In the morning, Kate
took the girls to the zoo while I packed the bags, bought some snacks
for the train, checked out of the room and then sat in the lobby
reading. They eventually got back at about 12.30, with tales of
sleepy pandas, an orangutan who calmly stubbed out the lit cigarette
that someone had flicked into his cage, a very inquisitive red panda
and getting to pat the zebras.
Then we piled into a
taxi and drove out through some pretty heavy traffic to Shanghai
South Railway station, which has an interesting design – it's a
circular, tent-like building with a central waiting area from which
radiate tunnels that take you down to the platforms. Down one of
those tunnels we walked to get to our train, where we set ourselves
up, happily once more, in our own cabin.
Now, for as long as
I can remember, our family card game of choice has been something
called Pink Serviette - a game made up by friends of one of the
girls' aunts, Julie. It's a simple, fast and fun game that I used to
play with Sarah while we sat in the pub waiting for Zoe's ballet
class to finish. But on the off-chance that that game would pale at
some point, I brought along a booklet of card games that I got free
in the Guardian many years ago, and it was during this train ride
that it was finally brought out. Kate taught the girls three new
games: Bunty (which was quickly renamed Pocky), Sevens and Rummy. The
first two are pretty silly, but the last has now become our go-to game (which Zoe manages to win ridiculously often).
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