After a quick work trip to a warm hong kong, it was time to fly home for two weeks. It's always strange returning home - nothing really changes so it always seems the last trip was just a few weeks before, and that I've just popped away for a while. It's very easy to slip back in, though when I come back I know it is for a holiday and that real life (if i was back) would be different.
The difference now of course is that the trips home are more frequent - every 6 months - and of course Hannah is always changing, at least in the early years so each trip will be somewhat different. This trip will be remembered for the fancy Deuter 3 backpack that we got from ebay to carry Hannah in across fields in Hertfordshire and throughout a five-day trip in Dorset as we went from pub to pub to cream tea house. As much as she likes walking, she gets distracted a lot, is unable to manage in muddy fields, and prefers the view from up high.
Intriguingly Hannah got almost as much attention in England from strangers as she does in China. She doesn't stand out as much in the UK, of course, but I guess it's a general human thing to go crazy over small kids/big babies. I suppose everything is relative and with nothing more exciting than a small kid/big baby happening in people's lives around the time we turn up, no wonder Hannah gets attention.
Kids have this incredible ability to take everything in their stride and learn. They absorb, accept, copy, experiment. It is just the kind of things we always hear adults don't do: we don't really listen, we don't do anything out of the ordinary or risky, we tend to always question others rather than trust them and so on. Now there are good reasons for those traits, and certainly we'll be teaching Hannah to ask why as she grows up (as if we will be able to stop her asking why....) but still, it makes a nice contrast.
So Hannah launched herself up and down stairs, getting very good at going up, tending to ask for help to go down. She's begun to master picking food up from a table and putting it in her own mouth... probably using a spoon won't be far away (just a few months of messy experimentation one imagines). And most crucially she has begun to really communicate. She points at what she wants, makes choices when you give her options (e.g. three different items of food or drink), and she understands an increasing amount of instructions/questions we put to her.
Apart from walking there were some visits to friends, some of whom we met in the wonderful Museum of Childhood which is free and contains wonderful exhibits that the kids can play in and enjoy. I didn't get to actually read the displays too much since one eye was always on Hannah, but it is a place I will go back to again and again I expect. There was a trip to Bletchley Park where the German codes were broken during World War 2 which was as good as expected: some great exhibits and good guides. Highly recommended, even if the actual old house itself is more a wedding venue nowadays and the exhibits are in the old huts nearby. I suppose that is where all the work was done back then anyway, so fair enough.
There were some work events in London and the journey down to Dorset where we saw the impressive Durdle door, Lulworth Cove and Chesil Beach which gave us our geology lessons for the week. It was good to taste some local ales down there, whilst stretching the legs. We got fairly lucky with the weather and realized there's more to see that we'll go back for another time: the tank museum in particular looked interesting!
At some point I'll upload some of the more interesting photos, in the meantime, I've spent a very busy few days back in Beijing working, experiencing the first sand storm of the year, , enjoying Spring which has arrived (its 15 degrees) and now preparing to watch the big derby game which might make or break the week ahead! I hope I don't have to wait until extra time as happened 2 weeks ago against Lyon!
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