Wow, a month has gone past since I got back to China and quite a lot has happened I suppose, yet at the same time a lot has not happened yet. Obviously the biggest thing not to have happened is the birth of baby #2, aka “meimei”. As Hannah says “baby come out – baby not coming out” yet. Tomorrow is the due date, and despite the big baby, and the unfortunately large amount of pain Andrea has been in for a good 3 months, the baby clearly does not want to come out early. Well, she’ll come eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later.
In preparation we got all Hannah’s old baby clothes down and washed them. There are a lot. Even after sorting them out we realized we had nowhere to put them. So Hannah got a new wardrobe for her (large) clothes, and the baby clothes go back in the wardrobe where they were 2 and a half years ago originally. We bought a few new bits and pieces, but not a lot. What we did buy has been commandeered by Hannah for her doll (Lei Lei) to wear/play with/sleep in etc.
In fact the month has really been the month of Lei Lei. She goes everywhere with Hannah. Hannah cooks pretend food for her using her little plastic kitchen, Hannah washes her, clothes her, hugs her, puts her on the playground equipment with her and more. In fact it has been quite useful; when we want Hannah to brush her teeth, we can brush Lei Lei’s first, and then Hannah is more keen. Hopefully this bodes well for the arrival of her little sister. Also Hannah has really become independent. She goes and washes her hands herself, washes the dishes and partly dresses and undresses. In fact she starts kindergarten in a week or so.
Earlier this month we went to our first gay wedding; that of one of my former colleagues and close friend, Scott, and his partner Brian, who we regularly stay with when we go to Shanghai. It was a wonderful occasion and later made international headlines around the world (gay weddings aren’t allowed in China, so this was at the British Ambassador’s house, which is UK territory) – because millions of Chinese people read about the wedding on social media and commented on it. It’s probably done more to advance discussion on gay rights in China than anything else for years!
In other changes, the weather has begun to cool down. The nights are much cooler now. No longer 28 degrees, and a much nicer 15. The daytime can still be a nice 20+ which is good for shorts, but some days it’s definitely trousers weather.
There's been a few interesting things happening at work – some fun conversations with the Daimler Board as well as their China team who are researching changing social trends in China; a conference looking at the role of IT standards in developing more resource efficient economies, and the like. Our office in Beijing has been closed (we emptied it out on Thursday; there is a new Shanghai office instead) which has meant several colleagues leaving, and some implications for me which I can talk more about later.
