Hi all, I’m back!
The trip to Shanghai was fairly uneventful and it was good to get back on Friday afternoon and see the family again. Here’s a brief rundown of my week:
Saturday: Left Wellington at 07:00 and was told at check-in that my requested airpoints upgrade to business class had come through – yay! Got to Auckland to find that my colleague had also got an upgrade! Too bad Air New Zealand business class is shite on a 767 (but better than cattle class!) An eleven hour flight later and we’re in Hong Kong where we get a cab to our hotel.
The evening is spent wandering around the night markets with some Australian based colleagues and the whole next day is taken up with looking around markets and computer fairs until 16:00 when we have to be in a cab to the airport for our 2 hour flight to Shanghai. Items of note bought – one small USB SC card reader for about 15
Sunday night to Wednesday is spent at the technical summit in Shanghai being scanned whenever we enter or leave a session (even to go to the loo!) Talk about control! We also went to the night markets. Items bought – Matching fake Rolexes for 60 NZD the pair.
Pete and I decided when we got to Shanghai that we would rather spend some extra time in HK so we changed our flights and left Shanghai at 16:15 on Wednesday where that evening and Thursday were spent in a similar fashion to our trip up. Items bought – Cases for my ipod and x50v, in-line remote for the ipod, some clothes for Vic and I from Esprit.
Our flight was at 19:00 and again my upgrade came through! Six hours sleep on the flight was brilliant and after a quick flight from Auckland to Wellington I was home at last!
Highlights of the trip?
Coming back and after I’d been home a few hours I met Max on the stairs and asked him for a hug. He gives me a big hug and says “I love you Daddy”! Going away for a week was almost worth just that 
Catching the maglev train from Shanghai city to the airport. Firstly it’s cool technology and secondly the image below shows the speed that we got up to – on a train!!
Welcome back!!