Shanghai Shanghai

Recently I have been watching workmen at the top of an old apartment building throw desks, chairs and kitchen furnishing off the very top of the building. I was watching them from my kitchen window as I made my morning coffee. They would walk off, come back carrying an item of furnishing, then both heft it off the building. I could only see the first few stories of its fall, however they both would stand looking down as the item plummeted the ground below. They always looked quite content when the inevitable crashing sound echoed up from below. Fair enough, who wouldn't want to see what happens when a sofa is thrown off a ten story building.

The next few days saw someone get another fun job. A big crane type machine with a pincer like jaw at the end of it slowly demolished the building. I couldn't actually see the base of it, what I did see looked like a massive angry metal dinosaur biting and tearing the walls of the building away. It took the machine 2 days to completely demolish the building, I imagine that they had to do it carefully or it would have collapsed onto the base of the dinosaur machine.

For the first few weeks after my return, every day from 7am to 7pm there would be a continuous hammering sound that echoed through the apartment. Someone in our block has gone for a complete apartment re-fit, and apparently that requires an awful lot of noise. I found it hard to believe anyone could hammer continually all day, every day of the week. I suppose they must have had a team of people working in shifts to ensure that no one could hear themselves think all day. The hammering seemed to end a few days ago. This was at first thought to be a good thing, until it was replaced by frequent drilling. This drilling was not regular like the hammer blows, but sporadic, so it is harder to get used to than the banging.

We also have a new CD/DVD store that has opened across the street from us. This wouldn't be of note as there are hundreds of them in the city, however this one is particular. This one has massive speakers outside the store that play crappy music at full volume all day. The first time I heard it, I thought that the music was being played inside our apartment. The crappy music includes a fair complement of crappy Chinese mando-pop, but even worse is the western music they play. They choose some terrible terrible music, and other music that is made terrible by repetition. Even if you are a fan of the Eagles, would you want to hear Hotel California on repeat for an entire weekend?

I have a plan to secretly cut the wire to the speaker. I have done recon for this op, and I think if I wait till there is a gap between songs and bend down to tie my shoelace, I can secretly snip the wire and be far enough away when they realize.

I am in the process of putting photos up on Flickr, check the link to the right.

Red Devil - Alcoenergy

Okay, I have a massive backlog of beverage reviews to get through.

Russia is certainly something else in terms of alcoholic beverages, pretty much anything goes. I do plan to write something the alcohol culture in Russia I observed, however that will come later. Take this as a case study.

This particular product, 'Red Devil' is a combination energy drink premix. This kind of thing was just becoming available in Australia when I left, however to see why this particular drink is exceptional we need to look closer. This 500ml can has 9% alcohol and 200mg caffeine. This means that you have the equivalent of 2 1/2 cans of red bull and 4 1/2 shots of vodka per can. It doesn't taste very good, but you wouldn't be buying it for its thirst quenching capabilities. It cost around 50 roubles for the 500ml can (say $2.50 AUS), there also is a smaller can available however I did not catch the price.

All in all, quite a good pre-party get up and go drink. The locals seem to view it as such, although there is a fair amount of distrust about the quality of the ingredients. There are a couple of other similar brands on the market. I tried another called Jaguar, and it was pretty much the same in terms of punch-packing and terrible taste.

Return to sender

I have come full circle and returned to Shanghai.


I flew back from London, and covered much of the same territory I had done on the train. Skipping most of Europe we flew over Latvia, and up past Moscow and St Petersburg. The flight across Russia was much further north than the route I did on the train, however we turned down and crossed Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. It is amazing to have seen Lake Baikal frozen from ground level, then see it as big as an ocean from the air. We flew down through Mongolia and passed Beijing before landing in Shanghai. My first views of the city were of a landscape covered with thousands of identical apartment buildings, we then flew out over the massive brown expanse of the Yangtze river, dotted with container ships and oil tankers. Back to Shanghai indeed.

I am at this point going through photos and getting other posts ready. Update soon...