After a rather hectic work week I was totally fed up with work on Friday evening. Most of the time I really like my work, but sometimes you hit these periods that it’s a bit difficult to motivate yourself. Coincidentally, Spill Group Asia had planned a karaoke evening with the whole team, and that was a good way to unwind a bit and ‘sing’ the stress out of me. Several of our former colleagues also joined, something that would not happen quickly in Holland, and we had a nice crowd in our private karaoke room. Thijs and I made fools of ourselves of course, because we were the only ones without any singing talent, but that’s part of the fun. The best part was when we loudly sang a song, and only afterwards found out that they microphone had been turned off by one of our colleagues… Pictures of the evening can be seen here.

Saturday morning I felt a bit better, and I went through my emails. But after an hour or so I had enough of it, and decided to quit working for the weekend. Normally I spend at least several hours behind my laptop on both Saturday and Sunday, but I think I am going to change my working habits. From now on I might check my mail, but I am not going to spend much time working on weekends anymore. Just enjoy the days off, do some sports, study Chinese and spend time with my wife (and very soon with our first baby!). Let’s see how long I can keep this up.

We had a pre-natal class on Saturday, and that’s where we spent 6 (!) hours. Quite interesting though, learned lots of things about the final stage of pregnancy, the birthing procedure and about taking care of a newborn baby. I never knew that you might have to change diapers up to 12 times a day… And breastfeeding is not a 3 times per day affair, but will happen every two hours or so. Also fun to meet other couples that will give birth around the same time, and listen to their (quite similar) stories.

After pre-natal class we did some shopping in Grand Gateway, I made one business phone call (was already planned before), and then turned off my phone to watch a DVD. We started watching ‘Lust, Caution’ (Se, Jie), Ang Lee’s newest blockbuster that was released this week. But we got the censored Mainland China version, so stopped watching after about 15 minutes. We’ll watch the rest when the Hong Kong version is available in our DVD shop. We then watched the beginning of Walt Disney’s Ratatouille, before preparing some dinner. During dinner we watched the rest of the movie, which was actually quite entertaining. The story line was fun, and the animation was extremely well done.

At night I met up with Gary and Yang Lei (and later also Tudou.com colleague Michael and his wife) for a few beers in the new Blue Frog in Xujiahui (Tianyaoqiao Lu/Xingeng Lu). I did not stay too long, because I was still tired of the week, and was in bed by midnight.

On Sunday morning we slept in, had a small breakfast and then went to check out Gymboree on Huaihai Lu. After that my wife went for brunch with some INSEAD friends, and I went to Hong Kong Plaza computer mall. Did not see anything interesting, so decided to walk over to Xintiandi to have a coffee and a poached egg sandwich. And that’s where I am sitting now, outside on the terrace, watching the crowds walk by. Very relaxed. And no more emails until tomorrow!

On Beijing’s famous Silk Market you see mainly foreigners buying fake brand name clothing. Most of them are tourists, who know the place from their guide books, or who are even taken to the fake market in tour groups. But also expats are a big group of buyers, especially the ones that are still relatively new to China. The Silk Market opened 22 years ago, and is still going strong, although the location was changed in 2004 from the small cosy alley behind its current location to a big new building without any atmosphere. I admit that I also used to buy products there when I was still living in Beijing. But somehow it feels weird to wear fakes and I prefer to buy the real stuff now. The quality of the originals seems to be better, and wearing something like a fake watch feels very cheap (but it’s a good way to test if you like the watch, I bought at least one real watch after trying the fake one out for a few days).

In Shanghai the famous Xiangyang market was closed last year June, and most of the stalls moved to different locations in the city. The vibe that the Xiangyang market had on a Saturday afternoon is gone, however. Even on weekends it’s not very busy in the new locations, such as the Yatai Xinyang market below the Science and Technology Museum in Pudong. Did people quietly decide to switch to real products, or is it just that they do not know how to find the new locations? Whatever the reason, it seems closing the market was a good way to fight pirated clothing, bags and watches.

And not only Shanghai, but also Beijing is doing something against fake clothing it seems. This time it’s not the government that removes a market or punishes traders, but the Intermediate People’s Court. According to the Shanghai Daily, this week The North Face won a trademark infringement lawsuit against the owner of the Silk Market (This place has an owner? I always assumed the building was owned by the government). But the damages awarded were not that impressive, just USD 5300. However, I think this ruling is significant because it shows China is starting to do something. It is actually already the second law suit that the Silk Market lost, because in September Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada won a joint lawsuit that awarded the companies about USD 2500 each. Is this the beginning of the end for fake clothes in China, or are these just exceptions to the rule that nobody really cares?