Ten Years of One Seconds
I’m just about to reach the ten-year anniversary of moving to mainland China. The realisation that I’ve lived over a fifth of my life here is… sobering. But what it also means is that there’s another milestone to record: ten whole years of daily one-second videos. That’s 3,653 seconds, over an hour of one-second diary entries. (And yes, that means there were three leap years: 2016, 2020 and 2024). I Benjamin Button-ed it and put the whole thing in reverse (and on speed). It’s impossible to watch, I’m just posting it here for posterity.
It started on a solitary walk in Hong Kong, I listened to a podcast interview with the founder of an app called 1 Second Everyday and decided to download it and record my first video. That was 10th October 2015.
2015
I thought I would use the app simply to record my gradual transition between living in Hong Kong and Shanghai. According to the paperwork, my residency in Shanghai officially started in October, but I counted my flight from Hong Kong on 13th Dec 2015 as my first day in Shanghai. (That’s why these annual compilations always start on Dec 13th).
2016-2017
For these next couple of years, I continued using the app, capturing my life as an international headhunter. My life was in Shanghai, but I spent over a third of my time overseas.
2018-2019
After stepping back from my company, I started studying Chinese and also launched a podcast. I see these as the years during which I finally integrated properly into life in Shanghai.
2020-2022
The COVID years were sometimes tough, but you couldn’t ask for a better education about how China works. The podcast continued, and I also completed a Masters in Chinese Philosophy.
2023-2024
The post-COVID “PTSD years”. Still enjoying life in Shanghai, but now with a slight sense of dislocation, and with eyes to setting plans for the future.
Of these 3,653 seconds, 2,902 were in my home city (the first 40 while home was Hong Kong, then 2,862 in Shanghai), and 751 were from travels. So a fifth of my time - or, a full two years out of ten - were spent traveling away from home. That’s a bit of a shock. 3,004 seconds were in mainland China, and the next five places were USA (157), Hong Kong (95), Japan (62), UK (52) and Singapore (49). There are altogether 42 territories represented, in this order: 🇭🇰🇨🇳🇬🇧🇸🇬🇺🇸🇲🇽🇰🇷🇮🇳🇯🇵🇦🇹🇬🇷🇵🇷🇻🇮🇰🇳🇦🇼🇨🇼🇻🇬🇨🇦🇹🇭🇦🇪🇧🇭🇰🇼🇶🇦🇴🇲🇪🇸🇮🇩🇱🇧🇹🇷🇬🇪🇦🇲🇲🇲🇧🇩🇫🇮🇪🇪🇦🇺🇨🇿🇲🇹🇵🇹🇲🇻🇳🇱🇸🇦🇮🇹.
But my favourite seconds are not the ones from traveling, they’re the ones that capture life’s daily contrasts. Frenetic activity and blissful inactivity; loud celebration and quiet mourning; illnesses and accidents; adventures and misadventures… just the regular cycle of life, in tiny snapshots. They also chart the relationships: old relationships, new relationships, and now disappeared relationships. Social media has become more vile over these last ten years, but I have made an effort to continue using it for conscious connectivity. I hope the reason you’re reading this is that you feel the same.
It’s not just a video diary, the project now helps shape my lifestyle. I try to live life in the moment, waking up to the promise of a new adventure. Getting out of my own head, and continuing to keep curious about the world. Saying yes to experiences out of the house, even when my happy place is sitting on the couch next to my husband.
But more than that, it has become a gratitude project. I often take the time to look back at these compilations, to appreciate what I’ve done rather than constantly trying to chase the next novelty. I will always be that chaser. But I’ve realised through this project that happiness isn’t in the pursuit of the next glass of wine. Happiness is in the realisation that your glass is already full. 🍷
For the Facebook version, see here.
For the YouTube version, see here.
Six Doors Away
I lived six doors away from this boy until the age of 18. He had a ginger cat called Rex who could climb up the wallpaper with his claws, but not climb down again. We played Sonic the Hedgehog on his Sega Mega Drive. He had a little sister called Suhasini, who liked Boyzone. Their house smelt like chai latte. My house smelt like pork goulash. At mine we played Monopoly and Scrabble: here’s photographic evidence from August 1993 - I was already 16 years old but still looked 12. I wasn’t very popular at school. I can’t speak for Amrish, but I don’t think he was either. So it was good to have a default buddy to fall back on when we had nothing else to do at the weekend. I remember one day spending eight hours at the North Harrow Superbowl. They must’ve had a special summer daytime deal, we bowled until our fingers were raw. Otherwise I remember mostly going to the St. Ann’s Shopping Centre in Harrow-on-the-Hill. We watched movies and bought electronics and cheap clothes.
Then we didn’t see eachother for the next thirty years. We kept in touch electronically, and shared a passion for travel. Out of the blue I got an invite to his wedding. I was amazed and touched to receive it. I knew I probably couldn’t go, since I had no plans to be in London at that time. So I sent an immediate reply to apologise. But then I realised… there was actually nothing stopping me making the trip. And so here I am. This is the reason for my trip. I want to celebrate Amrish’s wedding to Anna. And I want to thank him for being an old friend.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
Classic Jacket Potato
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. This year we eschewed the fancy restaurants and opted for a cosy evening at home. We made jacket potatoes, to remind us of a classic meal we made many times during the food-scarce days of the Shanghai lockdown. (And also because Americans find it kinda hilarious that British people call baked potatoes “jacket potatoes”.) 🧥🥔
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
Milestone Anniversary
5 years married. 💍💙
We celebrated the day by picking pu’er tea in the hills of Xishuangbanna, the area where China borders Myanmar and Laos. More photos/videos to come..!
For the Facebook version, see here.
15 Years and an International Border
In 2006 I was in Tajikistan, travelling on the Pamir Highway as part of a 2-month trip through Central Asia.
This week a group of us have flown to the far West of China to travel down the Karakoram Highway, which hugs the border with Tajikistan on its way to Pakistan.
There are 15 years and an international border separating these two photos. But otherwise... not much difference!
For the Facebook version, see here.
A Symbol of Hope
On January 20th, I instagrammed a photo from the Shanghai Disney Resort. By January 24th, the park was closed, and it would remain so for over 100 days.
Today, it is the first Disneyland resort in the world to reopen, with reduced capacity and a slew of extra density control, screening and sanitation measures.
If ever the world needed an image that symbolises the hope of a scrupulously planned road to recovery, then the time is now and this is it.
The first episode of the Mosaic of China podcast was with Philippe Gas, who was the President and General Manager of the Shanghai Disney Resort. Despite my newbie technical errors, it’s still one of my favourite interviews of the season. Let’s hope Philippe’s philosophy of positivity and international cooperation will be another message of encouragement for the future.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
For the Mosaic of China version, see here.
Biscuits For Everyone!
One of these is a photo from today in Niseko. It’s my first time skiing in 4 years.
The second is a video from 4 years ago. I was waking up from heavy sedation after ACL reconstruction surgery, following a dumb accident that happened the last time I went skiing.
It’s good to be back... BISCUITS FOR EVERYONE!!!
Who's That Boy?
I first stepped foot in Asia exactly 20 years ago, for a one-year adventure teaching English in Western Japan. The boy in this photo is still on his adventure.
私はちょうど20年前にアジアに足を踏み入れました，西日本で英語を教える1年間の冒険でした。この写真の中の少年はまだ冒険中です。
20年前，我第一次踏上亚洲，在日本西部进行为期一年的英语教学。这张照片中的男孩还在冒险。
Did That Really Happen?
Today marks exactly 10 years since I somehow completed the RacingthePlanet 250km ultra-marathon through the deserts of Namibia. With a finishing time of 46 hours, 7 minutes and 35 seconds, I came 50th out of over 200 competitors.
Since then I have spent the last decade celebrating by lying on the couch eating pies.
For the Facebook version, see here.
For the Instagram version, see here.
Today I Bid a Final Farewell to ChapmanCG
It has been just over a decade since we started The Chapman Consulting Group in Singapore. It is now the largest organisation of its kind in the world, with senior HR appointments in 69 countries, and over 110,000 executive HR leaders in its global network. Playing a part in this trajectory has been by far the most rewarding professional achievement of my life, and I owe a huge debt of thanks to Matt, to past and present members of the amazing ChapmanCG team, and to the tens of thousands of HR professionals around the world whom I’ve learnt from, and hopefully helped in some small way in return.
With a new strategic investment from Will Group (株式会社ウィルグループ), and the continuity of it’s existing management team, I have no doubt that ChapmanCG will maintain its position in offering the world’s best Executive Search solution for the HR Profession. I will no longer be part of the ChapmanCG story moving forward. But I wish everyone all the best, and look forward to our paths crossing again in a personal capacity.
Oscar
For the LinkedIn version, see here.