Lets Go Kiddo

A lot of people have asked and wondered how we are adjusting to China and Shanghai in the last few weeks.  It’s certainly taken some getting used to and adjustments, but we are taking it a day at a time.  Last night, we finally got to Costco and got a membership and got some needed goods; including a new washer/dryer (all in one machine) that I am waiting on delivery of as I sit and bang this out.  The ladies are at IKEA picking up some things there, including Kiddo’s bed frame.  We are, slowly but surely, putting this place together.  It’s been a bit of an adventure getting there, but we’ve been doing it. As for adjusting, I think of the opening of the film, The Watchmen .  I won’t post a link, it’s pretty violent and brutal, but one of the characters is in a prison setting and fights someone who wants to do him harm and after taking the guy out - “I’m not locked in here with you, YOU’RE locked in here with me.”  Are we adjusting…. Of course....

“When you get old in life, things get taken from you… That’s part of life.” I’ve been thinking of the Peace with Inches speech from Any Given Sunday recently; partly because I’m getting older, but partly because we are living small right now.  We won’t have a TV until Friday so J and I have been digging through some of our purchased movies and living on Netflix and things like that.  Internet is also hit or miss for us right now, so a lot of times it’s tough or choppy to watch the streaming services.  Therefore, we’ve been sticking to the purchased stuff.  Mostly, her and I have been rewatching Anthony Bourdain; Parts Unknown together nights, but we’ve mixed in a few other things as well. However, being the night owl that I am, I’m up later than she is and I’ll watch something myself.  Action stuff or things like Any Given Sunday.  The movies that are my taste or just not hers.   It’s not that I’ve had things taken as in stolen, but sacrifices...

I miss having a kitchen and cooking.  Not that we don’t and I can’t, but right now we are still in the set up and building stage of our move and part of that is waiting for the end of the month when we get reimbursed for our moving expense and get our bonus for house set up.  We could do it now, but that means spending our money or putting it on a credit card.  We can wait a week and a half and NOT pay interest on that, thank you very much. Besides that, it’s not like we’re starving of anything.  I’ve got two items… a wok style fry pan and a pot to boil pasta/rice/whathaveyou.  I’ve made sitrfry and noodles and simple things and one pot type stuff like that.  I just can’t really unlock my potential yet.  I can’t make complex meals.  I feel like I’m cooking and meal planning with one hand tied. We’ve taken to eating out a bit more than usual as another solution.  Partly for variety, but also because (in some cases) it’s about as, if not m...

When I first moved in with J things were not easy for us.  I was used to things my way and living how I liked.  She was used to living with her parents and I was, not only the first guy she had lived with, but the first time she had lived on her own.  It took some getting used to each other and how we both worked together.  We then added Kiddo to the mix.  That also took some adjusting.  Then we moved across the world and kept adjusting.  Keep talking and figuring it out.  Figuring each other out.  Figuring out Kiddo as well.   Now, here we are in Shanghai, China and that takes adjusting and figuring out.  However, we have 20 years of history together and that helps.  It didn’t come overnight and wasn’t like some sitcom where it just magically works out in a half hour. What’s the point of this? Firstly, it’s props to J.  For dealing with me and my quirks.  The first 15 years of our relationship, I was undiagno...

My thoughts, like our new apartment right now, are scattered about and unorganized.  It was a journey to get to Shanghai, but we made it.  Tired.  Jet Lagged.  We made it.   Not much can be said so far.  Not because of my scattered thoughts or our scattered life, but because it is SO MUCH.  China is no joke.  It’s huge .  I mean HUGE !  Driving from the airport to our new place and you see these massive buildings and complexes.  It stretches and keeps going.  We’ve seen LA, Thailand, Chicago, and HCMC, but this puts them all in the dust for size and sprawl.   We are rolling with it a bit better than we did in BKK for the first few days/weeks, but in a very different way.  We can roll with the punches and language.  Our first full day here (landed mid day on Monday, customs, declaration of goods, etc) was a Tuesday and we got up and figured out how to get a Didi (think of Grab or Uber) and went to IKEA to get ...