The New Beachhutman Blog

The next few weeks are going to suffer from Christmas effect. You know Christmas effect? Yes you do. You know, when in the approach to Christmas everytihng has to be "done". The whole of December descends into an utter chaos of visits, meetings, journeys and proposals to send out. There's no real explanation, Christmas is not an unexpected event, it happens every year.  But for some reason, there's always a deadline panic.

I get Christmas effect about three times a year, as I stay out here 90- days at a time, and have to pop out of the country to meet visa requirements. Usually these coincide with courses we are running outside China, but on this occasion the course is running in China in the 3 weeks before I leave on the 25th October. It starts Monday, so the weekend will be a flurry of trainers arriving, people to meet, welcoming, and logistics chaos.

But today I am off to meet  an old friend who is out for the course, and that, as these things always do in Beijing, involves a lot of leaping into and out of cabs.