15 Jan, 2010
posted by mingkliu in Musing
March - Family Gathering in Hong Kong
In late March, after a year and a half, I saw my family again in Hong Kong. I flew to Hong Kong a few days before my family arrived from England and before J arrived from Korea. It was great to get everybody together and it was also the first time my parents met J.
It really reminded me how important family is and sometimes we don’t always realise that until we spend a long time away from them. When I picked them up at the airport, I almost didn’t recognise my brother, he’d grown so tall.
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09 Jan, 2010
posted by mingkliu in Musing
February - An “Inauspicious” Beginning
Spring Festival in China, or at least in Beijing anyway, is accompanied by 2 weeks of constant fireworks. During this period, fireworks can be heard from 8 am in the morning to 3 am the next day - for at 2 weeks straight. Though this creates an incomparable festive atmosphere in the city, it does tire after a while.
In 2009, the Beijing government lifted a fireworks ban within the city’s 3rd Ring Road, and predictably more people than usual set off fireworks during the festive season.
Big mistake.
One chilly night, whilst sitting in a Mexican joint with fellow managers after a long day’s meeting, news came through of a fire somewhere near the spanking new and as-yet-unopened CCTV (China Central Television) building.
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09 Jan, 2010
posted by mingkliu in Musing
Directing the Annual Party was to be one of my last acts in the Wangfujing centre, and in mid-January, I transferred to the Wangjing centre, the smallest one in Beijing, along with my manager.
Late January - From Wangfujing to Wangjing
Prior to my transfer to Wangfujing (which means Prince Fu’s Well by the way), I was a Service Team Supervisor in a smaller centre, and one day my then manager told me the Wangfujing centre wanted me. Always excited by new challenges, I was very happy to transfer; It was at a time when I felt I needed a change of scenery and I also wanted more responsibility.
So when I was told that I’d transfer a 2nd time away from Wangfujing just a few months after arriving, I was surprised to say the least…
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02 Jan, 2010
posted by mingkliu in Musing
Happy New Year!
We say goodbye to an eventful decade and hello to the ‘1-ies’ or whatever they’re called. As customary, I’m going to attempt to summarise my year to make up for the complete and utter lack of posting on this so-called ‘blog’.
2009 was yet another busy and eventful year (there’s hardly been a non-eventful year to be honest) and most of my time in the first few months of the year was occupied by work.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I transferred to WSE Beijing’s flagship centre in Wangfujing in a Supervisor role and I was put into the deep end. I immediately began supervising a team of around 20 foreign and local staff, put in charge of working schedules, interviews, quality control and other odd jobs…
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