The holidays may be over, but not the joy

As people have gotten back to work after the long National Day holiday, you may have heard all kinds of complaints, from having to get up earlier to facing a backlog of work to getting accustomed again to the routine.

In North China, Mother Nature provided a cold, wet hug to many returning vacationers, with rainy and chilly weather complicating commutes and helping to turn the sky a soupy gray.

Yet, one thing I noticed after returning to a wonderful vacation recently in Bali is that I took some comfort in familiar things back in our adopted home in Beijing.