Shanghai

Today's news comes to you from the gray city of Shanghai. We arrived here on Tuesday night (about 10:30), and since then it's been hot and gray. Wednesday was quite hot, and we cooked while sitting outside for dinner in Xin Tian Di. Xin Tian Di is a couple of city blocks that is basically a collection of restaurants and cafes. Pretty much all of them western, along with the obligatory Starbucks and Coffee Bean. Nice enough, and we ate at a place called Luna. Fairly standard western (read American) style of food.

Then last night was at a German/Austrian restaurant. Again, pretty good for what it is. The restaurant really reminded me of South-east Asia, as it had the usual Filippino band singing covers of popular songs that targeted the age range of the bulk of the people eating there - Eagles, Abba, etc.

Wednesday and Thursday we did not get to see anything of the city, as we were here for a conference (4th annual Insurance Technology Summit). And then today Sonia and her colleague needed to do some work, so we spent most of the day in the Hilton's Executive Lounge (free wireless internet access). I managed to get to the gym this morning (as well as Wednesday evening), but the rest of the day has been spent gazing out the window on the gray skies.

Now we are sitting here eating the free canapes in lieu of dinner ("cutbacks"). Tomorrow we will hopefully get out and do something, although I am not sure what. Probably a massage somewhere along the lines...

FYI - Eggs Benedict at Altura was much better this last visit. Maybe they have changed cooks?

Oh, one last comment - I managed to win a digital camera at the conference. Pretty much the type of camera that mum wanted to buy (very slim, big screen on the back, etc). Samsung, 8.4 Megapixels, 2GB memory card, etc. Very nice and convenient.