SHANGHAI WRAP-UP

Here is a list of things to do in Shanghai:

(Will be updating these soon with more photos, maps, recommending walking routes, and details)

Shopping

• Huaihai Road (see post)
• Nanjing Road
• Nanjing West Road
• Cloud Nine Shopping Mall (see post)

Markets

• Bird and insect market (see post)
• Dongtai Antique market (see post)
• Temple Book Market (see post)

Architecture and parks

• Jing-An Temple (see post)
• Fuxing Park (see post)
• Xintiandi (see post)
• Old Shanghai Govt Building (see post)
• City God Temple and Yuyuan Gardens (see post)
• Shanghai Postal Museum and the Waitan baidu bridge (see post)
• The Bund / Waitan (see post)
• Old Town (see post)
• The French Concession (see post)
• Gubei's Golden Pedestrian Street (see post) 

Arty and hip areas

• Tianzifang (see post)
• Ferguson Lane (see post)
• Propaganda Poster Art Museum (see post)
• Redtown Sculpture Park (see post)

Cute Stores

• Brut Cake (see post)
• Article Earth, Lomography Store, Garden Books, The Pottery Studio (see post)
• 1984 Bookstore Garden Cafe (see post)

Food

• Koreatown (see post)
• Example of a food-court in Shanghai (see post)

Day trips and Weekend trips

• Hangzhou (see post)
• Zhujiajiao watertown (see post)

THINGS I NEED RIGHT NOW

• A mentor/role model
• A conversation with future-me, to talk about what I should do and what I should plan for
• Involvement in something meaningful and important
• A thinking hat
• A hot cup of Irish Breakfast tea with soy milk
• A sunny spot to sit and think 

FAVOURITE STRANGER OF THE WEEK

Today I talked to a girl with pink hair.
She has earned the title of being my 'favourite stranger of the week' this week.

Reasons:

• She had pink hair
• She talked to me in a nice way

Now I want to have pink hair too.

LIST OF TREES I WANT

A definitive list of trees and plants I want in my backyard when I grow old:

• pear tree
• peach tree
• lemon tree
• feijoa tree
• avocado tree
• hazelnut, almond, pistachio, macademia trees
• chestnut tree
• red grapefruit tree
• mandarin tree
• persimmon tree
• olive tree
• magnolia tree (this is not a food tree. Just for looking)
• golden ash tree (also for just for looking)
• black poui tree (also for looking)
• lavendar plant (for smelling and looking)
• maybe a rose bush, but not sure. They are a bit too mainstream.
• if possible, a watermelon plant

I'll probably have to live on some orchard when I am an old lady. That would work out well actually – because then I would be able to finally have miniature pigs as pets. They are so cute!

And if, by any chance I die young, I would like to be buried next to one of the non-food trees on this list. Or under an olive tree would be okay. But there would have to be a warning placed on the tree letting people know that there is a person buried under it. Oh, and under a pohutukawa tree would be good too, since it is illegal to cut down pohutukawa trees in NZ.


**Update**
I think being buried under a fruit tree will work out quite well actually. I will get lots of visits from birds. 

THINGS I LIKE THESE DAYS

I LOVE getting mail.

I got this letter this morning. Look at all the pretty stamps!

It travelled all the way from England. There's something about mail... it's a so much more labourious process compared to email. It makes it that much more special haha.

The content of this particular letter was not so interesting though. It was to confirm that my subscription for The Economist has been cancelled. 

The Economist is really good, but there is too much to read in one week. I feel really overwhelmed by all the things I need to know about. I just cannot keep up. I end up only reading the briefing section. Aaand it's very expensive. I will just read the briefing section using my 10-articles-per-week allowance on their website from now on. 

Oh, and recently I subscribed to get the NZ Herald delivered. It's so nice that they deliver 7 days a week. It's like getting a mini-present every morning.  It's so much nicer to physically flick through the pages than to scroll and click. Lots more pictures too. And, in the mornings I can now pretend I'm some cool character in a movie, drinking my tea and flicking through the newspaper. 

Also, the print version of the NZ Herald has way more interesting ads than the online version.

Another thing I like these days: pretty bandages!

Pretty bandages are so nice. I just want to wear them on my finger even though I don't have any cuts. 

They are at least 100 trillion times better and much superior to normal bandages in terms of how they make me feel. I wonder who came up with the idea of branded bandages. (It was probably some evil marketing genius with a PhD in the children's consumption patterns).

FAVOURITE COLOURS

Coral and turquoise used to be my favourite colours.

Orange and green are my favourite colours now.

Yellow used to be my favourite colour for such a long time. Probably all throughout my teenage years.

But I really like orange and green now. 

HOW TO BE HAPPY WHEN YOU ARE SAD

• Squeeze and hug your dog (If you don't have a dog, go find a dog. Pillows won't have the same effect)
• Drink a lot of tea with a lot of soy milk. Add honey if you are extra sad.
• Try trimming your fringe *This could possibly make you feel sadder if you cut it wrong*
• Draw orange circles
• Plant a plant and take care of it. Or go around your garden and water some existing plants
• If it's nighttime, look at the stars
• If it's daytime, look at the clouds
• If it's daytime and it's windy, make a mini-kite and fly it
• Find an ant trail and observe

URBAN CODE

"Urban Code: 100 Lessons for Understanding the City" is a book with an interesting table of contents.
Just reading the title of each chapter is an interesting read in itself. Being a list-lover, I have copied and pasted it below:

01 People walk in the sunshine.
02 Street vendors are positioned according to the path of the sun. 
03 Street vendors facilitate pedestrian movement. 
04 Safe surroundings increase profits. 
05 High turnover makes up for high rent. 
06 Rents rise with increasing pedestrian density. 
07 Global shops sell their wares on popular streets. 
08 Salespeople possess analytical knowledge of the district. 
09 Passersby have an intuitive knowledge of the district. 
10 Familiar chain stores are landmarks. 
11 Brand names attract people. People attract brand names. 
12 Shops attract other shops. 
13 Tourists carry bags. 
14 Shops give away bags. 
15 Street vendors complement the surrounding selection of shops. 
16 Human traffic complies with shop opening times. 
17 Street vendors reinforce fluctuations. 
18 People attract people. 
19 Places of concentration depend on places of emptiness. 
20 Cars can park in niches. 
21 Cars park on top of one another. 
22 Street vendors follow wrecking balls. 
23 Constant grids afford manifold patterns of movement. 
24 Equal grids provoke unequal blocks. 
25 Buildings outlive uses. 
26 A block consists of many buildings. 
27 Each building has at least one entrance. 
28 No entrance is the same as any other entrance. 
29 Entrances are meeting points. 
30 Entrances are hurdles. 
31 Shops attract pedestrians into the depths of the block. 
32 Each building houses a business. 
33 Small, specialized shops are essential to maintaining a district’s vitality. 
34 Display windows are mirrors. 
35 Pedestrians are potential buyers. 
36 Pedestrians walk on sidewalks. 
37 The sidewalk is a cellar entrance. 
38 Wares are stored in the cellar. 
39 Deliveries are limited to the early hours of the morning. 
40 Delivery vans block the streets. 
41 Locals and tourists use the streets at different times.
42 People walk more slowly in the afternoon. 
43 Rituals result from parallel working hours. 
44 The day to day happens on the street. 
45 Workers wear work clothes. 
46 Taxi drivers live on the street. 
47 Locals have dogs. 
48 Every thirtieth pedestrian has gray hair. 
49 Old people sit on benches. 
50 Benches are found on public squares. 
51 Playgrounds draw children in. 
52 Not every playground is a playground. 
53 Fathers meet fathers on playgrounds. 
54 Small public squares are busier than large public squares. 
55 Crossroads are public squares. 
56 People wait at crossroads. 
57 Hot dog stands are at crossroads. 
58 Snack stands smell of food. 
59 Shops lead people. 
60 Shops are new, houses are old. 
61 Shop owners put their trash bags out on the street. 
62 A city is made up of characteristic parts. 
63 Streets were once communal spaces. 
64 Public squares and niches create positive outside spaces. 
65 People sit with their back protected. 
66 Sitting people observe their environment. 
67 Pedestrians lost in thought are not lost. 
68 Tourists stand still. Residents pass. 
69 When people stand still, groups develop. 
70 Groups attract people. 
71 Street performers animate public spaces. 
72 Groups walk more slowly than individuals. 
73 Nightlife hotspots increase pedestrian traffic. 
74 People are afraid of the dark. 
75 Many lights illuminate the night. 
76 Street cafés lie at the center of events. 
77 Subway stations thicken pedestrian traffic. 
78 Narrow streets carry many pedestrians. 
79 Narrow streets carry little traffic. 
80 Cobblestones tell stories. 
81 Local streets are one-way streets. 
82 Cars drive down main roads faster than down side streets. 
83 Pedestrians walk on a red signal, if traffic is slow. 
84 Traffic jams tend to bring out aggression. 
85 Weeds reduce aggression. 
86 The counterpart to the urban everyday is the urban park. 
87 People who walk have a destination in mind. 
88 Good walkways have a good range of destinations along them. 
89 Destinations are more attractive when they invite a stay. 
90 Grocery stores are important local destinations. 
91 Grocery stores on street corners have an advantage. 
92 The livelihood of a street begins at crossroads. 
93 SoHo life begins with traffic lights. 
94 Traffic lights create traffic noise. 
95 People wait for taxis. Taxis wait for people. 
96 Taxis compensate for public transportation. 
97 Subway stations are at borders. 
98 A neighborhood has borders. 
99 Through streets are borders. 
100 Fractures create friction. 

UPDATE

I haven't been posting for a while because I forgot my username and password for this blog.

Here is a list of some recent events:

• Got accepted into the Honours programme :) yay!
• Saved/freed a bird that accidentally flew into our house
• Went tramping in the Waitakere Ranges
• Went to Piha
• Finished the recipe book! They are ready for sale now :D
• Started going to pilates classes. (An actor from Shortland Street comes to the same classes as me!)
• There was an exhibition at the Univ of Melb (grad show for the VCA). But I couldn't go ;(((
• There is a poster exhibition in Korea with my work but I can't go to that either ;(((

There is a Regina Spektor concert coming up in a few days. I'm still thinking if I should go or not.

GROCERY LIST

A list of things I bought today at the market/grocery store:
-tomatos
-apples
-mandarins
-pears
-onions
-mesculin
-corguettes
-mini eggplants (I have no idea what I'm going to do with these)
-feta cheese
-organic chickpeas

Plus I ate half a dozen fresh oysters. Yum!!!

Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do with the mini eggplants. I just bought them because they looked so cute, and I've never seen mini eggplants before. Eggplants are yum, but I have no idea how to cook them.

LIST OF SPORTS I LIKE

Yay, time for another list.

Here is a list of sports I like:
-Kayaking
-Snowboarding
-Scuba Diving
-Boogie boarding (not really a sport. I would like to be able to surf.)
-Walking (My fav! I love walking. I could just walk for hours. So nice.)
-Rock Climbing
-Pilates
-Tennis

I think I like solitary sports. I shall do more of these once I get back to NZ.

I also want to try sky diving! But it's quite pricey.

Arr, although my mum tried very hard to get me to play golf, it really is not my thing. I can play, but I much rather prefer following and watching people who play golf. Just walking around the field and observing is much more fun.

NEW LIST OF THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

-Friends in Melbourne
-People I know in Melbourne
-General people/strangers in Melbourne
-The VCA workshop/studio
-Walking to and from school
-All the Autumn leaves falling and prettifying footpaths
-Socks
-Pistachios
-Sweet potato, soy milk, and cinnamon
-Linocut tools
-The sound of sticky linocut ink as you roll it out

3 THINGS I DID TODAY

1. Saw a dead bird
Seeing dead birds always makes me really really sad and I fall into a very long, confusing, random trail of thoughts for that whole day. Sometimes I continue to think about it the next day. I feel really down and it sucks because today was meant to be a really fun day.

2. Watched Contagion (movie)
It was a really really good movie. Really clean structure and great acting. Lots of famous actors. I also liked that it showed different cities and countries. Sound played a big part. Visual aspects were really satisfying too. The storyline was thought-provoking, and I liked how the movie started on 'Day 2'. Oh, and people should stop eating pigs. Poor poor pigs. Millions of people died because some people decided it was a good idea to cook a whole piglet and eat it (in the movie...and yeah this is not really the root cause...but it's part of the cause).

3. Smelt the smell of freshly mown grass
The lawn-mowing guy must have come today. I arrived home to the smell of freshly mown grass. Smells so good. This sort of contradicts with my feelings towards cutting flowers. But yeah. Grass smells nice.

RECENT GOOGLE SEARCHES

-How do freckles form
-What do sparrows like to eat
-Brain stimulating games for dogs
-Tamarins
-Platypus
-Joseph's face was black as night lyrics
-How to make an envelope without glue
-Are onion shoots the same as spring onions
-Do spring onions grow from onions
-Excited people Rachael Ray EVOO
-Life in Helsinki
-New Zealanders in Helsinki
-High tea Auckland

GOOD DREAMS

Over the last few nights I've been having good-feeling dreams. Some examples:

- Being upgraded to go on First Class on a plane.

- Finding a fist-sized strawberry in the fridge

- Seeing a little bunny and a kitten

Hmmmm.

Oh yeah, that's right. I'm going to start posting everyday about 3 things I was grateful for during that day.

So today I was grateful for:

-being able to do what I love doing (design) all day and knowing that I can do this for the rest of my life.

-the sparrows and flora outside my window

-having a really nice family to live with

NICE

I spent the first day of the holidays at home in my pajamas.

Managed to get quite a bit of work done. Saved a lot of time by not getting changed and not brushing my hair and not using public transport.

During the middle of the day I felt like some wine. And I felt like drinking it out in the sun. So I did. I was in my pink tartan pajamas with bushy hair with a glass of wine in my hands, in the garden at around 1pm. I was also talking to Tori in a one-way-conversation when someone from the neighbourhood walked past and waved hi. I probably looked like a loner/alcoholic.

Oh! I have something relatively interesting to blog about!

I went to the WE CAN CREATE conference last weekend. It was pretty awesome.

Not very good photos. My phone only has a 3 megapixel camera.

Speakers included:
-Hort (Eike Koenig)  ***
-Morag Myerscough ***
-KesselsKramer (Engin Celikbas) ***
-The Rumpus Room
-Sara Blake
-Stamen Design (Eric Rodenbeck) ***
-Kris Sowersby
-Rafael Rozendaal ***
-Chris Graham
-Imaginary Forces (Karin Fong) ***
-Frank Kozik
-Patrick Reynolds ***

The ones with triple asterisks are the speakers that were triple-y awesome. $200 was a bit too much though... there are heaps of seminars and stuff like that online that I can watch for free. I dunno. It was really awesome to be so close to such awesome people in a nice new, massive building, but hmm. Yeah, the speakers were pretty awesome. Yeah it was worth $200 actually.


Now, on to other news.  I saw Mamma Mia (the movie) last night on TV, and now I'm really into ABBA songs again. I really want to visit Greece.

Oh and I should watch African Cats sometime this week before they stop screening it.

BURRRRITO!

For dinner I had a burrito from the (relatively) new burrito place downtown. The burrito was MASSIVE and also very yummy. I ate it at around 6pm (Tues). It is 1am now (Wed), and I am still full.

I couldn't understand what the guy at the counter was asking, so I just nodded my head and then ended up paying an extra $2 for guacamole (which I did not actually want. But it was nice. But not really worth the extra $2 in my opinion).

He also asked me another question which I could not understand, so I just nodded and gave him my eftpos card. Later, I realised he was asking if I wanted a flour tortilla or a wheat tortilla. But it was too late.

So here is a list of what my burrito was made of:
-Flour tortilla
-Guacamole 
-Tomato
-Lettuce
-Capsicum
-Mixture of other vegetables
-Rice
-Black beans
-Soy cheese (Nice)
-Tofu sour cream (YUM! Where can I buy this?)
-Pico de gallo

With soy cheese and tofu sour cream, the transition from being a vegetarian to a vegan should be quite easy. But then again, I'm still not 100% vegetarian yet. I just can't seem to give up fish—especially salmon. Oh, and mussels.

TODAY I LEARNT

Today I learnt that

1) "learnt" and "learned" are used in different situations — they are not just different ways British and American people spell it.

2) Trying to break off a bit of refrigerated chocolate with your bare hands on a cold winter's morning will make your hands really sore.

3) The word "Beaver" has a slang meaning I did not know about. I should change my blog name, twitter name, and tumblr too. Damn.

SONGS

A list of some songs I listen to these days-
-Haven't met you yet - Michael Buble
-Put your records on - Corrine Bailey Rae
-Hakuna Matata - Timon and Pumba feat. Simba (?)
-I just can't wait to be king - Simba
-Count on me - Bruno Mars
-New Soul - Yael Naim
-A whole new world - Aladdin
-Nothing Better - Brown Eyed Souls
-Nesian 101 - Nesian Mystik

Yes they are all old songs. I know.
But I like them. These songs make me feel calm and happy.

Oh, and I'm pretty much over Break Down by Taeyang now. And the same with 잊을께 by YG.
Still listening to them, but not on repeat.

I ate so much chocolate today.
-A mini Lindt creamy chocolate bar
-Bueno
-Whittakers milk chocolate bar

Shite.

LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE ME QUITE HAPPY

grids
stars
the moon
colouring pencils
pencils
tracing paper
brown paper
Israeli couscous
new books
polar fleece
knitted things
when Tori gives me his paw
diagrams
stuff from Moleskine
stuff from Lush
stuff from Gestalten
the little Hershey's Kisses chocolate I got when I ordered coffee at L'Assiette
walking
bamboo trees
peeling chestnuts
cracking sunflower seeds with my teeth
de-shelling pistachios
sparrows in Albert Park
super sharp scalpels
meditating
diagonal lines
parallel lines
watching the sky change colour during sunset
sleeping on the couch instead of sleeping on my bed
roasted rice in green tea
viewing my folders as columns (mac)
organizing folders and having lots of sub-folders
lists