Beijing

I am sick to death of traveling.  Over the past 7 weeks I've been in Singapore (twice!), New Zealand, Paris and Beijing.  Most of the trips involved long hours in conference rooms and endless PowerPoint slides.  When I'm in charge, I'm going to forbid that awful program.

Someone asked me the other day how long I'm planning to stay in Hong Kong.  I don't think I've arrived.

Here's Beijing.

Messing around in boats in front of the Summer Palace 

798 Art District.  They do pipes in a big way

 798 Art District. Again

  798 Art District. One of many galleries

  798 Art District. Spanish Exhibition

  798 Art District. Food

  Forbidden City

  Our hotel.  Loved it

  798 Art District. Again

 Fair enough

Forbidden City in the sun

Next trip - The Wall!

Bumf for the enthusiastic traveler: 

Grace Hotel - wonderful paradise just 15 minutes out of town

G Hotel - If you like purple walls and changing colored windows, then this is your place

Da Dong - Best duck in town

Capital M - High tea by Tienanmen

Dali's Courtyard - Perfect for dinner under the stars

Amalal - Mojitos 

p.s. We loved it here, are learning Mandarin, and would like to live here and start a street stand selling pancakes

Z Listers

I was a little surprised to be the only woman in the small and shabby hotel gym today in Auckland.  I was also a little perplexed as to why the Jacuzzi was so full of men who all obviously knew each other. 

Had I mistaken the men's changing room for the gym?  I stepped outside to check.  No.  It definitely said  "hotel gym and pool".  Odd.  

So I decided to ignore them and set myself to running and crying along with sob stories on CNN.  

Afterwards I thought again how unusual it is for people to know each other in a business hotel.  Seriously, when last did you go with your colleagues or clients to the basement hotel gym?

So I asked Reception what the story was with all these sporty guests.  He paused and blinked for a moment and said, 

"Have you heard of the All Blacks?"

o