Milestones that matter

So two key milestones have passed in the last week: some of the the most important ones with kids.

The first is Leah sleeping all night without waking up or needing feeding. As with Hannah the trick here was for Andrea to disappear for a few days. Leah could tell Andrea was not here so she woke up less. Also if she did cry I could easily ignore her for a while till she fell asleep again a few minutes later (women are really bad at this, they always rush to deal with crying children).

The second is Hannah's willingness to brush her teeth. It has been a perennial nightmare for 2 years; that she never wanted to brush her teeth, no matter what toothpaste (bubble gum flavored princess, for example) or what toothbrush (toy story electric toothbrush that plays music, for example). But now she is ok with it, doesn't complain and sometimes does it herself quite well. I don't think there was one trick for that. We've been trying every trick in the book for months and for some reason one of those tricks just worked last week!

In other news we're getting closer to a routine at home and trying to get into the spirit of being active parents academically (the kindergarten is very proactive and requires parents to help kids do homework (like read a book about fish, though tough when that book is in chinese; or in their textbooks, color in the tall house blue and the small house red; or buy a basketball to play with/seeds to plant; or make various things). The kindergarten really is very good. One day they worried about some marks on Hannah's hands and required we go to see a doctor in case it could be something contagious (it wasn't), every day they send an SMS with the plan for the day's activities, and every week they send an SMS with the menu for the week. It's impressive and Hannah enjoys it a lot.

Every morning, in every kindergarten in the area, after kids arrive at kindergarten they do exercises to music and many of the parents or grandparents watch. It is adorable. I usually rush off to work but yesterday stayed behind a bit and saw a guy with a wireless mic leading the exercises. It felt like watching an aerobics show on TV just for 3-5 year olds. They all love it. And Hannah knows a lot of Chinese songs (and some English ones, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). Her native language is still Chinese, which you can hear when she talks to herself as she falls asleep sometimes.

It is very sweet hearing kids' favorite phrases (like Hannah's "that's funny") and favorite facial expressions. Leah's still mostly got the gormless face going with a large chin, poor girl. But she has beautiful eyes and lots of wonderful hair. She's still the same size as kids a few months older than her and increasingly enjoying the fruits of the world that we feed her, though the first two teeth are achingly slow in coming through.

The weather is generally very nice and not too hot yet (only around 25 degrees) and it's still fine cycling to and from work early in the morning and late in the evening when its fairly cool; but we'll have to see how that changes in the next few months. We're told the outdoor swimming pool downstairs will open on May 1; which I know Andrea is really looking forward to!

More travel but a chance for a routine?

A week or so back in Shenzhen included time with the family and the arrival of 91 items from Beijing – it’s taking a long time to sort it all out and find a home for it all. Then it was back on a plane to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress (MWC), noticeable for Huawei announcing its first smart watch (which was unanimously loved by critics for its good looks), though my purpose was related to the Mobile for Development seminars and building relationships with those attendees and some internal meetings.

MWC is enormous with almost 100,000 people there, loads of events and thousands of exhibition stands. It is a major business deal-fest. Everyone is there, so it is convenient to meet potential partners, customers, suppliers and others beside. The Huawei booth is one of the biggest and is chock-a-block with people from our global offices showing people around. I had nice weather there and a few good networking dinners/drinks as well as the excellent seminars themselves. A lot of very relevant people were there so it was well worth the 4 day trip.

Then I was back in Shenzhen for 2 weeks or so (of which that included a weekend in Beijing) organizing a workshop in London which I would then fly off for. Obviously nice to see my other family there again, and the event was a success, though the weather was not a touch on Barcelona or Shenzhen. The Beijing weekend was a bit strange – feeling like a stranger in my previous home as things had changed and I certainly did not feel I belonged there any more (nowhere to stay being one aspect of this).

In Shenzhen this weekend we went to a fun fair and the Da Fen art village; legendary for making the best replicas of any art anywhere, as well as good originals too. No more travel plans for at least 3 weeks as things stand, though Andrea will be off around China a fair bit. Maybe a chance to get into a real routine amongst the four of us? Before I went to London we started this - me dropping Hannah off at kindergarten on the way to work, we put Hannah to bed before we eat so she gets to bed early and we have some time to ourselves and so on. At least this should be ok until it gets too hot and sticky for me to cycle to work!

Hannah is a delight as always, with amazing language skills and even more incredible insights that she uses them for, i.e. actual intelligence. She’s often a step ahead of us (there is no parking here) though seems to have slowed with the excessive “whys” recently. Her teacher came over to see us recently (kind of a reverse parents’ day) and all seems good. Though she refuses to speak English in her English lesson, mostly only hangs out with only 2 other kids and is a real teachers’ pet. We’re not worried and nice that Hannah’s not been affected by the move.

Leah’s able to sit on her own for a while before falling over and is still a champion thumb-sucker. She’s still big and healthy, and in that “always watching and observing everything” phase right now. Hannah takes care of her well, as does our new nanny, who came on board a couple of weeks ago, since our Beijing nanny wouldn’t move down with us. This nanny does not speak any English but otherwise seems pretty good. The kids all love her so far anyway.

I’m paying somewhat less attention to China for work reasons (mostly focused outside China) but personally what is happening, or not happening, is still fascinating. The not happening seems to be any meaningful reform or improvements in anything and an uncertainty over the general future growth of the country. But it does have strong leadership so hopefully they’ll manage to get some things changing – and hopefully for the better. Right now they are still in this stage of fear or anything different—which is not doing them (or the people they are harassing) any favors.

Turkish pizzas and boats

From Russia to Turkey, eventually, after a snow storm incapacitated Istanbul and required an extra night in Moscow and an alternative flight to Ankara via Munich, in order to avoid Istanbul. When we were in the airport on the first night, we saw a Transaero flight may have still flown to Istanbul even though the airport was shut, according to Turkish Airlines. I wonder what happened to it… (we decided not to buy a ticket on that one, just in case)

Ankara and Istanbul seem to be polar opposites. Ankara is fairly flat and is a fairly new city; it is quite small, quite spacious, with wide roads, new buildings and a general feeling of organized suburbia. Istanbul is crowded, even in the suburbs and full of traffic. It has plenty of old buildings and mosques; it has numerous hills on both European and Asian sides as well as having the bridges over the Straights. It’s lively and exciting, but chaotic and maddening at the same time. Thankfully the boats across the river are predictable, so we spent much of our time taking a taxi to the ferry, taking a ferry, and then taking a taxi again the other side. It worked. In Ankara we just drove around to meetings.

I say we, as one of the consultants supporting my project was with me the whole time, and of course our local staff joined all the meetings. Over the weekend the consultant and I managed to see a fair bit of Istanbul: the shopping area around the tower, the Palace, the Aya Sophia Mosque, the Blue Mosque, the spice market and lots of restaurants and cafes. Over the 5 days we had wonderful food in Turkey. Turkish pizzas (called Pide, though more like a kebab sandwich in pizza dough) and kebabs of course; but also wonderful deserts and lots of coffee and tea.

We witnessed a small demonstration on the main shopping street (whilst we sat in a café eating Bachlava of course) and saw several of the newer palaces as well as of the expensive homes on either side of the Bosphorous. I could certainly live in Ankara, but I can get much more excited about visiting Istanbul. Though to be fair, since I was last there about 14 years ago there is now a few subway lines and more under construction to alleviate traffic somewhat. It’s a city crying out for skyscrapers and tall apartment buildings but is full of 3 and 4 story buildings which is not the best use of space.

Now it’s back to China for a few days: at least it is a nice warm 20+ degrees unlike the snow of Russia and Turkey. It is also back to the world with only a half-working internet. But it is also back to a world with a wife and two wonderful daughters.

Delays but Moscow is worth it

After a cancelled flight due to snow, being bumped off another flight due to incompetence, a third attempt to get to Moscow was finally successful. And it was well worth it. Though only there 2 days, we did get to drive around the city on our way to some meetings, and take a boat trip one evening on the river to see many of the key buildings (at least from the outside).

Things that stood out included the large amount of ski slopes dotted around the suburbs of the city (which my colleagues go to in the evenings after work sometimes); the incredibly robust and impressive buildings (many are decent looking; some like the seven sisters Stalin built are stunning); the wonderful food from across Russia and neighboring regions; and an hour at a “Banya” (a Russian “spa” so to speak that is often for male bonding) with a friend and some of his friends.

The on-the-ground impact of the current political situation was evident  in just a couple of days of business meetings.  Putin’s heavy grip on the country and the potential of whatever he says to happen; the focus on building up domestic companies (and at least on not buying from Western companies) which is similar to China at the moment; and the impact on business of the poor state of economic growth.

Taking the subway was a wonderful experience: classic modern Russian architecture that is functional and stylish, though also teeming with people at rush hour and deep below ground. Of all nationalities, I have to wonder if there are not some typical Russian stereotypes which are actually true. Whether it is the looks of the men or women, or the way the men act/drink in the evenings; it all seems true.

I left having enjoyed the short trip (and having visited the airports more times than I would have wished as my flight to Turkey was also cancelled due to snow) and thankful for the current political situation: everything was half the price it was a year ago, so now is the time to go (though the visa application form is VERY long)! I’d suggest taking BA rather than Aeroflot though after my experiences. And I’d check for weather conditions before going to the airport…

Why

After South Africa it was Egypt. I didn't see much apart from the city, desert and lots of sand. Though I saw some pyramids in the distance and some nice and varied architecture. I left thinking Cairo is a rapidly growing city, maybe out of control with immense contrast, built by a river, in a desert, and currently going through interesting times. I'm not sure if is developing, developed, somewhere in the middle, or something else altogether. You can't compare the MENA region with anyone else.

The food was fantastic, the traffic bad, the people warm, and the experience positive. I'll be back to check it out for more than 4 working days next time.

Back in the UK for a couple of days to get a visa and meet some people I also got to spend a day with my three girls. Leah is making progress with proper nap times now and getting close to sitting up on her own. Hannah's really talkative and usually asking why, why, why. Of course this is a legendary part of childhood and enjoyable...So far. She'll be great in the development world in the future trying to identify the root cause and a theory of change! She's also developed her own girly accent for her favourite words, like nyow (no) with a high pitched tone and a singing tune too!

We managed to get her to walk 3 miles to and from the park, with some help from Cocoa the dog. She enjoyed trying on bridesmaids dresses and shoes. She's obsessed with playdough and she's a lot of fun all around. Can't wait to see her, Leah and incredible Andrea (who thanks to mum babysitting I actually got to spend a Valentine's dinner with alone) again in 9 days.

Robots in South Africa

Johannesburg is a strange city; half English and half African. Much of the countryside looks like English countryside, and I was seeing the countryside whilst driving up the M1 Motorway here to Pretoria! In the nice suburbs of Johannesburg you could be any nice part of London – with very good quality street infrastructure (driving on the left of course), very nice houses and Western food. There is a slight difference with the many electric fences on top of the spiked fences around many of the houses and compounds! I spent 5 days working in these areas with lots of meetings in our office and in fancy office buildings around town. And not much walking, as South Africa seems really to be a country for driving, if you can afford it.

Then of course there is the poorer parts of Johannesburg; I spent this morning on a bike tour of SOWETO, the famous part of Johannesburg which was the hub of the anti-apartheid protests and where Mandela lived (for a while, though he spent much of his time undercover or in prison or living in a nicer place as President!) It is a strange area, with some real slum parts but also some areas that are very posh. What is strange is that most of the poorer people don’t live in the slums but in areas that looks like middle class housing – not big, mostly bungalows, but decent condition, made of brick and with gardens. Now they might not have many jobs, but it is I suppose a difference between South Africa and other parts of Africa: there has been some progress. On the tour we saw some memorial sites from apartheid-era protests as well as Mandela’s former house.

It is a strange city/country though. The local food is less “African” than in Kenya, though they have bap (similar to ugali in Kenya) and some stews, but they tend to prefer eating lots of BBQ meat. Some of the public transport is very nice but much of it is pretty poor and not safe. Of course since last year the country has been stuck in a massive power crisis; with regular “load shedding” (i.e. planned power cuts affecting different areas to manage the limited capacity). In our office we had part of a day without power (and internet, shock horror), though one of our buildings has a power generator so everyone can pile in there to work.

I don’t know how dangerous the city is, but it does feel dangerous: a combination of the high security fences around the nice areas; the reputation of the city; and probably just being white in a country of black people (that has high ethnic tensions). In the afternoon I went to the Apartheid Museum that is very well done with an incredible amount of information well delivered in various forms. If anything there is just too much information and sometimes it is hard to see the real themes, or see the bigger picture. But it is highly recommended, and I ended up spending more than 2 hours there. It does drive home the incredible efforts that were made to segregate the blacks from the whites; but it also showed how much violence there was to keep it that way and it was depressing how violent the four-year period was after Mandela was released and whilst the various parties sorted out a constitution and prepared for an election.

At the end of the afternoon I spent an hour walking around downtown Johannesburg. There are some old colonial buildings and a business district, but most of the companies have their shiny buildings out in the suburbs not down town. So downtown is fairly run down, though it is lively with markets and street sellers, whereas the suburbs are fairly barren and just like London suburbs with high streets and shopping malls, but not a lot of life on the streets. Pretoria, as a newer city, seemed less variable: less fancy areas but also less run-down areas. Though it still had some fancy shopping malls, of course.

And the robots? That's what South Africa's call traffic lights. As strange as the many local African languages and the strange accents of the white south Africans too!

Kibera

I spent three hours at Kibera slum with a local as a tour guide. I suppose the main difference from the equivalent in China is the size. Somewhere close to a million people live in Kibera, many have been there for two or three generations. With a place this big (and it's big because everyone is only in single storey painted mud huts) there are countless high streets and markets, hundreds of churches, and a lot of rubbish!

Most people there get by it seems, some with jobs outside the slum cleaning or in construction. Most just do business within the slum, a massive economy in itself. In this way money comes in and circulates around enough for people to get by. The government and aid agencies fund several years of free primary school and try to improve infrastructure like toilet blocks. There's only a couple of high schools, but plenty of childcare and kindergarten options, all of which charge (kindergarten is about 15 USD a month).

Life is certainly lively there with cinemas, pubs and hotels as well the usual restaurants and all sorts of shops. Though of course all of the above are in mud huts with corrugated metal roofs with few widows so quite a different atmosphere. There's workshops making handicrafts too. It lacks for little. In practice of course incomes are unpredictable, living conditions are very cramp and poor, opportunities and hope are both limited.

It was striking how bustling life there is. How happy most people seem, especially the kids. Always the kids. It's all they known, all they do know and all they could hope for. It's tough for those who get sick, which is likely with poor hygiene, have to find the money for rent and children, or who may have personal tragedies, like deaths, affecting them. We met one old lady with AIDS who runs a small sewing cooperative to create income and self esteem for her and 15 other even with AIDS.

My tour guide (the tour company was set up by a foreign volunteer to create jobs and income for people like my guide) has 9 sisters and brothers with only 2 having regular work. This earns him some money every now and again but he's also busy helping other charitable projects and volunteering in the community. It's a very worthwhile few hours.

China's slums are actually similar, just much smaller and generally made of very simple brick buildings due to the harsher weather, and probably related to the abundance of building materials on one hand, and the Kenyan traditional mud buildings from the countryside where the residents come from on the other hand.

After Kibera I wasted time at a crocodile farm, enjoyed the giraffe center a lot thanks to the informative "educator", and visited Bombas of Kenya. A 2 hour show of different traditional Kenyan dances and outside the theater, replicas of all the different tribes' traditional houses. A good day overall.

Kenya!

2015 began with three days in Beijing, my last stay in an apartment that we'd rented for over 5 years. Then I had a crazy week at work launching my internal research project and a wonderful weekend in Guangzhou with the girls and my dad. Shortly after that I was on the plane to the UK for 10 days, the first country on my global tour for work. Always nice to see friends and family; it was also a hugely successful trip work wise spending time with colleagues and talking to customers and other really interesting groups.

From the UK I flew via Abu Dhabi to Nairobi.Etihad is a very nice airline and the views were fantastic: very strange seeing the habitats in the sparse UAE desert from the plane, and then changing scenery as we flew over desert Saudi Arabia, the barren parts of Ethiopia and then green Kenya.

In my mind Kenya sounds like green, safari savannahs, and blue skies, but Nairobi sounds like dangerous, dirty and chaotic. In reality of course Nairobi seems nice. Yes the roads are not great and the traffic makes Beijing look good (strangely there are almost no bikes or motorbikes here, just cars), but the food is nice and also cheap. Despite being one of the more developed cities in (east) Africa and with a reputation for being a bit of a tech hub, there are less tall buildings than I expected, and it's less commercial than I'd thought.

I'm obviously always comparing everything to China where some poor and dumpy peri-urban and rural towns contrast with insanely developed, advanced and shiny coastal cities. A poorish country as a whole, the cities and government in china are wealthy and now I can see the infrastructure difference compared to Africa. I walked to the office this morning to avoid the Nairobi traffic, though I got some dusty shoes- it's the dry season, and a present 26 degrees with blue skies. A taxi back to the office from a meeting across town was like a cross country adventure as we took all kinds of back roads to avoid traffic (as were many others) and ended up going through back gardens and construction sites!

The food is simple and nice (often meat/fish in sauce served with rice or ugali which soaks up the sauce); the bus system apparently effective though tricky for foreigners to navigate (i made it the short trip back to my hotel from CBD); the local lingo is a mixture of English and Swahili. I'm reminded by my wife to stay safe, though I realise that might be because China is so safe it's easy to forget (even when in London, I need to make a conscious effort particularly to avoid pick pocketing).

I spent a morning doing a safari, and at first it felt like hunting with several cars all working together to find a lion. One was spotted fairly early on though not that close up. After that my car was mostly alone and we saw hundreds of different wildebeest, zebras and giraffe. We also saw a few buffalos, a rhino and a couple of warthogs (aka pumbaa from the lion king). It was expensive getting one of the special open top cars but worth it and seemed fairly comparable to a safari further afield. A very enjoyable morning and convenient too, as Nairobi national park is only half an hour from downtown without traffic early in the morning. It's the smallest national park but still sizable; we were driving (not fast) for three hours non-stop.

In the afternoon I walked downtown and saw the park that was saved by an environmentalist with kids' rides in and a pretty lake. I also saw some markets and a craft shop. Lunch at a very local place was followed by a visit to the railway museum, where I learned about the challenges building the East Africa Railway from Mombassa to Lake Victoria where hundreds of Indian workers died building it and some were eaten by lions. The old photos and old trains were interesting and there was also a customized bike that could ride on the tracks.

In the afternoon I went to the National Museum with a lot of good exhibits on Kenyan history, culture, ancestry, wildlife and more. A quote in the museum explained that "any country can make a railway but in Kenya, a railway made a country". An entire stay of standing up in cars and museums as well as walking across Nairobi ended on the 7th floor balcony bar of a hotel with nice views and stimulating conversation with an Ashoka fellow who is using IT to make the countries' clinics and health system more efficient.

Apples for Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. It is increasingly a big deal in China, since there are more than 100m Christians here, and lots of commercial drive. This year was the first year I was swept up by the apples for Christmas craze. I think its a smart move by some apple farmers to create a link to Christmas. Everyone in our department got a few apples as a gift and there was as many messages on social media featuring apples as there were Christmas trees.

The tenuous link is as follows: Christmas eve is known as the silent night in China (I'm not sure where this comes from, apart from the hymn, silent night), as I'd never heard of Christmas eve being anything other than Christmas eve. The word for peaceful (close to silent) is "ping an" and since the word for apple is similar (ping guo), everyone now gives apples to each other on Christmas eve. So there you have it. Amusingly last week at one of Shenzhen's shopping malls the image accompanying the giant Happy Christmas sign was one of Pink Panther. I wonder where that came from? Maybe he is going to take over Father Christmas (and his saxophone, a Chinese peculiarity) sometime?

China is typically full of these kinds of word plays, with some fantastic puns. Well it was full of word plays. Now the government has banned puns, because people are using them to insult the government as well as get around censorship. Its quite amusing that at the same time as they are trying to downplay Christmas (they don't like religion much, and they are not too happy with Chinese people going crazy over western festivals) they are also trying to crack down on Chinese culture too. Well its all part of a strange atmosphere in China's political and media sphere linked to power and corruption that seems to continually be getting worse. Thankfully Putin is a few steps ahead of China in Russia so China does not seem so bad in comparison!

Come the end of the year, it is the usual time to open new subway lines in Beijing, with around 4 opening or being extended, including a new station opening near our house, though unfortunately one of the two lines that should go from the station has not been finished yet, and so they we'd need to wait several months for that (rather useful) line to go the extra two stations to us. And the other line, that will be open, is not going to have an interchange at a different line nearby because it is predicted to be too busy and thus dangerous. Oh well, we can get over the disappointment anyway so we don't really live there anymore anyway - the date has been set for Andrea to move out of the Beijing apartment at the end of January. I'll go back for the New Year one last time.

One of the benefits of Hannah being at kindergarten the last few months has been the acquisition of new friends. It will be a shame she will have to make new friends once she moves down, just as this has happened, but hopefully it will be ok. I expect we'll get quite a few tantrums about wanting to see Wanwan or Ciongciong or someone else for a short while.

Yesterday i called our nanny to confirm the dates Andrea is leaving Beijing, and thus her last day working for us. We'd already told her a few months ago this would happen, and for her, with us being at least her 3rd or 4th family, she's done this before, but for us it is the first time. To have someone look after your children and be in your home 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 years and then never see them again is fairly emotional. Well it was for me. I'll hopefully get to see her when I am in Beijing next week one last time, but there is only so much "thank you" can express.

Meanwhile Shenzhen's between 10 and 20 degrees, and occasionally wet. I suppose its preferable to Beijing's weather of between -4 and +9, but at least its dry there and there is heating inside. In Shenzhen I've not bothered using the air condition's heat setting to heat things up, and its just about ok. When we move things down from Beijing we'll also move down our two portable radiators, though by late February they might not be needed any more.

Wanke's Fifth Garden

Another week or two goes by – alone. It’s kind of strange for the first time in more than 6 years to be sitting at home alone without a wife or kids, and for this to be the “normal” at least in the short-term. The evenings have a certain routine: get home from work, speak to Hannah and Andrea on skype before Hannah goes to sleep, then “cook” (depending on the definition of the word) dinner, then read or watch a movie or something (it seems really hard to find fake DVDs anywhere near where I live) and go to bed. On the weekends though there is a lot of time in a big apartment to myself, even after sleeping in a bit and going for a run. Well, it won’t be for too much longer!

It seems Autumn finally came to Shenzhen in the last week or so with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees at night, though it is still around 18 or so in during the daytime. It’s actually a little chilly at night since there is not much point installing heating in places like Shenzhen when it’s only mildly cold for a month or two. It’s just a case of wearing some more clothes and getting cosy under the duvet, though I expect my air conditioning machines can also do hot air if need be.

The community I live in is great; there is a lot of grassy areas just downstairs for lying around on (for adults), or playing on (for kids); a few different playgrounds for kids, some fancy water and landscaped features, a table tennis table as well as a floodlit tennis court (which I presume requires a fee to use) in addition to the swimming pool of course (which also requires a fee and is currently closed until around April time, since it is an outdoor pool). It is quiet and green. Sitting on my balcony I can see out to the mountains that separate downtown Shenzhen from the suburbs, and I can see one of the several small reservoirs at the foot of the mountains. I run around another reservoir nearby which is popular with people cooking BBQs in little holiday homes, as well as fishing. The province-wide cycling path number 5 runs nearby so there are often mountain bikers taking a break having just (presumably) come up and down from the mountain.

It is a ginormous community (the name might relate to a nearby subway station called 5 rivers, or it might just be the 5th community built by the Wanke company) built in 9 different phases; each with several 20 story buildings (though a couple of phases have been built with townhouse-style 4 story buildings). It takes a good 10 minutes to walk through several of the phases to get to the local village which is buzzing with locals dancing on the street, local restaurants, street vendors, a good food market and a large supermarket. It’s great to be able to have the quiet of our community and then the buzz and “reality” of the local town—there is also a decent size supermarket and a few restaurants just downstairs too to save walking all the way over to the town. The community is so big that it has its own bus station with at least 6 different bus lines starting there. Fortunately there is also a bus stop on the main road by the side of the community where I live which has several buses heading north up it to my office in case I don’t cycle, and heading south onto the highway that goes downtown.

On Thursday, Andrea, Hannah, Leah—and even my Dad who is passing through on his way to the Philippines—will see it for the first time and I’m sure next weekend won’t be as quiet as this one.

Wanke's Fifth Garden

Another week or two goes by – alone. It’s kind of strange for the first time in more than 6 years to be sitting at home alone without a wife or kids, and for this to be the “normal” at least in the short-term. The evenings have a certain routine: get home from work, speak to Hannah and Andrea on skype before Hannah goes to sleep, then “cook” (depending on the definition of the word) dinner, then read or watch a movie or something (it seems really hard to find fake DVDs anywhere near where I live) and go to bed. On the weekends though there is a lot of time in a big apartment to myself, even after sleeping in a bit and going for a run. Well, it won’t be for too much longer!

It seems Autumn finally came to Shenzhen in the last week or so with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees at night, though it is still around 18 or so in during the daytime. It’s actually a little chilly at night since there is not much point installing heating in places like Shenzhen when it’s only mildly cold for a month or two. It’s just a case of wearing some more clothes and getting cosy under the duvet, though I expect my air conditioning machines can also do hot air if need be.

The community I live in is great; there is a lot of grassy areas just downstairs for lying around on (for adults), or playing on (for kids); a few different playgrounds for kids, some fancy water and landscaped features, a table tennis table as well as a floodlit tennis court (which I presume requires a fee to use) in addition to the swimming pool of course (which also requires a fee and is currently closed until around April time, since it is an outdoor pool). It is quiet and green. Sitting on my balcony I can see out to the mountains that separate downtown Shenzhen from the suburbs, and I can see one of the several small reservoirs at the foot of the mountains. I run around another reservoir nearby which is popular with people cooking BBQs in little holiday homes, as well as fishing. The province-wide cycling path number 5 runs nearby so there are often mountain bikers taking a break having just (presumably) come up and down from the mountain.

It is a ginormous community (the name might relate to a nearby subway station called 5 rivers, or it might just be the 5th community built by the Wanke company) built in 9 different phases; each with several 20 story buildings (though a couple of phases have been built with townhouse-style 4 story buildings). It takes a good 10 minutes to walk through several of the phases to get to the local village which is buzzing with locals dancing on the street, local restaurants, street vendors, a good food market and a large supermarket. It’s great to be able to have the quiet of our community and then the buzz and “reality” of the local town—there is also a decent size supermarket and a few restaurants just downstairs too to save walking all the way over to the town. The community is so big that it has its own bus station with at least 6 different bus lines starting there. Fortunately there is also a bus stop on the main road by the side of the community where I live which has several buses heading north up it to my office in case I don’t cycle, and heading south onto the highway that goes downtown.

On Thursday, Andrea, Hannah, Leah—and even my Dad who is passing through on his way to the Philippines—will see it for the first time and I’m sure next weekend won’t be as quiet as this one.

Wanke's Fifth Garden

Another week or two goes by – alone. It’s kind of strange for the first time in more than 6 years to be sitting at home alone without a wife or kids, and for this to be the “normal” at least in the short-term. The evenings have a certain routine: get home from work, speak to Hannah and Andrea on skype before Hannah goes to sleep, then “cook” (depending on the definition of the word) dinner, then read or watch a movie or something (it seems really hard to find fake DVDs anywhere near where I live) and go to bed. On the weekends though there is a lot of time in a big apartment to myself, even after sleeping in a bit and going for a run. Well, it won’t be for too much longer!

It seems Autumn finally came to Shenzhen in the last week or so with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees at night, though it is still around 18 or so in during the daytime. It’s actually a little chilly at night since there is not much point installing heating in places like Shenzhen when it’s only mildly cold for a month or two. It’s just a case of wearing some more clothes and getting cosy under the duvet, though I expect my air conditioning machines can also do hot air if need be.

The community I live in is great; there is a lot of grassy areas just downstairs for lying around on (for adults), or playing on (for kids); a few different playgrounds for kids, some fancy water and landscaped features, a table tennis table as well as a floodlit tennis court (which I presume requires a fee to use) in addition to the swimming pool of course (which also requires a fee and is currently closed until around April time, since it is an outdoor pool). It is quiet and green. Sitting on my balcony I can see out to the mountains that separate downtown Shenzhen from the suburbs, and I can see one of the several small reservoirs at the foot of the mountains. I run around another reservoir nearby which is popular with people cooking BBQs in little holiday homes, as well as fishing. The province-wide cycling path number 5 runs nearby so there are often mountain bikers taking a break having just (presumably) come up and down from the mountain.

It is a ginormous community (the name might relate to a nearby subway station called 5 rivers, or it might just be the 5th community built by the Wanke company) built in 9 different phases; each with several 20 story buildings (though a couple of phases have been built with townhouse-style 4 story buildings). It takes a good 10 minutes to walk through several of the phases to get to the local village which is buzzing with locals dancing on the street, local restaurants, street vendors, a good food market and a large supermarket. It’s great to be able to have the quiet of our community and then the buzz and “reality” of the local town—there is also a decent size supermarket and a few restaurants just downstairs too to save walking all the way over to the town. The community is so big that it has its own bus station with at least 6 different bus lines starting there. Fortunately there is also a bus stop on the main road by the side of the community where I live which has several buses heading north up it to my office in case I don’t cycle, and heading south onto the highway that goes downtown.

On Thursday, Andrea, Hannah, Leah—and even my Dad who is passing through on his way to the Philippines—will see it for the first time and I’m sure next weekend won’t be as quiet as this one.

3 weeks in Shenzhen, 2 weeks at Huawei

So it’s been 10 days staying in a hotel, 10 days living in the apartment, 11 days actually working, and 20 days away from my girls in Beijing.  I’m now back in Beijing for the weekend.

I’ve been in Shenzhen at the perfect time of the year. It’s not the humid summer, nor the few weeks of (mild) winter. It’s been between 20-25 degrees every day, sometimes overcast and sometimes with nice blue skies. The Huawei campus is very nice; many of the buildings are surrounded by trees, some even have lakes, and out building, not one of the prettiest to be honest, still has a 5th - 8th floor garden atrium. We’ve chosen a place to live that overlooks the mountains and a reservoir whilst downstairs has a large outdoor swimming pool, 2 kids’ playgrounds, plenty of grass to lie/play on and many other architecture features. I’m enjoying it already – including my morning runs around the inside of the community, and my 15 minute bike ride to work.

Work is going very well so far, with a great manager, a nice team, and many other capable and experienced people in neighboring departments that I’ll be working (and often eating lunch or having a coffee at the coffee shop in the neighboring building) with. Though there are some fixed rules in terms of arriving and leaving work, the work atmosphere is fairly relaxed and enjoyable, and the job description is shaping up to be what I expected with responsibility, travel, and ownership. I’ve been warned by my boss’s boss that Hua Wei stands for Hard Work – I look forward to it and would rather that than the opposite.

I’m already bewildered by the size of the organization (150,000+ people in 170 countries) and I’m sure there will be a lot of internal people I need to meet and convince, though in my early honeymoon period I’m relishing this! Huawei does many things well, but recognizes there is room for improvement. There are some experienced people and some passionate people. They’re focused on hiring experts, including many foreigners, some of whom I’ve met have been at Huawei between 5-10 years already and still enjoying it, and this shows that they are keen to learn and improve.

I’m slowly learning there is a Huawei way to working with set procedures for creating and managing projects, for example, but it is going to take time to understand all of that. In the meantime I’ve already been to the Huawei University (the training center) three times for some of the trainings that are organized around the topic of sustainable development; and there is another two-day training next week. It’s a very large and very busy training center, and one of our department priorities is to build internal capacity around sustainability management.

Huawei’s business has been doing really well recently – and is forecast to grow rapidly in the next few years. The CEO says all the right things (about being humble, working hard and still thinking we are the underdog, not the giant) whilst the company famously has more than half its workforce in R&D. It’s a very customer-oriented organization which has served it well and enabled the company to grow: listen to the customer, let their requirements help us grow and improve etc. Its one reason why our sustainability performance is strong in many aspects: it’s been required by (and supported by) the customers.  It’s certainly got room to improve and everyone recognizes that, which is also good. I’m looking forward to it.

The biggest challenge so far is living apart from my girls. I have had a great couple of days with all three of them but it really goes fast!

Shenzhen first impressions

I've been here 2 weeks now, of which i've been living around the Huawei campus which is in the suburbs. It is only a 30 min bus ride downtown, or shorter by taxi (though at rush hour, both might take longer) and I've made it downtown a few times to meet friends for dinner (and to do a health check which is required to change my work permit).

Downtown Shenzhen is split in a few different areas but as expected there is a lot of new, tall office buildings and shopping malls, though further towards the border with Hong Kong you have the older buildings. There's some nice parks and a decent subway with a few lines (it's growing, and there should be a new line opening next to our apartment in 18 months or so). As most people now know Shenzhen was a tiny fishing village 30-odd years ago and now is a city of 10m people or so. It seems it has been planned quite well with a good highway system to get around and good interchanges and intentional placement of things like exhibition centres, universities etc.

Originally Shenzhen also had a border around it as it had different economic/tax systems compared to the rest of China (it was the "experiment" for China's economic reforms). Though that border no longer exists there are reminders of it, for example, one of the main highways heading north out of the center through the hills still has a big checkpoint there, which is not used. The highway just splits in the middle and goes around it, and the bus stop sits next to it - you walk through a ghost building full of customs boxes and railings for queues that have no been used for several years. Because of this there are other oddities too - two different colors of taxis, the green ones can only go in the suburbs (outside where the border was) and the red ones can go in the inner city and the suburbs.

No-one that lives here now over the age of 20 was born in Shenzhen. Everyone has moved here since the 80s so you get a real mix of accents (though the majority do seem to be from Southern China) and thankfully everyone speaks Mandarin (the same dialect as in Beijing) rather than Cantonese which neighboring Guangzhou and Hong Kong speak (and dominates around southern China) so that makes life a bit easier (though all Cantonese speakers can speak mandarin too). However it has also led to Shenzhen's reputation as being the crime capital of China (particular due to the high number of migrant workers that are only here short-term) though its probably way better than many Western cities, it does unfortunately mean its less common to just cycle around and leave a bike padlocked up somewhere like in Beijing.

However Shenzhen is actually quite bike friendly with lots of bike paths on the pavements, and a whole system of "Green Paths" which are hundreds of miles of bicycle lanes for more serious biking along the coast, through the hills or elsewhere, and another network of local bike lanes in different districts. Today I took one of the main bike lanes that goes up and over the hill that separates my suburb form downtown. It was a hard ride, but fun and a good way to test how capable my new fold-up bike is! The weather right now is perfect, about 25 degrees and not humid... unfortunately the Summer might be another story, but we'll see.

Shenzhen also has an area where the foreigners live, called Shekou, which has lots of trendy bars and restaurants (much centered around a massive boat placed in a small lake with fountains and accompanying light/music show). It is really convenient there to get a ferry to Hong Kong airport in half an hour (and to Hong Kong itself in an hour) and I guess some people like the sea-views. However it's over an hour commute from my office and more expensive. We're quite happy living a Chinese lifestyle in a beautiful community with 3 playgrounds, a big swimming pool, and lots of grassy areas for the kids to play on (as well as the balcony overlooking the mountains and a reservoir nearby to run around).

Shenzhen seems to have a few key features. One of which is the ridiculous nature of the apartment complexes. Shenzhen is the real estate capital of China. Most of the big real estate companies started here (to build the city from scratch) and made a lot of money here. There are so many ginormous apartment complexes with tends of buildings in each phase (and then some have more than ten phases as the company added more buildings on adjacent land they purchased). Most of the complexes are well designed though.

The second is that outside of the old border, there are a lot of local high streets or villages where the migrant workers live. These little villages haven't changed much in 20 years and are run-down, but cheap and full of atmosphere. Beijing had some too but Shenzhen has lots as they needed (and still need) cheap places for the migrant workers to live. We're going to enjoy exploring these places!

The move

A lot has happened in a month since I last wrote. I wrapped up my work at BSR, moved to Shenzhen, started working at Huawei, and found a new apartment here. Andrea and the girls are still in Beijing for a few months due to Andrea's work but will hopefully move early in the new year, while I'll be going back to Beijing next weekend to see them (and managing other plans so we can see each other every couple of weeks).

The main reason for the move is around the job - which is a really exciting opportunity for me, and hopefully Andrea will be able to make her work benefit from the move too. It might be tough on Hannah to move to a new kindergarten, and we';; likely have to find another nanny for Leah, but we've been open to moving somewhere else for a while since we've been in Beijing a long time. And Shenzhen is a great place - it's cheaper and greener than Beijing. There's no such thing as Winter here and there is less pollution.

We're going to have to adjust our lifestyle that's been fairly fixed in Beijing (going to parks, cycling everywhere, certain favorite restaurants, of course certain groups of friends) but we'll manage. We know a few people down here who i've already met up with and of course through our work we'll make many new friends (Huawei's campus here has 40,000+ working there for a start)!

At first it does seem strange to have different routines (how to get to work, how to get to kindergarten, where the local shop is etc) and it was really hard (and tiring) finding an apartment and trying to work out what is more important (a kindergarten that is 2 mins walk vs 10 mins walk; a local high st with tens of restaurants vs a few restaurants down stairs; a subway 5 mins walk away or 2 20 mins away; and more on bus stops, balconies, number of bedrooms, a bath, a study, a big kitchen, a swimming pool, a kids playground, and many other things). Eventually we made a decision and we'll see how things work out!

Paternity leave

As a result of a national holiday and paternity leave, three weeks off is coming to and end. I've gotten into a real "fatherly" routine and it feels like its been months! Waking Hannah up in the morning to get her ready for kindergarten, dropping her off, going to the new, local, market to pick up fruit, taking Leah downstairs for a "walk", helping Andrea out with work or catching up on reading whilst Leah sleeps, hanging out near Andrea's office the rest of the day (so she can provide the feeding when necessary) and then dashing back to collect Hannah again from kindergarten. It's a weird experience "playing" with a baby that can't really see or hear properly, can't really move around or grip anything, and can't acknowledge anything. Quite different to life with a 2.10 year old who is always talking (and certainly not afraid to tell us what is wrong with her if something is wrong rather than guessing with a baby), always having an opinion and quite demanding to keep satisfied (though also happy doing quite a lot on her own).

In fact we definitely do have a school "run" of sorts. We're always running to get to kindergarten in time since Hannah always needs waking up and then it takes a while to get her past the grumpy stage, address the twice-daily fight to brush her teeth, and then get downstairs. The plus side is that the kindergarten is literally a very short run away. Out the gate, and then a 100m dash to the kindergarten. In fact when we pick Hannah up (we're normally the ones doing the running to make sure we are there in time), and Hannah comes out with her best friend, they promptly and unprompted, begin running back home heading through the gate to the playground. So much for being exhausted from kindergarten!

Anyway, she's settled in fine; obviously having her best friend in the same class helps. I'm sure she's a bit behind as she's one of the youngest in the class and her Chinese is not quite as good as the others (presumably) but then we did just save 40 pounds on not needing to buy an English CD set that all the other kids are buying to use at home! She still gets an English lesson at kindergarten I believe (they have one foreign teacher) but I'm not sure what it covers. I'm sure it will be tough when she has to move to the new kindergarten next year.

Leah's also doing fine - we only have one other child to compare with, but as expected the first few weeks are easy with her mostly sleeping and feeding at 2-3 hr intervals. I forgot how much they defecate - though when she does it is much more pleasant than when Hannah does! She continues to get daily conversations/arguments going with the locals over us taking her outside before she's a month old. Thankfully they all just accept its a "cultural difference" and i don't bother with any actual reasoning (i.e. "maybe historically if you lived in an unsanitary and hold/cold environment, it made sense to keep a vulnerable baby and mother inside for a while, but in a well-off modern society with clean showers, clean clothes, heating (or a/c), vaccinations and concrete rather than mud outside, I don't believe you need to do that any more"). Andrea would go crazy if she couldn't shower for a month (and to be honest most of my Chinese friends don't stick to that cultural norm despite pressure from their grandparents).

We strongly believe kids need air (and its actually been quite fresh in the last week), sunshine (it's a nice 20 degrees in the daytime at the moment and lovely in the autumn sun), and exposure to nature (though Leah's eyes and ears still aren't really aware of much she is so young). For those outside China you really have no idea how much of an issue this is. We literally have had gangs of disproving elderly surrounding Leah telling her she needs to go inside and even trying to force more clothes on her (she was already way too hot). Funny that feelings run so high on that yet most of the time they'll happily smoke at home and few people in China have worked out what a chlid-seat is in a car yet, let alone think of actually having two hands on a steering wheel rather than one on a mobile phone. We've seen signs, thankfully, that those safety considerations are beginning to enter young people's understandings of Chinese culture more and more even if not the elderly.

So, two more weeks of work at BSR and then a new job in a new city.  More excitement, but i can leave you with the thought of how lucky we are that because we wanted a couple weeks alone with the kids we gave our nanny a couple weeks off (she returns on monday once i go back to work) and so last week was the first time I've had to mop the floor in about six years. The benefit of having a small one-bedroom apartment is that it doesn't take long :)

10 days old and time for first beer festival

So we've made it to 10 days. The baby is true to form: lots of sleeping, lots of feeding and lots of bowel movements. Not hugely responsive, but not a lot of work really. Andrea is getting on with work with the baby next to her at home (her team are basing themselves out of our apartment whilst Andrea still recovers - she's mostly recovered now). I'm on paternity leave without a lot to do.

Hannah has now had 3 days at kindergarten. Its going ok, made easier by being in the same class as her best friend, but she's still shy around all the others in the class and the other teachers. I'm sure she'll be fine in due course. In a sign of the times we get regular photos and updates from the teacher during the day on WeChat and there is a WeChat group for the parents to be kept informed of developments by the school.

She's loving Leah - always wanting to watch her, touch her and play with her. She's almost forgotten about Lei Lei (her doll), though this evening she played at another friend's house and spent a while having tea with her doll. Everything about Hannah is incredibly adorable at this age - what she says, what she does, how she dances, her desires (to wash hands). I'm sure Leah will be just the same in a couple of years too.

For those who don't know a lot about Chinese culture, we break all the rules. The mother is not supposed to go out the house for a month (or have a shower); the baby is supposed to be kept in for a month or more and you should get a special nanny in for the first month to look after both the mother and the baby. We've not been taking the baby out a lot, since the air pollution has spiked this week, but she's been out and about and we get some strange comments and stares from the neighbors (even though she's so big she looks like she's already a month old). We also gave our nanny a couple weeks off since there is so little for her to do! When we take Leah to her first beer festival tomorrow we'll probably get away with it as it will mostly be foreigners there! The craft beer scene in China only began 3 years ago but has really taken off, and not only amongst foreigners. Many local restaurants now serve craft beers on tap from some of the local breweries. I have to hope Shenzhen, where I'll move in a month or so, will be the same.

Meanwhile we've reached an interesting time in the HK issue - I guess we'll know shortly if the protests will die out or be reignited; my new running watch finally arrived from amazon (it was weird having to take a mobile phone out of my pocket all the time just to know the time); and Andrea and I both got fed up with our broken phones and got new ones: OnePlus Ones, which are 4G and fantastic so far.

Baby number 2

It's been a long 10 months for Andrea; and it's also been somewhat strange. This time you kind of know what's going to happen, yet at the same time there was always the unpredictability of what will actually happen. And so we tried not to just think we can do it all in our sleep just because we had done it once before. And yet, we sort of did... we didn't need to buy much, we didn't stress out much, we just desperately hoped she'd come early and put Andrea out of her misery, which she'd been in for ages.

And when we went to the doctor yesterday, about 3 days after the due date, the ultrasound showed Hannah was about 5kg give or take 0.9kg (ultrasounds aren't very accurate at extremes apparently). So we presumed she'd probably be around 4.5kg. The doctor didn't want to advise for a C-section, but with the size of the baby, the large amount of fluid, the fact the baby was still not even close to coming out, and so on.. she really had to advise for it. Deliveries 1 week or more late start to become risky, let alone large babies. So we scheduled one for the next day, 3.30pm.

Just like that. Such a strange feeling. For weeks we'd been wondering... everytime Andrea groaned i asked if it was contractions (it wasn't - just pain). And panicking a little (lots of fluid could lead to early water breaking without the baby being ready to come out which is dangerous). And then just like arranging to have a coffee with a friend, we scheduled (the exact word the doctor used) to have a c-section. We took our leisurely time to pack, arranged everything with Hannah and our nanny, and at lunchtime hopped in a cab to the hospital.

After a couple hours preparation I had to stand outside the Operating Room for ages whilst the anesthetist worked his magic, then jumped in some robes and went in. The line was drawn, the cuts made, the fluid sucked out, the baby pushed and pulled out, the cord cut, and the cleaning up begun. It was not a pretty site and i had a very queezy stomach myself from watching, so i focused instead on the baby, trying not to worry about Andrea and hoping that was all fine.

Just like last time the baby was cleaned a bit, measured, footprinted,  vaccinated and photographed. After a while we took her upstairs for a bath and weigh. At 5.45kg, she might be the heaviest baby ever born in the hospital (the hospital has about 200 births a month) and she looked humungous compared to the normal size baby also in the cleaning room. Anyway Leah Rachel Lane is doing well, breastfeeding fine, sleeping fine. Andrea is recovering and may finally sleep tonight for a few hours which is more than she has for months, due to the discomfort of being so big.

And I'm remembering how amazing it is to be a father again, whilst trying not to throw the baby upside down and around my head like i was doing with Hannah this morning. In fact we even forgot we had to change her diaper, and just remembered in time before things began leaking out (Hannah has been potty trained for several months). So now it will be back to the feeding, burping, sleeping routine for a while; Hannah will come tomorrow to see her little sister (she's well prepared and very excited, though how she will balance Leah and her doll (Lei Lei) I'm not sure - and it's a bit confusing that their names are so similar!) - of course little Leah won't understand anything we say, can't do anything herself, and well, we just have to turn back time a bit and re-learn things. And try to make sure Hannah is not neglected; is happy to share her things etc.

Anyway, a few more days in the hospital, several friends to come visit, and millions of cute pictures of the two girls will follow I am sure, and I can enjoy a couple weeks of paternity leave.

Hong Kong

So finally, after a decade of living in China, there is a half-decent attempt to question the government's approach to, well, government. There's been attempts in the Mainland before - either individual activists, or signing of certain documents like Charter 08 - but the government has blown them out the water quickly and unfortunately severely punished those involved. In most of those cases, actually, what has been asked of the government is to respect the Chinese constitution (unfortunately the government prefers to make up its laws as it goes along as well as its punishments, and doesn't bother to pretend there is an independent judiciary, let alone any interest in implementing the constitution which is supposed to guarantee certain freedoms).

Now, Hong Kong has caused some problems for China. To be honest few ever thought those in Hong Kong (who protest regularly, such as on the anniversary of the Tiananmen protests) would ever do anything serious or sincere. The theory has been that most of those in Hong Kong are doing quite well so don't really have much to complain about, and their progress is highly dependent on Mainland China so they need to stay close. But all of a sudden some broken promises and some minor violence has made people remember that they do actually belong to Beijing (I think they forgot and just liked the benefits of being part of China without the costs), and it is a Beijing that does not listen to what people want.

So a few interesting questions - the most prominent being about how will the protests end? well, thankfully Beijing realized that using force tends to backfire, at least in a small, well connected, well educated, and highly outspoken city (force has worked in Xinjiang, Tibet and other areas). So they are just going to wait, say nothing and hope that eventually the protestors will get bored or tired or give up. Beijing doesn't compromise and doesn't want to be seen to compromise to those who protest (what a precedent that would set...)

So what will the protestors do? This is really the litmus test. As we've seen with previous protests (including the Occupy protests around the world a few years ago), things do just peter out unless they are stepped up. But stepping up requires more commitment from protestors - do they really want to do something serious here? Are they willing to take the risks? What can they do? The protestors talk about occupying government buildings - this would be interesting since it would need some use of force. And it's going to test the government's ability to just stand-off and do nothing. I'm intrigued to see what will happen...

Meanwhile of course no-one in the Mainland knows what is really happening as the government's censorship is so incredibly effective (and most Mainlanders are so patriotic they'd see this less as about democracy and more about separatism which they certainly don't support); but at some point, eventually, might word spread (depending on how things end in HK) - and will people in the Mainland start to get certain expectations? And this comes as over the last 2 years the government has cracked down harder than it has for decades on those who it disagrees with, has moved to really enforce its autocratic rule, and is acting incredibly draconian.

Of course the government has done a great job bringing economic and social progress in the last few decades and now seems serious about addressing the environmental issues too. The question is about the lack of progress in improving governance. Can one stamp out corruption without an independent media, independent judiciary or any form of democracy? one would think not, but maybe this government can do it. Or maybe it won't.. and the endless anti-corruption campaign will just show the people how corrupt those in power are, and encourage them to seek some real change to address it. So what happens in HK might have bigger consequences for what happens across the border in the future.

Personally I've always hoped the government would give a little, slowly, in a measured way which i see as the only option for a safe evolution towards whatever the future looks like (and it doesn't have to be a full democracy in the Mainland, but some form of independence of the judiciary, some form of empowerment for the people, and some form of choice is likely - there are other Asian examples of these). Unfortunately it seems the government is going the opposite route. I hope it knows what it is doing and where this is going...

Lei Lei the doll and waiting for meimei

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.

England and Germany

After Italy it was time to go to the Isle of Wight for Hannah's first trip camping. The weather generally held up and we did some good cycling, a bit of walking, and quite a lot of relaxing. Campsites are great places for kids that just want to be outdoors running around. Ours had an outdoor heated swimming pool as well as playground and games room. The Isle of Wight is really geared up for tourists, and families, with some great local attractions (such as a wonderful model village), good beaches, and incredibly family friendly pubs. We enjoyed the fresh air and scenery and came back nice and tanned!

After a nice evening celebrating my sister's engagement, Hannah and I hit the airport to go to Germany. Missing our flight due to traffic and ar*eholes at Luton Airport security (tip: always go for the line with the older staff, not the younger staff) meant we came back again the next day to finally get to Germany. There we spent time with the in-laws but mostly with the dog and sheep, whom Hannah seems to care the most about. Though when it comes down to choosing when we went to a large farm, it was still the local dog that won over more than the cows, pigs, rabbits, or even the horses.

We rode on a horse and cart, visited the local Castle (very briefly as everything was only in German), went to the zoo with another child (the guinea pigs were popular, but still I think Hannah enjoyed the playground, the little amusement rides and her friend more than the animals), and went to one of the many beaches nearby (on the edge of lakes). It was a very nice time, with generally good weather and plenty of traditional German food (we ate a lot of sausages, bread and potatoes).

Next up was a weekend far up in the North of England for a wedding - great to see old university friends again as well as hit the dancefloor. Driving 450 miles through England is a good reminder of how empty and green much of England is - and how beautiful its rolling hills are. Indeed Clitheroe, where the party was, is a nice little town, and one that really comes alive in the evenings. And after a second engagement party for my sister (different participants), a last minute trip to London to see some other friends it was time to fly home.

Almost a month away from Andrea went very fast, and Hannah managed well. Hannah's spoken English came on leaps and bounds, more than my German did that's for sure. It's good to be kept busy, and its wonderful to spend time with family. Hopefully it won't be too long till we're back again, though as a slightly bigger family! In the meantime I'll remember with fondness the ales, cream teas, steak and kidney pies, deserts and playgrounds as well as the laughs and tantrums. Arriving back in Beijing to Andrea and beautiful blue skies and 30 degree weather has helped smooth my arrival and yet again its back to the other life...

Living it up in Italy

After a weekend in the UK I spent a week in Italy with my mum, sister, her fiancee and Hannah. We spent a week around Lake Garda and Verona. We first based ourselves up in the mountain close to the lake in a group of small villages known as Tremisone. Pretty high up in the mountains, we had amazing views and fantastic car journeys up and around the mountain roads that cut through cliffs and required driving in 2nd gear most of the time. The Hotel (Panorama) was not easy to find but was great value with a nice pool, breakfasts and staff.

The first day we went to Limone, a very pretty village on the lake with an interesting lemon museum/plantation. On the second day we did the West side of the lake visiting Tignale (also high up in the mountains with spectaculr views), the beach at Gargnano, an olive manufacturer (the olive oil was so good you could almost drink it straight up and some of the flavors were incredible), a wine tasting, and Salo (for dinner - it has a nice promenade as well as pretty buildings). Day three was a boat trip across to Malcesine, another sublimely pretty town with a wonderful castle (where we witnessed a british couple getting married on the castle rooftop) and more nice shops. Day four was a trip to Arco, which seems to be the capital of the area for outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, canyoning, climbing and all sorts. It has a pretty centre near the church but also a fantastic castle in the hills. Unlike the one in Malcesine which was all in one piece and very touristy (with some nice exhibitions), this one was really in ruins, but all the more spectacular. It also had a great little green in front of it with a bar! Then we finished the day on the beach at Riva Del Garda, of course getting dinner too.

On day five we went down to the south side of the island spending some time in Desenzano and Sirmione. Desenzano was similar to many of the old towns: very pretty with nice shops and riverfronts. Sirmione was a little more special, tucked into a tiny space jutting out into the lake and without barely any space to move due to a real overload of tourists, but it did have the most amazing ice cream ever. The afternoon finished with a few hours at a water park. I can`t recall the last time i went to a water park, i guess it must have been 15 to 20 years ago, but at this one, Beth, Josh and I went full out on all the rides, with a few really spectacular one. Indeed the one that has a sheer drop begns with you getting into a glass elevator at the top of the stairs and then the bottom falls out, leavng you in free-fall down onto the slide. Scary stuff. Awesome stuff. The neighboring other ride with two people in a double ring was a tiny bit less scary and more fun, with a sharp drop and then a jump! A very well spent few hours. Hannah even woke up from her afternoon nap in time to spend an hour playing at the beach there and going on the kid slides.

Finally we made it to Verona to stay 3 doors down from the arena and spend a day and a half walking around doing the usual Italian city stuff: churches, piazas, shopping, eating. Verona of course has the Romeo and Juliet balcony. It also has a much-less visited Roman amphitheatre which is very cool, and a fantastic garden. Probably the first Renaisance garden i have been to in Italy, insted of seeing Renaissance style gardens in other country homes and the like around the world! Deciding we were bored of churches and art (apologies, but none of us really that big on art and we`ve done Florence, Rome, Paris, London etc) we then dashed back to the lake (Peschiera) for some more beach time before flying back to the UK. An excellent week!

We certainly gourged ourselves silly on pizza, pasta and ice cream non-stop. And it was all incredible, especially ofte sitting outside with great views of this stunning lake or wonderful piazas. We managed a slightly grumpy 2 year old quite well, trying to fit around her afternoon nap time and trying to make her excited to visit churches, walk around streets, and explore churches. We didn`t always succeed but on the whole she was good and quickly adapted to the late night culture! Let`s just say that Hannah needs fun, not art, pretty buildings or walking. Though she loved the playgrounds and beaches too.

We unexpectedly came across a little piece of Germany in Italy in that more than 70% of the tourists to Lake Garda seem to be German and most restaurants have even adapted their menus accordingly (particularly offering boiled potatotes with everything) and even the ice cream shops were flogging German-style sundaes as much as they were traditional gelato. Most of the staff we encountered spoke german and most of the cars we saw on the road were german (if they weren`t italian). My first airbnb experience was excellent, hiring a 2-bedroom flat in dontown Verona for 2 nights. The lady who owned the place was so helpful and the place was great. And lastly I really had fun driving the mountain roads in daylight and night. Oh, and did I mention how good the food and ice cream was? Let`s just say a little girl had a lot of little treats!

two months and now its two and a half years

The last two months have flown by with a few business trips, some glorious weather (mostly) and a lot of fun with Hannah. In two days time she will be two and a half years old. I've been uploading some more photos and videos over the last few months to the flickr page and also looking back and some of the older photos and videos.

It is remarkable how much has changed, even in just a couple of months, and the changes have been much slower than when she was younger. But we've got the potty training all finished which is good for the environment at least! The last little bit (without going into details) was not that much fun, but it's done. We've got some real interactions between Hannah and her two best friends (Wan Wan and Mino) and its simple adorable watching them play together, whether in the swimming pool or outside, dancing or jumping, singing or digging in the dirt. It's also incredible seeing the intelligence levels zoom up. She's predicting what is going to happen, using her (strangely amazing) sense of direction to direct us around and amazingly able to have good conversations without resorting to tantrums when she does not get what she wants. She's counting and talking, running 200m, and acting like a 25-year old at mealtimes when we go out (sometimes), sitting and eating on her own, getting drinks and so on for over half an hour before wanting to run around.

Yet she is still a child - happy playing with ice, going on a slide 15 times in a row, pouring water in a bucket for hours on end and watching the same thing on TV over and over again. Andrea and I just spend most of our weekends with her and much of our evenings, since it's hot all the time. It's nice to come home from work, get changed, and play outside with the kids.

China of course continues to make the headlines all the time. Things are never boring here, whether it's the government crackdown on charities, corruption or just foreign companies altogether; little spats with neighboring countries over various disputed islands; continual blocking of websites and so on.

I am regularly talking to various people about China - business people, MBAs, and others. Recently it was half the Board of Daimler which was interesting. And it is an interesting place to talk about and discuss and compare with others. Of course its difficult trying to generalize. So much is happening and things are so different throughout the country and depending on your perspective that there are always exceptions. But there are definite trends.

And yet these trends are often going against each other. There is a logic to this - an underlying theme around power and stability, but it's not always clear. Usually because not everything is happening intentionally and is often the result of various political issues at some level, or personal grudge elsewhere. The government is quick to act won't take risks. Always erring on the side of safety and caution, which does not always work out best for many of those involved.

It's hard --but important-- to put everything into perspective and also look beyond just China. At the same time it is remarkable what governments get up to all around the world. Things that for some people seem like common sense aren't to others and so strange decisions are always made, balancing interests, rather than necessarily making the best decisions.

Meanwhile life goes on - World Cups get played (The Chinese care a lot about it) and won (though always by the same teams, this year's winners are certainly worthy), the air pollution comes and goes, water coolers, beds and phones break down and require getting fixed or repaired, and holidays get planned. 2 and a half weeks until Hannah and I will be in Europe!

A word a day

Ice. Bowl. Arrow. Ant. Jam. Bed. Bike. Water. Ring. Done. Finally Hannah has begun speaking more English words (we think her Chinese is better) and a new word is coming out every day. She's speaking in sentences too, though many of the words in those sentences are not yet real words they'll likely be so soon!

Is there any reason behind each word? She likes some sounds more than others (easier to pronounce) and some words she does use quite often. Meanwhile she still has to improve some other words. Down and sit, for example, are probably only understood by Andrea and I.

I've uploaded some of her birthday party photos and from our holiday in Gran Canaria. As always, they are on www.Flickr.com/adamsphotos.

Role reversal

One of Hannah's first words was "more". It was frequently said, whilst a shake of the head provided the alternative. A few months later she moved onto saying no, though still refuses to say yes (instead used a very teenager-like grunt). We quickly learned one of those tricks you don't find in a book: give the child two options and she'll often pick one of those (and the adult can give two good options) so avoiding the inevitable "no", or even better just tell the child what's happening/we're doing together (ideally making it sound really exciting).

So that was then. We'd be doing the asking and making the requests and she'd be responding. But now, since Hannah's vocabulary and sentences are picking up, she's the one asking us and we're trying to avoid saying no by giving alternatives (or falling back on the other big trick you don't read in books: the art of distraction). This is much harder since the consequences of a child not getting what they want are much worse than one not giving you what you want! The consequences vary but usually go through phases: the throwing of the head back if she's in your arms, the lying in the floor, the running away, the throwing of objects to the ground etc.

So it's been fun negotiating this and learning new skills to deal with Hannah. From the power of suggestive questioning to the art of prediction. Working out when and how to use carrots and sticks is a tricky one (it's not a good idea since then you risk getting stuck using that carrot or stick every time); more useful is the skill of giving the child what they want to get what you want. An example: let's walk on the wall to get over there. Of course as a parent we're always a role model and this can be used to one's advantage, e.g. follow mummy up the steps. Sometimes you can use a challenge or competition to get action, e.g. can you run up that hill or can you eat all 3?

In fact these and many other newfound skills are potentially very useful in other contexts too!

The last month has been very pleasant since it quickly became spring and then summer. So weekends are spent outside as always. Evenings often involve playing football or eating out, though not yet outside....though the evenings are warming up too. New projects have started at work etc.  I write this from Tianjin, where we've come for the day to walk around the nice colonial architecture and tourist markets. Speaking of which it's about time to leave the coffee shop, wake Hannah up from her nap and do some more exploring....

Tokyo - beef tongue, fried tempura, sushi and more

I had just a couple of days in Beijing to unpack and pack again and I was off to Hong Kong for a few nights. When I arrived it was warm and after meeting a friend for lunch I was off to one of the islands for a couple nights for some planning meetings. The outlying islands are much cheaper than Hong Kong Island, and much more relaxing.

Mostly they are tiny islands that you can run around (or across) in an hour. They have great seafood, nice beaches, fresh sea air, and no cars. It's not what you expect Hong Kong to be like and the easy accessibility of these islands is one factor that makes Hong Kong so appealing. In fact many people even live out there, enticed by the lifestyle and cheaper rents, and willing to take the 30 minute ferry ride into the main island every day. It was great to see colleagues again, have some fruitful discussions, have some fun, and enjoy some warm hilly runs.

After a weekend in Beijing, I was then off to Tokyo for some meetings and conferences, almost 2 years after my only previous trip there. Tokyo is an interesting, predictable, place. Its big, they eat lots of great food, everything is efficient, people are insanely polite and respectful, and so on. At the same time Tokyo is a strange mix: the smart but soul-less business district and office buildings, the simple but effectiveness stlye of restaurants and food, the lights and people that make it bustle, the ridiculous number of convenience stores, the crazy technology (taxis that electronically open and close your door for you, the toilets with more buttons ang gizmos than a toy shop, and more. Since Andrea doesn't eat fish and is mostly vegetarian, it was a chance to change my eating habits for a week too - and vey healthy it was too (especially combined with a morning jog around the palace which i highly recommend - though remember to run anti-clockwise!).

Japan remains an intriguing place with a unique culture and history, a strange language that veered off from Chinese, a declining population, a total lack of women in the workforce, a penchant for hierarchy, a loyal workforce, a highly efficient group of companies yet ones that struggle for innovation, and a modest culture that is trying to adapt globally. Its an intereesting comparison to China, one that is often made, and in some respects (e.g. economically, technically, infrastructure-wise) might be where China will end up in 20 years, while in other respects (e.g. environmentally and politically), we can only wish China might end up in such a good place.

Of course Japan is also stuck with history - and China won't let it forget its historic aggression. Or rather the Chinese government won't let its citizens forget Japan's historic aggression. The government here likes creating problems with Japan to distract from domestic issues and to increase the nationalistic spirit. The last few years have been particularly bad and look to be getting worse. One hopes there is sense somewhere so nothing will degrade too much, but for the unfortunate Japanese companies, sales regularly slump in China when the media frenzy is whipped up.

I enjoyed my trip learning about a new culture, interacting with various companies, trying out different dishes, finding hidden alleyways and restaurants, and enjoying more uncensored internet. Now, after 5 weeks of fast, uncensored internet I'm back in Beijing without any more travel plans for the foreseeable future, suffering with the slow internet amd bad air (which we can't ever forget, even when we're not in the country since it is the only thing anyone asks me about, no matter which country I am in). But its nice to be back with the family, cycling everywhere, going to toddler birthday parties, and of course wasting time staying up late to watch awful football matches online.

Now the attention will shift to some new projects that are starting, Andrea's busy schedule of travel and conferences, and dreams of warmer weather which are slowly coming true. And though no-one stops talking about the air, it also seems other things are on people's minds hear nowadays: politics, corruption, terrorism, plane crashes and other unfortunate incidents. As always, China is an interesting place to be!

3 weeks back in the UK and it wasn't too wet!

I'm now sitting in the airport at Moscow. I thought the bars in the airport would have the Spurs game on, but of course right now is the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics so no chance of that. Instead I'm watching the Spurs game online. It's been--as usual--a whirlwind of a 3 week trip back. There was a week working, several days in Gran Canaria on a beach/pool/sun holiday, several days in Wales on a walking/family holiday and a few other days inbetween seeing some friends, my cousin's new baby (Harry Lane), and spending time with the family and shopping.

 

It's always interesting working in London. On this trip it was dominated with meetings and events related to sustainable investment in China. I met with a lot of investors to help them understand the opportunities for more sustainable investing in China--and of course how BSR can help them. The field is much more advanced in the UK and the conversations are interesting, as were some of the events I attended.

 

In Gran Canaria (a Spanish island close to Western Sahara), hours of research on Trip Advisor paid off as we spent 5 days at a wonderful resort in a nice bungalow. There were some nice swimming pools as well as paddling pools, playgrounds and entertainment for children. 4 of the 5 days were beautiful sunshine and hot enough for shorts and t-shirts, swimming and relaxing by the beach that was not too far away. The Playa des Ingles has a nice promenade, some good restaurants, and a few shops. We had some good Paella and Sangria at one! We took one day to drive across the island stopping off at a pretty coastal town (Puerto de Mogan) and some wonderful peaks in the mountains with great views, and an enjoyable drive up windy roads. We also spent some time at a nice old town called Teror and a wonderful Spanish dinner in Arucas. 

 

In Wales we went to some good pubs, had some good sunday Roasts, played around in a Butterfly Zoo, did some Mini Golf, spent a wonderful couple of hours with a hilarious Welsh Tour Guide down an old coal mine (The Big Pit), had lots of tea, and did some more shopping around the restored docks in Gloucester. Despite the recent floods we weren't too badly affected choosing to walk away from the rivers, though we did see a lot of flooded areas. Along with some time spent enjoying good food in London and walking around some of the best parts of London in the City and South Bank, it was a typical, very English, couple of weeks.

 

And of course everyone enjoyed spending time with Hannah, whilst Hannah enjoyed playing with everyone, particularly the dog and other children. We'll find out in the next couple of weeks how she takes being apart from everyone and is skype video satisfies her cravings to see her family and the dog!

 

Now it's back to Beijing!

There is something to be said to going on this kind of holiday - no wondrous sights or amazing culture but relaxing, fun and very enjoyable combined with nice (if not spectacular) natural beauty. 

Ma

Since I returned from the US in early November there has not been any rain or snow (officially it's now been 98 days and counting...). Apparently London and Germany are using up Beijing's share and then some. Due to some windy days there's not been much air pollution and the temperature has been fairly mild. not getting much below minus 5 most days, and some days hitting plus 5 in the daytime. In the sun, a late morning run on the weekends along the canal has been beautiful. Apparently the warm temperatures, dry weather and lack of snow have meant it's idea for getting the cold though - and all three of us managed to get a little sick at least once over the last few months.

In Germany where Hannah and Andrea have been for the last week, the snow has made life more interesting for Hannah--she loves playing with the snow, but hates the actual snow falling in her face. In a couple of weeks she'll forget all about that and enjoy the sand instead once we get to the Canary Islands for a short break. I've had the place to myself during this time (though I'm still working in the daytime); it does feel very empty and lonely. At first there was a nice feeling of having some time alone, but that quickly passed. It will be nice to see them next week in London, that's for sure.

Beijing's had this strange feeling over the past month - with only a couple of weeks between Christmas and New Year, it's been quite slow and uneventful. Lots of people are away and we've been wishing people happy new year non-stop for weeks on end; some christmas decorations were taken down, to be replaced by chinese lanterns, but many buildings and malls had just created something generic that could serve both purposes and keep it up (at least for lights anyway, maybe some trees have disappeared recently). The firework stalls have been set up on many street corners. Chinese New Year officially starts on friday, and though officially it is only a 1-week holiday most people take a week extra off before or after, and some take more. Officially there is a 40-day window when people will be doing most of their traveling home.

See you in the Year of the Horse

(horse is "ma" in Chinese - "ma" is also mother (it's written differently in chinese, but sounds the same in english) and hence was Hannah's first word and still one of her favourite words)

2014: The Year of Wa Wa

Though in a few weeks the new Chinese year of the horse will begin, it's already clear that though Ma (Chinese for horse, and also for mother) was Hannah's first word, 2014 will not be known for the horse. Instead it is shaping up to be the year of Wa Wa.

Wa Wa is the name of Hannah's doll; one that was ignored for months, possibly even years, until a month or so ago, when all of a sudden (as you may have seen on Hannah's facebook page), Hannah became obsessed with Wa Wa. Hannah sits her on the table to watch whilst we eat breakfast, takes her to sleep with her (the poor dog that used to have that role must be sad), expects us to kiss her after we kiss Hannah, puts socks on her, and often won't put her own knickers on until after Wa Wa has hers on!

It's very useful for us - if Hannah doesn't want to do something, we can propose that Wa Wa does it first, or that they do it together. Wa Wa is another option for distracting Hannah when we need to, or motivating her. At the weekend having Wa Wa helped speed Hannah's recovery after her vaccinations, for example. Particularly adorable, when we were in a park looking at a kite, Hannah wanted to show Wa Wa, so held her up and pointed to the kite. We just need to make sure we don't lose her!