Tuesday was a PV day.

Daily weight loss: 0.7 lb/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 44 lb/20.01 kg! I didn’t realize I hit a milestone until just now! WOOT!

Well, this morning Cathy and I got up early to catch up on emails and Skype our people and then get ready to head up to Shanghai for Cathy’s trip back to the States.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs (I missed these while on holiday, oddly enough!!!) Cathy had a puffy pastry with meat and veggies inside… she didn’t like it that much 🙂

Taxi ride to Hangzhou Railway Station for the first leg of our trip. High Speed, first class tickets (they’re only $13… LOL) and off to Shanghai we go… 48 minutes to get there at 300 kph! Weeeee!

Upon arrival at the train station, we jump on the subway to get to the Ji’nan Temple stop, because that is where I can buy Fat Free Greek Yogurt!!! Can’t find it in Hangzhou anywhere! Cathy sacrifices her backpack so I have something to carry my groceries in.

Then up to the 8th floor of the mall above to get shashimi… YUMMY!!! I had tuna shashimi and a salmon shashimi salad… HEAVEN! Cathy had a shashimi box lunch… is it possible to be addicted to wasabi???

Then we tried our luck at finding jade, but that wasn’t happening, so we hailed a taxi to take us to Shanghai Pudong Airport. Once there we got Cathy’s bags wrapped, Cathy checked in and then we headed upstairs to the Italian cafe for some coffee and ended up having some pork snacks and tomatos with buffalo mozzorella… I know, not on my diet (the moz) but there are no carbs… so I partook of the riches 🙂

Then a tearful goodbye to my dear friend Cathy. It’s funny how you meet someone over the internet, who lives 2000 miles from you (we met on a midwife listserve that we still belong to in 1997 or so) and not meet in person until 2000, go sometimes years without seeing each other, but fall right back into that amazing true friendship that you get with some people. Cathy and I are like that. I had an amazing holiday with her, Karen and Dominique! We’re already planning the next one!

I took the subway from Pudong airport all the way to the other end of Line 2 to the Railway station (nearly 2 hours!!!) and then the high speed train back. Reading my Celestine Prophecy book (3rd time I’ve read it) to keep my mind off of missing my mates!

Got in the taxi and cried the whole way back to my flat. Silly, I know, but I think it’s a combination of missing friends, missing family, missing home and “oh shit, the vacation is over” feeling! I’ll get over it. Next week Lucy and Ethel come from Al Ain to Hong Kong to celebrate my birthday with me and then to Hangzhou to hang out for a bit. I’m so looking forward to that!

I had a small piece of talapia and 4 spears of asparagus for dinner, then half a pot of FF Greek yogurt… then off to bed… long day!

Ciao!