The Hongqiao pearl market

Oh the funness. No, that's not sarcasm, that real. It was super duper funness. Yesterday, Claire, Martin (our photographer) and I went to see the new Hongqiao Pearl Market.

It's waaaaaaaaaay out in this place called Gubei, which is kinda like a suburb (minus the suburbia) if you think of downtown Shanghai (like Nanjing lu where we have our office and where the other pearl market is) as the actual town center. Which is kind of is, but since Shanghai just sort of goes on forever, much like the concept of infinity, you can't really define a center without having definite boundaries. But I digress.

There are a lot of Japanese and Koreans out in Gubei, which apparently makes for some awesome bbq (see previous posts) and also another market which combines the first floor of knockoff Abercombie t-shirts and luggage with a second floor of jewelry awesomeness.

First we went to visit Demi and check out the goods in her store there, very cool stuff. Then we went to some other retailers with whom we are trying to get a relationship going. The stuff there is very different from the other stores, much more fashionable and trendy. Since I had to go to a wedding after I bought the bride and groom some gifts (coin pearl bracelet set in silver for her, lava rock bracelet for him, actually very manly.)

Yes, for the man who has everything, a lava rock bracelet. Actually I don't know if he has everything, but I did to go the reception wearing Claire's dress. Yes, we have reached that level of friendship where we do the dress swap. And my room mate told me that she hoped it was opening up a whole new world of dresses to me. Anywho, it's nice to be told you look cute.

Best thing was though, this one store that sells precious stones and really really really beautiful and affordable (well, you know, it's still money) jewelry. I'm not a huge jewerly wearer, but I did see this frikin awesome giant blue topaz with climbing flowers done in diamonds on it. Super deco. Super fab. Claire is after a ring that has two flowers and a whole whack of diamonds. Sooo shiny. We're kinda like magpies.

According to Wiki, magpies are a symbol of good luck in Korea. So since we're all in the need of a little luck, I'm way OK with that.

Also, long weekend coming up, so we'll have tons to podcast about on Tuesday. xoxo J

Late night bicyle musings

After a fabulous meal with Claire and her man last night, we went to visit a friend of mine who is newly back in town after a long absence. It was totally fabulous, he showed me how to overlay music onto podcasts so from now on, provided I can find music I like, we can have podcast+music. Yeah. Maybe I can somehow bribe him to be the music man. I wonder what I can bribe him with...pearls?

Anyway, on my bike ride back home last night I was thinking about how very cool it is that I can finally show people back home all of the cool stuff in Shanghai. I really feel like it's the very best of this whole globalization thing. There are so many negative aspects of the global economy, and so much that becomes homogenized in what we see, what we buy and what we think about other people that it's fantastic to show the new and creative things that people around the world are doing.

If at the very least someone who has never left their home country can watch the broadcast and see that people here are having really interesting ideas then it's a very humanizing experience and something that people can really appreciate.

So, a little serious, but that's what I get for late night bike ride musings.

Podcast #4, Happy Music, now with happy.

We somehow need to get the Alf theme song for our opening. Or at least one like it. I think after ample coffee and fruit, and primping, we had a good time. Which was great after a crazy morning of technical funness and a lot of sighing. I had also wanted to talk about our pet names for everyone in the office, like Rohizzles, Juju, and Stizzles, or Uncle Steve. But we didn't have time, alas. Something for next week.

And yes, Bob is my uncle.

If anyone has ideas for the podcast or the blog, please feel free to email us or send us a comment because we'd love to hear from you and we will totally announce your birthday, anniversary, or baptism. Xoxo, J and C

p.s. I'm guessing Claire meant that I am the the 'yellow pages' of Shanghai, because being the 'white pages' of Shanghai would be really really wierd. You'd need a whole book just for the Wangs, and the Zhaos.
p.p.s. I'm going to eat some pomelo now.

You and Me and We're Dancing!

You and Me and We're Dancing

What do I want to be doing? Dancing. Right now. At least twice a week, Jessica and I feel the need to blast "Can't touch This" (the club version) and do some pumping MC Hammer moves around the office. We even watched the film clip on youtube to make sure we got the original MC running walk down (it's like the later 90's versions in fast forward. The look of the fluorescent pants pulled up to your chest and billowing definitely lay the foundation for the ridiculousness of the dance that follows. Sans pants, it ain't the real deal. Yep. I just wrote that). Then I checked out the lyrics with the aim of learning them to impress Jessica and was somehow surprised that they were completely ridiculous. Had a total hark back to times of yore, when I was 12 and my sister was 10 and we memorized the lyrics to "Shoop" by sitting on the floor next to our stereo busily rewinding, listening, singing back and then rewinding again until we had it down. Hot darn, we thought we were cool.

Speaking of cool things to do back in the day, any girl who did dancing, or had friends who did dancing knew the value of a choreographed dance routine to perform for the approval of friends and family. Coming from a family of five kids my sister and I would do anything for a slice of the attention pie, from running a post office from our room (anyone need any letters posted? anyone? I had very high hopes for the post office, but shockingly, it never really got off the ground) to making up aqua aerobics routines, (Dad still calls us the mermaid sisters. Aw, bless) singing for the family (we sang a duet we'd learnt at the family friend's wake! no joke, and it was totally impromptu.. the crowds loved it but as I said, desperate.. ) and finally going all out and collaborating on dance routines with jazz master neighbors. We were so cool. And I continue to be so cool that very recently at a party of a friend (and CEO) the song "Respect" came on and filled with energy from eating too many nuts and nostalgia, I stood up and started to get down to a dance that was a Claire/Jane/Lauren (the master of jazz from up the road) gem-of-a-routine circa 1990. Of course, it was a hit that was filmed, until I gave Steve the look of death and watched closely to make sure he really, really deleted it.

Still glowing from the spotlight that night, I want to encourage everyone to make a dance routine and perform it for friends. There is no way it will not be cool or alternatively hilarious. Jessica and I are going to keep fine tuning our running walk (and maybe get some pants that are suitably bright and have excessive billowing capabilities made at the fabric market.. that was the coolest idea I've had ever ever!! telling Jessica now.. ) and maybe even film our very own re-make of "Can't Touch This" and post it on youtube as a lame cover for the world to enjoy, or just us.

Jessica and/or I are going to be live on camera so chat in or have us call you tomorrow from 9pm CST in America or 12 noon for all the Australia contingent at ShangBy.com. Definitely the funnest live video broadcast from the jewelry markets in Shanghai (so maybe it's the only one... ) New podcast tomorrow as well yyyyaay!!

The Poncho

I had to run an errand today at lunchtime. I figured it would take me about an hour. The bike ride there was pretty awesome, I had some sweet tunes courtesy of Claire. Since my ipod broke I've been tuneless and podcastless, which sucks. But Claire let me borrow hers which was kind and awesome.

So, bike ride there, awesomeness.

I did my errand, said 'hi' to some people and then sped back to the office. About two blocks away from my departure point it started to rain so I pulled out my trusty purple Barney colored rain poncho and kept on going. I stopped halfway for some HK style soup, and then slowly did the equivalent trudging on a bike back to the office. So much traffic! So many potholes! So many times was I splashed with disgusting street water when motorcycles passed me. Also, the little brim at the front of my poncho is totally useless. Anywho, at least the ipod held out for battery so all in all it was quite sucessful.

And I'm so ready for weekend. Horray!!!

Thus ends week one of full time employment at ShangBy. Oh, and there is an almost full fridge of beer courtesy of Tom. Yeah, Beer O'clock.

Pre-teppanyaki

We talk about new media in various forms, Jessica's pathetic attempts at using Twitter, the fantasticness that is Tsampa porridge, and butter. Also, Jessica does not like bruised bananas at all and Claire does, but we both agree that banana bread is food of the gods. We also have a debate about hoodies vs the new cardigans. Also...will we look back at these first podcasts and wonder?

Podcast Prep

I was thinking about different things to talk about and checking out some of the local weekly magazines in Shanghai when I came across the Jade Massage. Apparently it uses a lot of jade stones to massage your feet and face (not the same ones) and there is some caviar that gets massaged into your face? I could have that one wrong. Question is, for me at least, is my face worth spending RMB980? I can't decide.
But I do like jade. We probably won't talk about that in the podcast.

I really do want to have the hoodie vs cardigan debate though. I'm checking out H&M online right now. We might have to talk about H&M and their debut in Shanghai and what that means for our wardrobes. We might also have to talk about the various ways to say 'debut'.

I'm not going to tell Claire that I'm writing and updating this blog so we can see what we end up talking about during the podcast and if it's at all similar to what I say here. I'll bet it won't be.

Steve is out at Taikang lu checking out awesome stores that I love and I wanted to go with him. Just and fyi. I love that place.