Remind me never to fly China Airlines Air China!

We are going to go to San Francisco to spend Christmas with my brother Shaun.

Due to work commitments, I wasn't sure if I could go or whether it would just be Fabien and the kids to see my brother, but now that I had the dates, we could all go together, so we had left this booking quite late. This didn't give us a lot of options, and in any case there are only 2 direct flights from BJ to SF on either United or China Airlines Air China. We looked at the flight times and availability, and decided that Air China was both cheaper, and were available on the days I wanted to fly.

To cut a really long story short - Remind me NEVER to fly Air China unless we absolutely have no choice about this.

They have the worst customer service in the world, and the whole experience of (1) buying the tickets and (2) booking our seat is really making me quite nervous about flying for 10 hours on their carrier.

I'll come back and post about it when I am in San Francisco, and I almost regret having to buy carbon offsets spent on this most silly flight on this worthless airline.

At least the idea of spending Christmas with my brother, his girlfriend's family and the whole gang is perking me up !!

I should be more thankful - really !

I am such a blessed person that there are times (human nature being what it is) that I take it for granted.

Alex scared us 2 weeks ago by suddenly getting a 40 degree fever. I was in a meeting on the other side of the city when I recieved the anxious phone call from ayi, so one of our neighbours (who works from home) went to our house to check it out for us. He got there at the same time as Fabien who rushed there from work. The fever subsided after some paracetemol. I think she had been dehydrated from the stomach flu.

She wasn't sneezing or coughing, so we aren't all that worried about H1N1 virus. Sophie's kindergarten class so far has not been affected so we're keeping our fingers crossed that this winter goes smoothly. Luckily Alex recovered quite quickly - at least in time for our weekend at the Great Wall, although she did manage to pass it to Mommy, who developed a throat infection!

Which brings me to the next bit about being thankful for what you have. Why is it you need to get sick before you appreciate being healthy?

I usually take my health for granted, not getting enough rest, skipping meals and generally abusing my body. I also take for granted the fact that the children are almost always perfectly healthy. So only when they get sick (or I do) will I appreciate the fact that the rest of the year, everything is absolutely fine.

Speaking of thankfulness, this year, Sophie and I will not be allowed to visit the orphanage where we normally donate our stuff to. There is a kind of paranoia regarding H1N1 and visitors are basically not welcome. Which is a little sad but of course, we will respect the health restrictions.

minus two children and 20 kilos and it feels ...

2004-07-02 La troupe visite DSCN0550
Originally uploaded by adorablebabasseur

like yesterday once more....

I cannot believe Fabien is still wearing that same t-shirt. But he is !!

I really do like this

你不能决定生命的长度.但你可以控制它的宽度.

你不能左右天气,但你可以改变心情.

你不能改变容貌,但你可以展现笑容.

你不能控制他人,但你可以掌握自己.

你不能预知明天,但你可以利用今天.

你不能样样顺利,但你可以事事尽力

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Looking forward to being able to get a new computer soon....

Whatever Obama says, I don't think internet freedom is anytime soon here !

A short hiatus

I have decided to kill this blog. Or at least pause it until something about the current situation changes.

One of the key reasos is that in Beijing, connection times are so slow it sucks the joy out of blogging. You now need a VPN to blog at home, and so I access it sometimes through my work computer, which goes through a UK proxy. But then I don't like blogging through my lunch breaks because I try to keep some distance between my personal and professional life, and also because uploading photos are not allowed on my office computer.

So my choices are (1) wait for internet policy in China to change (haha!); (2) upgrade to a faster home computer and VPN at home; (3) move out of China to somewhere slightly less restrictive. As sad as it sounds option (3) is more likely than (1) !!

However, I don't think that I want to make this disconnect permananent. This blog has put me in touch with some very special people, whom I may not have otherwise met. I am grateful for that.

It also helps me to stay in touch with my friends, record my contemporaneous thoughts on parenting, work/life balance and all the other struggles and minor triumphs in my daily life, and I suppose so that I hope my kids can get to know during the part of their lives quite likely before clear memories are formed. This record is for them as much as for myself.

So until the situation changes, I think we'll call a short time-out for now. It's been wonderful thus far, and I hope the people who enjoy reading this blog will come back once in a while to see which one of the options I'd gone for. Fabien is likely to ask me what I want for my birthday this December, and it's quite likely a new computer !!

we are in taipei!

the typhoon didn't get us, and our kids loved the art museum. it's rainy though and i am back to typing with one hand. marvellous seeing scott for the weekend. it's been 15 years since we last had coffee together (he still had hair!!)

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth

There are no perfect places in the world to live in. Human wants are virtually limitless, and we will always find a reason to bitch about something, wherever we are. That being said, the one thing that seriously annoys me about where I currently live is the censored internet. We have no Face book. No You tube and No blogger access, without using VPNs or some other route. Possibly upgrading my computer this Christmas will help matters somewhat!

Will post photos/ blog more from Taiwan (land of the free !) where we are going for the vacation. In the meantime, I only have precious few mins on the (free) internet each time, so excuse the blog silence please.

Thanks Jen (and all the other friendly formosans) for all the tips, but of course I couldn't get on to any website with "tw" in the address ... Anyway, we will go there for the vacation so that I can come back recharged to deal with the craziness of living here.

One of my favourite Photos

This is not a studio potrait. We were sitting in a cafe in Phuket. 2 parents looking at their lovely offspring.

Sophie Loves her little sister so much. It's a magic kind of beauty. Of course she needs reassurance from her parents that they love her and she tests limits. But moments like this are sacred and beautiful. And Fab managed to capture that moment in this shot I think.