36 Hours in Beijing

I spent 36 hours in Beijing for work. Sixteen hour flight there (via Singapore) and 16 hour flight back, one night on the ground.

I saw a lot of freeways.

I saw a lot of the inside of taxis (Volkswagen Passats, very cheap).

But I managed to steal two hours to take a taxi downtown to see the Forbidden City.

It's a fab place to visit. Cost AUD12 to get in and it was really the only place I saw mobs of people.

For a HUGE population I was struck by two things in Beijing - the complete lack of people walking around the centre of town, and the lack of bikes. Cars can only drive on the road every second day (it goes by number place odds and evens).

Had to have Beijing Duck in Beijing. We were directed by the concierge to a great place called Hua's Courtyard Restaurant. I definitely recommend a visit. The Beijing Duck was excellent.

Restaurant strip in downtown Beijing.

While I was at the office we had the May birthdays celebration. The Black Forrest cakes came in these amazing boxes. I wanted the boxes more than the cakes.

On the last evening before my flight out we went to the Beijing Workers Stadium to this beautiful restaurant. Sorry can't recall the name but it's on the outskirts of the stadium. This is a photo of the inside.

A super quick whirlwind of a visit, but fun nevertheless. Must return to have a proper look one day.

Crochet Therapy

I've been a little strung out at work for the past week.

A key employee from my team made a significant error which had company-wide impact. She identified it early, owned up to it and without any fuss we put together a plan to rectify the error. All fine. No-one so much as raised an eyebrow because errors happen and this one was easily fixed.

That is until it all got too much for her and instead of working steadily to correct this error she decided the best solution would be to run away from it.

She started by asking for, and then demanding, four weeks annual leave RIGHT NOW. I turned this down on the basis that the error needed to be fixed and we are in the middle of pay review. She could, however, have annual leave starting 1 April.

So she takes sick leave. Her doctor has given her all of this week off to be reviewed on Monday. She now tells me that her doctor thinks she needs another three weeks off. And so that she doesn't have to pay for any of this she's put in a workers compensation claim.

I can neither confirm or deny the rumour that I am extremely disappointed in the very gullible doctor.

I can count. She wanted four weeks leave. Now she wants four weeks sick leave, paid for by the company. Apparently the company has caused her stress. Apparently the error she made has nothing to do with it.

I'm being deliberately obtuse about the nature of the error but I will say that it was a calculation error and the fix for such an error is squarely within the expected skills of this employee's role. I understand the feeling of wanting to run from a mistake but actually doing so is a step too far.

In the meantime the rest of my team and I have been beavering away to fix this error, in addition to our normal tasks. It hasn't been easy for sure but do you know what - we've managed to turn a negative into a positive and if only my 'sick' employee had stuck with it she'd be sharing in the glow the whole team has post-fix.

Meanwhile I've turned to crochet-as-therapy to try to stave off the extreme feelings of disappointment I have in those who cannot accept responsibility for themselves and and need to look for someone or something to blame. No-one cared about the error but we all care that she dumped us with the error and ran.

Where did my summer go?

As it has done for the last four summers the new year started with a party at our place.

Glow sticks on the children before they walk down to watch the 9pm fireworks on New Year's Eve

Mid-January: Orchard Road, Singapore. I was here for three days for work. Loved that I could sneak out at lunch time to check out the sales. Loved that the shops were open until 10pm.

A day after I returned from Singapore: Port Stephens for a management meeting. You're feeling sorry for me now - right? For three days I sat in a conference room looking out at boats clinking together in the marina.

26 January: Australia Day BBQ by a friend's pool. Kids splashed all afternoon while the adults sipped cool beverages and indulged in lamb, macadamias and pavlova topped with whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries.

I took no annual leave but Firegazer took the kids to WA to visit the relatives while I was travelling so I didn't have the dramas of worrying about delayed or cancelled flights.

The kids are now back at school and a new reality has hit - the work, home and after-school activity juggle.

Jet-no star Service

Main Beach, looking towards Surfer's Paradise,  7am

Last week I was our quarterly management meeting, held on the Gold Coast. At the same time, Firegazer was overseas at a "strategy meeting" (meaning: company-sanctioned golf trip). We had to employ a live-in Nanny for the children. For some people this is easy. They ring an agency, a nanny arrives, end of story. Me? The thought of another person who is not related to me looking after my children for days on end is a little terrifying. Especially when she is a complete stranger. Anyway, I wrote copious instructions, the nanny arrived and I left for the airport.

You will understand that it was extremely important to me that for financial reasons the trip away be productive and for personal reasons that I arrived home when I said I would.

Enter the famous Jet-no star Service.

I arrive at the airport on Tuesday and check-in the required minimum 30 minutes prior to the official departure time. Those who have travelled Jetstar will know that you must do this regardless whether the flight is delayed from its official departure time or not. Sure enough, once I had checked-in I was told the flight was delayed an hour. Fine.

An hour and a half later we board the aircraft. After an additional half-hour we are told that there is a problem with the audio system and they would have to re-boot the aircraft. Can't fly with a dicky audio system.

Half an hour later, audio system still not functional. And the engineers can't fix it. No matter, there is a spare aircraft so we will offload and board that one.

Meanwhile our 7.30pm dinner arrangements are looking a little dicey.

At 8.30pm, three and a half hours after our scheduled departure we finally take off. When we arrive at the Gold Coast we have a funny story to tell at the dinner that we finally have at 10.30pm that night.

To lose one audio system, Mr Jetstar, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness

The management meeting was scheduled to run for three days but as I had children to return to and the others were going to spend the third day playing golf I decided to leave at the end of the second day. The Nanny had to return to her day job early on the Friday morning so I was to get home by 10pm on Thurs and then she would leave.  The kids had rung me each night to say how they missed me and PL said he couldn't sleep.  I said I'd be home on Thursday night and on Friday morning when they woke they would find me in my bed.

Again, the flight was delayed an hour.

And again, once on the aircraft after a half-hour wait we heard that the audio system wasn't working. Surely not. Am I an audio system jinx? This time I was on the last flight out. There wouldn't be a spare aircraft hanging around and we were about to miss curfew at Sydney airport.

I rang the nanny. Could she PLEASE stay the night and get the kids to school the next day? Luckily she could as long as she could get them to school by 8am.  The kids were already asleep so there was no way she could warn them I wouldn't be in my bed when they woke, like I promised.

Then the pilot spoke again. Not only did he confirm that we would have to stay the night but that there was some sort of fire emergency at the airport and the buildings were being evacuated. We would have to stay on the aircraft for the time being.

I was originally on a 7.30pm flight. At 12.30pm I arrived at our overnight hotel knowing that I had a 3.30pm wake up call to catch the first flight out the next day. I had a choice - spend 30 minutes finding some food or get an extra 30 minutes sleep.

Despite having not eaten since lunch I chose sleep.  I dreamed of never flying Jetstar, for business, again.  That is until next time I have to choose the cheapest possible flight.

What I've learnt recently

Now that I'm becoming accustomed to 'office speak' again I remember that the verb 'to learn' has a noun version -  'learning'.  

So here are my recent learnings.

Learning #1: Having a chef on your trivia night table is a good thing. That is until the MC fines your table $50 for having restaurant-quality food.

Learning #2: If you combine champagne and the general good humour that surrounds a school trivia night you are sure to come home with the class art prize - at great expense.

Learning #3: Champagne is safer than Sambucca. It's lucky I wasn't the one one our table who drank a bottle of Sambucca. She went home with prizes she didn't realise she'd put a bid on.

Learning #5: Wearing black all winter is a little bit, well, wearing. So I've splashed out on a summer party dress that is in no way related to black. It's long and I will wear it with red cork wedges.

Learning #6: Know when to give in, just a little. After 12 months of telling the tween that she should wait just a little longer before she reads Twilight I relented. She read it in 48 hours. Over two school days. She's on Team Edward BTW.

Learning #7: I'm more hopeless than the tween. I thought I'd quickly re-skim the books to satisfy myself that it was okay for her to read them and ended up re-reading them all, including the 12 released chapters of Midnight Sun, over a weekend.

Learning #8: Re-reading was a good thing. I've told her Eclipse and Breaking Dawn are out of the question unless she wants to have an embarrassing talk with me.

Learning #9: Talking human to human is almost extinct in the modern office.

Learning #10:  If I want to make a point in a meeting I'd be better off sending it via email across the table.

True story:  a couple of weeks ago I raised a point during a meeting.  After the meeting had finished I went back to my office to discover that the person who was sitting opposite me had responded to my question via email (via his BlackBerry) while the discussion was in progress.

What have you learnt recently?

Where the girl from The West travels to The West of The Far East

A day or so after starting my new job I was asked to a one-day meeting of my fellow HR Managers from the APac region to be held in China in July. In Chengdu.

Where is Chengdu you ask?

Think Western China. Think last stop before Tibet. Really. Apparently you still can't go to Tibet unless on a registered tour, but that's another story.

Here's a map to help.

It may be more familiar to you as the location of the 2008 earthquake.

So what did I think?

Well, apart from the long distance to travel for 1 1/2 days of meetings (six flights of four or more hours in seven days) it was well worth the trip.

I spent most of my time in a conference room. I also spent a good deal of time thinking I was going to die from over consumption of extremely spicy Sichuan food. But apart from that I experienced things that make such visits all worthwhile.

• Ate an amazing 16-course lunch where every course was either steeped in, covered in or made from five types of tea (white, green, black, yellow and oolong).
• Played Mah Jong, in China, to local rules (I won).
• Caught local taxis that were driven as if they were bicycles.
• Caught a ride in a taxi that went through red lights, pedestrian crossings and the wrong way up one-way streets.
• Was spoken to by a 7yo Chinese girl, in perfect English.
• Was told that Chengdu was the 'laziest city in China'. I think a better translation is 'most laid back city in China'.
• Realised that there are certain medications that one should take when visiting a country whose national cuisine is likely to upset a delicate western stomach.
• Found that, in the absence of such medications, flat Coke is quite a good cure-all.

There is, apparently, a local saying that roughly translates as "The Sun is High and the Emperor is Far Away" which would aptly describe the laid back approach in this city far from the sights of Beijing.

Waving again

Well that felt better. Sometimes writing something down is all you need to turn the corner and feel better about a situation.

I wrote down my frustrations with work and they've largely stayed on the page.

Since my last post I've been thinking about all the good things that come from being back in an office.

• People listen to me. As the parent of a Tween and a Tween-in-waiting this is becoming a rare thing.


• Not only do they listen, but even more weirdly, they often do what I say...immediately. This takes a bit of getting used to.


• I have to pretend to be a grown up. This means I have to 'look for solutions, not problems'. I can apply this to dealing with the kids when I get home. Useful.


• I get to talk to grown-ups. Although some of the grown-ups I talk to hold that title a little dubiously.


• The kids pack their school bags more carefully because they know that I can't run their forgotten hat/homework/school project up to school later.


• The kids have fewer options and have to make (sometimes tough, for them) choices.


• I value my spare time more and jealously guard it against interference from work or home tasks.

I've been wondering should I have taken a role with fewer responsibilities? But then had I done that I wouldn't have the flexibility I have now. I can move my days around as I please and I can work from home if needed. All I have to do in return is have my job on my mind 24/7.

What I miss the most is the ability to drop everything to watch a netball game, or go to a school performance. I'm hardly ever at either school anymore and I don't feel in touch with what's going on there.

But, on balance, I think this job is a Good Thing. It's just taking some time to get used to.

Oh, and believe me I'm still right on with this*.

*apparently you can buy this as a badge. Google it, you'll find it.

Not waving, drowning

Don't panic, it's really not all that bad, I just like the title.

But returning to paid work after five years is a little like slowly drowning. I wonder would it be different if I was in a stand alone role with no other accountabilities other than completing the work in front of me that day. That, however, is not the role I have. You know the story, you've all heard it loads of times before.

Girl gets part-time job that is really a full-time job. Outwardly others say how fortunate she is to find a job like that. Senior role, travel opportunities, a seat at the Excom. But she has three employees, two of whom have told her that the third employee bullies them. She has been given a hospital-pass of a project that is slowly spiralling into the ground which, in the days she is not at work, threatens to go belly up. There are so many fires to fight that it is hard to see the wood for the trees. She feels the weight of stress across the organisation of people desperate to keep their jobs despite them working impossibly long hours in a company hemorrhaging in the GFC.

And to top it all off there are serious hygiene issues being faced in the women's bathroom. Really. Think your worse thoughts and then double them. Why on earth is this an HR issue I ask?

Friends either tell me "I told you that sounded like a crazy job" or "welcome to the club".

These are not helpful comments. Is it worth being mentally exhausted every night, is it worth not wanting to blog lest you appear boringly negative, is it worth not reading as much, not knitting as much, not writing as much?

I can tell you that if part of last night's Lotto jackpot came my way I wouldn't have gone to work this morning.

So, it was fabulous to see a new order of yarn arrive in the mail

I've started on a crocheted blanket for a 12 month old girl. It strikes me that it is in fact a Neopolitan Icecream Blanket.

And I've finally got around to winding up the yarn that I bought from Suse. Do you think this looks like a pair of socks? Not yet, but one day.

These are the things that relax me so I think I'll go off now and meditate into my crochet and forget about work.

Oh, and I read The Slap. Gave it 4/10 at my bookclub. Clearly I have been living in a Jane Austen inspired bubble.

PS. I hope you have all been well. I look forward to visiting you again soon.

...break in transmission...

My apologies for a break in transmission. It appears that life has got in the way of blogging, and that simply won't do.

First, this paid work caper has completely interfered with my lifestyle. How dare paid employment not only take up hours of my time but also stay in my brain during the hours that I am not at the workplace. I'm assured that this will improve with time and that soon I will wonder into work like a mindless drone and it won't hurt a bit.

Second, how dare my part-time job involve travel. Some people like travel in their work because it provides variety and the opportunity to stay in a nice hotel. Me? Just means I have to pack stuff, sit on aeroplanes and make complicated arrangements for the care of my children. It also seems that my employer prefers crappy hotels.

Third, my dear maternal grandmother passed away. This should really have come first on my list but I'm whining in order, so bear with me. Last Thursday night I flew to Perth for her funeral on Friday. Mama, as we called her, was 94 and had lived a long full life so it was nice to be at a funeral that celebrated a life rather than mourned a tragedy. I gave a Eulogy on behalf of the grandchildren, and in a last minute decision, was a pallbearer, in heels. Those of you who are regular readers may remember that my paternal grandmother died in January so I am now officially grandparent-less.

Fourth, at 8am Sunday morning, having flown in late the night before I was on duty at my daughter's Band Camp up in Narabeen. Luckily a fellow parent drove me because I may have fallen asleep at the wheel.

I'm away interstate for the last half of this week but on Friday I'm looking forward to a visit from Fairlie who is coming to stay for the weekend for the Sydney Writers Festival. We have a full weekend of sessions to attend and I hope to be able to report on those next week.

What do you do? I'm a mother.

When we moved to Sydney five years ago I had a consulting business and three days of work a week lined up. However, after arriving here with a little girl who was about to start school and a little boy about to start pre-school I decided that my time was best spent with my children rather than a demanding client.

I thought it was fabulous. I got involved in the new school and the new pre-school, I got to know my new city and I was around the school enough to form strong friendships which helped me settle into a new city.

And then that question started to raise its ugly head at social gatherings - "What do you do?" Now you know the answer that is expected is what paid work do you do. Like...

I'm in publishing, or

I work with [insert CBD firm of choice], or

I'm in real estate [this is Sydney after all]

At first I found myself saying "I used to be in Human Resources but I'm taking a break". I was cross at the question being asked because I couldn't answer with a suitably corporate-sounding response.

And then I got over myself. Completely over myself. Soon I was proudly saying "I'm a mother". Not in any meek way but in the same way that you might imagine someone saying "I'm the CEO of fancy ASX-listed company of choice". I felt much better.

Now that I have been back in paid work for a week I've been contemplating how I would answer that question now. I hope when next asked that I will still say "I'm a mother".

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there. May you put motherhood right at the top of your CV.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Spent

After years as an over-worked and unpaid mother I will, next week, re-enter the world of paid employment. And thereby become an over-worked paid mother. I signed my contract over the weekend, filled in a gazillion different forms and posted it today.

Yesterday, as a pre-celebration, I spent a goodly proportion of my first pay cheque on re-invigorating my work wardrobe because methinks a denim skirt and t-shirt will not cut it in the office.

I went with the express intention of buying dresses in any colour other than black.

Not successful on that front. I tried on outfits in red, green, grey and multi-purpley numbers but all were just a bit meh . I think I must just accept that black is my signature colour and run with it.

Besides, I won't be dressed in black from head to toe because look what I found this morning. When I want to go home I'll just have to click my heels three times.

These shoes even come with Tween approval.