SJ survived the night and still had colour in the morning. This hotel was really comfy, went to bed late, but slept very well…
We
met for breakfast, which for SJ was just a glass of orange juice. He is
still not 100% so it must be a bug. I only had cereals and orange juice
today, which is my normal breakfast at home anyway, partly as SJ was
still not feeling great, and partly cos I was getting fed up with
eating… its been great, but everyone has been feeding us so much food
on this trip!
We had to get help from reception to call our
contact at the company we were visiting today, as they had written
their mobile number on the business card they’d given us, but it was
illegible and we didn’t really know the format. The tiny Taiwanese girl
with the scary deep voice was not at this desk this morning, had SJ not
been so rough yesterday, I’m sure we would have had some laughs at her
expense last night! We managed to get in contact with Lulu (cool name)
and put off the hectic plans she had for us today and had her agree to
a day at their premises instead. SJ simply was not up for a 4 hour
round trip on a train after yesterday!
We met in the reception
area of the hotel, which was strangely on the 12th floor! The lift at
the bottom of the hotel only had two buttons, 1 and 12…! Don’t know
what is downstairs, didn’t get a chance to look, must be shops or car
parking or something… Our drive to the company premises was about an
hour, so both SJ and I were battling the evil nodding-off syndrome that
often affects a passenger in a car, all the way to our destination.
Lulu likes to chat though, so it wasn’t too bad.
Their place is
in a very nice business park that was part of the textiles dynasty of
old, and they share their building with 6 or so other companies. It was
exactly as I imagined it to be, very nice office space, open plan with
cubicles for staff, with some nice meeting rooms around it and a
workshop area behind that. The workshop was very tidy and clean,
especially compared to what we saw in Jinan! The machines here were
very impressive, excellent build quality and they do exactly what it
says on the tin.
We had a formal presentation from Lulu, who had
only been with this company for a year or so and was brought in to
handle setting up European distributors. She was clearly experienced
with a large corporation and gave us a slide show presentation on the
history of the company and their machines and some good info on their
plans. We also met the tech support (deputy) manager, who began telling
us how laser engravers worked… Lol! Lulu also introduced us to the
managing director, who was a bit ripe smelling unfortunately, which
wasn’t so impressive, but he was very nice and good with English and
the meeting we had was well conducted and covered all subjects we
intended. The coffee here was bloody mental, it was like the cups Bryan
makes in the office at home, with sixteen heaped spoon fulls of coffee
and ten sugars… I was compelled to keep sipping it though, maybe in the
hope it would keep me awake!
They of course offered to take us
to lunch, and SJ really wanted to be able to take part, but we made it
clear that it needed to be light and he wasn’t going to be able to
stomach much. I think some food was going to help though, but my usual
recipe for when I’m feeling crap, boiled eggs and toast(!), was a
million miles away… They suggested Japanese food as being the right
thing to try, which didn’t seem a bad idea as the last time I had that
it seemed to be simple food with one or two flavours, uncomplicated
stuff… so, we had another drive to get to the boss’s favourite Japanese
restaurant which was in a hotel in the town. It was 34 degree’s c
outside toady, which was pretty damn toasty, although it only served to
make me want to go on holiday somewhere and sit chillin’ with a
cocktail!!!
The hotel was nice and the restaurant buzzing with
people, it was obviously good if it was full when tucked away in this
hotel in town… we got a table and the boss presented us with a very
simple day time menu. SJ chose the sashimi, which was a good idea. No
oils used and being fresh would give his stomach the best chance of
surviving. I’m sure by now his body was craving some nourishment! I
chose the fried chicken dish and a soup to start, which I’d tried
before and knew I liked. This lunch turned out to be the best one of
the whole trip, both for the food, which was superb, and the ambiance
in the restaurant, it was nice to sit in a busy place as opposed to the
private rooms we had used in China. All of the people we were with
spoke good English and it was a really nice hour of chat, which also
culminated in some discussion with their MD about the business
arrangement between our two companies. They are a very courteous and
generous people, and this meeting was held in a much more professional
and experienced manner than those in China, and even than the meeting
in Korea, although that was head and shoulders above China also. After
lunch we parted company with the MD who had another meeting to attend,
and made our way back through the hustle and bustle in the city to the
company offices.
This city was very interesting. It was not as
sophisticated as Seoul, but had the organisation that Jinan lacked! The
streets are very colourful here, as the smaller individual businesses
are prevalent over the chains unlike the UK, so each shop had different
things on display and very colourful, individual signage all over their
frontage. Most people use mopeds here as transport, which makes sense
with so many people in the city and such small side streets, they are
buzzing everywhere and outside the café’s and bars were huge lines of
mopeds crammed together… goodness knows how they found their own bike
after lunch! Lol.
When we got back to the office we covered off
some more detail regarding the machinery, such as pricing and freight
issues. Then we were off to the airport again for our trip home… how
welcome was this!
At the airport we used the restrooms before
checking in to change clothes into something more comfortable. It was
going to be nearly twenty four hours until we get back to Bristol! I
also threw the stupid bloody cans of sure deodorant away here after
another quick spray, I could not be bothered with another episode of
the bag search now… just wanted to get home.
We checked in and
received invites to a business class lounge which was very welcome and
we sat here to catch up with emails and things on the wireless network
provided.
We were soon boarding our flight. I forgot just how
nice it was to sit in the business class seats and receive that ice
cold glass of bubbly! Still a long long way to go, but it was going to
be good…
Dinner was a bit dodgy on this flight, I wish I didn’t
bother eating as later on, after the stop off in Bangkok we were
offered a much nicer option which I just couldn’t stomach after eating
on the first leg a couple of hours previous! Bah! I watched the film
Wild Hogs which has John Travolta in amongst others, which was actually
pretty amusing, and then tried to get some shut eye…
At home,
and for many years, I have only been able to sleep on my front, which
is why I can never sleep on flights… however this time I did manage to
sleep, probably for a good 5 hours which is about the average for me
this week! The blind fold and ear plugs helped a lot! Man will I sleep
this weekend…! I actually feel like going out and partying really,
could do with getting smashed, lol! Don’t think it would be a good idea
though, otherwise I’ll carry this tired state through to work next
week, and there will be lots to catch up on no doubt. I’ll have to wait
until next weekend to go mad…
I’m really excited about getting
home, as I could pick my new car upon Saturday!!! Trouble is I don’t
think I can get a lift to Farnborough to collect it and I really can’t
face a train journey after this week… so it might have to wait!
The stop off in Bangkok was quite annoying and took about an hour. At least we didn’t have to do security checks etc…
I’m
writing this report sat in an executive lounge in Amsterdam airport, SJ
has a lounge membership which was handy, it is so much more comfortable
than the usual seats and we have a few hours to wait. I will run out of
battery juice soon though at this rate…
The news on the TV is
showing the floods in the UK, that looks horrible, glad I don’t have to
come back and face any such problems personally, which is a bit selfish
I know!
Not much more to say after this. We have an hour and bit
flight to Bristol now and will get picked up from the airport for the
scariest car ride of the week by Daz! ;-) We’ll probably stop off by my
flat on the way through to the office to drop of my suitcase and then
pop into the office to collect emails and catch up for a bit, but I
think I’ll be off home soon afterwards to shower, eat a sarnie (I miss
these!) and crash out… My friend Mr Jack Daniels is on stand by to help
with the last item on that list… hehehe
I’ll miss writing this
kind of thing, it has been a nice way to keep record of the week. My
normal life is far to boring to write about, so looks like this will be
it for now. Maybe I’ll write a book! Lol
Thanks for reading.
Hopefully it has been mildly amusing for you and informative in some
way… if not, you have basically wasted loads of your own time that
could have been better spent! Ha ha. I have no sympathy for you… :-p
Cheers
Sloggs.
My picture album from this trip is over on Facebook