HOOOOOME!

Finally land of Finnish turf after a 10h plus flight! Plane was about half an hour late because it was not allowed to leave the strip, dunno why. Seems to happen in China every time I fly...

Haven't had this long flight for a long time. Last time must have been when I flew back from Shanghai to Finland in the beginning of 2008. Coming home from Beijing only takes 7,5 hours...

First thing I did was go to the sauna when I came home, been doing that every single time I've come home before. Really wish I would have a sauna in my own flat in Shanghai...After that walk around home in Drumsö. So calm and peaceful here...

Ulappatori is no more, gone!

Streets pretty empty, no traffic what-so-ever. I don't pay any taxes to Finland so the highest ticket for speeding I can get is 125 Euros..Otherwise it's counted from your anual income 5% or 10%...So no matter how much rules I break it will only be 125 Euros now, and a suspended drivings license :P

So Long Shanghai, I'm going home

It's that time of the year again, going home! It's been about 7 months since I've been home now, time really flies here! I didn't even work for the same company last time I was home and so many other things have changed as well. Feels like I was still a kid when living in Beijing and now everything is somehow different.

Went to a British Chamber of Commerce event tonight about communication. The guy holding the presentation said it's always good to think 16, 8 and 4 when giving a presentation. For example:

16: Introduce yourself in 16 words --> My name's Sebastian, living in China, working with logistics and in charge of sales in China

8: Tell others what you do in 8 words --> Live in China and work with International Logistics

4: Your like motto in life --> Sky's not the limit

Picked up my clothes from the dry cleaner, funny bag they had...

I can never get enough of this amazing view of Shanghai from the Bund in the evening...Love The Hamilton House...It's always empty and you can have the whole roof for yourself...Nice breeze and 26 degrees warm...

Factory 933

Some of you might have been in Beijing's 798 district. There are many factories where the Chinese army used to manufacture weapons but has later turned into an art district.

In Shanghai they also have a factory like this called 933 because it was build in 1933. It't a old factory which looks a lot like a big maze. It was raining yesterday when I was here so there were very little people which is very unusual in China!

Build back in 1933

I'm not exactly sure what they used to produce here before bot now it's full of small shops, art studios and coffee places. There were also some owner clubs like for all people with Ferraris. Seems that if you buy a Ferrari in China you get a special card you can swipe and get into the Ferrari Owners Club.

It's build like a maze and the top floor is made of glass so you can see down to the lower floors. Was kinda freaky walking on glass, was not sure it's gonna hold :)

The view from 933 is great, far beyong you can see the super modern buildings and next to it houses that look like they will fall apart by themselves any moment. These old houses don't look very waterproof either if there would be another heavy rain like 2 weeks ago.

Roof-garden, more and more popular in China when the inflation is 20% annually and safety of food isn't always the best...This way you know what you eat!

Swedish Midsummer! Klara Midsommar! (eller va de vappen?)

My third midsummer in China already...Last year I can't remember what I did but 2 years ago I know for sure that Hede was in Beijing and we had a lot of Yellow Wine in a cool restaurant :)

This year was in Intercontinental Expo Hotel which is located in Pudong just next to where the World Expo was last year.

The hotel is seriously in the middle of nowhere considering there is no Expo anymore. It was totally deserted and it's 40 floors. I dunno where they find money to keep it going...

DJ kept playing Swedish hits like Juni,Juli Augusti, Freestyle and Roxette :)

The Swedish party started with some networking and then with a HUUUUUUGE Scandinavian buffet followed by traditional snaps songs. The buffet also included BBQ, was just to go out and get your steaks, chicken etc.

We were about 150 people...

The Snaps songs

This midsummer was almost like being home, really great organized party! Helan går! In 3 days coming home to have a re-midsummer!

Tropical Heat

The last 3 weeks it's been raining constantly but at least it's been pretty cool, around 25 or so. But now those 25 degree days are over! It's suddenly at least 35 degrees and the air is so humid it feels like a sauna. AND in this kind of weather it's impossible to get a taxi.

Yesterday I was suppose to go to a Seminar that was located on the same road I was standing on, according to Google Maps 11,1 km from my location.

Many things went wrong and I was really pisst off:

1. It took me over 1,5 hours to get to the Hotel I was looking for

2. The first driver drove the wrong way

3. Taxihunting took a long time and the weather outside is so damn hot and humid

4. When I finally arrive to the place where the seminar was suppose to be it's canceled

5. I could just have gone home in the first place, save 100 rmb, not getting wet, not sweating in the traffic, not waste over 2 hours of my life on hazzeling around

Oh well, soon home to Finland where it's probably cold atm and no tropical rain

When you order a small Sichuan Dish of fish in China u get this :) 水煮鱼

Or then you can go to a VERY ITALIAN PLEASURE restaurant...

Shanghai Hakkapeliitta VS. Suzhoun Veljet

Yesterday the Finnish floorball team from Suzhou came here to play against us. Game was fun but because of the heavy rain outside the roof was leaking and there was a lot of water on the field in one area. A lot of people tripped and got some minor injuries. Damn good Chinese quality buildings, can't even make it waterproof. I also manage to trip and my ankle got some damage but is almost alright now. After the game we went to Sauna where we had 3 private pools and a huge sauna. Was really nice, I haven't been to Sauna since Finland! When I'm coming back in about a week I'll go to sauna EVERY day!

After Sauna we had a 30 person dinner reservation at Malones, food was great and one of our team members had brought 3x24 Lonkero with him :) We stayed out pretty late and it was a lot of fun. There are so many Finnish people in China!

Victory drink!

We won the game 6 - 3 !

I Kissed Einstein!

I just remembered that Shanghai has a wax museum! By random we passed it and went to have a look. Some of the figures are freakishly real looking! I wasn't sure if some of them were visitors of sculptures since I don't know old chinese movie stars and singers that well...I also got the chance to give Einstein a kiss :)

Time to elect a new president!

Clockwork orange and Bradolia

Bruce in Spandex

Aaaahhnuuuld

Winston and some laughing asians in the background....

Rocky Balboa!

Yepp, it just keeps going on and on...

Einsteins getting a kiss!

After checking all these awesomely made models there was a "live" horror movie. We were walking in a dark room all holding a rope (about 20 persons). The room was full with flashy lights and real people who were acting and dressed as Zombies jumped behind bars and also broke passed some doors and gates making scary "Hissssssss" sounds. Some of the people of the group were so scarred that they didn't wanna continue walking and the girls were screaming like hell. Was a great idea, never seen "live zombies" before.

Wine course by Globus Wine

In Shanghai you can find ANYTHING! Like this wine course is was invited to! They had 6 different Chinese wines and we were suppose to check to color, smell, taste etc. It was actually quite fun but my taste senses are not very developed so I could only taste small differences between them. All of them were pretty good though.

It was a British guy who held the seminar and he had a lot of diplomas about wines according to himself (no doubt because he seemed to know more about wine than women). After the tasting everybody left the place except us 4 Scandinavians and they asked if we wanted to drink all the wine that was left from the event. Are you kidding! YES! So we got ourself a lot of nice wine for free, then out to the streets of Shanghaaaaai! Life here is just great!

Friends of the Pea - Ärtans Vänner

Every third month there is a "Ärtans Vänner" party organized in Shanghai (in english Friends of the Pea). This was the first time to join it but FOR sure not the last!

At the event we had an awesome Swedish set meal with herring on knäckebröd, meatloaf steak with potato mash, pea soup and pancake with raspberry and strawberry jam! (plättar!) The Chef and owner or the place is a Swedish-Peru guy who make excellent food. I seriously recomend to try this place! It's called MAYA and is on Julu Lu 568

Starter - herring knäckebröd

On the wet side we had free flow of wine, beer and SNAPPS! The evening started with starters and after a while every 5th person had to introduce him/herself and tell some funny joke or sing a snaps song. I did a thing about a Chinese girls CV I saw a while ago where she said she like to play balls with her boyfriend. If you translate this direct to Chinese it makes sense because it means ball games like football etc. However kinda missleading in English...Then as an old Skåne Bor I did the "Mera marcher till Skåne..." There were acutally 5 others from Skåne as well so I didn't even have to sing alone. The night was terrific and ended around 5 am at Velvet...

Introduction in progress

Awesome place to Dine

Found out that just next to my flat there is a garden that has an Indonesian restaurant with great food and nice view! Food was not even expensive, around 5-15 euro per course. It's in the Jing An park, really recommend this place! Sitting outside for a drink is also nice :)

Outside eating, always

I pretty much stopped cooking at home, I don't even know when I did food the last time....A month ago, two months ago? There just don't seem to be enough time for that and eating out is fairly cheap here. Another reason are all the evening events etc which just makes it impossible to go home after work to make anything...Besides eating outside always gives something extra like games and funny balloons :P