This day, 6 April, 1963, the first Chinese medical team departed by train for Algeria, fulfilling international humanitarian obligations. Since then, batches of Chinese medical teams have...
Of course it’s not reasonable to expect commemoration or contemplation.
The “Great War” was concluded more than a century ago. How can I expect “the eleventh day of the eleventh month” to resonate somewhere so far away from where the Armistice was signed?
Yes, China was the non-European nation which committed most men to that war, with real casualties and real costs. It’s a story that needs telling, one which may one day receive more airing. But those events are too far away to claim such as exclusive calendar slot in...
We’d bought quite a nice one, actually.
It had made sense because we were only the second people ever to have lived in that apartment. Everything was very modern and sleek in there, though it was also restrictively small.
We’d previously satisfied ourselves with cheap water dispensers, usually in the ghastly blue and white of those tracksuit high school uniforms (when will these trends end?).
This time, we’d plumped for something black and dark gold, something like real furniture. Tall, free-standing. Space for paper cups down there.
When we moved again, it came...
No matter how much we enjoy a thing, it’s not enough; our enjoyment seeks validation.
Imagine a friend gave us a new DVD, but without introducing it. It’s blown us away. What a film! We’ve lingered over the credits, and, well, we’re now just one click away from checking the review on Rotten Tomatoes. But why would we read a review now?
Because we desperately want to see our opinion echoed in a forum higher than our own heads. Secretly, we want to see opinions like ours validated in the highest...
If there’s one food that’s emblematic of everyday indulgence, that’s chocolate.
Delicious for most of us yet inextricably connected with fat, sugar (and caffeine, if you’re worried about that).
When my 4-year old daughter went for her second tooth-filling last month, the obvious culprit was chocolate. Yes, we are raising her in Shanghai, the saccharine city. And, yes, I should have instilled and enforced better brushing. But, rightly or wrongly, it was her fondness for chocolate that received the headline blame.
Dear readers, there may among you be some attempting to quit...
