Old China Hands 4 August

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Good turnout

Our previous lunch had only 15 people, so I feared our Old China Hands 4 August lunch would be similar. Well. happy to say we were 24, a great turnout as many are still travelling.
Food of Morel’s Restaurant was great as you can see in the pictures, Renaat was still in Belgium but he does keep a VERY close eye on what’s going on! He sent me two pics he took from the restaurant CCTV cameras, he can watch it in his mobile.

So this time I am in two pics for once.

Next lunch

Next lunch planned for Friday 1 September. Let’s cross fingers for a bigger crowd!
For our lunch Susan was already back from her Europe trip. Renaat is back on 6 August.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I got the book!

As I mentioned earlier with some details, the the book “Home Is Where The Heart Is” came out and I got a few hard copies.

Right now no idea how one can buy a copy, while a price of RMB130 (TBC) has been mentioned.
It’s not yet on Amazon (expected soon) nor Taobao and the bar code does not work as for now. Seems Graham Earnshaw might get involved, he is well-known and also has a publishing company. I met him many years ago when he was talking about his walk from Shanghai to Tibet. That would be interesting!
Anybody interested contact me directly.

The contributors

As mentioned earlier, see here again who talks about their China story.

Mark, Raja, Terry and myself are members of the “Old China Hands Monthly lunch”; I know personally Michael (and his mother!) and Volker.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

The term is actually well known, it’s also a song (Elvis Presley and others), an American movie (1987), a TV miniseries (2022) and a book on Amazon with the same title by Ilse Crawford.

See here some details:

Home Is Where the Heart Is, a TV Mini Series (2022)
A privileged young lawyer, Jane becomes a reluctant champion of the vulnerable when she partners up with Arif, a cynical yet compassionate social worker to take on pro-bono cases of the less fortunate.
Creators: Kai Xiang Chang and Kenny Tan; Stars: Naomi Yeo – Fauzie Laily – Mathialagan

Home Is Where the Hart Is, a 1987 American film starring Leslie Nielsen

Many different versions: “Home Is Where the Heart Is”, see here details.

Belgian National Day in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Yes on 21 July

For many years Belgian National Day in Beijing was shifted to 15 November, King’s Day because of the summer holidays. A lunch reception was rather for the diplomats, we attended the evening reception along with some 120 Belgians and friends. The weather was threatening the fun, the embassy put a big tent on the patio, good idea as it rained the whole day till late afternoon. It was all in the residence, next to the new embassy that is nearing completion.

It was also the farewell of Ambassador Dr. Jan Hoogmartens and other staff of the embassy. We will all miss them, they were our support during the depressing COVID years.
The new ambassador is said to arrive in Beijing very soon.

Good food, beer and more

We were treated with great Belgian goodies, Belgian fries, Brussels waffles, delicious buffet by Morel’s Restaurant and lots of Belgian beers.
The mystery machine in pic 07 is an authentic Brussels waffle machine.
The ambassador opened the Methuselah Chimay bottle, yes 6 liters! I gave it a try (of course). Happy to discover two new beers for my collection, see pic 13.

Learn more about Belgium

Check this interesting article: “30 things I’ve learned about Belgium in 30 years”.
The Brussels Times 1 June 2023

 

DiDi app updated

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

App not in my Apple Store

As mentioned earlier the app is not available on my Belgian App Store.

The weird but nice thing is, the app is regularly updated anyway! If I click more info, oh no, app is not available… but I manage to see somehow the details of the update.
So once you have it – it stays active.
See two recent updates and the versions received.

Old China Hands 7 July

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

After the COVID years…

Many of members were traveling in China and the world so our lunch Old China Hands 7 July had only 15 people. Many left for the first time since a few years due to COVID. We expect the next lunch lunch on 4 August to be the same, most are away for July and August.

But we still had a great lunch and chat. The food by Renaat Morel’s team, delicious as always.

Home is Where the Heart is

A book is coming out very soon, telling the China stories of several of our members: Mark Levine, Raja Magasweran, Terry Crossman and yes myself. I also know well most of the other contributors.

The book is the work of New Star Press with Chen Shuo the talented reporter who skillfully wrote my story. The book is to be published in USA by Waymont International Publishing House with the title “Home is Where the Heart is”.
See another book it published “I Grew up in China” :230210 growingup and the announcement of our book: 230210 Wheretheheartis,

A bit weird but The U.S. publishing company cannot be found on the Internet…
I already have the full PDF of the book and I made a PDF of only my part, 33 pages with many of my pictures.
Except for one single sentence (no details!) the text is absolutely correct.
Now waiting for the hard copy!