We had a quiet dinner in a dimly lit and pleasant restaurant right smack in the middle of the nightlife buzz on a Saturday night.

J started wearing a fake wedding band over the weekend. I think it might have come from a bottle of wine we’d opened months back. I’m amused that he doesn’t seem inclined to take it off anytime soon. Since I am still without an engagement ring, this might work – as a substitute ring worn by the fiancé instead.

The rare glimpse of sunny, warm weather prompted us to go on an ad hoc trip to Qibao on Sunday. More on Shanghai’s very own water town in another post very soon.

Summery blooms in the apartment, I like very much even though I don’t know their names.

Still sick so I pretty much canceled on everything except for two separate birthday feastings for four friends over the weekend. I also caught up with some much-needed readings and drank a ton of soups.

Been counting on self-medication and now starting on home remedies courtesy of J’s grandma… getting desperate because all the signs are currently pointing towards a much-dreaded trip to the public hospital. BUYAO !

Here’s a number of random photos from the weekend just past.

I’m guilty of a massive backlog of photos from Singapore. I’ll be organizing and posting them up soon, I promise.

On Saturday we reached the Shanghai Art Museum at 4pm for the Marc Riboud retrospective, turns out the museum closes at 4.

A chance detour over to MoCA for a sampling of Zhou Tiehai’s Desserts which left me intrigued and puzzled. Did you know Zhou doesn’t paint his own works ?

I spent some time petting a big dog and holding a six month old baby in my arms. Not at the same time though.

Pleasantly surprised by the packaging of the chamomile tea bag at brunch. I think it looks nice with the twine bit curled.

One of the few things I like about winter is being able to wear nice patterned tights.

Watched an Adam Sandler comedy on Sunday night that wasn’t so slapstick funny after all and then bed immediately after.

I felt sick-ish the entire weekend and it escalated some the past two days. Been taking meds and drinking LOTS of water to try make it go away.

Hello it’s the last weekend before I’m headed for home. Yippeee, (I’m stressed with final weekend to-dos but I’m also) excited !

Mokkos with some friends after the company CNY dinner, topped off with a small serving of malatang before we parted ways into the night.

Found suitable bedroom slippers for mommy at the funny slipper shop.

Not much luck at Zara or H&M, I’m gonna have to bet it all on half a day’s worth of strategic shop traipsing on the eve of Chinese New Year with a bored boy in tow. Wish me luck.

New haircut cost me just RMB 10. I’m finding the outcome a little too short and a little messy, but oh well it was RMB 10 to begin with.

I bought a lovely handmade wok and felt like I’d bought a piece of history. Now I need to use it properly so that it will last for the next 20 years.

Also squeezed in some bachelorette party craziness. That game with the tealight candles and spoons, I’m totally down with it. Oh, and we ended the night on a stage at a packed Chinese club.

Met some new Singaporean friends over Sunday lunch at where else but a Singaporean restaurant.

I was supposed to write Chinese New Year cards and get them in order for mailing out but I didn’t.

Look who’s on the cover of a local rag. Ho ho Polly furry cakes I’m sorry I called you pangpang because you don’t seem to like me very much anymore.

Eating by myself at home usually means bowl food in front of the laptop. I had messy (but mess-worthy) kebabs as I watched Project Runway: All-Star Challenge this time.

We were at a newly-opened wine bar that had an in-house photobooth. Great idea though I need to learn to take better photobooth snaps because my face looked so big in this set.

I was craving a piping hot bowl of ramen on Sunday and ended up getting udon because the restaurant only serves kimchi ramen. Bad decision, I should have stuck to California rolls.

Waited for J while he got his hair cut and didn’t go for mine.

So overcome by laze over the weekend. I haven’t felt this unmotivated in ages but I suppose we need to sit back and do nothing sometimes, so as to recharge ourselves for more things to come.

I was at the gym, twice. Doing backward threadmill walking on incline which borders on ridiculity for the uninformed.

Slipped on my pair of embroidered Chinese Mary Janes and off we went browsing wedding bands for the first and last time in China. Yellow gold is as traditional as wedding bands ought to be.

Witnessed someone purchase of 17 bottles of wines at Marks & Spencer, and I happen to know that someone.

Our dinner hosts made us sip glühwein out in the cold on the balcony as part of our German experience prior to the cheese fondue dinner.

We read plant signs in the park in the company of old folks and indulged in a bit of kitchenware shopping.

The weekend ended quicker than I thought because I fell asleep three quarters through The Darjeeling Limited on Sunday night.

Spicy ganguo goodness and bottomless Tsingtao’s on Friday to start off the weekend with a big bang, followed by more beer at the new Dingxi Lu Kaiba.

Over dinner on Saturday evening, the French and the Germans insisted that the turducken must have been a Chinese invention and it turned out that they were wrong.

Drinks with our newly-engaged girlfriend (Congratulations S !) and loads of catching up because everyone is finally back in Shanghai from the holidays.

Hairy crabs again… but I only ate two this time !

Where else but China ? The repair store owner (yes, the same one with highly enviable working hours) managed to fix my speakers for RMB 35 and told me it comes with a one-month-plus warranty period.

I like the design on the base of cheap Chinese drinking glasses.

Gift-buying over the weekend caused a major headache. Luckily I managed to lay my hands on suitable ones on Sunday evening, yay.

Comfort food at Tsui Wah ! While mommy’s fishball noodles are still the best, these guys make a reasonably good substitute to satiate my craving. It helps they have spicy chilli slices in soy sauce too, just the way I like it.

I finally watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The film turned out darker than I’d expected. Also, much of the film took place in darkness/ semi-darkness, quite like Zhang Yimou’s early movies.

The best way to avoid the crowds on Friday night, it seems, is to do drinks before dinner. We stopped by a near-empty Dada then grabbed a spicy Chongqing dinner after.

On Saturday afternoon, I sent the two second-hand dresses I had thrifted in Paris to the tailor for alterations and they were ready (perfect, the way I wanted) by Sunday afternoon. I’m impressed.

I had a sudden craving for hairy crabs last week and bought some live crabs from the wet market to prepare the dish myself since my crab-eating buddy is pregnant and watching what she eats these days.

Met up with some friends over Korean barbeque on Saturday. The restaurant ran out of lettuce, didn’t seem to have green chilli or ssamjang and only brought us a saucer of garlic slices upon request, hrrmph. On a cheerier note, N and his girlfriend managed to make it to the dinner and I haven’t seen N in a long while !

This is how a lazy Sunday brunch at home looks like. It’s so fuss-free that rice was the part which took up the longest cooking time.

I didn’t go to the JZ Shanghai Music Festival with J and sent my speakers to the repair store to get the cable replaced instead. Interestingly, the man who runs the repair store says he only works 4-5.30pm everyday. I wish I have a job like that too.