Brrr.....

It's cold here in Shanghai; even though it cannot be compared to the bitter cold I had experienced over the last 24 years in the Prairie, the not so insulated and brick construction make the cold a bit more difficult to bear (sometimes when u r alone :-P). With the type of brick construction and the original single pane windows (1940's), sometimes, the place is colder than outside. When the wind wipes up at night, the street outside is quite deserted.

Start walking around in my neighbourhood again. Man! One block where shops were vibrant once, gone! Boarded up and being dismantled from inside out. Not just one block, there are other sections along my street, the Nanjing Xi Lu. Google Earth may still have some old record of those tear down places. Bill, if you were reading this, about a block south of the street are being demolished. So much "de-structions" Some buildings were only less than 10 years old. Scary. For once, yesterday I truly felt how dirty the city was.

I walked from my apartment to Hilton for my gym session. All I could see was thru a shroud of something - dust kicked up from all the constructions and the exhaust from all sorts of vehicles (manual or powered). Not good. Maybe it was just a bad day or it is showing its true colour - city advancement.

Well.... Our tickets are in hand for the first half of December traveling. We are actually going to join the United Nation conference on climate at Bali - NOT; but we will be there when it is still going on though. Our travel, this time, will take us to Jakarta this Sunday until the following Thursday. Then Thursday to Sunday @ Bali - Audrey is going to show me where she used to live and worked for 9 months at Sacred River. Then on Sunday, we head to Singapore; no, it is not for a 40th b'day follow-up; it is for work. She will need a bell boy carrying all those extra outdated video equipment one of her clients want to use. :-P Hence my Hilton gym sessions. The from Singapore, we are HOPING to be able to go home on the 19th. Or is that 20th. After that, I am happy reporting that we will be in Shanghai for about 4 days. Anyone who likes to visit, please plan now. :-P Hee hee....

I have just spent the whole morning mapping out the second part of the December and January trip prior to our wedding. I believe from Dec 25, we will fly to SFO then to MSP, to ORD, to RDU, to PDX then back to PVG. I believe, we would have complete the world's circumference at least one and a half this month? Anyone has an exact distance? ;-)

Then with the physical limitation of the Earth as well as airline schedule, we best fly to SYD from PVG rather than going thru OGG/HNL. We would have lose 2 days flying from HNL to SYD. So, my honey will have to make a station stop at PVG (Shanghai Pudong airport in case you have not figured it out yet). Drop off winter clothes and re-pack with better air-flow and lighter clothes for SYD. We should be "home" again by January 20. This will give us exactly 7 days before heading back to OGG from HKG. Our route will be PVG->HKG->HNL->OGG. Keep this up, I might join Phil to take up flying lessons.

That's about it..... Have to buff up my physique; lots of bags to carry in airports....