Archive for November, 2008

Trip to Holland off to a bad start

November 2008 was not really my month. It started with getting a cold early in the month and a few days after that my failure to finish the 100 km Trailwalker race. Then I got really sick for about two weeks, with a bad cold that turned into a double ear infection because I kept on working and even went running on Tianmashan before I was healthy again. I am still taking medicine for that actually, especially because flying is not the best thing to do while having an ear infection. Last Friday's...
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Pregnancy complications

Late yesterday afternoon I was in my office having a meeting with our HR manager when my mobile rang. The caller was Gary's assistant telling me that something was wrong with my wife and that I had to come over immediately. My office is just 10 minutes from Tudou, so I rushed over. Upon arrival I found my wife laying on a camping bed on the ground, surrounded by colleagues. Turns out that she had bad stomach pains, suddenly got dizzy and then sort of passed out. When I was there she was...
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Scott turns 11 months old and can now walk!

Today our little boy Scott turned 11 months old and exactly today he started to walk without help. My wife shot a few video's to prove it to me. Scott has already been walking for a while (he sort of skipped crawling actually), but so far he had been afraid to walk if nobody would hold his hand. I look forward to going home tonight so Scott can show off his walking skills to me as well!Some more video's of Scott taken over the past few weeks you can find here on Tudou:...
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Elevated walkways in Pudong under construction

This afternoon I walked from the AdTech conference to the SuperBrand Mall for a quick lunch, when I noticed the construction of the elevated walkways (see here for an earlier blog post about the walkways). The construction probably already started a couple of months ago, but I hardly ever go to Pudong, let alone walk around there, so I did not see the structure before.Getting around on foot in the Pudong Lujiazui area is difficult and dangerous (because of the traffic), so these walkways will...
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And that's two: another Dunkin' Donuts shop in Shanghai

Exactly one week ago Dunkin' Donuts opened its first shop in Shanghai on Fuzhou Lu, and I have since had their donuts three times already. From now on I will take it a bit easier, but after years without good donuts I felt I deserved it :)It will not be easy to stay away from Dunkin' though, because their second shop seems to be ready to open: this afternoon I drove on Xizang Nan Lu (Tibet South Road), where I noticed another outlet of Dunkin' Donuts. The location: on Xizang Lu/Huaihai Lu on...
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Tianmashan – the most beautiful and highest hill in Shanghai

I am not sure if I should blog about this or not, but I found the best place in Shanghai to go for a hike or a walk. The place is Tianmashan (roughly translated as heavenly horse mountain), a hill about 8 km away from the much more famous Sheshan. Even though I have been living in Shanghai for many years and I am always looking for good outdoor places to run I had never been here!Tianmashan is exactly 100 meters high, so not a real mountain. But it's the highest hill in the whole of flat...
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Nothing happens in the suburbs

A couple of months ago I left downtown Shanghai and I now live in the suburbs of the city. To be precise, close to the old Hongqiao village in Minhang district. I always thought nothing happens in the suburbs, but now that I am paying a bit more attention to what's going on in Minhang I take that back. Just today's paper already had two articles with scary things going on in my current district.First, a 5-month old baby was kidnapped from its own house while the mother was home. Baby kidnapping...
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Spil Games Asia at Ad:Tech Shanghai 25-26 November

Next week Ad:Tech Shanghai will take place, a conference and exhibition about online marketing and advertising. For the first time Spil Games Asia will also have its own booth here. If you want to talk with me or one of my colleagues about advertising possibilities on one of our online game sites in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines or Japan feel free to drop by at booth 19. Also if you have any casual gaming cooperation ideas you would like to discuss with me you can find me at...
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A 'cold' weekend

It seems the upcoming cold that had been hanging around me for the past 3 weeks finally managed to hit me in full force. The cold suddenly turned from quite innocent to pretty nasty, which is a major headache (both literally and figuratively). The fact that I had a flu shot does not make any difference to this virus.It started Thursday night during drinks at M1NT with the China Web 2.0 crowd. During the evening my legs felt more and more tired, and I first thought that was because I had done a...
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Chinglish almost leads to a fight

The Shanghai Daily regularly has small articles that make me laugh. Today's paper contained another nice piece: a Chinese man, Mr. Liu, was walking around Shanghai's Wusong port yesterday morning when he encountered a couple of foreign sailors. His English was quite poor but he still wanted to greet them in English, and by mistake said: "Hi gays!".The sailors grabbed Mr. Liu and demanded an explanation. Because Mr. Liu had no idea what he had done wrong and did not speak enough English to...
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Want to get married in Shanghai? You may have to wait until 2010

The Shanghai Daily had an interesting story today in its paper version. It turns out that most good wedding venues in Shanghai are fully booked on weekends and holidays until 2010. The reason according to the local paper is a surge in weddings next year because many people postponed their wedding plans after the Sichuan earthquake in May. Honestly, that sounds a bit strangy to me. The earthquake certainly had a big impact for a few weeks and maybe some couples postponed their wedding, but not...
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Thoughts after the Trailwalker

It's Sunday morning in Hong Kong and in a few hours I will fly back to my family in Shanghai. I am sitting in my hotel room after a night mainly thinking what went wrong during the Trailwalker. Right after the Trailwalker I slept very well because I was so tired and feeling sick. But on Saturday morning I woke up and felt pretty good again. I did not have much muscle ache, just some serious blisters on my feet. To me the fact that I felt fine was not a good sign. Did I give up too easily? I...
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Hong Kong Trailwalker 2008: No finish for me…

Today I participated in the Hong Kong Trailwalker. I trained very hard for it, changed my diet over the past 2 months (more veggies, hardl any meat), stopped drinking alcohol, and drastically reduced my coffee intake. I don't think I have ever been in a better shape than I am at the moment. But it seems it all did not help, because I had to pull out of the race after 52 kilometers.The day started off well, we were early at registration and were at the front of the starting grid when the...
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100 km Trailwalking, 100% against poverty – sponsor team 140!

Tomorrow's 100 km Oxfam Trailwalker is not only a physical challenge, it is also an event to help people get out of poverty. All proceeds from the Trailwalker will go to Oxfam, that since its start in 1976 has assisted millions of poor people with among others schooling, health care and water. Our team will raise at least HKD 27,000 this year for Oxfam and I hope you or your company is willing to sponsor me for the event as well. There is now also a special page on the Hong Kong Trailwalker...
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Team 140: the Trailwalker start is coming closer!

Three days from now my team mates and I will be in the middle of the Trailwalker Race already. I am normally quite confident, but facing a 100 km mountain race for the first time in my life is making me a little worried. Over the past days I have not been feeling 100% well, a bit of sneezing, coughing, feeling tired etc. But by not doing any sports and taking regularly Chinese medicine I hope to be completely fit again at the start line. Maybe it's all related to the race, I don't know, but I...
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