11th September (Mon)

Had a good stay in Shanghai. My sister had brought the wedding photos from Singapore so we could send the wedding photos to our guests as well as other things we wanted to do. The wedding photos turned out to be great though we thought there would be more. The quality of the video was so-so, there's much to be desired. We wrote an email to Hannah to feedback about the photos and video and frankly felt a bit bad about it cos the video guy was such a pleasant guy. But we weren't complaining about his attitude, just his professional skills. We also managed to back up the photos we had taken so far. We had taken so many photos during the trans-Siberian trip!

Spending time with the kids were great. It's great to be aunt and uncle. The kids are great fun and it's great to catch up and also to see how they have developed. I was terribly eager to try making pancakes again after seeing how it was done by the Russian "tepemok" pancake chains. I did manage to make it a few times for the kids and Elliot turned out to be a great fan!

The night before we left, we made pancakes again for the kids. Elliot was naughty that day and was punished by my sister. I had forgotten how stubborn he can get. If he gets a few smacks, he will insist that it wasn't painful. After his punishment, he insisted that he didn't want the pancakes. He was so stubborn. An hour or so later, when he was getting ready for bed, he was asked by his mum whether he wanted the pancakes. He said that YeeYee's pancakes were too sweet. But later, he ran to me and asked whether I could make some pancakes for him. I was happy to make it for him. He also refused some so that Kynan could have them though Kynan was supposed to be doing his homework and wasn't supposed to have any at that point of time. Elliot is such a character!

It was a good thing we didn't go to HuangShan over the weekend since we had so many errands to run. As usual everything fell in towards the end of the Shanghai visit, the spouse visa application, mailing packages to Sydney and so on. It was a good thing we managed to get most of the things done.
Ross has also been too lazy to shave since Mongolia and had 2 weeks worth of growth. It was curious though that his beard was a rusty colour that was a different shade of colour compared to the hair on his scalp. Stewart brought him out for a haircut and he came back with a 6mm haircut. He looked like a little monk!