08_08_08 (Beijing, China)

Hallo

Yes, I was there. In Beijing on the day of the opening ceremony. And we met judges and opening participants on our flight and the spirits were high. Even though the weather in China was very misty, we organized a tour to the Great Wall, which gave it a mystical effect;) After being physically attacked by hawkers afterwards, we went for lunch and then our tour guide offered us a free tour to the Tea Garden. Here we were taught how to drink and taste tea as it were 20yr old whiskies. There is a certain way you hold the cup and things you do and sounds you make while sipping. It was a lot of fun, funny

We drove passed the Olympics Stadium, which I thought was a stunning design (but what do I know) and we saw new area expansions which are called the Olympic area, including new buildings - one of them called the Olympic Torch building.

During our flight there was a lot of amazement and enthrallment as we flew over the mountains of Pakistan, bordering China (when I googled it, it came out to be the Karakoram mountains - not entirely sure about this). These mountains are really gorgeous. Brought me right back to fond memories of flying over mountains from Leh to Delhi (the Himalayan mountains)

And another excitement is our move to our new Head Quarters (HQ) and Crew Briefing Center (CBC) (crew tend to talk in abbreviation mode at all times, haha). It is a huge building with lots of things going on. It feels futuristic with all the thumb scanning, card readings, announcements on big screens (from where the bus is picking who up, to where your suitcase will be coming out) and a lot more superb organizing. This company amazes me with it's operations.

Anyhoo, this is it for now. Got a lot of flying this month.

I hope you are all doing great and loving yourselves
Looking forward to hearing from you

Huggies,

A