mum's arrival

its great having my first visitor to shanghai, the lovely mum, right in time for chinese new year, the time for family reunions, so its perfect!
seeing life through her eyes. so far this has been her observations:

'i love the red everywhere. it makes the place so warm.'

'i feel so spiritual here. there is an energy that is so special.'

'why are the tree bottoms painted white?' (along the roadside as we are coming from the airport)
i cant answer that apart from, who needs a fence when u can use a tree...

'the subway is amazing, its the best one i've ever been on; modern, clean, and I love the way there are no doors between the carriages, so you can look down and see for ever, its like a mirror.'

'look at the beautiful lights on the buildings, how they change colour, its exiqisite, not tacky.'

'it's a lot less polluted than i thought it would be.'

'the people are very friendly, for a big city it's quite amazing, it wouldn't happen in london that a couple sitting next to us on the subway would start talking to us, that's gorgeous.'

'Is that a chicken hanging outside to dry?'
yes, yes it is

Today, the 25th is the major Chinese New Year celebrations. My gorgeous landlord and her husband have invited us to their home for celebrations! We are so lucky, to experience this with local family. Apparently it consists of a lot of eating, for three hours at least, watching special tv shows, and more eating, and then fireworks galore!!!! My two families in china united!!!