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What I Learnt This Week: Record-breaking Blockbusters and China's Tennis Girls
1) Mexican food in Shanghai is set to get hot! New restaurant Mi Tierra is entering its soft opening phase and it is a truly opulent Mexican retreat - as well as being the lucky eatery slated to hold court in the Mexican pavilion. Starting out in deliveries and frozen foods, the owners are moving up up up and have rented and renovated a villa that is simply gorgeous. We'll have the full scoop in our review next week.
2) M1NT can still throw a good event, despite staff having a slight attitude problem. Last night saw the launch party of Shanghai's latest expatriate-targeted magazine, Time Out. Started out in London back in the '60s, this magazine is now to be found in cities across the globe, including Hong Kong, Beijing, and now Shanghai. With free-flow drinks easing everyone into the night, M1NT actually allowed people to sit on a sofa without paying their exhorbitant minmal charges (shock, horror) - at least for an hour or two.
3) Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time. Though this claim is not adjusted for inflation and increased cinema screens/cinema-going public, so really, does it mean anything? Box Office Mojo has calculated that, in the US and Canada at least, Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing film EVER after adjustments for inflation. Other movie trivia I picked up this week is that Star Wars is the highest grossing film series if you divide the gross profit by the number of films, while Harry Potter has notched up the highest total overall. Thank goodness for Wikipedia - despite its many inaccuracies it never fails to supply me with food for thought.
4) China's tennis girls are packing balls of fire! Who would've thought that we'd see not one but two Chinese tennis players through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open? It was perhaps too much to hope they'd make it to the finals but hey - they were up against two of the world's best modern players, Serena Williams with 11 Grand Slam singles titles, Justine Henin with seven. Personally, I'm rooting for the lightweight Belgian.
5) Stop! Hammer time! - this week hammers have plagued me from place to place, from a quiet drink in newly opened 498 Bar to a neighborhood Coolzey. I know, I know, road works everywhere, crackdowns on nearly everyone and everything ahead of Expo - but my bars and restaurants too? Is all this construction a result of strict guidelines on structural integrity? It might not hurt after debacles like the collapse of that apartment last year.