Surviving is hard but oh so much fun (sometimes)
On Saturday 17 December Renaat Morel organized a great lunch for some friends, yes the chef celebrates his birthday too. He is the owner of the Morel’s Restaurant on Gongti Bei Lu, with his wife Susan.
I found him a real special red wine, from my collection:
CHATEAU SMITH HAUT LAFITTE 1947
GRAND VIN MARTILLAC
Happy birthday to our friend Renaat!
Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year, first with Rotaract having the last lunch at Kempinski before everyone disappears to celebrate the holidays, in Beijing or in the home country.
Rtn Wei presented a banner he had received from RC Baden-Baden Merkur.
Visiting Rtn Bjorn exchanged a banner with PE Russell.
Visiting Rtn Thibaud presented his club of Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. New club and no banner yet.
Rtn Didier was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by the club while he was away from China. It was to acknowledge his outstanding contribution towards club events. Rtn Gilbert has kept Didier’s certificate and finally passed it on to him to him.
As the Winter Ball had to be cancelled – not enough tickets sold – our Rotaractors held a “Social Night” at Legend Beer in the evening of Friday 16 December. We got a great deal at Legend Beer so that we went home, let’s say “pretty happy”.
Nice mix of Rotaractors and Rotarians, see here some of the happy participants.
On 29 November Our Club held its AGM in Johnnie Walker House near Qianmen. I visited the House earlier, see:
The Johnnie Walker House in Beijing: simply impressive, see previous post.
So I did not join the tour with the others.
Fifteen members attended thus ensuring the required quorum. The amendments to the club bylaws were approved unanimously. President and incoming board members 2017/18 were also elected:
President Russell B.
IPP Daniel R.
President Elect Martin G.
Secretary (position open)
Service Lucy M.
Foundation Jens H.
Membership Daniel A.
Treasurer Rene S.
Youth Sven H.
(pics provided c/o Rtn Lucy)
Ms. Paloma Sanchez donated a ring to the club for auction during our upcoming Ball on 25 February 2017.
The auction of three whiskeys donated by Johnnie Walker was a big success!
As speaker we had the Swiss Ambassador Dr. de Dardel on the topic of Innovation.
Ambassador de Dardel spoke about innovation in China and Switzerland. Ranking on top of innovative countries, Switzerland has always emphasized innovation with a view of improving people’s livelihood. China and Switzerland have established a cooperation in the field of innovation.
President Daniel R performed the induction of Aish K. who transferred from RC Shanghai.
Rtn Eli K. was made honorary member of our club in acknowledgement of his dedication and continuous support to the club.
Thanks to Rtn Eli for arranging the venue.
On 3 December the 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar was held again in Shuangjing. Proceeds for the Migrant Children Foundation (MCF) of our Rotarian Helen.
Great job Helen!See: http://mcfchina.org/
This 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar both Rotary Club of Beijing and our Rotaractors were present with a table.
Rotaract sold crafts that were handmade by the kids of MCF school. They raised over 2000 RMB.
Great job by our volunteers Julia, Peter, Vasko, Péha, Elaine, Yvonne and others.
On 7 December I visited the exhibit Beijing Tai Koo Li Fantastic Beasts, the promotion house for the movie.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. A prequel of the Harry Potter film series, the film was produced and written by J. K. Rowling, in her screenwriting debut, and inspired by her book of the same name. It is the first instalment in the Fantastic Beasts series, and the ninth overall in J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. (WIKIPEDIA)
The year is 1926, and Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident, were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
See the pics of the house inside and outside.
Pretty nicely done. As the master Wizard of the location I instructed my new students in the art of wizardry. And then my magic.
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The funny thing is: the clip is sent to your email address, all free of charge. But you can’t see it without a VPN… So downloaded it.