I need you before I'm too old
To have and to hold
To walk with you and watch you grow
And know that you're blessed.
Blessed
Elton John
I cannot believe it's been a week since I got together with the CQ ladies for brunch and good old adult conversations at Alpha Cafe. Afterwards we decided to take a quick shortcut through the park on the way home so we can sneak in a few mom and daughter shots of my friend Nochele and her toddler Cayla.
Cayla is a cutiepatootie with the biggest gap-toothed grin and the most adorable laugh. And she's fascinated by everything! I'm jealous at how she can look at a leaf and think that it's the most interesting thing in the world! She was particularly smitten by the flowers and flower-picked her way through the quick and impromptu session. It was a joy just watching and clicking, or occasionally bribing her with a flower to look my way.
Littles, with all their wonder and seemingly boundless energy, are rays of sunshine wrapped in tiny jumpers and toddler sneakers. They really are.
A few shots from that day.
JP had a school thing in Shanghai so we decided to make a short holiday out of it and I tagged along. It was my first time in Shanghai and I was looking forward to spending an entire day exploring the Former French Concession. The Shanghai Former French Concession is also known as the Paris of the Orient because it was a French settlement from 1849 to 1943, so naturally you get tree-lined trees, coffee shops, bookstores, boutiques and all that comes with a place that's been occupied by the French for several decades. Even though the area has undergone a lot of changes (it was turned over to the Chinese government in the early 1940s!), it still has this distinct European, Old World charm to it. There's also a higher expat-local ratio here than in CQ, which is refreshing because that means more people can converse in English and getting around and ordering food isn't quite as challenging.
There's a lot of videos and blog posts on the Shanghai Former French Concession already and how to get there from various points in the city (we stayed at the Novotel Shanghai Atlantis in Pudong, so we got to the French Concession by subway), so I'll keep this post short.
Would love to spend another afternoon exploring more of this place again. But for now, pictures.
Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel