My cell phone rang. It was Wesley, our friend who was outside waiting to take us to the airport. When it comes to air travel, I am stickler for getting out on time. I hate feeling flustered and rushed, especially when it comes to a long haul flight. And Australia was definitely that.

This was an indirect flight to Perth with a stopover in Singapore. Just over 14 hours total travelling time. Doing a last sweep through our apartment and giving our cat Winnie a quick hug good bye, we were soon heading down the highway towards Pudong International Airport – one of two huge airports in Shanghai.

Inside Terminal 2, we savoured the last of the Chinese New Year celebrations we would see with the check-in counters all decorated in festive red lanterns.

My impeccably planned morning meant that we had arrived 20 minutes before the Singapore Airlines check-in desks were opened. We were the first in line. It was my maiden voyage with this Southeast Asian airline of which I had read many good reviews about. Once opened, the counter staff were efficient and within minutes we had our boarding passes to hand.

This is me being transparent now. I don’t like flying. I can’t really pin point it to one specific incident, but the thought of being up in the air is enough to quadruple my heart rate in seconds. It’s an uncomfortable feeling but one that I have learnt to harness in over the years. I usually prefer to eat before a flight so at least I know I have my belly semi-full. Our favourite Japanese fast food noodle chain, Ajisen Ramen, had an outlet at the terminal so we went for that.

Oh, and I forgot to add that a couple of days before I had been recovering from a dodgy stomach. I had just about recovered in time for the journey, or so I thought. At gate B10 stood our Boeing 777-300 aircraft. The call for passengers to board came over the tannoy system. Despite my lack of eagerness towards air travel, sitting by a window is must. The cabin inside was spacious with good legroom provided in economy. Each seat had its entertainment screen – something which a lot of Chinese airlines lack.

The head of cabin crew recited the first few lines of a scripted welcome speech. I usually home in on the weather segment which this time round, I wished I hadn’t. “….and weather on route, we will be experiencing high level turbulence, I mean high level clouds, so there may be some turbulence….” I gave Lezil a defeated look. My hands were clamming with sweat and I was chewing those mint candies like a lifelong pill-popping addict. Why today?

“Cabin crew, take off stations please…” announced the pilot. The sound of two Rolls Royce engines roared and we powered our way down the runway, nose titled up, and then we were airborne. Quickly climbing up to 10,000 feet Shanghai below, although a partly cloudy day, was under a clearly visible dome of smog. You could even see the definite edges where the intense city smog ended. Quite an eye-opener.

Touching down at Singapore’s Changi Airport, we stripped off our winter clothing layers from Shanghai. We had a three hour wait for our connecting flight. By this time, I started feeling rough. My stomach was not in the best shape and two trips to the toilet proved it. Great.  Nibbling on a few crackers, I curled up on a couch in one of a number of comfortable waiting areas. Despite it being past midnight, the place was buzzing with shoppers, restaurants and entertainment zones.

Back on board, and I was already willing the seconds, minutes and hours to go by as we took off at 1am. Travel when you don’t feel well is the worst. Flying over Indonesia and then over the vast Indian Ocean, I struggled to sleep. My frequent bathroom visits ensured no shut-eye for me. Five hours later and the long-awaited announcement that we would be making our decent into Perth came. It was dawning and the ocean below was beginning to display its brilliant shades of blue.

Rapidly descending from our 39,000ft altitude and we got our first glimpse of land – it was Rottnest Island which is located about 18 kilometres from Australia itself. Then the motherland came into view. So flat and basking in glorious sunshine. It was as if the Australian Tourist Board couldn’t have staged a better welcome for a couple of first time visitors like Lezil and I.

Flying into Perth, I was surprised how small it seemed. More like a town, than a city. There were no high-rise buildings to be seen except for the tiny few clustered in Perth’s central business district.

A smooth touchdown and we taxied our way to the gate. I breathed a sigh of relief. Flying over with for four weeks. It was 6:15am and already the outside temperature was 23C. Nice!

Australian immigration and customs was something else. It took considerable amount of time to clear. Everything was checked and things not allowed in, were immediately disposed of. Lezil’s family – her father, mother, brother and his girlfriend – were all grinning from ear-to-ear as we came through arrivals. Everyone embraced each other, hardly believing that we had finally arrived after much planning over the last six months.

It has been a full on week working through our to-do list before we have our annual getaway for Spring Festival. It’s the time of year when the largest human migration in the world takes place. Nearly two billions worth of journeys will happen as Chinese people move all over the country, back to their respective hometowns to see in the new year.

Having already experienced the start of the new Chinese lunar calendar before, I didn’t fancy days of non-stop fireworks and all the noise (day and night) that accompanies the fanfare. So, Lezil and I are ditching China in favour of some much needed summer sun in Western Australia to spend time with her family

Grace Baptist Church was originally established in 1910 making it one of the oldest Churches in Shanghai. However, it moved a number of times from its first premises and in 1942 found its way to where it stands today on Shaanxi Bei Lu. Service started at 9am and I was outside the Church’s gates at 8:45am calling Kevin but the automated China Mobile message kept telling me his phone was powered off. Strange. Thankfully he just happened to come out of the Church building when I spotted him.

Following him up to the balcony area, I was shocked to see the Church completely full with 10 minutes to go until the official start. I was handed a battery-powered radio receiver with a pair of white in-ear headphones. The service was entirely in Chinese, and the foreigner that I am, I still needed assistance with the language.

I was one of ten other non-Chinese seated and it was a sizeable congregation with easily over 1,500 people present. Proceedings followed a more-traditional format with hymns led by a choir and piano accompaniment.

The youngish Chinese Baptist pastor delivered a lively sermon based on Matthew 7:12 “…do unto others what you would have them do to you…”. I managed to keep up with what was being said (even though at times the translations I was listening to boarded on the more Chinglish). State-of-the-art flat screens were dotted about the Church hall transmitting a live broadcast of the service.

And in little over an hour, I was reading the final benediction in Chinese along with the rest of congregation.

Afterwards, I was introduced to a few of Kevin’s Church friends who made me most welcome. Touring the main downstairs area, I noticed on the wall a cluster of black antennas sticking out of metallic boxes. Kevin explained that the Church had installed mobile scramblers to cut off any phone reception. I took out my mobile and true to its functionality, I had no signal at all. That explained why, when I tried calling Kevin earlier, I couldn’t get through.

Personally, I think more Churches should install them. To take a measly two or so hours out of your week to not be able to access calls, text or go online and focus on faith is not asking for much.

By the time early afternoon hit, Lezil and I were in a taxi zipping our way through the back streets of the French Concession area in Shanghai. We had a lunchtime meet-up with Miranda – our adventurous Shanghainese mama. Slurping our spicy Taiwanese noodles like pros, we laughed, we debated and made the most of each other’s company for we were going to be away for a month and Miranda was travelling back to her adopted country of Canada during the holidays.

It was a surprisingly mild day as we walked off our big bowls of soup. Nearby, a number of local shops were in full Spring Festival mode selling all sorts of red-themed trinkets. We picked up a couple of items. After all, we may not be spending the actual day in the country itself but China has become huge part of our lives. And therefore to not acknowledge the most important national holiday of the year is like turning our backs on something like Easter or Christmas back in the West.

After a bit of haggling, our plastic bags were brimming with Chinese New Year items. We wandered our way down another French Concession side street and came across a makeshift street ‘store’. That’s what I love about China. People are so resourceful and will try what they can to squeeze out a living anywhere. The entrepreneurial man had used a side lane’s railings to create a grand display of woollen and faux-fur coats. As it was a sunny day, there was no chance of the weather destroying his open-air bazaar.