From Las Vegas to Beijing

Wasn’t home for any more than two weeks before jumping on a plane and heading to Beijing. I now have (really good and really nice!) staff in China and Korea so needed to go out and set up some plans for the year. Was a great trip all in all - got a lot of work done, ate some fabulous (and pretty healthy) food, and enjoyed the company of my colleagues in China. I’ve known many of them for seven years ore more, so it’s like seeing old friends.

This time there was of course a very sad note to the whole trip: the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province. People in Beijing seemed truly saddened and moved by the whole thing, and the folks in our office were all collecting funds for the relief effort - more than $4000 of their own money - which is a heck of a lot in China. The company, instead of simply donating money, is going to let people come in to work on Saturday and will donate the salaries of everyone who worked that day to charity, so everyone feels like they have skin in the game.and are doing something with their effort to contribute. It’s a pretty nice way to do it, I thought.

On Monday, the government declared three days of national mourning, and the entire office participated in three minutes of silence, with everyone standing silently at their desks while all the cars outside blared their horns in mourning. It was a very moving experience, and I was moved to be a part of it.

I’m now on the plane on the way home, and looking forward to being there for a while; it’ll be a month until I need to travel again, and even that’s up in the air. I could stand being at home for a while. I miss Wilbert, and it’s hard to stick to my health and weight-loss program when I’m on the road. The temptations are too big and it’s too hard to stick to my exercise program, though I did make it to the gym twice in Beijing.

Tomorrow I’m back to the clinic to see how well I’ve been doing over the past 7 weeks. Missed the last time because I was in Vegas. At last official count I was at 150.4kg (7 weeks ago) and am hoping this time to be under 145 kg. That will be quite a bit slower than my past progress, but still in the acceptable to OK range. Wish me luck!