We are now a two car family! Now that we are further away from public transport it made sense to get another car.
Subaru Legacy Wagon
Normally aspirated 1994cc boxer four
Auto
AWD
ABS
No updates over the weekend as I was too sick. I now have a new party trick though.
Give me a needle, any old sewing needle will do – one that you can thread.
I’ll shit through the eye of it……. and about twenty times a day.
Too much information? 
I promised a slightly longer update on my trip and here it is (with pictures!)
As you know the trip there wasn’t exactly the smooth experience one hopes for when travelling. I was held up in Auckland for an extra 18.5 hours while the airline fixed the engine of my original flight.
After an 11.5 hour flight this gave me only about three hours shopping in Hong Kong instead of the entire day I was expecting 🙁 Luckily I know HK fairly well after being there about 6 times so I managed to get two Holga cameras (US 12 each!) and the L’occitane stuff for Vic.
The flight to Shanghai was only 2.5 hours and uneventful andI found myself in China early on Sunday evening. Not much to report that night and here’s the view from my room when I woke up the next morning.
The next three days were filled with technical sessions from 08:00 until 18:00 with a gala dinner on Monday night and a cocktail party on the Wednesday. The only night we had free was Tuesday and we spent that at a market about 20 minutes drive away. The market was the usual Asian affair with loads of fake watches, clothing and DVD’s. I spent hardly any money there as there wasn’t anything I really wanted to buy.
The highlight was winning a digital camcorder on Wed night! I’ve already sold it so I won’t go into it too much except to say it was pretty cool and I now have some extra cash 
The only other time free was Thursday morning before our flight so a colleague and I went for a wander around the city center. Not much to report as central Shanghai now looks like a lot of other Asian cities. It has lots of new buildings and most of those have gone up in the last 7 years or so.
One of the first ones to be built was the garishly pink Oriental Pearl tower. This 468 meters high (1,536 feet) tower is the world’s third tallest TV and radio tower and was the tallest building in the city until a couple of years ago.
All in all the trip was OK at best and it was great to be home. I really missed Vic and Max and it was made worse by the fact that Max said Daddy properly for the first time to me but it was on the phone from Shanghai!
Just a very quick note to say that I’m home
After another cancelled flight I eventually got home at about 17:00 yesterday and then was out straight away for Jay’s leaving drinks (he and Larry are off to the UK :()
I’ll do a slightly longer update over the weekend.
Free wireless at Hong Kong airport – who knew! Unfortunately I’ve only found out with about 5 minutes before I board 🙁
My 3 days in Shanghai were crazy hectic with sessions and presentations and then they stung us with a 1 hour test on the last afternoon! The one redeeming thing about the whole thing was the fact that I won a camcorder last night in a random draw
They’re calling the flight now so I’d better go. Ciao
Well I eventually got here in one piece 11:30 flight from Auckland to HK and then 2:15 to Shanghai. I had about 3 shopping hours in HK but managed to get two holga cameras!
No time to talk as we are in sessions from 08:00 until 18:30 and then have a working dinner every night! I’m writting this at 11pm Shangai time and have left everyone partying downstairs in the bar ‘cos I’m a lightweight and need to go to bed 🙁
Night night
Yay – broadband into my room! For some reason it was hidden on the opposite side of the room to the desk!
Gotta go now (after lovely dinner with David and Claire) ‘cos I have a 03:30 wakeup call – 04:30 pickup – 07:30 flight….. yawn 🙁
Ruptured fuel line is what they said and now I’m stuck in Auckland for 18 hours and will catch a flight out at 07:30 tomorrow morning. I’m stuck in a crappy hotel with no dial up facilities (I’m on a 9.6K cellphone line doing this)
It means that I won’t have a day shopping in Hong Kong 🙁
Pooh!!!