2 years... a forgotten blog

I started this blog many years ago as a way to share my thoughts on life in Beijing. It was a way for me to remember the ups and downs of life in a country where I barely understood the language, and I a lot of time on my own. Yes Chinese is the common language but I was woefully unprepared. Twelve years of Chinese classes in Singapore wasn't much help when I couldn't figure out what a bus, taxi or market was called. And I mean the proper Chinese words for these things. Not the Singaporean Chinese translation of a Malay or English word.

So that's what this blog started as. It was a place to share recommendations for restaurants that I enjoyed; a place to stay connected with friends and share with them stories of places I get to visit in the course of my work and hopefully entice them to visit me in Beijing. 

The blogging stopped when we got home. I guess there's a sense of inertia being home, and there's so many commitments to keep. Slowly but surely we stopped going out to explore new places. It was either too hot, too far ( ironically, we would take 2hrs to get to the Great Wall for dinner) or too expensive to go out.  Without seeing the world, what experiences are there to share? Singapore is also such a very small place; anywhere you go and write about, chances are someone else in your circle of friends has already been there. More importantly, all your friends are right there in the same city as you. Isn't it just easier to try out a new restaurant together rather than blog about it for them to try later on?

That's partially why the blog has been forgotten in 2 years.I would like to try writing something occasionally, even if it's ever going to be for my eyes only.  I would like to be able to scroll through the blog years later and remind myself of the people I've met, places I've seen and odd situations I may get myself into.