ann and two of her classmates making presentation in front of parents, teachers and friends. Very proud of her, she has grown to be a very confident speaker.
Way to go, my little princess!


Kai's project was on the old and new Shanghai





Some other projects done by the primary school kids

Looking at the projects, you will know that these are done by the students. Very raw, very amateur but that is the way it should be. School projects should not and must not be done by parents using the latest technology and complicate gadets. The whole purpose of having projects is to allow the children to be creative and innovative. To have lessons outside the textbook. Our role as parents is to guide them, give them advice, give them ideas but NEVER to do it for them.

Health and Wealth


The cycle of life...
Birth - Infancy - Childhood - Adolescence - Adulthood - Midlife - Old Age - Death & Dying

I think I should be at the midlife stage right now. The past couple of days, I have been talking or rather msm-ing two very close friends of mine. When you hear about your friends looking after their aged parent/s, you know you have arrived at the next chapter of your life.

An ex-colleague of mine whose father is in the hospital due to lung infection and liver faliure. She shared about how she was trying to spent as much time as she could with her father (she is based in Australia) and how she was mentally and physically exhausted. Yes, looking after the sick and the aged is indeed a very drainning job. It is a job that sapped up every onuce of your energy.

Then there is another good friend whom I have known since I was 13 years old...yes, it those kind of friend that have seen you grown up, get married, have kids and I told him, he will most likely be one of my pall bearer. His mother was very sick and weak due to lung cancer. He shared about how financially stressed it could be for him and the family.

As a good friend, I could just offer my ears (in this instance, would be my eyes and fingers as we talked through the computers). Whatever I said, whatever I could do are only moments of comfort for them because, really, they are the ones who have to face it day in and day out. I could only pray for God's strength and grace to be upon them and their families.

These reminded me of the fragility of life. Really, what matter to us is really not about chasing after the best house, the best car, the best career, the best of all material things, it is really HEALTH. We can have the best of everything but without a healthy body, we cannot really enjoy living in a mansion, we cannot really enjoy driving the best car with the latest technology, when we are confined to the bed and completely dependent on others.

I look at my own parents and my mother-in-law and everyday I thank God for them and for the past many years, it has been my morning prayer to ask God to blessed them with a strong and healthy body till a ripe old age. For you skeptics who think that prayers are merely talking to the air, let me tell you that these prayers have kept them all strong and healthy. Not just that, they are blessed with wisdom to be financially independent. I have constantly nagged at them to eat healthily. My father's meal is very simple - fish and white porridge are his main meal and I can tell you he counts faster than any of his three kids! They are my role models, I want to be like them, healthy and financially independent even till old age. I am not going to be caught up with chasing after the riches of the world...It is devastating if my children go to court to fight over our estates (I will turn in my grave if that day happens!). It always saddens me to read about siblings fighting each other over dead parents' wealth or children suing one parent over a dead parent's estates.

Being healthy and financially independent are the best 'estates' to leave behind for my kids!

Step out and discover




After sending Ann to her pottery class, I have about an hour...never familiar with the roads in Puxi and I find the place congested so don't really enjoy walking alone. But with the one hour waiting time, I might as well just venture out.

Just beside Ann's school, I saw a little alley, safe enough to walk in. I decided to just check out the place and I was in for a surprise...


The were rows of small little shops, artsy shops, quirky shops and cafes



The old and the new, the ancient and the modern, a wonderful harmony


Lots of alfresco cafes line the alley too



Beautiful murals work of art

The houses here are old but they have their personality and their own character. Although the shops and cafes are new, the structure of the houses, (stone houses known as shikumen) are very much the same. A place which has retained its uniqueness inspite of the ever changing landscape of Shanghai.

This one hour of discovery reminded me of this that I have read...It's a beautiful thing when you leave yourself vulnerable to discover anything and everything. ~ Kate Hudson

Shhh...artist at work




Ann in full concentration...don't disturb

Evian...for brushing teeth


In Shanghai, tap water is not safe for drinking and so the people here drink only bottled water. There are many local brands of bottled water, Nestle is considered a foreign brand which the locals seldom buy, then of course you have the super-branded brand Evian, Perrier and probably some other brands which I do not know because I do not buy them.

Recently, a friend of mine told me that her friend had said this to her...

"I don't use Nestle water to drink, I only use it to wash fruits and vegetables and also for cooking. For drinking and brushing teeth, I use Evian."

When I heard that, I nearly fell off from my seat. My family and I have been drinking Nestle bottled water since we arrived at Shanghai. We brush teeth using Hyflux filter filtered tap water and we are alive and kicking. If only Evian bottled water is fit for drinking and brushing teeth, then who are we seeing...the millions of people walking on the streets of Shanghai.

That is why, from day one, I have told myself that I should and MUST never be sucked into the 'expat-tai-tai' (lady of leisure) mentality. I must stressed that NOT all expats trailing spouses behave this way but there are indeed a large majority of such, I call them 'snooty expat-tai-tais'. When I meet them at the farmers' market club house, my smiles and nods of acknowledgment will never or rarely be reciprocated. Perhaps I am invisible or their eys are stuck on their heads or maybe they all think I am an 'ayi' (maid).

My friend onced wtitnessed an incident where the mother of a toddler literally had to peel the wailing child off from the 'ayi' as the 'ayi' needed to do some work. Very sad scene as I agreed with my friend that it showed how much time the ayi has spent with the child. I cannot imagine the day when the toddler has to return home. Remember expats are just visitors in a foreign land.

I also remember reading in a forum where one mother was venting about how she wanted the 'ayi' to stay till the baby is put to sleep but the ayi didn't want to as she wanted to go home by 7pm. So sad isn't it. That these expat-tai-tais look upon themselves as queens and that they have forgotten that they are the mothers of their own kids. They must remember that evetually reality will set in when it is time to go home.

I have recently got to know this new arrival - an expat wife, her husband is a CEO that makes her a CEO's wife, you would have imagined her to be one who will be living the high life of a CEO's wife. But she is one down-to-earth woman. She asked me about marketing in a local market, got all excited about shopping at wholesale market....she told me, "why spent RMB100 when you can just pay RMB50 for the same thing." I have finally found a friend...one who refused to be called an expat wife, one who refused to live an expat lifestyle, not only that, she refused to let her three daughters lead such a life too. She said, "if they are so used to it, what happens when we get home?"

My new friend told me that she met up with a lady who thinks tea and three sandwiches cost RMB700 is perfectly normal in Shanghai and she nearly choked on her bread.

As for me, I would rather head home to enjoy with my family, my homemade chocolatey cupcakes, perhaps two or three loaves of no-knead bread and the many dozens of dumplings which I have learned from my dim-sum course!