Family

Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox!

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

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The Chinese New Year – the lunar year of the “Earth Ox” – begins on Monday, January 26th 2009. The Earth Ox (there are four other types of Ox) is believed to be dependable, patient, methodical and calm. Ox persons are born in 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985. The Ox is a lover of stability, a great traditionalist and a homemaker.
Celebrations can continue for up to fifteen days until the full moon on the 9th February 2009 and include traditional customs such as discarding old things, spring-cleaning, getting a haircut, and repaying debts before New Year’s Day. Most important of all is the family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve. We are inviting family and good friends at our home for a relaxed evening of (lots of) food & drinks – we expect around 50 people of all possible nationalities.

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To all our readers and friends….

happyox_Yael

Gilbert and Sun (soon) on BTV1

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Journalists love us, probably because we are easy victims. Hopefully also in part because we are soooo good-looking.
Beijing TV came by to shoot a bit to prepare for a special show on “couples”. This week we’ll have to hop around in their studio, going to be one of those “fun” exercises that demand total brain switch off as it always takes lots of time and patience.


I had to come up with a “slogan” or better – according to Gilbert the sarcastic philosopher – with some deep thoughts on “successful marriage (in China)”. Here, in avant-première:

“A successful marriage is like a good dish of Sweet & Sour. You need to mix extremes, like Ying and Yang”

Valerie is calendar girl

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Hehe, Valerie starts competing with Daddie!

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As a volunteer she worked at the Beijing Emergency Center “120” during the Beijing Olympics, to help fielding calls from foreigners in distress, when the normal interpreters could not understand the heavily-accented English.

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Turned out she is now on the 2009 calendar of the 120 Service! (And so cute…)

Happy Birthday for me

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

What a relief! 2008 is buried and I hope its ghost will not haunt us (too) much.
My birthday was great. During the day I had my yearly “retreat”, bringing the much needed relaxation and meditation. Could hardly have been better.
In the evening the family went to Morel’s Restaurant (liang ma qiao lu), a very obvious and wise choice. Renaat Morel took good care of us, Sun and Valerie immediately opted for the “Belgian mussels” (imported from Japan – actually better than the Dutch one), I took the “small” special menu, emptied a bottle of champagne and we all went home STUFFED as Thanksgiving turkeys.


After watching HBO Spiderman Nr. ? (forgot, too much excitement), for the countdown to 24:00 we switched to the hilarious New Year’s Eve show on CCTV9, hilarious because of its silliness. The public seemed to be on a heavy dose of Valium. How can people wave like a slow-motion metronome with expressionless faces, listening to a great live performance of “Volare, Cantare”? It wasn’t better with the Chinese performers (the “Tibet” songs were probably done by fake Tibetans from Anhui), the audience seemed like counting the seconds they could go home.
In Beijing, you just invent fun. I had my last (?) cigar, emptied another Scotch bottle and we all went happy to bed.
Happy 2009!

The Wild Home Xmas Turkey Buffet Party

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

We organized one more great party in our not-so-small home/office. All office furniture was moved around to accommodate the far over 40 guests, a great mix of nationalities, Chinese being naturally in a majority. The foreign camp however beat them by emptying a countless amount of wine bottles, beer and 3 great bottles of champagne.
In the enthusiasm of the evening, someone lost an earring (no panties were found) and Peter lost one of his babies. The small one was immediately adopted by the Rotary Club of Beijing, comforted with Rotary Champagne and trained to be our performer for the next Gala Ball. The Board did not approve yet to auction the baby at that occasion.
The turkey was better than better and voted the most succulent in Asia. The newly appointed chef from Belgium (sponsored by Bencham) demonstrated his cutting expertise as well as  drinking and eating capabilities in front of enthusiastic female fans.
Some special demo in the kitchen attracted a mainly female audience. As minors could read this, we cannot be more specific.
The CAAC crew was later called in to check the flight capabilities of the airplanes and helicopters, after intense usage by curious kids, and after minor repairs all received their airworthiness certificate.


The empty bottles resulted in some guests ending up exhausted. To protect their identities we photoshopped their faces. (Where is Ginny?).
We say thanks to all our guests who made this a real fun evening! (And thanks for all the presents!). Also thanks to Charles Dukes & Ning Ning for their pics!
Gilbert survived his back problems with all the good liquid medicine.