Living the dream (Part I)

After years of existence, I have learnt one thing. I'm a creature of habit. I crave structure and routine. I need to be productive and to be doing something. Of course with this new sense of freedom, only afforded by redundancy I've realised that you really need hobbies in life at the very least something that keeps you occupied and busy. This becomes more evident when you find an additional 9 hours a day. Let this be a precursor to retirement, make sure you have hobbies and cash to fund them.

So, what have I been doing to keep myself busy? It's been an interesting couple of months. The first month I was preoccupied with Dave in town and it was good having company especially during the initial period. Since then, I've picked up Cantonese Lessons, hit the yoga, picked up my Uke, re-committed myself to getting this blog up to date and course priming myself for the stark reality that I might actually be better off finding a rich mainland wife and living out every man's dream of becoming a Stay-at-home-Dad.

To better prepare myself should this actually happen I've become obsessed with two things. Yoga and celebrity chefs. Jamie Oliver, Downward Dog, Heston Blumenthal, Warrior one, Gordon Ramsey, 30 minute meals, Shivasana, 15 minute meals! It's with this extra time spent in the kitchen, I've managed to cultivate my culinary skills. More cooking, kitchen experimentation and trying new foods.

Here's the seeds of a fresh pomegranate not very interesting, but it took me a whole 30 minutes to extract them without staining my kitchen. Never again...

Shanghai New Years

It had been decided that New Years would not be spent in Hong Kong. This decision was on the back of last year's somewhat lacklustre end to 2011. Our eyes heavy and bloodshot around the outdoor coffee table on the patio of Caine Building as the sun rose for the first time in 2012. It was a tired and yet familiar sight, however we decided that we would make an effort to be somewhere else in 365 days.

That somewhere else would be Shanghai. It had been over 6 years since I had last been to Shanghai and I remember it being a city that I had loved. I was excited to be going back to see how the city had changed. Not surprisingly, the city has changed over the course of 6 years. One thing for sure, I would love to live here for a stint, if only language weren't such a barrier.

Interesting incident with the taxi driver re-emphasising how the lack of communication can get you into trouble. This ended up in commotion and fisty cuffs with the driver. I should really brush up the Mandarin.