Awaiting the baby

Now we are getting into the swing of Shanghai and the jet lag is wearing off. However the jet lag was quite useful to help us sleep through the building work noises which start at about 6am next door.

We are also battling Mosquitos at night. The weather has been quite warm which has encouraged them, but it has rained now which should calm them down. It could get cold at any time but showing no sign at present. Temperatures forecast over 20C.

We have been eating a few times at Oliver's apartment which is a novelty since we always used to eat out on previous visits. With Sasa's family there they tend to cook all meals at home. Always several dishes to choose from and always more than enough to go round. The population of their apartment has reduced at present with brother, nephew and aunt currently staying with other relatives.

There has been lots of discussion of baby names. They need 3, or rather 6, since they don't know the gender. One formal name, one Chinese familiar name and it is now very common to choose a Western name even for Chinese families. Sasa is mainly choosing the familiar name (her nephew is called Xiao Fu meaning little tiger). Oliver is thinking about the Western name. So far nothing definite has been chosen so I would not like to hype up any particular choices.

We are getting used to the Shanghai life. Still building going on everywhere and frantic traffic but basically very friendly and safe. I particularly noticed this time that the scooters and motorbikes are a law unto themselves. They seem to have a right to roam anywhere. We had always noticed their use of the pavements, but they also routinely go against the traffic on any side of the road. Sometimes there is a hint of an official cycle lane but usually not. It could  be because there are less sectioned off lanes for them and more cars. It means you have to be even more careful crossing streets since you can't predict which direction they will come from. The other factor is that they never turn on any lights when driving at night. This may be because many of the motorbikes are electric and they don't want to run down the battery. After the big family meal the other day we noticed Sasa's aunt load up her scooter with the two small children and set off into the night with no lights and against the traffic. They survived as everyone does and you do notice that drivers are very quick to give way without getting angry.

We have visited a few parks too as a break from the city. Many of them are geared to exercising and have areas which at first look like a playground but are in fact for adults to do stretching exercises, mostly middle aged people or older as in this picture.