19 the heat and the pilotcourses

19. june 24 2211 hs. This afternoon I arrived from Beijing after my 8th visit to this glorious city.
Anne collected me at the airport, looking gorgeous. Had a traditional coffee at the sidebar on the
way to the Parking Lot. In Zaltbommel we had diner at the Verdraagzaamheid, ribeye for me and beef for Anne, to empower herself after the great Lectric party of Yesterday, the party I regret I could not visit. I did my best and also Vera did but I really couldnt redirect my fligth so
I had to stay in Beijing in the night Jan Hein and Sjoerd and hundreds of colleagues of Lectric celibrated the 10th anniversary of Lectric, that daring and good enterprise I co founded 10 years ago. A pity. But thats life...Instead my last nigth in Beijing I had a glorious diner in a
restaurant in the South, having fresh made dumplings- behind the glasswall you could see a dozen hygienical clad girls filling and folding them. After that a long talk outside Starbucks. Sweet.
The last week Beijing was dominated by a deep heat. Happily the Airco in the office could produce an agreable temperature of 27 degrees C. Outside 40 C. In the mornings streets are sprayed with water. Many girls walking with parasols, because they dont want the tan- even using bleaching creme. Through Ad Nederloff I met Rita and she doesnt care about getting a tan. She
introduced me at Yoga, but not the indian one: a blend of tai chi kung fu. So standing before a huge mirror I had to face the factsthat I -though strong- am a very stiff tree, compared with her and her instructorfriend who also could be watched in that same mirrow. Yes it was good, for getting the rest at will and also it was good as a lesson in humility. That graciousness of those women!
The trip was very usefull. Dong Yan and colleagues Xiao, Chelsea, Echo and Shufeng had organized 3 pilotcourses, to test our approach. Completely new to the 2 x 30 and 1x 45 attendants, but highly wanted. by them. Experiential learning of the kind Schouten&Nelissen deliverd, is asked for.Great. Now we can build the courses and bring them to the market: good and at the same time cheap courses associated with the required certificates. And there was a succesful introduction for 28
attendants for our Course Train the Trainer. It was a surprise to experience that attendants
like to be addressed in english, but at the same time we are sure that Chinese trainers are needed. So we train them. The credits for this succes should go to all involved, but especially to
Dong Yan, who "filled"the courses and our trainers Tineke Kanters and Caroline.
To me it was a good trip. I had interviews with candidates for different posts, but no one
suitable. Pity. We decided to make "finding the manager" top priority and that means one in a higher salarysegment. Good.We made a contract with Met Press, the publisher for bringing out in Chinese a selection of books of Thema. Good. But is is my destiny and capability to look ahead and thereare many poroblems to be solved, and they will be solved: finding a top manager, adjusting the marketing plan, highspeed design of courses etc etc. We entered a new phase.

And there is of course California. I asked"what is happiness to you?' to K, a high ranking commercial manager and to C, her Colleague. K: she is is long girl, expressive face. "My family
she said. My husband." Gleaming eyes. But C said: "dont ask that question. When you aware
of that, it certainly is to late-things already are bad." Oh they all do really honor there family. Completely aware of the sacrifices parents made to send the children to school. Parents of 60
experienced the in the west highly applauded Big Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. And Survived. Heroes. As Rita explained: when employing some one, choose the one between 23 and older, because they know what poverty and working mean and from their parents they learned that succes, food, money never is a certainty.

This is what a friend told me. She was going to marry. But 3 months before the fixed date she
discovered that her future husband had a longlasting love relation with another woman. The man had a business with giga cashproblems. And his lover who loved him was rich and helped him out with money. So he went on with that affair. No marriage. Money love killer.

Ad Nederloff told me this and I could check his story by means I wont reveal. "Recently I met a
60 year old friend a gentle man , in need for a a long lasting relationship. A couple of days later I had a meeting with a beautiful 26 year old and explained to her the situation of the friend. I asked her: "would you consider marrying that guy, so much older?"
"Yes, she said, why not. I should of course need some time to get to know him, but
why not'?
And to put a halt to my amazement, Ad confronted me with the researched facts from american studies that arranged marriages last so much longer and are so much more satisfying to both partners. But there is always money involved."

So while writing these lines in my House at the Lake it comes to my mind to write a new Chhinese short story and start it with this line :

Not very long after his sixtieth birthday Peter Nieman decided to buy a Chinese woman and marry her. The words "not very long"need to be specified
of course etc etc

"Remember," I tell my self, "everybody reading these lines will kill you. But before that fatal moment I hope to get the opportunity to utter some last words:......that you never can buy someone nowadays without she buying you....that in Holland- that great merchant country- most marriages are based on this very contract...."
But I dont think my point of view stands a chance. Moreover I first have to finish my novel, some painstaking weeks still...