Rah rah ... ooh la la

Today hasn't been the best work day since I started work in Shanghai.  RAAHHHH!  But what the hell, shit happens right? Just so happens this is cow manure type of size la. Still! It doesn't dampen the fact that I've managed to do lunches on my own for three days in a row! Ok, so maybe it isn't a big deal to most people but it is to me. I don't actually recall ever having lunch on my own when I was working in Singapore. Not sure if it was because I'm incredibly needy or it's just that I am so popular I've always had lunch buddies. But, because I've been eating alone, I've been able to curb my social eating habits which means, I've been eating less!

It also helps that these places are populated by the hip and haps, so today as I was eating my dainty pasta, there was a cute Chinese manager of the restaurant + a uber hams French on my left.  Vous tres cute, I wanted to say.

Anyway, to avoid looking tragic, and not keep staring at people with friends, I now have a sorta routine (if you can call it that after 3 days)
1. Saunter in like I'm a regular, even though its the first time I'm in the shop.
2. Look bored/disinterested at counter.
3. Order the first thing on the menu so I don't erm, ah... ...
4. When the above is in too-cheem Chinese, order the simplest thing on the menu.
5. Decide at last min whether to eat in or take-out depending on crowd and seats available - cos it is so uncool to say I will eat in and then not be able to find seats! They don't do the tissue paper thing here, so darn backward.
6. Have fully charged phones but leave them on table in nonchalant manner (complete with hair flip when placing phone nonchalantly on table). If I must (cos I am so popular people text me all the time), I will reply to a message, then repeat (6) again.
7. Have book on hand - preferably small, Penguin-published type. I took this ginormous book with me today and it was so not cool.
8. If no book, magazine will do. But again, not the Female, Her World type of dictionaries. UK Glamour, Newsweek (yucks) or Fortune (double yucks) kind will be good.
9. Eat sloowwwwwlllyyyyyyyy, like the spiced carrot soup is world-best, made by rabbit-endorsed carrots.
10. No dripping or drooling.
The above have helped me look generally look fabulous, I think.

Juice and pumpkin soup at Elements Fresh, Xintiandi



Pesto chicken salad with mint and carrot juice at Wagas, just opposite office

Hmm... just realised the meals are colour-coordinated. Anyways, friends are back tomorrow in office so we'll see I can keep up this independent (read: tragic), healthy (read: I NEED RICE) diet up. I suspect not la!

xoxo,

Tracy