Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

Thirty years ago Mr Wren and I took two weeks off work to backpack around China. We ended up in Shanghai and ever since then, anyone who knows me will tell, I have always wanted to live in Shanghai. Last week we were back in Shanghai, and as I watched the masses of people out enjoying a Sunday stroll on the Bund it was hard not to be impressed at how far China has come, since those days. Back in 1987, we stood in Tiananmen Square, before Beijing Tank Man and the uprising. We endured several slow & tedious trains around the country before Shanghai's Bullet train became the fastest train in the world. We even called into Hong Kong on the way home and admired the skyline. Little thinking that we'd end up calling Hong Kong home or that sleepy Shanghai would give Hong Kong a run for its money as a World Financial Centre and become the world's fastest-growing Skyscraper City. The Seagull on the Bund is the small pink building on the left riverba...

Crazy Soccer Mum is off to Russia to watch the World Cup in 2018. Try breaking that news gently to your football-mad son. It was quite a week Down Under as Australia made worldwide news  and is rather chuffed with herself for two reasons: Firstly Australia voted a huge rainbow yes in the same-sex marriage equality vote. When, hardly had the hugging finished, when everyone (well mostly grown men) were back hugging each other with delight when the Socceroos finally won a last-ditch place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.  Yes, whilst President Trump was tweeting about Elephants and banning (or not) the Ivory trade into the US, our Prime Minister was proudly tweeting 'The Socceroos ... are on the road to Moscow...'  We should go we said! I've never been to Russia, Moscow would be amazing... My son and my husband had been talking about a boys trip to the World Cup for months but missed the first ballot in a leave-anything-to-the-men and ...

Gotta love the Chinese Immigration! The first time I arrived in Shanghai was exactly thirty years ago and I just loved this city. In fact, I have always wanted to live in Shanghai. I love its cosmopolitan feel, its energy, its architecture, its vibe.  I remember once saying OK four years in Melbourne and then Shanghai... well that idea never flew, the global financial crisis hit, the kids had important exams and life moved on! So here I am ten years after my  last visit to China, to get eat, drink and get married, a whole other story, standing in front of a Bangkok Chinese Immigration official, who wants to know why in 2007 I had a double entry visa to China and only went once? Ummmmm well... Oh gosh, do you remember what you were doing ten years ago? I'm sensing this unintentional blot on my copybook could be stopping me from getting my visa to Shanghai. Or maybe it was something else? I thought I'd been care...

Regular readers of this blog will know that we are huge fans of Women’s tennis and indeed we are just about ready to call this year done before heading back to Australia for a family Christmas and the delights of the Australian Open. So with a weekend to spare we thought we’d head out of Bangkok to Hua Hin to watch one of the last WTA tournaments of the year. It is a 200km drive about a 2 1/2 hour drive (on a good run) to Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand.  Can it get any better we thought, combining tennis with a beach break? This 6km stretch of beach has been popular with Thai royalty since the 1920's and although it's not my favourite beach in Thailand, we are always drawn to its easy proximity to Bangkok.   We had a few problems finding out about the tournament and so we set off without a hotel booked, hoping that we’d be able to buy tickets once we were there. On the way down we rang a few hotels and got ourselves sorted with somewhere close to...

Hello everyone, sorry I've been away from Blogland for a while. I disappeared into an amazing month where we had over thirty of our family and friends come from Australia, Asia, and Europe to visit us in Bangkok to help celebrate our Wedding Anniversary.  We offered a weekend of fun and festivities and ended up with a glorious month-long celebration, with friends dropping in before and after their extended holidays all over Asia. During this period Thailand was at the culmination of a year's mourning for the late King Bhumibol Abdoulaye. It was not the easiest time to organise a party weekend as basically all celebrations across the country were put on hold. Private events could continue, however, we were all concerned to ensure these were respectful given the circumstances.  I could well find that as event planning goes, our Friday night, complete with a Ladyboy finale, may well be up there as one of my all-time greatest life achievements, but I'll save t...