Living it up as an expat!

Happy Mid Autumn Festival all! You have to love Mid Autumn Festival, after all, it is an excuse to eat moon cakes (some yummy, some not so) and have a long weekend! And I have spent it in true expat style. I decided to abandon travel plans (saving myself for the upcoming month or so - Can't wait for you to get here Rob!) for a lazy weekend and must say I feel extremely relaxed now! The weekend began with tepanyaki washed down with Asashi beer, followed by a lazy Saturday morning - I quite possibly need to be treated for an addiction to Sex and the City, why have I not discovered this earlier?! Saturday afternoon called for the Australian flag to be brought out as I supported Australia in the Bledisloe Cup final (surrounded by Kiwis unfortunately!) The Kiwis weren't brave enough to stick around for the real sport, the AFL! It was great to watch the game on a big screen, didn't think I'd miss Saturday night footy so much. Can't wait for the grand final now. Then the true expat luxury set in - foot massages and beer at 11pm on a Saturday night, only to be followed up on Sunday night by a facial and haircut ($2.50 for a hair cut!). It was a slightly nerve racking experience letting several Chinese hairdressers loose on my hair, but I had the phrase book in hand and quickly memorised 'Not too short!' and had 'I should have never let you near me!' up my sleeve (this literally translates as 'What will I tell my parents?'). Just as I had relaxed and thought all was under control, out came the thinning scissors! My hair needs to be thicker, not thinner! But I was too relaxed from the facial to argue, so let them get on with it. Luckily I came out looking relatively normal! I awoke on the bonus weekend day to rain, so a few of us wandered down to the fabric markets, there are some really beautiful materials for ridiculously, will get some clothes made up soon. So tomorrow it's back to reality - 4 days of work before heading into Shanghai to catch up with Ash and Tim (coming from Melbourne). Ahh, I think it might be nice to go for a head massage now, see you!