Arrived at Shanghai after a far nicer journey by bullet train from Beijing. Headed across on the metro, crazy busy yet again, people trampling the elderly to get to the vacant seats and met Mr Kerr at the station. Not brave enough to attempt balancing on back of his scooter whilst wearing a 18kg backpack so we wandered back to the apartment. Welcome home indeed. Gorgeous place, sporting Ramsays eye tor design at every turn. Sat on a real life sofa and drank much needed Gin & Tonic.

Dinner was expertly selected fish and chips at a local place near by. perfect suggestion! Was delicious and a welcome change from indeterminate meat and rice flavour!

Slept in my OWN double room for the first time in 2 and a bit months and it was amazing. As demonstrated by the fact I slept for 12hrs solid. I’ve got the days to myself to explore whilst Ramsay is at work so all is well. Had a lazy morning of rest and BBC TV and headed down to Jing’an Temple for a spot of culture in the afternoon. Beautuful temple set nestled amidst the corporate tower blocks and shopping malls of central Shanghai. Got caught in an epic thunderstorm so sought shelter in with a 10ft jade Buddha and watched the lightening dart across the rainy sky.

I got back in to full tourist mode and spent the remainder of the day checking out Nanjing Road, the largest shopping street in the world; it has shops with literally everything for miles and miles. Wandered aimlessly in and out of places marvelling at the bizarre items for sale and mesmerised by the fact that H&M looks identical in every city I’ve visited.

Decided on dinner for 1 at Thai Princess, fancy looking place in one of Nanjing’s many shopping malls. Spicy thai curry did it’s best to clear my cold! So nice to have enjoyed such a chilled day after the madness of the last couple of months. I need to make the most of my few days here so tomorrow will be back into long days of sight seeing, but thought I owed myself one day to adjust.

Wednesday was a fantastic morning visiting the Shanghai Propaganda Museum. It’s a tiny museum on the outskirts of town, actually housed in a basement level apartment building (and very hard to find without the help of Ramsay and a very friendly cab driver). It houses a pristene collection of some of China’s most fascinating examples of propaganda posters, lovingly rescued and preserved amidst government ordered desrruction post cultural revolution. Fascinating to see so many historic pieces all in one place. I bought some postcards for a pretentious collage I shall put up in my home one day and thanked the owner for a really interesting morning.Getting back to civilisation was the trickier task once I’d left the museum. had a helpful map from Ramsay but much like lots of things in China nothing is where it is supposed to be! I asked a lovely lady on the street for help  hoping she’d speak English and pity me and she walked me the whole way to the metro!! Her name was DQ and she was from just outside Shanghai. Her English was immaculate and she was delightful company for the 15 minute walk to the station. we talked about life in China, travel and Downton Abbey. She said I had eyes just like Adele and she wanted them! I bid her farewell to change subway lines as she headed off to work as a nurse in central Shanghai and I made my way to People’s Square for more sights.

Manners and those people trying to scam you asside, the people of China whove approached us have all been very friendly and warm to us as tourists. Whilst cultural differences have sometimes meant we’ve been more a point of fascination, nearly everyone we have encountered along the way has been happy and cheery and approached us with good intentions, something I will really take away from my time here.

I spent the rest of the day pottering around People’s park, a huge park near the river in Shanghai. I took bus to People’s hero cenotaph and the Bund (shanghai southbank), to catch a glimpse of one of Asias most iconic skylines. I visited the free bund history museum to learn a little more and marvelled at a very foggy view of skyline

On the way home I stopped off to see the famous site of First National Congress of Chinese Communist Party. Whilst you can’t go inside was very interesting to see and in a really cool part of town.

Headed back to Ramsays and decided all that lugging of my giant backpack and walking everywhere warranted a spot of yoga to stretch those tired muscles! Ramsay’s mate runs the class so we went along and it was really fun, had a good laugh and she was a great teacher (well when he wasn’t standing on my shoulders to get me to stretch properly anyway!) I got told I smelt nice and was very flexible so a resounding success I think! Might try and take it up properly at home as felt tonnes better in the morning!

We headed out to dinner at another great place Ramsay likes to go, Japanese this time and very delicious and met his mate Ted for drinks at a cool street full of bars afterwards. I’m still yet to put my hand in my pocket – very generous hosting skills and just so grateful and feel very lucky to have such nice company and a bit of down time to chill.

Friday I headed over to the City of God temple and Yu Gardens, 2 of Shanghai’s must see tourist highlights. It was a gorgeous day for it, jeans were a bad choice! The Gardens were beautiful…once I’d found them! they were in the ornamental style, very oriental and very well kept. Wandered happily for an hour or so and enjoyed the sunshine. Stopped for some of Shanghai famous steamed dumplings at Nanxiang dumpling restaurant, queue was out the door and down the street so thought it was a good sign, they were yum!

Decided to be a bus wanker yesterday and use the sightseeing buses to get about, mainly because my legs are literally giving up on me! Buses themselves so unreliable and zero information, just horrendously irritating muzak playing round and round and no announcements as to which stop is which! but since I had a 2 day pass I hoped on and headed back to he bund to see if the fog had cleared. Success. What a difference a day makes!!!

Back to the flat for quick change and Friday night drinks with Ramsays friends. We went for dinner at a other great Italian place, doesnt even feel like I’m in China anymore… went for drinks at this cool little place which was essentially tables outside a supermarket in the French concession.

Onto a speakeasy bar until late where we spent most of the evening putting the world to rights,including an extensive rant by Ramsay about how overrated Sandi Toksvig is….got in at 3.30am so we ate crisps and watched a prog on the discovery channel about why planes crash, it was bizarre….

Saturday was a chilled day, pottered the shops and headed to the top of the Hyatt to the amazing bar and to see the nighttime view of the city. I decoded against a dip in the hot tub and watched the place English ones get in! Views were great but it was bloody freezing so we stayed for a couple, took some snaps and headed onwards.

We went out for dinner at a Sechanese place. I had a Shanghai history lesson from Ramsay on the back of the scooter as we sped through the shanghai streets which was a bonus, great way to see the city.

Sunday we were hungover so sat on the sofas feeling sorry for ourselves and watched the 3 hour American idol final. Nice dinner and a pub quiz to end a quintessentially English day. The team was just the 2 of us: “The Moira Stewarts” we called ourselves and we did pretty terribly coming in second from last, beating only the team who turned up late and missed the first round!!! But lots of fun and great way to wave bye to my time here.

It has been really great to spend time catching up with Ramsay after so long; you have been the perfect host Mr Kerr and I couldn’t have asked for a better few days to end my China adventure, leaving with positive memories, well rested and full of gin! Great work sir!

But now new adventures beckon, US of A is calling and I can’t bloomin wait! Xx