Skiing on the last day of the year

None of us had ever skii-ed before but the mountains are only an hour away. Tim, Tris and Theo threw themselves into it while the girls concentrated on getting their technique right.

Skating on Houhai Lake

Today, we went skating on the lake using chairs on skis and sleigh bikes. It felt like we'd stepped into a painting of winter on a Dickensian Thames though the closest we got to a top hat was a woman wearing pink mickey-mouse ears. It was great, guys swimming where the ice was broken, everyone laughing and a large sheep pulling a sleigh.

Fortress Theo

There is something about forts that appeals to small lads, well the two that we've had and Tim as well.

Stepping out

Ok, so we came up on a chair lift and went down on a toboggan but in the middle there were still a lot of steps ... particularly when you're three.

Christmas on the wall

Most people feel they should have a walk after eating a lot at Christmas; we had our walk on the Great Wall. This photo was taken by a helpful Chinese lady with an unexplained interest in telegraph wires ...

26 Dec - Boxes Day

The shipment containing all of our stuff left England in July, arrived in China in September and finally cleared customs and reached us on Boxing Day. The men who delivered it expected us to have a forklift but Santa hadn't been so benevolent yet after some discussion, crowbars and a lot of odd gestures, we got it unloaded. At last, Lou has boots that fit her!

Christmas dinner

Christmas morning was clear, bright and cold enough for snow but we had to make do with the homemade paper snowmen as the snow didn't fall. We did have a good Christmas lunch though.

We like presents!

Sometimes, the Orient gets to you

Christmas Eve at the Forbidden City

I used to spend Christmas Eve in a mad-dash around the city trying to buy presents for everyone before the shops shut. This Christmas the main issue was where to find a pot big enough for Christmas lunch but, as usual, the girls were ahead of us.

Philosophy & chocolate

Marcus Aurelius wrote that 'Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.' Theo's systematic investigation of the kit-kat brought it's own rewards.

Michelle, Bug & Ethan are coming to town

Our friends Michelle, Bug & Ethan arrived on Friday to spend Christmas with us. Here we are at the high pavilion in Ritan Park; trying to stay warm.

Tris wins the hamper!

Tris sang the opening solo of 'Once in Royal David's City' at the Harrow Christmas Fair but just before he started he got a bit of a shock - with the purchase of a single ticket for 10 kwai, he won the Christmas hamper (worth 1500 kwai). He is still choosing when to drink the champagne.

Harrow Primary - in need of haute couture

Verity performed as a child in her school's Christmas play. She's here with her teacher Miss Surgenor. Harrow does a good line in frocks Verity would rather not be seen in.

Utilities and the joy of gas cards

We are now living in a house near the airport which is closer to the children's schools and the houses of their friends. The house is supplied with electricity, gas for the heating, gas for the cooker and telephone. You might think that the companies providing these services would you to set-up a direct debit and would then take the money from your account as quickly as possible - we thought that; we were wrong. Each service gives you a card, to pay for a service, you have to go to the bank (not just any bank, the right one, regardless of how close it is to your house), you pay for units of credit to go on your card and then you take the card back home and insert it into one of several sorts of meter which are often located outside your house in a building down the street. This would be OK if you could put a lot of credit on each card, but you can't; you also can only pay certain bills on certain days of the month. Each company gets a person to ring you and tell you when you need to pay but the whole process is cumbersome and it often means that you run out of heating in the evening when the banks are shut and the temperature is -9. Gas cards are boring to look at so we included a picture of the boiler, just in case any of you are plumbers and understand how to work it - no-one here has a clue!

Buying things

When you arrive in a country, the first thing you want is to contact people and the second thing is to buy things: We naively thought that, as most things were manufactured in China, and since the average wage is low, that prices would be low too; in fact, for everything other than fresh food and poor quality clothes the prices are higher - in the case of electronics, much higher. Beijing is full of immaculate malls with international brand names and acres of marble but very few Chinese can buy the items and those who can are so wealthy that they don't care about the prices. The middle class may be growing but big brands seem to be able to make more from selling a few items at a ridiculous premium than from selling many items to the rising middle classes.

When you do want to buy something, you face another problem - in most stores, an assistant will write you a receipt which you then have to take to the cash desk, the cash person will then take your money, count it several times and then issue you with a receipt which you must then take back to the assistant. We now understand that you can bargain with the first assistant. That doesn't sound difficult but the whole process can take hours while different assistants get involved; your credit card payment is refused and you have to be walked to a bank by yet another assistant. In Carrefour, you have to go through this process then provide all of the receipts for all of the items to the security guard on the door (even if he has just watched you pay for them).

Cats & cyberspace

Here is a photo of Mr. Macy - who owns our friends Ann & Peter in the north west of England. Peter helped me finally create this site four months after we arrived - without his help, you wouldn't be reading this - thanks Peter!

Places the Chinese economic miracle has yet to reach

This was one of several donkey mills that we passed while on the Silver Pagodas ramble. Less than 40KM from Beijing, it's a different world - one in which old footballs can acquire surprising uses!

We made it!

We went on the Harrow School ramble on 7th December which involved 12KM of walking up and down hills around the Silver Pagodas near Yin Shan. Theo did very well but Tim's and Lou's shoulders were a bit tired by the end of the day. If you'd like to see the pagodas themselves, have a look at our Christmas ecard posting.

Christmas ecard 2008

Theo's Christmas Fair

Theo's school had a Christmas Fair on 6th December with food, singing and lots of activities. Theo is holding the gingerbread that he'd just decorated and will be auditioning for the part of Oliver Twist unless we get his hair cut soon!

Theo hits Kowloon

The big city had got to Theo

Disneyland Hong Kong

We had to go to Hong Kong to get new visas - you have to leave China to do it and Hong Kong still counts as leaving China. We went from 20 - 24 November when it was still a good deal warmer than Beijing. While there, we went to the Peak, Disneyland and Ocean Park which allowed us to get some good pics. Louise rarely talks about her mini-mouse fetish in public ...

Africa, courtesy of Disney

This is Africa - the way it should be; or rather the way Disney thinks it should be. I don't quite remember it like this but then I never stood in an 80 foot fake tree while I was in Kenya.

Mandarin manicures

Getting your nails done is very popular amongst Chinese women: Verity decided to extend her cultural studies.

Autumn in China

Everywhere in China there are willow trees but there is only one Tris!

Tris, George & Theo

Forest Park & the Bird's Nest

This view is from the top of the hill in Forest Park which is where the Olympic athletes went to exercise; it's just north of the Bird's Nest which you can see in the background. We had a good day walking with Karin & George.

Mr Chen's daughter

Mr Chen is our driver (neither of us can get driving licences until we've got work permits which we can't get until the Representative Office is established etc. and we have too many children to safely use a single cab so the company pays for a driver. Mr Chen is a lovely man whose English is a lot better than our Chinese; this is his first daughter at less than a week old. We haven't met her yet as she is with his wife in their home town but we lent him the camera so that he could take some photos and video.

Bonfire night!

Toffee apples, mulled wine and fireworks that drop bits on you - courtesy of Dulwich College. Not sure why Guy Fawkes was burned a day later in China than the UK.

Halloween!

Verity with her friend Katie. She won a prize!

Our new house

Many expat abodes in Beijing are palatial (or at least they sound it from the sales blurb), ours is more errr serviceable but is conveniently near Theo's school (Lou can now cycle him there each morning), many of the childrens' friends and Annie's pizza.

Holy mountains

Tris & his friend Sam, in front of a mountain with a hole in it - polo should think about moving their HQ to China.

A great place for breakfast!

My school trips were to Kesingland Safari Park or Great Whipsnade but schools have moved on since then; even so, we were a bit surprised to find that Tris was taking a three-hour plane flight to southern China for his first trip at Harrow. Tristan's trip involved watching men fish using cormorants; climbing, caving, kayaking and mountain-biking in some of China's most amazing scenery.

This is the place where Tris had breakfast each morning while on his school trip to Guilin. The vertical mountains are an unusual limestone formation and a favourite of Chinese artists.

Turtles

One of the first places that we went to was Chaoyang Park which is a big park in the east of Beijing (close to our apartment). It contains: The Sony Explora Centre which is a hands-on science experience and one of Tristan's favourite places; lakes where you can hire gunboats and huge inflatable, translucent rolls that you climb inside and make move over the water like a hamster in an ball (Tris & Verity got very hot and giggly doing this); you can fish for goldfish in the pond and you can pay for additional amusements (Theo enjoyed shooting his first air rifle) and we were all stunned by the ride known as 'Battlefield of happiness'.

The Chinese are not sentimental about animals; live fish are sold in supermarkets in containers no longer than their bodies and Verity & Theo discovered a man selling turtles who was keeping them in a very small box. We are sentimental about animals so we bought three, two of which are still going strong. They're actually red sliders or terrapins and they live for 40 years which is, umm, longer than we intend to be in China - we are avoiding this subject at present.

Finding schools

We'd arrived just as term was due to start so we had to find schools at speed. We'd applied for an American school before we left the UK but when Verity and Lou went to visit it they decided that it was just too much on the big smile and soooo cute side. Tris and Verity joined Harrow International - an English school with two sites, one in the city which Tris goes to and one miles out of town where Verity goes. Verity's had just opened, had very few pupils and felt a bit odd when we first went there but she has now got lots of friends and likes it. Tris loved his from the start and it really seems to be working well for him - the teachers are very keen and the Head is the best we've ever met. Harrow had a class for Theo but it only had a few children and we thought it would be good for him to be with more children and to learn some Mandarin so he has Joined Dulwich College Beijing's bi-lingual kindergarten.

Each school had buses which collected and dropped-off the children and, within days they were putting on school uniform, rushing breakfast and disappearing before 8 each morning. It was a shock for Theo because he had only done three mornings a week in the UK and he was suddenly leaving before 8 am and arriving back at around 4 each day; however, we've now moved closer to his school and he has made friends and is much happier.

China - First impressions

We arrived in Beijing on 23rd August to a technicolour dawn ... well, that's how it should have been; in practice, we arrived to a 'technicolour yawn' courtesy of Tris who'd just had a smoothie for breakfast and wasn't feeling well. It was a beautiful day and a huge, modern, deserted airport with smartly-dressed attendants who were very keen to help. That is an enduring impression of Chinese people - they're cheery and helpful.

The roads may be broad but the rules aren't quite the same: 2 Mins after leaving the airport, our driver missed a turn so he stayed in lane, stopped and then reversed down the motorway.

We stayed in a serviced apartment for the first two months (the picture shows the view from the master bedroom) while we found schools and a house. It was a big apartment with marble floors, more bathrooms than we needed; a tiny kitchen with no windows and a bedroom for a servant (called an 'Ayi') which was only slightly longer than a bed, had no windows and no ventilation - cooking was obviously supposed to be done by the Ayi so there was no point creating a comfy kitchen! We decided that we wouldn't be comfortable with someone living in a shoebox and waiting on us.