Thur 18th Aug - Results from afar

Today was a slow day, tinged with nervousness by Theodore who was awaiting his A-Level results in the afternoon. As it turned out he had good reason to be nervous..
So after a late breakfast we walked to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium where we spent few hours. Then we returned to the room, we received the dolorous news, absorbed the bitterness, made few phone calls and sent few emails to couple of faculties and went out again. We wandered around the financial centre and the IFS mall for couple of hours. Shanghai is really a marvel of modern architecture. The skyline is really amazing and all the roads and pavements very neat. In the evening I had booked dinner at the Lost Heaven restaurant-must-visit according to a lux guide in our room. Mekong cuisine from Yunnan province on the border with Cambodia. very dimly lit I mistook the burnt chillies in the beef dish for strips of beef, spent good part of the rest of the meal with my tongue dipped in the glass of Tsingtao beer. otherwise the meal was quite good! The french quarter where the restaurant was in was also quite pretty and so different than the ultra glitzy, sky-scrappery PuDong side of the city. I then took reluctant Theodore to Salon de Ning in the Peninsula hotel on the Bund. This is the third Salon de Ning in a series inspired by the fictional Shanghai socialite and traveller, Madame Ning. The other 2 are in HK and NYC. The decor is 1930s decadence and a live band of 4 plus a man and a woman singers completed the picture. it was a quiet night, evidenced by the staff ushering Theo and I to two archairs right in front of the band..The singers were very both very good but the diminutive woman singer was exceptional..It was quiet until 2 40something black sassy women came in and sat next to us.. those two whooped it up and the band that obviously recognised them as repeat customers, started playing black anthems. The scene was right out of a film, both women were drawing from an an obsenely long cigar dancing to the groove with extended index fingers gyrating towards the woman singer..the latter was belting you were somebody else;s guy and our ladies were accompanying her with...mmmmmmmmmm..mmmmhhhhhhh..Oh Yes you did Giiiiirlll1!! I guess you had to be there..but they really made our night!!