As part of my preparation to return to work early next year, I have recently started the search for someone to look after my son full-time during the day. Being in Beijing, I don’t have the same network of family
Most women, if and when they can, love visiting the hairdresser, especially if the results are good. It’s usually a time to get pampered, and also get an update on the latest styles and gossip. During my last visit, I
I’ve recently celebrated my first anniversary of working in China, and I can wholeheartedly say it has been fantastic so far. In particular I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive and enthusiastic colleagues. To be very honest,
June is always a busy month for my family, as three of us have a birthday in the space of two weeks. Father’s day also takes place in June, and it’s also my husband and my wedding anniversary. There is
Before I arrived in Beijing, many friends warned me about one major issue: air pollution. They – and articles such as this in the UK’s Guardian newspaper – warned me so much that I had this idea that once I
As a relative newcomer to China, I do my best to read as much as I can of other people’s perspectives about China. One magazine I often enjoy is “World of Chinese”, a bi-monthly publication, helpfully written in English as
Throughout my career, I’ve worked in large organisations. And every single large organisation – from highly profitable businesses to multilateral institutions – goes through swings and cycles of “change processes”. The organisation I work in now, UNDP, has just gone
I’m entering into my fourth week here in Beijing, and one of the experiments I tried last weekend was to order a takeaway. I was tired from a very hectic week of meetings – that was my excuse anyway! But
A few days ago I arrived in Beijing to begin a new job as deputy country director for UNDP China. In this job, I’ll be heading a team that advises the Chinese government and other Chinese counterparts such as businesses
Chinese and African construction teams work together on a development project in Angola. Picutre: Dieter Telemans/Panos Anyone following my Twitter account will have noticed that I’ve recently developed a strange obsession with all things China. China even featured in my
My primary school had some quite strong incentives to drive up performance. Every end of term, our teachers would test us and rank my classmates and I against each other. It was the extremes that mattered – top and bottom.
Did you know that Wikipedia had several predecessors? According to this article, there were plenty, but one of the main reasons they didn’t become as well known was because they didn’t explicitly relate themselves to a product that people already knew
About a year ago, I experienced one of the hardest working days of my life. It was the first day I chaired a meeting of a new 20-ish person taskforce on green growth and poverty reduction. It sounds odd and
