- Not-so-super-poking - Since my grand return, the only people I get to poke are my dear and loyal patients i.e. my parents. Every night I'm summoned to give them each an "old mother chicken" (read: acupuncture point near the knee that has the nourishing properties of the old mother chicken!)
- Hypo-shop-adaemia - Shanghai's a bargain hunter's paradise (after all, everything in the world is made in China) Unfortunately I only discovered this fact very late in the last trip. (i.e. 2 days prior to my departure!) Shame on me! Which calls for another trip there really soon. If only I was there at the beginning of my trip, at least I could have played dress-up more, in winter clothes that they had for a quarter of the retail price!
- missHelen-ism - My classmate/tourguide (vice-versa), interpreter, bargain and hot-soup co-hunter, "mummy" and best friend in the huge metropolis. She's managed to infect me with her charm and her lovely kids!
- Short/non-quiet walks - No chance of doing what I enjoyed most in Shanghai (after No. 1 & 2)in the streets of KL where catcalls are abundant and the sun's too hot... or it might just pour! It's almost safe to say safety is not so much an issue over there that I can afford to take long quiet walks in the streets with a hot cuppa java to keep semi-warm. At the same time people watch and shop-hop along the way. Back in motherland, it's back to my faithful cityrider where walking outdoors is minimized to dashing from car-building and building-car under 5 minutes, for weather and safety reasons.
- Un-Tantalizing theatres - I'm not saying Malaysians have lousy talents. I'm all for local talents. Put it this way, I was spoilt with 2 different international acts (the Russian ballet and Irish Tap) in a week (both sold out shows even). That is more than I do in 6 months back home. Its any theatre-lover's buffet!
- Monstrous Metros - so I don't take the metro (LRT) in KL. But it was my main mode of trasportation in the big (ginormous) city. Despite not reading much of the language to save my own life, I still managed not to get lost once on the Shanghai Metro. And one cannot help comparing the 2 rail systems of Shanghai and KL. Or is that too pitiful to mention?
- Chinese dysarthria - Since boarding the plane back, I scarcely managed to use 10 words of the 362 Chinese words which I re-acquired in the Shanghai-tang way. But I'm making it up by attempting to teach myself 5-10 words every 2 days or so! And the counting goes on....
Treatment:
I heart Shanghai. Enough said.
