First Quarter Results...

So as of 12 July 2009 I turned 25! Christ, I feel old just saying that. The fact that most chinese people seem to think I look much older doesn't help much either (they place me at around 30 years old on most occaisions - just because they all look 5 years younger than they actually are!) . To celebrate my friends and I went out to dinner a lost heaven - a restuarant that serves spicy yunnan cuisine. The restuarant isn't too flashy but I'd been there before and thought it would be a nice place to go for a quick meal that wasn't too expensive.

After the meal we headed back to my apartment where we had a bit of a "house party". I'd bought plenty of beer, a few bottles of gin, vodka and then some mixes and we also had some champagne to celebrate as well. Interestingly a big bottle of gordans gin out here is £6 and a can of tonic is 30p - is that cheaper than home?! One thing that isn't cheper is imported beer - I bought 3/4 bottles of ale from the international supermarket and think they were £3 or £4 each! Shocker! Luckily I had my two bottles of TYDD STEAM that i carried with me from the brewery on day of departure to keep me satisfied. Once we'd polished off the gin, champagne and majority of the beers we headed off to Bar Rogue.

I'd never been to Bar Rogue before and, as i've written below, I wasn't too imprssed at the beginning. For starters, it cost 1ooRMB to get in - the most I've paid in Shanghai for anywhere where you still have to pay for drinks and when we got in it was completely packed busy and the music wasn't great. I was all set for leaving and going somewhere else but was persuaded otherwise. As the night went on the bar emptied out and the music got better and I soon started to see why people like the place.

Being one of the most famous bars in shanghai it has its own signature drink where they pour lighter fluid around the bar and down a series of glasses before setting fire to it. I'm not sure what alcohol was in the glasses (possibly baileys>?>>!) but whatever it was, was bloody hot after the inferno had finished.

When dawn broke we all sat down and watched the magical sunrise. Definitely a birthday evening I will never forget.

The sunrise got me thinking a bit about the last couple of years and the year going forward. Moving away from home to Leeds, buying a house, motorbike, moving to Shanghai, getting my competition job for when I return to home. Exciting times ahead. Lets hope the next quarter century is as enjoyable as the first.