Lovely things!

I read a post on The Clothes Horse blog with a link to artist Nan Lawson. 
Her pictures are lovely, especially these four above! All of my obsessions shared! I may have to order them.  So cute!

Sarah x

Laos: land of a million elephants

Hello, thought I would update as I am waiting for the new episode of Gossip Girl to stream! (oooh exciting!) I have not written anything for a long time but I still want to keep this blog going! I want to document some of the things I am doing as my life continues to change. I have never done as much as I have in the last 14 months, it is so strange to think of all the places I have been and how much easier my lifestyle has become! For example: On Saturday night I touched down at Shanghai Hongqiao airport after a week away in Laos, I've almost done the whole of that little Asian area having been to Cambodia in February and Vietnam over christmas 2010. I was going around saying that I have been to every country there when I realised I have never been to Thailand...and it is quite a big place :) I was back at work today after the mid-semester break and one of the girls was giving her Indonesia Lonely Planet away. As that is where I am headed in January, I picked it up, and was flicking through it. Planning my next holiday the DAY AFTER my last one! How funny! I do love looking at maps though!  So anyway, tales from my travels...they mainly involve elephants. I bought 2 fabric elephants, a multitude of elephant purses, climbed up onto an elephant (with a great deal of help), rode an elephant, barked instructions at an elephant, bathed an elephant, got elephant burn on my upper arm and finally fell off an elephant's head. Great fun. Something I really wanted to do since I've been away! (The riding an elephant bit not the falling off bit!) Other highlights included some interesting minibus trips...one of them taking 12 hours (beginning at 4am, ending at 4pm) the worst and funniest head massage of all time, the fire (!) at the next massage place, shopping at the quietest and most pleasant Asian market ever, having to be in our hotel rooms before the 11:30pm curfew, being dragged by the current in an impressive waterfall, testing pina coladas for their milkiness, sampling the spring rolls and getting a bit obsessed with 'iced milos'! Not to mention the many buddhas, brightly clad monks and tiny stray animals we met along the way! A fab trip!

Children's Day!

Hi all,
It is Children's Day in China and I have just come back from Shanghai Children's Museum. As part of some kind of picture book/children's day festival thing the opportunity arose for some teachers to meet and listen to some famous picture book authors and illustrators! So I asked if I coul go and along I went. It started at 6pm, we arrived a bit early, collected our name badges and milled around. The authors were wandering around the exhibition too; there was Ann James, Alison Lester, Sally Rippin and Leigh Hobbs! We listened to them speak about picture book topics such as the importance of location and place in a picture book and illustration in general. I had an awesome inspiring time and ended up buying two picture books with messages from the authors! I got a signed poster from Leigh Hobbs for my class book area. The author Alison Lester who wrote 'Are we there yet?', a beautiful book that we used when I was teaching back in Manchester, was there and I was a little bit starstruck! There were waiters serving canape-like nibbles to us as we wandered around the enlarged illustrations. I felt very cultured and excited!!! I didn't do this kind of thing back in England. Shanghai is cool.


I bought Peeking Ducks by Sally Rippin and Are we there yet? by Alison Lester (bringing back memories of our class' giant Australia map that hung on the back wall in Burnage) I have just had a sneaky read and am going to spend quite a bit of time reading them to my class tomorrow!

Another interesting occurrence from this evening, I got a phone call from my agent telling me that I can meet the landlord tomorrow night to get the keys for my new flat! Woop!
Also look at these cute toenails!! Mine are the orange toenails with pretty little daisies trailed upon them! Quite difficult to see in detail...but believe me they are super cute!

Bye for now!


Sarah x

Yu Gardens and Renmin Park

I haven't been for a little wander around Shanghai's touristy spots for a while but today I went to Yu Gardens and then Renmin Park with Rachel. It was pretty sunny...hopefully Spring is here (and it won't be too wet!) The last time I was at Yu Gardens was my first week in Shanghai, when we were all on the City Tour and sweltering in 40 degree heat! The gardens were cute, small, a bit maze like and had some lovely buildings and structures. You could see the Pearl Tower and Bottle Opener from the them. I always think it is amazing to see those skyscrapers, very different to England! No pictures though as my camera was not charged-Rachel took a few though! After we had been to the gardens, we went to Renmin Park where we sat on the grass and were accosted by two beggars, one whom poked me! But we just ignored them and they soon went away. I, as per usual, was wondering where I would get my next meal, so we went to a Chinese hot pot place. It was super yum! We had little burners on the table and boiled our food in the metal pans on top. My old co-teacher once took us for traditional hot pot and said that you know that the food is cooked when it floats to the top. I hope that is true as I was eating all the meat and dumplings that were hitting the surface. p.s. I love dumplings! Sarah x

Happy 60th Birthday Mum!

From all the way in China! Cheers mummy! Love you lots and miss you tons xxx