Today was a lovely day. It is very warm at only -7 degrees. We went to church and meet up with many of our old friends. I was remise is not taking my camera. Katya was the only baby at church. It seems it is odd to take young children out. However in her warm backpack she is very snug.
Because of the warm temperature, it snowed today. About a centimetre of snow.
This afternoon we went walking and went to the new shopping centre in our suburb. It is called New City and is enormous. People find Katya being carried on a backpack very funny.
Today we also went to a different supermarket and got some good ingredients. We are having a New Years eve party. In Russian culture New Years is big.
All of us (Claire, Katya and I) are now pretty much adjusted in terms of jet lag, time and temperature. One interesting adjustment is to the very warm apartments. We are having to drink a lot of water. Katya has taken to sculling water to a point where she has a look on her face like she is drowning.
We have been reflecting on our flights over. Katya was wonderful. The direct flight to Shanghai made the trip very fast. The service on Air NZ was not up to Singapore Air standard. Not even close. It seems Air NZ has slipped down the rankings. We did get a bassinet. This was very nice and we even got an extra seat. We also got to board first (although they then let everyone file in before we had got things sorted.
The flights on Air China and S7 were as expected. S7 had their old TU-154Ms running because it is winter. Boeings and Airbus' can't handle the winter.
We stopped in Beijing for a while. We continued our trend of being ripped off by taxis. We paid 350RMB to get from the Airport to a hotel in downtown Beijing. The taxi back was only 200RMB and was much nicer. The hotel was Jade International Youth Hostel and was very basic but very good. Good but basic facilities and very cheap (NZ$35 per night). This is ridiculously good value given it is 2min walk from the main street and 5min from Tianaman Square. Very much recommended.
In the Chinese airports Katya was a star. All the airline ladies flocked around her. We got a special bus to our plane. Groups of people would walk past and start making funny faces and smiling and laughing. Katya plays to the audience and does her head to the side, stare and smile routine. I think that blond kids and especially very young kids traveling intrigue them. She also meant we had no issues with customs. They just smile at Katya and wave us through.
