Auscham ball - space tyrants and cowboys

It was off to Jin Mao Dasha (High rise) and the Hyatt Hotel on Saturday night for the Australian Chamber of Commerce Annual Ball. It was sponsored by Qantas among others so we got a proper boarding pass to enter. There were lots of great outfits but apparently I drank too much to take many photos, only one of me and Libby with a green man.

I know the back view of my hair looks like a dogs breakfast, but guess how much at the local hairdresser??? 30RMB ie AUS$5!!! Bargain. Of course there was the disadvantage of not being able to communicate what I wanted done (all I could say was 'Saturday night, I go to celebration, want beautiful.'), but that made it more of an adventure. My lovely friends told me it didn't actually look like a dogs breakfast, it was just an unphotogenic hairdo. Then I went to get nails done, with a Mandarin speaker so lower risk, for 80RMB (hands and feet). Bargain. Then I got a taxi to the Hyatt. Bargain. Except that I got two taxi drivers in a row who didn't know where Jin Mao Tower is, which is like being a taxi driver in NY and not knowing where the Empire State is. They kept saying something, which after about 5 minutes I worked out was 'shenme lu?' (what street?). The second taxi driver had the sense to drive me to Pudong and then yell at everyone out the window to ask directions, although maybe he did that out of desperation after I pretended not to understand and made no move to exit the taxi.

[Here is Mairin, Libby and me, photo taken by Ian; some of my great friends in Shanghai.]

Anyway, had a nice evening, its always fun dressing up. I was a slacker and didn't dress up in theme but I brought my ball dresses so all was good.