A CASUALTY of MOTHER NATURE

By now I should be home in Scotland with my family ready to begin a new, and very happy chapter of my life. However I hadn't bargained on Mother Nature thwarting my attempts.

I left my apartment in Shanghai at 3-30am on 1st March, some 12 hours later I arrived in Dubai, so far so good. It was a long but good flight. On arriving in the lounge in the airport it became clear I would be going no further, not today at least. I know the weather forecast for UK was not good with a lot of snow arriving, but I was hoping I might just be ahead of it. No such luck. An hour later I was in The Meridian hotel with the temperature outside touching 30c. Not bad you might think, but remember I am headed to Scotland where it is very chilly and I am dressed accordingly, boots and cashmere scarf included. My luggage would remain in the airport as I am booked onto the flight the following afternoon. Thankfully I have enough packed in hand luggage to see me through.

After contacting family and letting them know I was stranded I decided all I can do is to suck it up. After all I wasn't exactly roughing it.

So nothing to do but make the best of it. After all a lovely hotel cannot be sneezed at. A nice bath, dinner in my room and I settled down with my magazine app, READLY, if you haven't tried it I urge you to do so. readly.com  My iPad provided me with TV, nothing much apart from news channels on TV here, and if I see another weather warning I may scream, so the night passed uneventfully.

I awake to more disastrous weather reports. My predicament is truly a third world I problem, I do realise that, but it soon became obvious I may not be going home today either. So now I am really not a happy bunny. No amount of food and baths are going to cheer me up today if this is the case! So decided to blog my woes. A problem shared as they say..........

I enjoyed a delicious breakfast, slightly spoiled by some very noisy Chinese people in the restaurant, and I thought I was getting away from it all. Chatted with others experiencing the same issues as I have and the general mood seems to be positive. Still at this point there was still the possibility of us getting home today. Stopped into the shop to buy a deodorant and came out five GBP lighter.

By late morning it became clear all flights were indeed cancelled. So I will hunker down for another night and hopefully get home tomorrow.

This will be my last post as "thecelticcookinshnghai" I will be starting a new blog to reflect my new life. I will keep everyone updated and I hope you will follow me on my next journey in life.
Thanks to everyone who follows me and to those I have come to know through the comments.

ZAI JIAN Shanghai

COUNT DOWN................

Today is February 1st 2018 and it is the first day of my last full month in Shanghai. It's almost 6 years since we first arrived and its been an amazing journey. However, as with all good things it comes to an end, and I'm not sad about it, I'm looking forward to going home after almost 24 years travelling and starting a new adventure. I am, however, feeling a bit in limbo at the moment. We have moved out of our Shanghai apartment and almost everything we own in the world is on a ship heading out on an 8,000 miles trip across the high seas. It's always quite a nervous time hoping in 6 or 7 weeks time we will be reunited.

In the meantime it is hotel apartment living. Home at the moment is a luxury one bedroom two bathroom small apartment which has a totally out of proportion sized kitchen. Double oven, induction hob, which I am practising on for my return as I decided to have one put into my new home in Scotland, I am loving it, and a large fridge freezer. Now normally I would be in my element in this kitchen but it has very minimum utensils and crockery so everything I decide to cook has to take some careful consideration, and definitely minimum effort. I have relented and made a few purchases, grater, masher and whisk plus a few bowls. Making lots of soups as all I need is a pot and knife. No smooth purred soups though more the chunky minestrone type. Stews also no problem so we definitely won't starve.

The apartment is part of a mall so without ever going outside I have shops, restaurants, cafes, pool and gym all on my doorstep! This is especially good at the moment as the weather in Shanghai has been so cold, the coldest winter I've experienced here. Also trying to visit all the restaurants that have become our favourites over the past 6 years, and at the same time trying to visit the places we have always planned to visit but never got around to going. So life is pretty hectic. My husband is out of town next week so I think I'll have a quiet week and try to visit the pool more often than the restaurants, lol.

This kind of living is great, sheets and towels changed every two days, room service 24 hours a day if required, a light bulb goes out someone changes it, wifi problem someone is here within a few minutes. You can see why I could get used to it. But it is hotel living and that comes with a state of mind which says "I'm on holiday", so finding it difficult to motivate myself for anything other than having fun. Ok, so maybe not a big problem I hear you say, and I totally agree, no sympathy from you I'm sure, a first world problem my kids tell me, but I so long for normality. I don't have any personal stuff apart from my clothes so there really is nothing I can really do. I don't have my craft stuff, my cookbooks or anything else I can amuse myself with. So happy to trade it all in for my own home again surrounded but not only my "stuff" but with family and friends who I miss every day. I've made lots of friends here who have helped make my time in Shanghai a great time in my life, but the ones I've known for most of my life are there to catch up with and of course can't wait to be spending more time with kids and grandchildren.

This may not be my last post as the celticcook as I'm sure there is one more adventure waiting to be told. So for the next few weeks I'll keep eating, drinking and saying goodbye to all the wonderful people I've met here. No great hardship, and then there's that wonderful light at the end of the tunnel, and that is the big smiles on my grandchildren faces when I get home.