Wi-fi Afterlife

Our friends Annette & Renzo and their son Max arrived this morning for a 10 day stay. Nice having people to stay: different conversations, gets us out & about, keeps us in touch with life back in Blighty... Took it easy first day - just an afternoon stroll through Chaoyang Park - which was eerily empty for a Saturday. Took us a while to realise that it's because most people are working or at school this weekend in advance of next week's Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping) festival.  

Tomb Sweeping Day, sees families remember their ancestors by laying out food at their graves and burning paper replicas of daily necessities such as clothes, money, cars,houses... and increasingly iPhones & iPads, complete with accessories like headphones. Good to stay in touch with the dearly departed, but alas it won't work for my mum - she never could master the mobile phone.

Today is a strange connection to my dad too. I am 51 years and 16 days old, precisely the age he died. So, if I make it to tomorrow, I'll have outlived him. A sobering, wistful thought...

But back to the land of the living: it's also my sister's birthday.Happy birthday Mary.