'Made in China'

Yes, it's official........We're pregnant!!!...well, at least Michelle is! Whoo-hoo!
Another miracle of life on its way. And its claim to fame: Made in China. Only, this 'product' is made from quality goods, comes very well packaged, and will be flown to Australia for delivery in December.

Questions will be asked:

Will our baby have a thing for dim sims?

Will he or she be kickin' when the Beijing Olympics are on and

China is winning the Table Tennis?

Will the baby prefer chopsticks over a knife and fork?

...only time will tell.

So hip hip hooray, baby someday.

Someday soon that is.

Dig it.

Well, all other news pales into insignificance. But I'll update you all on the last month or so anyway.

Of course, the earthquake has been the big news over here, much like 9/11 would have been in the US. Now China has its own 12/5 (or 5/12 as they put it here). I was on the 25th floor where I was teaching at the time, and BOY DID I FEEL IT!

Talk about swaying...and feeling dizzy, and freakin out, and running down the stairs, and feeling nauseous, and freakin out...it was quite a moment. Don't really want to go through that again! But Beijing had it easy, compared to down the south of China where the death toll is 60,000 and rising each day. It's very hard to imagine it all. But we have been impressed with the swift reaction of the government and the relief efforts to date.

The 3 minutes of 'silent' mourning was also quite an experience. Surreal to say the least.

The real sense that we were united with the whole of China, as all stood silent, all traffic froze, all car horns blasted, and air raid sirens wailed. I was with other teachers and students at the time, back on the 25th floor, and to look out over the busy business district and see people frozen on the footpaths, traffic lined up in every direction but not moving, and the sound, the prayers going up... all quite moving!

Moving on...

We were lucky enough to score some tickets through our friends here in Beijing to the 'Bird's Nest' - the Beijing Olympic Stadium, for some warm up athletic events, and we even got to see some Australians compete, which gave us cause to cheer, but we doubt they heard us, as they didn't come first in their events. Had they heard us, they would have won for sure. The stadium is impressive to say the least, and the architecture is an adventure in steel and concrete - a building like no other, to say the most.

Michelle had a business trip up north, and got to visit the city of Harbin again, along with some obscure places in the middle of nowhere. And she got to fly business class and stay in a 5-star hotel with the works. NICE.

We've also just had some friends from Adelaide visit us - Karen and Tom, and we really enjoyed catching up, going out and generally making the most of the good life that China offers. And soon (fingers crossed), Peter and Alison Esselbach and family (if they get their visa's granted!!!...crazy Chinese strict visa laws!) will visit us in late June.

I'll also be visiting Japan soon to see my ol' host brother and family from back in the day. So that'll be a nice reunion of sorts.

Then finally, in July - we'll BE BACK.

Otherwise, it's work as usual. And China as unusual.

This is China

Dig it.