For the last few weeks in Shenzhen we’ve been experiencing bouts of torrential rain almost daily and when you add to this the occasional typhoon then you’re in for a fun ride. As an Englishman I’m not usually caught without an umbrella but on the odd occasion I do forget there’s not much to do but find shelter.
I was having lunch at Jin Yue Xuan 金悦轩 dim sum restaurant in Futian (Shenzhen) recently when I noticed something unusual out of the corner of my eye; all the chefs were women. The world of professional cooking is traditionally dominated by men, you only have to look at the celebrity chefs on TV to see the unequal proportions, and in China even more so.
It had turned into a bit of a running joke that every time I planned to visit Japan in the past few years I have somehow been diverted to China or Korea – but no longer – after many false starts I’ve finally booked a return flight to Tokyo for 1 week at the end of the month (Sept 29 – Oct 6)!
Last night I finally saw Inception in the cinema (it only came out this week in China). Like most people I was blow away by the ingenious complexity of the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream storyline and immediately sat down with a pen and paper to try to work it all out. Below is my attempt to visualise the various levels of the storyline (SPOILER warning):
I turned twenty-six a couple of weeks ago and find myself at a bit of a crossroads – as the saying goes, every beginning has an end and every end is a new beginning, but it’s not always clear which way to turn when faced with life-changing decisions. I don’t usually get introspective here but today I want to share with you a couple of stories from my formative years which had a lasting impact on my life today…