Friday, September 26, 2008

Shanghai Botanical Garden






Good evening!



A few weeks ago, my new friends, Lynne, Denice and Jane and I took a field trip to the Shanghai Botanical Gardens. It was over 100 degrees that day and we walked the paths. They had a lovely lake by the conservatory and check out the orchids in the lovely blue pot!


As I've told you before, I really have a thing for the blue and white pottery. We saw this table - it's in two parts - at the tea house at the Botanical Gardens. It was sitting in the middle of a deck with those plastic white chairs surrounding it. I pushed them off to the side so I could take this photo. Then, the other day we went to the Flower Market and there was a gold fish bowl that was for sale. If we were allowed to have "pets", I'd pick that up in a heartbeat. But, here at Shama - no pets - no kitties, no doggies, no fishies.

We've been pretty busy here the last few weeks. Most of the expats have returned from their summer vacations and I have to admit that I'm still wearing white and it's way past Labor Day. I hope my Beaver girlfriends are not embarassed by that. I'm sure Kate is crawling under a rock right about now. But she knows that fashion here in Shanghai is a whole new ballgame. People wear the oddest things here. Like pyjammas! Yes, they even spell it like that! I went on a tour yesterday and the tour guide, a lovely Aussie woman told us that the Chinese wear pyjammas because they are well off and they can! It means that if you are Chinese and you can afford pyjammas, you wear them outside on the street. So sometimes you see cotton and sometimes you see silk. No robes - just pyjammas.

Mike and I went to the Expat Show here in Shanghai with our friend and colleague Jacques from Belgium. It was basically your typical expo that showcased various vendors of healthcare (hospitals and clinics), restaurants and gelato purveyors - yum yum, travel agencies, car rental companies and furniture companies. Beautiful antique Chinese furniture that is breathtaking. Very expensive and one-of-a-kind pieces.

The best thing about this show was the Dutch cheese. The vendor, Beemster had maybe six different varieties of cheese and it was selling like hotcakes! We bought a chunk of their classic Dutch cheese and their garlic cheese. I cannot tell you how great this was. Maybe because the usual cheese we get is Land O Lakes and a few miscellaneous French pieces (Brie and Cammenbert) so this was a real treat for us.

We also visited many wine stalls - French, Italian, Californian. There was one vendor that showcased a very interesting new way to deliver the wine. It reminded me of the wine "cellar" at The Westin Convention Center in Pittsburgh. Every glass is fresh - I just don't understand how they do it.




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