Xmas in Shanghai: not bad!

An early Saturday evening I’m writing for my blog in the local coffee bar Boonna. I survived Christmas in Shanghai (actually it was second time for me to spend Christmas here in Shanghai – last year I was also in Shanghai during the Christmas holiday). I’m actually doing very well, but tired of an intensive Christmas celebration schedule. Next to the Christmas days I’m not taking any free days, because there is a lot to do for de Baak. I’ll be going to Holland by the end of January and before my flight back home I have to get many things done here.

Because of the Christmas days this week went fairly quick, but many things happened – as always in Shanghai. Monday and Tuesday were very busy working days. Both evenings consisted of playing music. Monday I went to practice my bass at Jz School and Tuesday I had a rehearsal with one of the jazz bands. After the rehearsal I went to a bar where I played as a bass player on an ‘open mic’-night. It went fairly well and I’ll probably go back to that place to play again fairly soon. Maybe even to play my ‘own’ songs on which I’m still working. Could be nice.

Tuesday night I couldn't sleep very well, so Wednesday I was totally broken during the day. A Polish photographer named Bartek (he also attended the hiking trip of last weekend) came in the morning to make some pictures of me. He is working here on a project in Shanghai to take photos of people in their living surroundings (see also http://www.yetiyeti.eu/). So I probably look quite wrecked on these pictures – no enough beauty sleep. Anyhow it was cool to be included in his project. Further I had a normal working day on Wednesday and after I went to the house of Yali, who had invited some people from the hiking trip. We had a delicious vegetarian Christmas meal and ended the evening with playing music and singing in Yali’s home – great! Everybody was playing drum and I improvised on the guitar. It sounded not bad at all! After a closing drink in the Cotton Club I went to bed on a decent hour, so the next day I was fresh to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas day was fun. I went to a Christmas lunch with Jim and JP from my jazz band. In total we were a group of around 15 people. The Christmas lunch included an open bar, meaning you could drink anything you want. So I found myself drinking Champagne and Mojitos in the middle of the day. I think many people can relate to way of celebrating Christmas. I had lots of laughs and dancing during this lunch. I even won a bottle of very tasty wine, by providing the answer to question in which year the English Rockband Slade released their single “Merry Xmas everybody” (the right answer was 1973 for those that are keen to know). With this bottle of wine in my hand and five courses in my belly I left to group around 19h to go to my niece Tineke for another Christmas drink. It was a small but nice party. However, due to my big lunch I had trouble keeping my eyes open – I was the first to leave off to bed.

Yesterday (the second day of Christmas) consisted mainly of learning Chinese and a Chinese lesson with my new teacher Pamela. I’m very happy with my new teacher – my learning speed is going faster and faster, but this improvement of my Chinese classes also included more homework. I don’t know where to find the time, but so far I have been able to do my home work and impress my teacher. Next to speaking I've started to work on my Characters. I bought a Chinese mobile phone so I’m able to sent messages in Chinese. It takes me forever to complete a very simple message in Chinese, but it gives a victorious feeling.

Yesterday evening I had a blind date. Set up by my housekeeper. It was a nice girl, but I think we are not a great match. Partly because her English was extremely limited, so I could practice my Chinese even more – that was a very nice thing. After the date was finished I hooked up with my Dutch friend Jorden and we went clubbing. In the clubs I was happy to find that there are still lots of girls interested in me … thank God.

I’ll be heading home now, and feel like I’ll have a very early Saturday night after the big night out yesterday. Tomorrow will be a beautiful day, and I want to be there to enjoy it!