I can breathe for the first time in two weeks...
It has been a very busy trip. I'm now in Hong Kong after spending all week, literally, at the Hyatt Dongguan. Meaning, we didn't leave the hotel for five days (though I think I did step outside on my balcony to make a phone call one night). It's an unhealthy way to spend a week, but it WAS productive.
My days went a little like this: Wake up at 7, check Blackberry for emails from New York, go to the gym, get ready, meet everyone for breakfast at 8:30, work and meet and work and sketch in the hotel conference room until we get hungry for lunch around 1, back to work for the afternoon, work until we can't see straight (usually around 7PM), go to the bar for a martini or two, dinner around 8, get back to my room at 10, answer emails and fall into bed exhausted at 11 or 11:30, wake up and do it all again.
It's been a blessing to spend the weekend in Hong Kong if for nothing else but the change in scenery and food. The Hyatt has excellent restaurants, but limited choices. Not to mention extremely annoying waitstaff that insist on whipping your plate out from under your face the minute you finish something (sometimes with fork still in the air). I lost it one morning and snapped at a waitress for taking away a perfectly good plate of egg yolks that I was still sopping up with my toast. I am aching to cook something myself after two weeks of picking things off menus or from buffet lines, but putting my bread in the rotating toaster in the morning is the closest I come to homemade food sadly. One more week....
On a good note, I've been enjoying my time in Hong Kong. Last weekend was a little more lively when everyone was here, but some of my closer coworkers had to stay in China this weekend either to work or for visa reasons. Last weekend Nancy took me out to the expat area of HK after dinner and we went to some clubs with her cousin and danced our asses off until 2 in the morning. This weekend is a little quieter as I'm here with the handbag designers and their product developer and everyone is kind of off doing their own thing.
I had a day by myself today which was quite lovely actually... I took the sunny day as an opportunity to take touristy photos in the morning, then I took the subway over to the HK island side, shopped a bit at a mall over there, came back in a taxi snapping pictures the whole way, then went up to the rooftop pool and hung out for an hour in the sun reading a magazine before coming back to my room and ordering a late lunch via room service. Tonight I took a nice bath and now I'm just waiting for my coworker to call me for dinner. It's been nice to watch some American TV (namely Idol and some terrible movies) and just chill out.
Tomorrow we're going to see the Big Buddha (the largest bronze seated Buddha statue in the world) which is up on a mountain near the city, then we hike up to a monastery for a vegetarian lunch. It's supposed to be a lovely sunny day again, so hopefully I'll be able to get some more photos. Back to China tomorrow night and a week of factory visits before we come back to Hong Kong Thursday night and fly out Friday night. I'm missing Darren and the kitties of course, but it has been an extremely productive and rewarding trip and a good chance to bond with my coworkers. I'm glad I came.
My days went a little like this: Wake up at 7, check Blackberry for emails from New York, go to the gym, get ready, meet everyone for breakfast at 8:30, work and meet and work and sketch in the hotel conference room until we get hungry for lunch around 1, back to work for the afternoon, work until we can't see straight (usually around 7PM), go to the bar for a martini or two, dinner around 8, get back to my room at 10, answer emails and fall into bed exhausted at 11 or 11:30, wake up and do it all again.
It's been a blessing to spend the weekend in Hong Kong if for nothing else but the change in scenery and food. The Hyatt has excellent restaurants, but limited choices. Not to mention extremely annoying waitstaff that insist on whipping your plate out from under your face the minute you finish something (sometimes with fork still in the air). I lost it one morning and snapped at a waitress for taking away a perfectly good plate of egg yolks that I was still sopping up with my toast. I am aching to cook something myself after two weeks of picking things off menus or from buffet lines, but putting my bread in the rotating toaster in the morning is the closest I come to homemade food sadly. One more week....
On a good note, I've been enjoying my time in Hong Kong. Last weekend was a little more lively when everyone was here, but some of my closer coworkers had to stay in China this weekend either to work or for visa reasons. Last weekend Nancy took me out to the expat area of HK after dinner and we went to some clubs with her cousin and danced our asses off until 2 in the morning. This weekend is a little quieter as I'm here with the handbag designers and their product developer and everyone is kind of off doing their own thing.
I had a day by myself today which was quite lovely actually... I took the sunny day as an opportunity to take touristy photos in the morning, then I took the subway over to the HK island side, shopped a bit at a mall over there, came back in a taxi snapping pictures the whole way, then went up to the rooftop pool and hung out for an hour in the sun reading a magazine before coming back to my room and ordering a late lunch via room service. Tonight I took a nice bath and now I'm just waiting for my coworker to call me for dinner. It's been nice to watch some American TV (namely Idol and some terrible movies) and just chill out.
Tomorrow we're going to see the Big Buddha (the largest bronze seated Buddha statue in the world) which is up on a mountain near the city, then we hike up to a monastery for a vegetarian lunch. It's supposed to be a lovely sunny day again, so hopefully I'll be able to get some more photos. Back to China tomorrow night and a week of factory visits before we come back to Hong Kong Thursday night and fly out Friday night. I'm missing Darren and the kitties of course, but it has been an extremely productive and rewarding trip and a good chance to bond with my coworkers. I'm glad I came.