It has been quite a while since my last blogpost. A long while. A too long while to be honest. And after all these quiet months from my side I suddenly feel the urge to write a new post. And I feel it has to be a post about China and in more particular about Beijing, that used to be my home for 12 months. And now I am back to Europe and I want to close this very special Beijing chapter in my life with a post. But how to summarize a whole year in a blogpost? Since a picture … Continue reading
Queen’s Day is a the most important national holiday in the Netherlands where the whole country turns orange and everybody is celebrating “being Dutch”. And even here in Beijing Queen’s Day is a big thing! Yesterday the Dutch Association of Beijing organized a big party for the Dutch community and as a good imported Dutchie I was in on it! Plenty of Dutch snacks (you either love or hate them), Heineken beer, Dutch music (for the true Dutch among us: André Hazes’ look-alike was the surprise guest of the evening) and hundreds of Dutch expats (and partners) enjoying themselves and keeping up traditions many … Continue reading
After my last blogpost Welcome to Beijing I received the question if I didn’t have a culture shock when moving to China. I thought about it and I wouldn’t say I had a real culture shock…I guess it’s because I expected it to be so different. And of course, there are many differences, like there always are when you go to a new country, but that’s probably why traveling/moving is so exciting. I realize though that everybody has a special picture about China, so do/did I. To give you a better idea of how life looks like here I put together a list with … Continue reading
Can’t believe that it’s already 7 weeks ago that we arrived in Beijing! Time flies when you are moving to a new country! Everything is new, exciting, interesting. And yet Beijing already feels somehow home. We found a nice place to live, settled in successfully, met some great people, tasted some delicious food, checked out some cool places etc. In short, we had a smooth landing and are still enjoying the adventures of “discovering” things. It’s weird, because somehow Beijing is somehow so different from everything else I know and somehow so similar. I never expected it to be so … Continue reading
Can’t believe our adventure finally started! We are on our way to our new home, Beijing, with a beautiful stop over of 16 days in New Zealand. Months of preparation, filling in endless forms for our visa application, cancelling of contracts, packing etc. and now we are on our way!! And where could we recover and recharge our batteries from all the past stress and prepare for our new adventure better than in amazing New Zealand where everybody makes you feel so welcome and home, where nature is so magnificent and where the only disadvantage seems to be the long … Continue reading
I can’t believe this year is over. Everything went so fast and now it’s New Year’s Eve already. But before this year leaves us forever, I would like to grab the chance and stand still at it for a moment. The end of a year is always a good moment to analyze, look back and to determine the course for the coming year. In the beginning of this year I wrote a post about How to get most out of 2011 and set myself 10 goals for this year. It’s interesting to read them back now. And it’s even more interesting … Continue reading
Are you the type of person who has great ideas but who finds it hard to put them into practice? Do you lose focus easily? Would you like to get out more of yourself and your plans? I do, but I also know how tough it can be to keep going, especially if you are on your own. I believe that we are capable of much more if we receive ideas, advice and support from others. And with others I don’t necessarily mean a group of friends or family but a group of likeminded people – your own Mastermind Group … Continue reading
Today I briefly want to share with you two simple but powerful business approaches I’ve recently come across that have inspired me and will hopefully inspire you too to stick out from the mass and do things differently. Both ideas are about how to position your product in the wine industry but the idea behind it can be easily copied to other industries and sectors. The first idea comes from two entrepreneurs who have recently opened a new wine store in Amsterdam called Moments4Wine. Instead of arranging the wine bottles in their shop in a rather conventional way (based on … Continue reading
To me, the answer to this question is yes and no. YES, since being busy means we are active, and being active means we don’t stand still. And if we stand still, we don’t learn. NO, if we are busy in order to feel useful or reinforced by others. Unfortunately we live in a culture where we often measure success in contribution of time instead of measuring the actual outcome of our actions. “He has been so busy in the last couple of months with this project, he really deserves a raise”. Or “She is very busy lately so things … Continue reading
Do you recognize any of the two situations mentioned below? Situation 1: It is a new day with new opportunities. You are early and you are confident it will be a successful day for you. Before you start working on your “project”, you quickly check your emails to see if there is nothing urgent….and the next thing you know is that it is almost lunchtime. How could this happen? You are angry with yourself that you lost another morning by losing yourself in your inbox. Situation 2: You don’t want to miss anything. Therefore you check your emails a few times per … Continue reading
