Saying Good-bye...

Working for the government means we'll be doing a lot of this over the course of Tony's career. This time it's Jacinta and Stu - she's finished her language study and now it's time to put it into action in Beijing! Tony appreciated her encouragement and advice while studying Chinese this past year... and we both appreciated the fact they didn't wear hard-soled shoes in their house - they lived directly in the apartment above us!

I guess there are two benefits to "farewells" - 1) you always get to have a good meal or party to commemorate the event, and 2) it means you'll know someone living in another city or country with space for visitors (hopefully)!

So this event was marked by a delicious Chinese meal at "Wind" -
too bad it had a namely effect on us afterward.


It was a nice evening for the language officers especially since they'd finished exams that day! What a relief!

A Formidable Force

Tony's "recreational joy" during his studies here has been playing basketball with his classmates. Despite thumb injuries, a sore back and achy knees, he's been determined to mix it up with the local boys. It's fun to watch him play, but even more fun to hear the stories for the rest of the evening. Though he'll admit he's starting to feel his age, it's great that he's got such a fun stress-relieving activity to balance out his hardcore study routine.

How do you guard someone this much bigger than you?

Obviously, you don't.