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“Me time” – Spa in Quarantine

The “Me time” was planned from the beginning on! I packed everything what I need (and a bit more, I think!)! Yes, another reason for my heavy luggage!

Let’s go through it:

Mani(cure) and pedi(cure)

I managed to put some nail polish on my nails already in Frankfurt – to match the hotel deco?

Of course, the normal nail polish does not hold very long on my nails, so after few days in quarantine I already needed to put it off.

But now, just before leaving the hotel, I am doing the more permanent option – should hold the full rest of the stay in Shanghai! I decided for blue :). I hope I do not break any tomorrow while packing the suitcases!

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Facial retreat

I also had some facial masks with me – I typically NEVER do this at home, so it was a treat and experiment at the same time. All of them were some type of hydrating type of mask… to be honest: I did not really noticed, what was the benefit. Maybe I need to buy the expensive ones next time :-). Or (maybe a better option?): doing it on the regular basis!

Blackheads – who needs them!

Another thing I needed to try (not loosing more words on it – pictures say it all!):

  • me with the black nose 🙂
  • Interesting result!

But on the nose itself…. I do not really see much difference…

This is a cool feature to compare before an after situation I think. The pictures are not 100% same, but the effect is good anyway. Do you like it as well?

Makeup break time

Otherwise, I did not do any makeup nor hairstyling the whole time – which I typically DO. The daily minimum is the hairstyle; and most days in my normal life the makeup is done as well.Even while in home office (ok, on some days I did not do much).
My skin and hair had a 14-day rest, I would say.

Pampering the legs and feet

  • bubble bath
  • feet mask
  • happy happy!

Indulging in the bubble bath was the fist thing I did after the breakfast on my last full day in quarantine. Then a luxury treatment was offered to my feet, and the skin afterwards was really very soft and beautifully hydrated. 

New hairdresser?

I am a bit concerned about finding a new and reliable hairstylist. With short hair, you need one quite often and cutting the hair needs some skills – so that it does not look good only first week or two after visiting the hair salon.

Massage in quarantine!

You wish!
But admit: it would be great, wouldn’t be!

But now: It is time to go “back to (new) normal”

I am actually looking very much forward getting again THE very qualitative manicure and pedicure here. My expectations are high, as the service in Singapore few years ago was superb. Let’s see what Beijing has to offer….

I also have high hopes I can find some good options for the massage in Beijing. And then the stiffness in the shoulders and neck disappear miraculously! What a great relief for the body and soul.

p.s. Last art from quarantine

I made my last art creations in the quarantine today and you can check them in Art Gallery. (Tomorrow I am packing my belongings back to the suitcases in the morning  and I am leaving the hotel after lunch 🙂 ).

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Art expressions

I will just say this here: did not do watercolours since 2008…. Some of my work from that period you can see here.

One more remark: I have no idea, how this rating stars will work… can you please rate at least some of the paintings, so that I can see if this “item” is useful at all? Thanks!!

Update June 20th

The rating as I added below, does not work like that.... I found some plugns for rating, but it works on post/page level only and would not meet the intention from below. 
I will check what I can do in the future - I plan to develop the gallery page and there I think the rating will be functioning just perfect as every painting will receive a dedicated page, so the functionality will be just the right one.

Below you’ll find the “quarantine production” so far 🙂

Gallery of paintings

Yellow Roses

First try with the masking fluid.

The result is not really to my liking….

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Blue is Blue

Wet in wet try – just an experiment – not really meant to be a picture 🙂

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Reflection

Another masking fluid experiment.

I would do more windows like on the right side also on the right – instead of 2 big-window buildings – I think it would be more balanced.

What is your opinion (pls add in the comment!)?

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Using the watercolour pencils for the first time – I must admit, I like the classical watercolours better.

I am still deciding which version is better – in tube or in a pan. Maybe the tube is simple to use, if you have larger surfaces to paint…

Bathing in the Sun

Interesting result. Next time I want to do the same motive in a more “free”= abstract approach. (Though I know, I am not yet that loose to be able to do abstract!)

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Path to the unknown

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Rice fields

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

A pink couple

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

After the storm

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

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Dinner is served

I left you wondering what was for dinner after I arrived to the hotel last Thursday. Well, I wanted to give you a bit more thorough report about the food served here – more than just one dinner!

Most important information first: food is very tasty and freshly made, various and plenty.

For sitting in a room – more than a grown person needs, I would say. I think I would gain weight if I would eat everything what is served. I typically leave out the rice – the whole portion!

Before I continue – I did not see the difference in what is served for dinner or for lunch, so here are the meals served on both times (remember? at 11-12 and at 17-18).

On the first night I WAS hungry and finished nearly everything (!) as my last meal was the breakfast on the plane (last champagne as well 😉 )

Typically a meal is having:

Main meat

The main dish (the biggest portion on the plate) is always meat or fish. It varies every meal what you will get:

  • pork (most common)
  • fish
  • beef
  • duck
  • chicken

Sometimes the dish is a stir-fry and has some type of vegetable added, on other times it is panfried or oven backed and it is served alone.

The last picture above: the interesting part is the black looking meat with some black small balls. I did not know what that would be (a bit big for an olive, but who knows!). When I tried, it was clear, that those are hard boiled egg yolks – I am not sure if the outside is some special substance/ way of preparing the yolks or it just got like that while cooking with the meat… Anyone knows???

The egg frittata is done in a ravioli way – with the meat (I thing) filling.

I really enjoyed a sweet-sour fried chicken with pineapple as it tasted distinguishably different from the ‘normal’ serving.

The meats are typically a bit saltier, but as the vegetables are prepared in a very plane way, it is a good balance when you eat them combined.

Side meat

A smaller portion of the meat can be very various as well:

  • chicken wings
  • meat balls
  • pork belly
  • duck
  • any other stir-fry that could be served as the main meat

SUPER SIZE shrimps 😉 – they were delicious!!!! and nearly all of them had also ‘caviar’.

p.s. shrimps are actually the 3rd side dish!

2 x side veggies

All veggies are are cooked in some way (no fresh vegetables are served). Leafy greens are so to say always present, the other one can very from green beans to soya beans, from some root vegetable to zucchini & cauliflower, various mushrooms…

3rd side dish

The 4th side dish is then something with scrambled egg, sometimes with veggies sometimes with schrimp tails or meat (3rd time!). But not always the egg is present (e.g. when whole shrimps are served).

What I did not like was, that sometimes 3 out of 4 sides were actually containing meat. My least favourite was the sausage or something that was most similar to “Fleischkäse”. Nothing against it, but if you have other types of more quality meat, I do not need another variant of it.

Remember the special treat we’ve got for the Dragon boat festival (last photo)? And if you think, you see the baked potato on the first photo, you are mistaken 🙂 – like I was. Surprised too, when I took a bite – those are some sort of vegetables… no idea which root it was, but definitely not any kind of potato.

Fruit & yogurt or juice

I like the yogurt. It is always flavoured with some fruit taste, very refreshing and the portion is not too big.

Fruit until now was banana, apple, peach and mango. Not sure, how you can eat mango, if you do not have a knife with you….

When Bobi was doing his quarantine time, he got only 1 fruit per day. I am happy with two and usually I have it later in the evening, as a “night snack” 🙂 or at breakfast. At dinner/lunch time, I only now and then have space for the fruit!

Vegetarians out there, I do not know, if they offer any variations. No-one asked me if I have any special diet, nor I was demanding it – I eat pretty much everything. And I am always curious, what is on the plate. Yes. I am always trying everything. Not everything is to my liking, but with the amount of food served, I am able to select what I liked and also getting full every meal!

I hope you found something you would enjoy as well!

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“Half time quarantine”

Today I woke up before the clock rang and a ‘congratulations Doris’ message from Maria 🙂 was there already! I indeed checked-in today a week ago, but in the evening, so officially I need to spend few more hours till it’s really “the next half”… but as I do not know at which hour exactly I will be released today definitely counts as the half time!

So…. I am early (for the first time here!), I decide to do some yoga before breakfast! I discovered a youTube yoga class to my liking yesterday, so I already know, what I will be doing! I am telling you – I was sweating as if I would have a hot yoga class! (I miss those from Singapore! Yes, you are reading correctly, hot yoga in hot Singapore was my preference. After that class, Singapore’s climate seems just pleasant ;-).)

“You are about half time into your class now,
so this proves,
that time flies
even if you are not having fun!”

@ Yoga online class with Trevis Eliot

I needed to have a laugh at this sentence as I associated it to the fact of having “half time in quarantine” – with one correction: I was enjoying the yoga class, and I am actually coping very well with my quarantine time as well. My neighbour across the corridor “is suffering!” as he admitted, when I kindly asked him, how is he doing (we were having the doors opened during the 2nd PCR test yesterday morning).

As I am not having Champagne (nor wine) to celebrate this special day, I will make something else:

  • change the bed (I am lucky enough to have 2 beds! Note: there is NO room service during the whole period of quarantine!)
  • move the stuff on the night table (phone & lamp, so that they are on the “other side”)
  • change the towels (I have 2 hand and 2 bath towels, and 1 floor carpet-towel)
  • fresh pyjama

Hmmm – I think that’s it! The rest stays as is 🙂

Happy 2nd half time!

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Message from heaven

Yesterday was a very bright day with good visibility.

My room is facing south, so if the hotel would be on a hill, or if I would be in a room on a very high floor, maybe I could see the sea! Of course, if the visibility would allow. It gets quite hazy during the day, probably because of the heat and humidity. This is one of the better photos I’ve made till today:

I tried to get a nice night shot as well, as some of the buildings are really pretty light up for few hours (nearly) every evening. I am not really pleased with the result but you can get an idea at least… p.s. my window got stuck and can’t be opened again. As the light reflection cannot be 100% avoided – I picked one with “a good reflection” 🙂

Two events from the neighbourhood caught my attention:

I thought there are fireworks. Everyone who knows me, knows that I like fireworks, so I jumped to the window to admire the game of fire.

But they were “only” firecrackers! From a high rise on my left (the smoke in front of the building on the picture)! I think this is a way to announce something important is happening for the family firing them? Can anyone confirm (as I am getting only “Chinese new year” as the reason for firecrackers on internet)? It was happening this Sunday, so a bit too late for the CNY. I was hearing at least 3 occurrences on that day – from 3 different buildings – 3 different families – 3 different reasons???

Or it was because of the Dragon Boat Festival?

Do you see the sports field full of students just between the two lush green tree orchards? The building nearby is obviously a school, the students are all wearing school uniforms. It was a kind of assembly at 8 am. Not sure if they are gathering every morning as I did not notice them yet, or it is only on (wait, which day is today???) Wednesdays, or today was some special occasion, or… It looked like they are all moving in a synchronised way, as if they were doing some morning exercises or preparing some act for a performance? Anyway, after I finished my breakfast, the field was empty again.

But the most impressive night show came yesterday night from the heaven! (Unfortunately you are not getting THE best lighting I saw, as I was too late with starting recording the sky drama, so this one is the best I could get.)

There was just lightning and thunder. No rain. No storm. Magnificent. Mystic.

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The Breakfast

Breakfast is different here.

No coffee. Not sure, if this is a general habit. Maybe some of my Chinese readers can comment on this? For the fact, no beverage but flavoured (blueberry, strawberry …) milk was served. But this I knew already and got used to it, when I packed my Nespresso 2 weeks before the flight already (!) – I was having 2 or 3 Coffees since with the neighbours when I longed for the smell of it in the morning! I was too lazy to go to the backer next door to get one every morning! So, no, I don’t mind not having coffee every morning.

So… what is “served”???

a) Hard boiled egg and pickled cabbage

These two are always there, always the same – at least I did not notice any difference, but the packaging (red, green, blue, yellow – any meaning in it??) of the pickled cabbage, which may include some other veggies as well, I believe.

It is something between pickled cabbage (Sauerkraut) as we know it in Europe and Korean kimchi – spicy and smelly :-).

b) Buns

There are always 2 buns in the breakfast package. And you do not know which one will it be today – which makes it interesting to cut them in half: some are filled with sweet, some with savoury stuffings (spinach was very good, and meat as well), some are empty.

I always got steamed buns, not baked. So, not the consistency of what we know under ‘Brötchen’ in Germany. More sticky and moist.

At least one of them was always white. Sometimes yellowish (corn??) or brownish (wholegrain).

I liked the savoury ones better – I ate them with egg and cabbage.

c) Pancake

mmmm – very delicious!

Never sweet (the way I typically eat pancakes).

Sometimes they look like American pancake (you get 1 think piece). The first time I was surprised, as there is always some type of stuffing in it! Vegetables mostly – I do not remember until now to get a meaty one.

The others were more like french crepes, always with some herbs, once the dough was more fluffy (like pastry).

d) Porridge or congee

I am not really sure if this two words are synonyms – I could not find the “real difference” description yet…

Porridge is actually not really my preferred dish. I met it first time in Singapore already and was not convinced.

I prefer the rise to be cooked in milk, not sweet (I am the one who adds tons of sweetened cacao on the plate, when it’s served!) and it needs to have some consistency – the porridge is just too liquid and overcooked for my taste.

BUT: I must admit, I really liked one version: it seems it was some kind of whole grained rise with red beans (dark looking one on the pic). Num-num!

Oh, I nearly forgot: once I got the White fungus thick soup! I could not detect what I am eating, so my Chinese friend Mengyuan explained what it could be. So cool 🙂

e) Packed sweet biscuit

Well, not to my taste. Maybe with coffee…. and if you have nothing else on the table…. OK, when there was a munch-mallow kind of one – I ate it 🙂 it was goooood 🙂 I needed no coffee!

f) Drink

In my case there was always a pack of flavoured milk. A bit too sweet most of the times. Sometimes the fruit (flavour) was a bit weird combination: I never before had the milk with the taste of an apple… But. New is NEW!

That’s it until today…. If anything will be served even more interesting then what I described here – you’ll find out! Don’t worry!

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A day in the room

Curious?

Time fixed events

  • breakfast is served between 7-8
  • temperature measurement
  • lunch is served between 11-12
  • temperature measurement
  • dinner is served between 17-18

That’s it, pretty much.

I did not hear knocking on the door for breakfast nor dinner, sometimes they knock when the lunch is placed on the table outside the door. You get trained to hear the sound of the plastic bag 🙂 – I remember our cat was responding very enthusiastically when the dried food bag was rustling.

I had a PCR test done in the room on the 3rd day of the stay. I expect at least one more on the day before they will release us from the hotel. So this is the no. 3 since the beginning of the journey to Beijing (1 on both airports, Frankfurt and Shanghai).

What about the rest?

  • On Thursday I arrived to the room late evening and nothing much happened besides what I already described in my first post.
  • Friday felt like “I am only eating the whole time” day. As I was sleeping for nearly 12 hours straight, I woke up at about 9:30 – and the breakfast was of course waiting in front of my room since 7 – so I ate it. I ‘just’ finished eating…. already the lunch was put on the table in front of the door…. I left it stay for a while and ate it between 1 and 2pm. Only few hours later – guess what: dinner. I said to myself: set the clock! Do not postpone the breakfast too much! But it is getting better now as I am getting used to the fixed meal schedule :-).
  • I started to write the blog on Friday as well 🙂
  • Saturday was my “first yoga” practice day.
  • Sunday was a “stay in the bad & in pyjama and watch the series” day. You have to have such day now and then as well and believe me, quarantine time is much better then watching the series up to 2-3 am and having a normal working day the next day!
  • I also had a nice bath and the facial mask on Sunday evening and I made some pictures 🙂 so in a post to follow you might expect something “interesting”.
  • today is a Monday and I pulled out my water-colour sets. Finally. Experimenting a bit, selecting the motives… something to show in a day or two, I hope!
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5th day of the 5th month = Dragon Boat Festival

Today is a holiday!

Well, I wouldn’t notice it actually (as the days are very much alike here in my room), but Bobi has a work free day today. I am also not (yet) watching the Chinese TV here in the room – maybe it would be good to check it a bit today! The festivities organised on the day & weekend are splendid!!

There was one more sign the dragon festival is in town: ZongZi was served!

As Wikipedia explains: “Modern media has printed a version of the legend which says that the locals had rushed out in dragonboats to try retrieve his (poet Qu Yuan) body and threw packets of rice into the river to distract the fish from eating the poet’s body.”

This is a dish I’ve met when we were living in Singapore already. It is made of sticky rise and some kind of a filling (which is optional) – in my case above: red beans. Then it is wrapped in the leaves (many options are possible there) and steamed/ cooked.

For me (already in SG) not something I would crave for, but it is a tradition dish in many asian countries and there are definitely many who really like it!

p.s. The inspiration for the Catching up (Dragon Boat ) painting came from my encounter with the dragon boat festivities in Singapore.

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Arriving in Shanghai

… do you remember: I was spending a day in Frankfurt drinking Aperolspritz? So here is what happened next…

  • Taking the S-Bahn back to the airport hotel
  • Fetching a trolley (on regional train station below the hotel)
  • Loading ALL (!) my luggage
  • … which I needed to repack again in the hotel lobby after I checked out from my room at 2pm as 1 suitcase had 38!! kg – I think this was already a 3rd time I was repacking the suitcases (!) – I tell you, I was sweating a lot on this day – I am very grateful for the lady at the hotel who had the patience with me (I was not allowed to go to the room with the scale)
  • heading to the drop-off, where I was hoping to get through with now “only a bit” overweight luggage – and I did – what a relief (otherwise I would need to repack AGAIN!)
  • no business lounge. closed. “closes at 2pm already” – where are all the privileges of having a business ticket when you need them?
  • as my phone with all the codes was dead I desperately needed to charge it…. and finally the 3rd socket WAS WORKING! (sweating again – I must say as – no code no boarding!)
  • finally on my seat!
  • I am grateful to be able to travel business, where you can stretch your body nearly flat…
    • these last (for about 2 weeks) nights before departure were not too resting for me
    • and this is a night flight starting at 10pm!
  • the plane is quite full
  • some passengers with head to toe protecting gear (overall, mask, glasses…)
  • oh. did I mention I had a little problem? My screen was too far away for my reading glasses. So flying economy would be better – there you have it on your lap (nearly) 🙂

  • no service before take off (!?!) – which is a nice treat in normal cases
    • I saw that in the 1st class they did offer drinks before take off – if only I took the “special offer to upgrade from Business to 1st class for only 850 EUR”! 🙂
  • dinner, 2 movies, some sleep, measuring the temperature by the crew, filling in the China Customs Entry Form (in paper)…
  • enjoying the last “western” breakfast – with a glass of Champagne.
  • Cheers to the new adventures!!

When I saw the land through the window, I became emotional. The new chapter of my life starts with the touch down. I hope it will be a good one!

Corona adjusted routine starts, and you are walking from first to last “station”:

  1. your customs code is checked (mine was valid few more minutes, so the kind lady helped me renew it: she looked a bit puzzled and nervous as I did not had it all in WeChat app like the China travellers do – but somehow she managed to renew it on her laptop – thanks god!)
  2. you receive a paper, where you sign, they are allowed to do a PCR test
  3. with that paper, you get a tube with your name
  4. down the stairs and off you walk to the testing center, where they take a sample from your nose and throat and put all 4 sticks to your tube. (each nostril gets 1 stick and 2 for the throat)
  5. temperature is measured

Then you head to the border control. And as very often: who heard of Slovenia? (we have a joke that from a Chinese point of view – we all live in 1 of the bigger skyscrapers – as we – Slovenian population – are so few compared to BIG cities of China!)

  • and then I finally (4pm) get my suitcases – yes the heavy ones!
  • now you go for the bus shuttle to the quarantine hotel:
    • first you need to fill in a form online
    • then your passport is taken (which will be returned in the hotel)
    • you wait for others to be enough for a (half) full bus
    • and then – off you go 🙂

Timeline: touch-down in Shanghai at 14:45 and at 5 pm I was sitting in the bus, the ride to the hotel took about 1 hour.

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Arriving to the quarantine hotel

hotel corridor

All corona required checks and processes are done and I am already in a bus driving to the hotel for the next 14 days. The weather is so-so. it started to drizzle… The drive into unknown is taking some time. Yes. No-one but the bus driver knows to which hotel we are going.

The check in at the hotel was done quite smoothly:

  1. pay your stay & food so you can get your room number
  2. your data is verified (to match your passport) and the destination for after the quarantine hotel is added (as I need to stay 3 weeks in Shanghai before being allowed to fly to Beijing)
  3. your passport is returned and you are added to the hotel WeChat group, where all the important communication and announcements will take place
  4. you receive also some tablets for the toilet – to be used after you are done with your big business – probably to disinfect it all

My stomach was demanding some food, as the last thing we had was the breakfast in the plane. So you can imagine how pleased I was, that there was some food waiting at the door entry already! (In the queue before, I heard that we are too late to receive dinner, so I was already prepared to “starve” a little but the comment was obviously meant for the room delivery service.)

drive to the hotel
registration process ongoing
dinner is served!
bedroom with 2 beds and enough pillows!
“day” area of the room

I was really pleased to finally be in my room as there was quite some sweating involved during my journey from Frankfurt.

The room is nice!

I have 2 beds, enough room for my yoga mat, a table – maybe a bit too small for what I plan to do – but good enough. Nice bathroom with a shower and a bathtub for my “spoil-yoursel-girl” plans.

Unpacking the luggage – to find the necessary and taking the shower to remove all the stickiness….

…and then the dinner is unpacked!

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