Constant change

Autumn has certainly arrived. We had some nice warm days in September once we returned from Europe, but now in mid-October it's getting chilly, and sweaters are called for. There is the odd day that is warm, and if you can get in the sun you can really enjoy it--until the sun sets shortly after 5pm. Getting some sun also means getting rid of the pollution, which does sometimes happen. After a pretty poor week this weekend was wonderful, a gust of wind cleaned the skies and provided perfect weather for the Beijing (half) marathon. Not that it made any difference to the spectators. As usual, there weren't any spectators!

The big progress this week has been with Hannah's potty training. She's now very good at using the potty to wee, or if she needs us to take her trousers down, at telling us first. Unfortunately she's not quite mastered this for "number two", so since she is rarely wearing nappies now, we're going through a few pairs of trousers a day - but hopefully it won't be for too long!

We also took her for some vaccinations and a quick check-up, so we discovered she's 14.2KG and 91.5cm. Basically at the very top of the range for a child her age. She wasn't very impressed with the needles, as expected, but was still easily distracted by mobile phones, ink stamps, paper + pen, and other things. She's getting quite into drawing, which is nice, and still enjoys looking at pictures in books, which we do most evenings before she goes to bed. She's still going to bed around 8 or 8.30pm and sleeping for 11 hrs or so straight; then having a nap after lunch.

Nearby our house is a very big market, well series of markets, a fish market, vegetable market, hotel goods market, cutlery market, electronics market, and other markets stretching for several hundred metres. Well that market is no more. It's been knocked down, it seems that it will be replaced by an office park with hotels and things. We'll see. The market's officially been moved 20-30 km away to another site. One day we'll go out there and see how many of the thousands of  jobs still exist. I don't know how many customers would go all the way out there, nor how many workers want to work there! Funnily, just after they knocked it down a lot of people set-up an impromptu street market next door, so the government had to brick up that street to stop them getting in. We also found out today our favourite restaurant is no more. It's owner decided to change things around, including the style food they offer, which is a shame.

Still you learn to take all of these things in your stride in Beijing. There is always change. It can be positive as well of course. They recently laid on a new electric buggy service that runs from a subway station around the business district to help with transport. They've improved one of our local bus services, improved the local ATM, and replaced/expanded the swings in our compound's play area too. Meanwhile the talk in China is all about the filthy rich, the crackdown on social media from the government and Boris Johnson taking the Beijing subway. He knows how to get attention that Boris. Though he's been asked to try riding it again at rush hour to see what he thinks of it then!