The date had been circled in bright red on our The Simpsons calendar hanging in our kitchen by our fridge. I was busy making my breakfast at 6am hardly believing that two of some of my closest friends from London were actually arriving in less than two hours’ time in Shanghai. Antonia and Chantal, or ‘Chantonia’ is I had at first mistakenly called them once, have been in my life for over 20 years. Chantal I met when I moved to the UK to study my secondary education whilst my path crossed with Antonia during our first year at college.

I sat there in the quietness of the dawning day with my mind jumping from any number of memories that an entire TV series would have been necessary to dedicate just for the ‘Previously on…’ bits of our past episodes. I wouldn’t have described it as nerves, but there was a certain element of the unknown when I thought about our soon-to-happen reunion. After all, it had been more than three years since we last saw each other and admittedly, in the last 18 months our actual communication has been a bit sparse. It would also be the first time for them to meet Lezil – my wife.

By this time the taxi driver came out to see what the holdup was. He motioned Chantal to simply overlap the suitcases. He then nonchalantly lowered the boot which wouldn't close because of the bulging mass within. He then got back in the driver's seat. Antonia and Chantal turned to me and I responded: "Welcome to Shanghai!". "But..." Antonia started. I cut her off saying: "Don't bother about the boot, this isn't London darling, this is how things work here. Now let's go."

And it was on that note that their 10 day adventure is Shanghai began.

Below is a selection of photos from the first six days. Call it Part One of when 'Chantonia Hit Shanghai'!

(Click to enlarge photos)

So, we were technically a bit late to classify our apartment mass-clear out as a ‘spring clean’. But nonetheless, we spent the whole of Sunday sifting through accumulated stuff from the last two years. Despite the small size of our accommodation, we somehow managed to acquire an impressive array of items that we could quite easily have hosted our own flea market.

Lezil had gone outside and ‘dumped’ the first two garbage bags while I continued the indoor operation.  The dumping was actually just outside our gate which technically you are not supposed to do but everyone does it (yes, a slap on the wrist for me!). Over the next five minutes all our garbage bags had gone out. As the last ones left our door, I broke into a panic. “Where’s that envelope?” I muttered to myself. There was a piece of mail that had arrived from Hong Kong with what felt like a credit card inside for the flat’s previous tenants. We were to be meeting them in an hour’s time to hand over their envelope. I had (stupidly) left the envelope as a reminder to myself on the armchair’s ledge – the same place where we had been tearing up paper and ever-so-systematically packing up the rubbish in bags.

Hundreds of tiny bits of cut up paper were littered everywhere. On my knees, almost as an act of self-punishment, I picked through the unrecognisable cuttings. How could I have been such an idiot? My Sony Tablet flashed up with an incoming message. That must be the ex-tenants responding.

I started scooping the rubbish back in the bag and what did I find? The envelope! It was roughly folded right at the bottom of the heap and thankfully was still intact. Instantaneously my pale expression of worry warmed up to an exhausted sigh of relief. What are the odds? Of all the bags to remain outside, it was the only one with the missing envelope in it. Thank God! The tenants had messaged me back saying not to worry, but I wanted to be the bringer of positive news and restore my good name. “Disaster averted,” I dramatically told them. From then on, we double checked each bag before it went out. We had to be careful as you literally didn’t have a second to spare with the speed that discarded items were picked up off our street.

Another top day out at F.Y.E.S.T.A.! However, with the continually growing turn-out each month, I think Sylvie is going to have to re-think her venue choice sometime soon.

Closing out the evening was singer/songwriter Redic. Branding his music as ‘eclectic soul’ – it was just that. His vocal performance was impressive and his band projected that energy further as he sang compositions from his forthcoming album. Being the end of the evening, everyone was in a dancing mood and it didn’t take long for the partygoers to flood the dance floor in front of the stage. Truly we had been treated to a brilliant evening of socialising, nibbles and top quality music. Maybe Matt might re-think his future after the success of this event.

From what had originally been planned as a quick drink and a hello (i.e. only staying for an hour or two)…the time just flew past with each big tune hyping the crowd more and more. You gotta love Shanghai’s unique international community – something not always portrayed to the outside world. The clock hand went past 2am and I knew it was time to wrap things up, even though I could have gone on until the closing time of 4am. We had an early 7am start to the second part of my birthday weekend activity and already I knew that it was going to be a struggle to wake up for it. But, I didn’t care! The birthday adrenalin would keeping me going…

The wedding was in few hours time and I dreaded the thought of putting in a call to the bride telling her, that her main entertainment for the evening was not happening.

The bride’s parents went on stage and officially recognised the marital union. Then the couple did a number of ‘love’ acts which included the exchange of rings and the filling of the champagne glass tower. A brief group toast by the attendees and it was all over. The couple then left the room.

Dish, after, dish, after dish came. Seafood, meat, vegetables, congee, noodles and more. Patricia then beckoned Lezil backstage. It was time for her first of two numbers.

“Xie xie,” (thank you) said Lezil as she respectfully bowed to the crowd at the end of her song. She came backstage again and we just hugged silently for two minutes. No one at that wedding knew how close we came to cancelling.

Counting down, all guests pulled their strings at the same time. The guest holding the one string attached to the bouquet wins. The wedding party then moved from table to table thanking and toasting.

Like the wedding had such a pinpoint start, the ending pretty much followed the same fashion. Barely two hours had gone by and guests were thanking the couple and leaving. It was even shorter than my Nigerian wedding waiting time in London. I did, however, miss – the music, the dancing, the Africanness in celebration and a strong spiritual theme. But as far as Shanghai weddings go, it was a friendly relaxed affair which was also every wedding planner’s dream – exactly on time.

Originally at RMB 480 (£48) they were asking for RMB 300 (£30). Still way above what we wanted to spend. We had our sights set on a RMB 100 (£10) budget.

The concert was due to start at 7:30pm and it was already 7:25pm. The rest of the group of friends had gone in. It was cold, damp and my patience was wearing thin. A group of 15 very loud middle-aged Chinese ladies walked past and by some miracle I overheard one of them saying they had some extra tickets to hand. I grabbed Sandy by the sleeve and soon we were in the centre of a lot of hand waving and over-expressive chatting. It turned out the ladies were teachers from a local public school which had been allocated some complimentary tickets of which they had a surplus.

Matching their hyped conversation, I expectantly said, “Wo yao san ge!” (I need three). This then spurned off into series of questions of where was I from, what did I do in Shanghai and having to hear their mini life stories. Inside me, I was stomping impatiently with a precious few minutes (and seconds) until kick off. The ladies reconvened and the petitioned three tickets were presented to us. They were good seats officially priced at RMB 280 (£28). “Duo shao qian yi ge?”(How much for one?) I frantically asked them in my messed up Chinese. “Yi bai” (one hundred). Sweet! Bang on budget.

The New York Harlem Singers have been going since 1996 with a number of members, coming and going. That night the six singers, one percussionist and a director-cum-piano player entertained us for two hours. The main billing of Whitney Houston songs wasn’t the attention grabbing item I was expecting. All the ballads were there: ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘Run To You’ and ‘Greatest Love Of All’. Plus extras like ‘Saving All My Love For You’ and ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All’. But somehow, despite the emotional interpretations by the singers, the crowd was somewhat unresponsive.

The artists managed to get more of an audience participation in their Christmas medley of songs, especially on ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ where we suddenly became one mass choir being led by our energetic hosts on stage. There were other musical genres featured with Negro Spirituals and Gospel songs sounding richly vivid with incredible harmonies. There was also an excellent tribute to Ella Fitzgerald on ‘You’ll Have To Swing It (Mr Paganini)’. “Oh Happy” closed out the entire night by which time the majority Chinese crowd had got the hang of clapping gospel style – on the off beat! The Harlem singers then did a CD signing and photo op. It was great to chat with them in person and I particularly enjoying stealing a few minutes with vocalist Clare Bathe. It turned out this was her first tour with the group, having already carved out a career doing other shows and performing as a solo act in her own right. She exclusively mentioned that she had her first solo album out in January. Which then begged the obvious question: “Do you have a copy with you?” In no time, copies of ‘I Met A Man’ were handed over and signed.

The venue where the Harlem Singers concert took place was a short 15 minutes walk from another musical place – the Penthouse Bar at the Hilton Hotel, otherwise known as Lezil’s old job. So it made perfect sense (pushed by an overwhelming sense of curiosity) to drop a sneaky peek. We hadn’t stepped foot there since Lezil’s very last performance at the end of August.

The sound was completely stripped down with only the grand piano providing the melodies. The lead singer, who we later learned was called Jo Jo, performs at the Hilton four nights a week and one night at another five star hotel The Peninsula Hotel. She had punchy edge to her singing and carried the jazzy numbers well, but of course she was no Lezil!

During the band’s break I had to slip into the conversation that we had recently celebrated a special someone’s birthday and immediately, the next song the band performed was “When I fall in love” (Nat King Cole) which was publicly dedicated to my darling wife. The rest of the Hilton staff got wind of the birthday girl and surprised us with two complimentary glasses of champagne. It was very strange sitting there – being on the ‘other side’. Here was a place where I had admired my wife’s musical talent for more than three years. But somehow it felt like closure as if to confirm that the baton had been passed on. Who knows where 2013 might see Lezil perform once again…

The key to any good party is the music, especially where Caribbean people are concerned. This year’s annual Caribbean Association in China (CAC) Christmas event had all the makings of a heaving downtown club with 300 revellers bringing the energy and positive spirit from the islands. It all happened at the CAC’s venue of choice – the Crowne Plaza Shanghai.

From the moment the doors opened at 7pm, already a sizeable crowd had entered taking advantage of the Caribbean buffet spread which this year had some additional new recipes. There were the stable rice and peas, salt fish and jerk chicken offerings. And coinciding with the event’s theme, there were debuts dishes like stewed pork in rum sauce, rum baked fish, lamb seasoned rum and melon soaked in rum. You guessed it, was all about the rum.

That sugarcane produced liquor culminated in the much in-demand Caribbean rum punch which had queues of up to thirty people all eagerly waiting to quench their dance-induced thirst. A number of raffle prizes were given out throughout night varying from homemade Caribbean bread, a home furnishing hamper and restaurant vouchers, to stays in five star hotels and leading French skincare products.
As opposed to previous CAC Christmas celebrations where there were a number of entertainment items woven into program, this year was kept simple.

 "We wanted to change things up a bit and give people a chance to really let their hair down and party," said CAC President Byronie Richards.

And the gamble paid off. Once the buffet line had petered out, people were in gear and ready to rev up their starting engines. Taking centre stage was invited guest DJ Laoban, and from the moment he spun his first reggae track not one bit of the dancefloor became visible. It was a sea of bodies swaying to pulsating rhythms. The atmosphere was electrifying.

Of Japanese/Korean decent, DJ Laoban first stumbled across reggae music when he accidently purchased a copy of Shaggy's 'Oh Carolina' when he was just 14 years old spurring his lifelong passion for the genre. "It was during 1998 when Mr Vegas 'Heads High' was a big tune and I really got into MCing and DJing. At the start it was just for fun because turntables at the time were way too expensive for me," explained Laoban.

He then moved to China in 2002 and has since become an unofficial pioneer for Caribbean music. “Everyone knows that Japan is huge on reggae music. Jamaican artists perform in Japan every year. In fact, we have many Jamaicans living in Japan and increasing number of Japanese people visiting Jamaica each year. Now China is a new market for us. It’s small but growing and I have already played in cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen,” he said.

Laoban drew curious glances from a number of guests arriving at the Christmas party, all probably wondering if he could really play to a majority Caribbean crowd. Any question  marks were instantaneously erased with his first power punching set which riled up the dancers with one 90s hit after another. Terror Fabulous ‘Action’, Red Rat ‘Tight Up Skirt’ and Shaggy ‘It wasn’t Me’ – Laboan was on fire. There was also a nod to some home-grown Japanese talent by way of Barbie Japan and her 2010 soca hit ‘I Miss You’.

The night continued to pick up speed as Bahamian MC Clarence called on people to take on various dance challenges on stage. People jiggled and let loose with ‘Wok Up’ and displayed some hinge-bending neck swirls on ‘Dutty Wine’ which brought on ecstatic reactions from partygoers. Then the limbo pole was thrown in the middle of the crowd which prompted the annual dance-off. Soca music kept the atmosphere on a high as that pole kept going lower and lower. There was only one name that people had to beat – the CAC’s very own Christal Oliver.

Unbeaten now in four years, she had a glint of sheer determination in her eyes as she wrapped a coat around the bottom part of her just-too-short dress. The fiery red of her clothing seemed to match her smoking hot performance. As each contender withered out (and probably waking up the next morning with an almighty backache) Christal just kept going. It was an inevitable game, set and mach to the Antiguan beauty.

When the party was about to end and people were still sweating out their dance moves, that was clearly a huge compliment to the DJ to maintain such momentum. After all, who could resist the remix version of Psy’s monster South Korean hit which Jamaicans Mega Banton, G Loc and Singer J remade as ‘Gangnam Badman Style’.  Laoban my selecta, wheel and come again!

“First I want to big up President Byronie and Vice President James for giving me such a great experience at the CAC Christmas party. Big up everyone from the Caribbean and Africa who came out tonight. God bless you all every time,” closed Laoban.

As corny as it may sound, it was the warmth and sense of unity that made the event such a huge success. Practically every Caribbean identity was present that night and if not, the decorative flags placed all around the venue ensured each nation was represented.

Many were meeting each other for the first time.  But the very fact that we were all foreigners in China with a common cultural thread uniting us – meant that it was like meeting up with long-established friends. And as a member of the CAC executive board, I couldn’t have been prouder of what we all achieved as a team.

Laoban put it best when he said: “I may not be Caribbean, but the culture has taught me everything from love, unity and respect.” A true dat!