Well it’s been a good fortnight hasn’t it? Swine flu cases are down, the economy is picking up and I know summer is finally here because I can get a seat on the tube.

And it’s been a busy couple of weeks too. I’m just back from Beijing and Shanghai ahead of our first conference tv season in China. We’re producing a series of television programmes for the Chinese Education Expo which encourages Chinese students to study abroad. Over 100,000 young people are likely to take up that opportunity to give themselves an insight into foreign cultures and pick up new skills.

And whilst some of those students are funded by the State the vast majority are paid for out of savings. And it’s a lot of money. But the young people and their families see it very much as an investment in the future.

Because that’s very much the story in China at the moment – investment. In infrastructure, in overseas companies and in the workforce itself. And you can see it start to pay off. With growth rates of still around 7 per cent China is likely to come out of this global slowdown as not just a regional economic superpower but as a dominant player on the world stage.

So I’m about to leave all this for now and take a couple of weeks break with my family in Scotland. Gives me a chance to re-charge the batteries and do something to shift that work-life balance. I just hope the competition hasn’t got even tougher when I get back!