July 2007 Archives

I looked around for quite a while to try and find where this popular restaurant should have relocated to. It took me about six months to discover that this restaurant had a second, poorly advertised location on Wuding Lu and Xikang Lu.

The food is great, moderately prices (RMB20-40 for most main dishes), and the Xinjiang Black Beer is cold and plentiful. One of the best features of this restaurant is the singing and dancing show in the garish to extravagantly decorated second level area.

The restaurant's owner often cracks open his keyboard and belts out some KTV inspired Uighyr tunes (but in Mandarin - go figure). The real highlight is the local dancer going through several motions. Generally the crowd can range from politely appreciative to completely immersed in the 'happiness' of Yakexi. Some, like this scribe and his dragon-boat friend, are sometimes called upon to liven up the show and add some detailed comic relief. Please spot the classic Australian dancefloor moves in my performance.

I can't wait to see this movie.

This entry has been a long time coming. Both Linda and myself are busy in the process of reorganizing our lives in preparation for our move back to Australia. Yes, our Shanghai life is over for now. We will leave in early-mid September, and then its back to Brisvegas. The last few months have been insanely busy, with me starting a temporary short-term editor's contract with a biotech and biopharma company here in Shanghai, a stream of umpteen visitors, a scale-up in my web service, and also lots and lots of planning to keep our little business going.

Blogging has really fallen of the calendar as a priority. It is a pity, because so much has happened recently. China's blocking of Flickr's image servers hasn't really enthused me to post the hundreds of photos I took when Linda, Stephanie, Mel and I visited Yangshuo earlier in late June. Wow. That is a place to go.

When I next have time, I am going to pick up some posting, but I'm starting to lean towards starting over with a new blog and archiving this one. This site is definitely Gen 1.0 of my skills, which have really been updated over the past year to include some nifty little things. It's time for a better showcase, and also something with more interactivity.

better fly. work calls.