On yeh bike!

So, I'm now officially a local with the purchase of a shiny new mountain bike. A bargain at only 746 RMB (just under £54 to those of you not familiar with Yuan) plus 11 RMB for registration to ride it on the streets. Quite a smart bike it is too, I wonder how much more it would have cost in the UK? The purchase also helps to make my adopted chinese name, pei li ke, more official as I used it on the bike registration, which can just about be seen in the attached photo of my bike and registration card. Now I can ride with pride to my Chinese language course when I register for that next week. I'm looking forward to getting some experience on the streets of Shanghai, it's a jungle out there and everyone seems to do as they please which quite strangely equates to less road rage than I have seen back home, not that you don't see the odd kefuffle here and there.

We were quite lucky today, as not long after we got back from buying the bike it started to rain again, something it is doing quite a lot these days as we have just been passed over by a hurricane. Non-stop heavy rain and wind for two nights and a day, not the perscription for a good night's sleep...lol Although it has brought the temperature down which is a bonus. Another problem we've been having is the mosquitos. Not too big but a menace all the same as they are small enough to get through the nets on the doors and windows and are a bugger to control. I'm feeling like a bit of a pin cushion at the moment and have had to take to sleeping under a sheet, even though it is boiling hot at night. When I get a moment I've told Yaning that I will make a mosquito net for the bed so we can sleep in peace....lol