new year holidays

Here in China, it's a 3-day holiday. Friday, Saturday AND Sunday! How great is that?!

The start of 2010...
1 Jan, Friday
Daddy Elvis & Mommy Jo left Joel at home with Ahyi and we went to watch a movie at the cinema. Mommy felt really bad about it becoz it's New Year's Day. :(

We had lunch at 3Top Restaurant at XinLe Road. It's a pretty new Singaporean-owned eatery. We've always wanted to go there becoz of the very cool building which looks a little like a greenhouse.

We came here to try their Hainanese Chicken Rice...and it didnt disappoint. Elvis says it's the BEST in Shanghai! Everything is served on a simple porcelain tray, and i think it's about S$15 for each portion.

We wanted to bring Joel out for dinner, but it was so cold by night that we decided to order dinner in.

2 Jan, Saturday
We woke up early and rushed to Joel's class at MiKids (at 9.15am), only to discover that there's no lesson today (becoz it's the new year holidays). We had slept at 2am the night before watching DVD and were really exhausted. Hence, Daddy Elvis was furious and scolded the poor guy (who was so unlucky becoz he's the only person we saw at the school) for not informing us earlier. The guy said they pasted a memo on the board and got an even worse scolding. Elvis shouted at the bespectacled geek, "Who the **** reads a memo on a board!?" Haha! Poor guy...

Later in the day, i got a call from Jenny (the consultant) who apologized for the miscommunication and said that it was stated in the piece of paper given out to us last week (about this week's lesson). I told her we were not notified during last week's lesson, and all i saw on that paper were the lyrics of 'I'm A Little Teapot' and the words that they were going to teach this week. When i went home to check...i realized that the P.S. information about school closure was written in CHINESE!!! ALL the other text were in English. Who the hell knows how to read CHINESE!!! (Unfortunately, I dont) I felt they should have told us in person during the lesson last week! !@#

(I wasnt angry at that point, but what pissed me off afterwards was #1 - Jenny had lent me a DVD the week before, and i told her over the phone THIS WEEK that i would return it to her this Saturday. #2 - I received the Xmas group photo via email from one of the teachers, and i even replied her "See you on Saturday", which she also replied me again and she also failed to inform me that there's NO lesson this week.)

We called Gymboree to sign Joel up for their next available class, and headed to HuaiHai Road for Delifrance breakfast. By then, we had forgotten the earlier episode. ;)



Elvis brought us to Secret Garden for lunch. (aka Le Petit Jardin 小小花园) We were lucky we got the "outdoor" seats. The place is popular with photography fanatics. Almost everyone - except us - was carrying a DSLR.


Joel patting the cat... So cute, right? Joel seemed to like big & small animals and is not afraid of them at all. (Mommy Jo is always panicky and afraid that the cat/dog will pounce on my harmless & defenseless baby!)

We had dinner at Spice Spirit 麻辣诱惑, a Sichuan restaurant opened by Chinese actress Fan BingBing. (We hear she parks a Ferrari outside every outlet) The deco inside is so glam! We had a room all to ourselves, with a good view of HuaiHai Road. The food was soooo spicy! After dinner, we headed for late-night shopping along HuaiHai & NanChang Roads, followed by DVD-shopping. ;p


3 Jan, Sunday
We had lunch at 阿一鲍鱼 at XinTianDi which turned out really bad. The food served was very very different from the pictures on the menu. So it'll be our first and last time there. Everything was not delicious at all. :(

In People's Square Garden, there's an area where LOTS of parents & grandparents gather to exchange information about their children. All in the hope of looking for the right life partner for them! It can be quite funny to read the details on the "resume".

At MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art).
Metaphors of Un/Real - Animamix Biennial 2009-2010

Joel sleeps while we enjoy the works...

More works at MOCA...


Joel playing with his toy car while Daddy shops and Mommy sits on the bench waiting...

Cute little Joel walking around in Raffles City. He get smiles from strangers, compliments (so cute) and makes heads turn...

Steamboat dinner at WuMiZhou.


Hope you had a great New Year too! ;)