New arrival and heating

As some of you have commented our frequency of posting has dropped dramatically of late. Or to read it another way just plain stopped! We have not left Beijing for home but have in fact just had our first child, Baby Alexander Ying Bolton. This good news obviously comes with the cost of being very busy learning to be parents so be patient, we will keep posting eventually!

One topic which we are getting used to here is the heating. Basically it is centrally controlled so we have no say in when it kicks in, or indeed to turn it off if there is a warm day. Right now it is pretty cold but since it has been decided that warmth will only arrive in two days time we are snuggling up at night when it is a bit nippy. We tried explaining to a local the concept of piping gas to a house and then generating the heat there as and when the tenants needed it but this was literally a foreign concept. Much confusion arose with basically the question of why? dominating the proceedings.