Saturday, Bali, Sandwiches, and KTV

Finally a weekend. Friday night was a bit quiet. I had dinner with my classmate from Uni in the states and we got to to talking about the VC where he is working and the atmosphere of VC investment in China. He says he will be leaving for the states again in a few months, because even though he is enjoying the work that he does here, he says that life outside of work doesn't make it worthwhile to stay in Shanghai. I have reached a similar conclusion.

Yesterday I had a productive training day. It has been raining continually for the past three days, so I was stuck indoors, but I managed to practice tai chi for a good 2 hours, did some striking training and jumped some rope before having some soba for lunch and then meeting with my teacher for 2 hours.

After class I had early dinner with a couple of friends who live near my place. We split a taxi to the Mediterranean cafe on Dagu rd. Of course, because it was raining,
it took longer for us to get the cab and go there than it would have to just order the food and have it delivered to us, but I got a hot chocolate at Starbucks and stood in the rain while I waited for them to pick me up. The waterproof jacket that my mom gave me for Xmas was, in the words of my friend, 'impressively waterproof', so the waiting wasn't so difficult.

My friends had just gotten up and had a rather lazy day, as people are apt to do when it is freezing and rainy outside,
so we ordered quite a lot of food. I had a tomato soup served inside a loaf of bread, a 'balkanize' sandwich (feta, olives, and grilled peppers) , and a coke,
as well as some hummus and pita. It was a bit more food than I felt like eating at the time, so I ended up getting half my sandwich wrapped up
so I could eat it later. Over dinner my friends and I discussed our respective travels during the New Year holiday. My friends had gone to Bali,
where they had shared a bungalow and mainly spent time on the beach. On new year's eve, they were trapped in a downpour and missed out on going
to any parties, but they really didn't seem too bothered. The weather in Bali was, according to my one friend, 'humid'. She is from Hong Kong, so really
I wonder how much more humid Bali could be compared to HK, but I suppose I will have to take her at her word.

Apparently Shanghai Air now has direct flights to Bali, which makes travelling there considerably more tempting- that previously it was necessary to transfer through Thailand or Singapore.

After dinner, we waffled between going Karting and going singing. Both are good options, but the indoor karting lost out to karaoke because karting was across town, and the closest karaoke that we could think of was 2 blocks away, that being, the Holiday at the intersection of Huaihai rd. and Chengdu rd. We thought about going to Cashbox(it has a better sound system and better AC), but decided that given the weather and the fact that it was Saturday night, Cashbox would have too much of a wait, so Holiday it was. Naturally, the sound system had volume problems, the mics were shaky, and the heat in the room wouldn't turn off, but still we managed
to sing for two hours. It had been a while, and the selection at the Holiday was poor, so I was mainly stuck singing Beatles songs, Wu Bai, and some random Jay Chow songs. Of course, they didn't have Rock the Casbah, which was what I had been dying to sing since the previous day.

Coming downstairs from the karaoke, my friend mistakenly wandered into the hostess bar on the ground floor for a moment, and then we jumped Shanghai Taxi #2703 to go to Fuxing rd. Taxi 2703 for some reason decided that we would not take Huaihai rd., that being the shortest route to where we wanted to go, as there was "too much traffic", so we took Fuxing rd. all the way over while discussing taxi numbers, the changes in Shanghai, and the lovely rain that was falling. The driver said that he was very familiar with Jz bar, but didn't know La Bella, which was our destination.

Arriving at La Bella, we found it to be empty, with no sign of the promised open mic night that had brought us there, so we stopped into Jz, only to find it to be packed, and then went to Shelter for a drum and bass show. Many friends were there, and I drank a lot of tequila, which made for a fun night, and I will leave it at that.