Been awhile…. it’s been a hellish month of January with the work and travels (travails more like it! :(). Started the New Year with an earthquake that reduced us to near isolation of the island connected barely through Skype via two links (NTT Japan and Asianetcom Philippines). Then as that crisis passed and stabilized, we got super busy with our HR tasks – performance objectives settings (corporate, functional, personal), 2006 reviews, and 2007 HR training development plans). Each one takes several hours – for one person, around 5-6 hours at least to properly do everything. Great experience and helped me appreciate more the entire process as well as really respecting teachers and what they do day in and day out.
A couple of weeks ago, we had a week long trip to Shanghai for a big regional conference (Jan 20-27th) and it was fantastic. B- went with me and we stayed at the Westin on the Bund in Shanghai first. First rate hotel and service was fabulous. English speaking staff, super efficient and warm service always. As expect at the Westin, the interior and atmosphere was welcoming. B- and I took a day trip to Suzhou and had a wonderful trip learning about the silk production and Suzhou’s reputation as the silk capital of China (and probably the world). We stopped by the Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory CO. . The process is amazingly simple which belies the beautiful product that comes from it. We couldn’t help ourselves and indulged in some purchases for what I thought were a great value. We saw of course Westlake and toured some of the places around it. Extremely interesting was the growth and development of that area – commercial and industrial dotted with farms, villages and “old” China.
During my conference, B- went around the city and I was soaking up the rah-rah of the 2007 kickoff for the region. These things are very tiring, meeting people, eating, hearing stories, celebrations etc. One of the awesome things was that we had the 12 Girls Band perform live for us during our gala dinner :-). They are as amazing as they sound!
Shanghai has great foot massage but I found a place in Taipei that was almost as good. For the conference days we stayed at the Pudong Shangri-La. Unfortunately, despite awesome infrastructure, the “soft-side” was lacking. Still very local, not enough English speaking staff there which was shocking as compared to the Westin Bund. Saw a lot of sites and perhaps when there’s time, I’ll be able to start putting up our personal website and start sharing it. I dont’ think Flicker is the way to go but we’ll see how my time is (not looking good :().
We enjoyed amazing good thanks to a colleague’s wife recommendations. Cheap but spectacular Shanghainese cuisine. Even got a chance to hit up the Xinjiang lamb dishes at Yunnan North Road. Prices were incredibly cheap (4 people, 5 dishes and beer for 100 RMB! :o). Shanghai has the closest buzz to NYC and a great place to go. Not sure about the living due to the haze and likely pollution but I really enjoyed it. Hope to go again and see how the 2nd time feels.
This past week was crazy with meetings, our company’s wei ya which is a traditional year end company party. This year was extra special because my colleague and I had to do dress up (twice). The theme was Casino Royale and there was a 20 min skit that had to be performed by the Executive Committee (which I’m a card carrying member). I was “M” and had to dress up and get some make up done. But the highlight of the night was my colleague and I had to own up to failing to make good on our diet promise. His failure meant he had to dress up as Mr. Incredible because he actually looks like him :). My failure was even more spectacular. I had to dress up in a pink tutu. This past week my staff went through amazing lengths to procure the materials to make one (as at 103-5kg, finding one was impossible). I found that I could actually fit into pink nylons. So we had to perform for 5 minutes on stage in front of some 250 staff & guests. Luckily I had enough booze in front of me and adrenaline to go through it. All in all, wasn’t as bad as I thought but next time, no making idiotic promises while drinking (which is how this bet came about).
Rested up a little bit today, did some shopping and spent a nice evening & dinner with B- to catch up on my working until midnight for this whole week.
One more rest day and then another week. I’ll be taking 2007 one day at a time….
