Breakfast Blogging in Shanghai

I never really thought I’d be sitting in a cafe in Shanghai, having soup noodles for breakfast and a very delicious latte, while Mariah Carey sings ‘I can’t live (if living is without you)’ on the stereo…. and a song I sang at the Eisteddfod (the performance contest/festival in our area, growing up) …. we just don’t know the funny places we’ll be in life, and what memories will pop up with particular songs or music.

When I started singing with my teacher Faye, I was probably 14 or 15 years old and sometimes I didn’t really think I could sing well, but after a lot of performances (Barbara Streisand’s The Way We Were was the first song I ever sang alone in public) and theatre shows… I finally felt very good about my voice. I didn’t think I would be just a ‘singer’ or a performer… I loved doing it, and I loved being in plays, but my theatre group was a special group that you only find once in a while and you know I started my radio career and somewhere in your twenties you sort of focus on just one or two things instead of being kinda good at lots of things. I certainly pursued my radio career once I earned proper money, plus it was incredibly challenging and a performance to learn in itself. Radio is hard.

But as I find myself floating around this new city, I have a full time job as the parent of a two year old… and as we go along we’re all feeling really confident about being here. My little child is settling in really well, so maybe he can go to his school a few more mornings? And as it’s summertime, I don’t have my Chinese class or sewing class, so I’m here blogging in the cafe.

So I especially feel this week, I’m taking stock of who I am, what I want to do, what I can do and how I love to be in this world. I feel so lucky to still, in my 30s to have as many choices as I did in my early twenties. I know I’m not going to be a stage performer again or sing Mariah Carey ballads on stage ever again (maybe that’s a good thing, for my little lungs could never belt it out as much as her) but I feel so open to all the great things I could be doing.

Blogging is a great connection to ‘you’, how you feel and how you present yourself to the world… but it’s a great way to explore your world and yourself in it. Of course, being a sewing blogger means you can create something and write about it… but I like writing in this space about myself occasionally and little things in my world. I write so much outside of blogging these days, being in a new city can do that to you.

Now the radio is playing ‘Time After Time’ by Cindi Lauper, which is the song I sang at my brother’s wedding… so it’s probably time to wrap up today! It was his birthday on Monday, so Happy Birthday from Shanghai to Wagga little brother - Xiao Didi (in Chinese!).

Talk soon,

xoxo

P.S as I’m formatting & about to publish, the cafe radio is playing ‘Close to You’ by the Carpenters… ANOTHER song I sang at the Eisteddfod when I was a teenager. I sang it frequently to little Baby Darling when he was born too. Isn’t it funny when a cafe radio plays out songs from your life! WEIRD! xoxo