Checklist:
Ate pigs foot (tasted like farm flavoured jelly!)

“I’ve got a cool car”, “make way”, “I’m going too fast”, “MOOVE dammit”, “Oi oi foreigner look at me” or “I’m angry”. These many car horns and then there is mine, ‘briing briing’ from my little bicycle bell.
“Let's go” heading off on my bicycle, weaving past cars, veering off to the left as a taxi pulls out in front of me. I manically ring my bell. They can’t hear me but I do it anyway.
Walking or cycling cars constantly honk, whether it’s needed or not. Just a week in England and I forgot this sound.

A never ending flight brought me to rush hour in Songjiang. An orange taxi surrounds me, my driver offering me dried fruit and making small conversation as I fall in and out of my sleep. And then I hear it, left right, in front and behind. The ‘no horns’ signs ignored by every driver that passes under it. Their horns telling a different story. Picking up children, going home, finishing work... The road illegally widened by vehicles finding other ways of getting to their destinations, up the opposite lane and along pavements. And yet somehow I’m still managing to pay at the end of the taxi journey or locking up my bicycle puffing and panting after secretly enjoying the thrill of being surrounded by hectic drivers.

2 new baskets, pedals and handle bars screwed back on, the silver rim surrounding the frame now the colour of my hair and somehow she’s still going strong. Bit like me really. Being broken, fixed but going strong in China.
A one year contract turned into two with what I thought a few months ago a third year contract around the corner however I've changed my mind. I’ve told my boss and I’m leaving Songjiang late January. It doesn’t worry me. I’m ready for a change, I’ve been ready for a while now!

Emma x