Day 8 – the BIG day!!!
Dec. 19th, 2002 01:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whotheheckamiPresentation day today and I set my alarm early enough to let me have one more swim in the pool followed by breakfast alongside it before heading back up to my room to run over the presentation in my head. It all seemed OK, so I did most of my packing and started to worry that my bags might be seriously overwieght. Ho humm. Took Huphreda, Singa and (mystery ted) with me to work; much to the surprise of the Chinese taxi driver. He was probably thinking that the mad Brits were back in town! They enjoyed their journey and met lots of people in the office, and they really liked being cuddled by the General Manager’s PA. I would have liked being cuddled by the General Manager’s PA!!!
Moin and I did a timed run through of the crap we’d be saying and it came to 40 minutes; not bad for a 40 minute slot! Feeling quietly confident we spent our lunchtime schmoozing with my Finance Director and the rest of the South Asian Management Team. They had laid on food for the FD’s visit – more superb stuff including huge loaves of bread which contained bags of curry. Weird, but really good. Dessert was darien fruit – I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this stuff, but it looks like a pale green, very spikey melon. However, it reeks like nothing on earth. It’s hard to describe, but the closest I can get is to suggest musky carrion. Not exactly appetizing, but a local delicacy. This was fed to the FD on his first visit to the company some year’s ago and he probably decided to be polite and said that he liked it. Consequently, he gets it every time, as does every other visitor to the company. I was offered a piece and decided that it could not possibly taste as bad as it smelt. It could and it was greasy and slimey to boot – never again!
Suitably fed and watered Moin and I prepared to give the presentation only to have his laptop die with an interesting popping noise and a spark somewhere up in the ceiling ducts! Secretaries were dispatched to get maintenance men and much head-scratching ensued, during which I booted my laptop up and almost seamlessly we were ready to go. It became obvious very quickly that are timings were going to hell when the FD and the South Asian GM peppered us with questions and we finally sat down, exhausted after 1:40! The FD sought us out after the meeting had dissolved and had decided that I needed to follow him on the evening flight to Sydney. Luckily, I did not have to beg not to go as it was soon decided that it made more sense for him to take and deliver the presentations as a “now hear this…” session. Phew! Under normal circumstances I would have loved to have gone to Oz, but these are not normal circumstances and I WANT TO GO HOME! The FD left after complimenting Moin and I and wondering how we had achieved such a comprehensive review in such a short time.
With these compliments ringing around my head it was a bit difficult to get my ego into taxi! But manage it I did and we sped back to the city to finish our retail therapy before stuffing the last bits into the cases. (I think I’m well on the way to creating a black hole in one of my cases!) Got taken out to dinner by one of the partners at LQNH, but not to as nice a place as last night - s’allright! Also got the promise of a lunch with the FD when I’m next in Oxford (all I need to do is get his secretary to make sure it’s when he’s going somewhere “interesting” like Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons or the Riverside at Bray and not a bistro round the corner!
Moin and I got to back to the hotel by 22:30 and then spodded up to the 70th floor to waste some camera memory, for me to make friends with the good Doktor (Blavod cos they didn’t have Grey Goose :@( ), and for us both to look at the beautiful hostesses in very tight skimpy glittery black dresses. Mmmmmm. It’s now after 01:00 and I’m planning to stay up as long as possible so that I crash on the plane and adjust back to UK time as quickly as possible. I’m also going to tip ice in the bed and turn the air con up to full to try and get my body used to the Arctic temperatures that I am definitely not looking forward to. Farewell 38degC until I get this way again.
Hope these updates haven’t been too boring….hugs
Moin and I did a timed run through of the crap we’d be saying and it came to 40 minutes; not bad for a 40 minute slot! Feeling quietly confident we spent our lunchtime schmoozing with my Finance Director and the rest of the South Asian Management Team. They had laid on food for the FD’s visit – more superb stuff including huge loaves of bread which contained bags of curry. Weird, but really good. Dessert was darien fruit – I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this stuff, but it looks like a pale green, very spikey melon. However, it reeks like nothing on earth. It’s hard to describe, but the closest I can get is to suggest musky carrion. Not exactly appetizing, but a local delicacy. This was fed to the FD on his first visit to the company some year’s ago and he probably decided to be polite and said that he liked it. Consequently, he gets it every time, as does every other visitor to the company. I was offered a piece and decided that it could not possibly taste as bad as it smelt. It could and it was greasy and slimey to boot – never again!
Suitably fed and watered Moin and I prepared to give the presentation only to have his laptop die with an interesting popping noise and a spark somewhere up in the ceiling ducts! Secretaries were dispatched to get maintenance men and much head-scratching ensued, during which I booted my laptop up and almost seamlessly we were ready to go. It became obvious very quickly that are timings were going to hell when the FD and the South Asian GM peppered us with questions and we finally sat down, exhausted after 1:40! The FD sought us out after the meeting had dissolved and had decided that I needed to follow him on the evening flight to Sydney. Luckily, I did not have to beg not to go as it was soon decided that it made more sense for him to take and deliver the presentations as a “now hear this…” session. Phew! Under normal circumstances I would have loved to have gone to Oz, but these are not normal circumstances and I WANT TO GO HOME! The FD left after complimenting Moin and I and wondering how we had achieved such a comprehensive review in such a short time.
With these compliments ringing around my head it was a bit difficult to get my ego into taxi! But manage it I did and we sped back to the city to finish our retail therapy before stuffing the last bits into the cases. (I think I’m well on the way to creating a black hole in one of my cases!) Got taken out to dinner by one of the partners at LQNH, but not to as nice a place as last night - s’allright! Also got the promise of a lunch with the FD when I’m next in Oxford (all I need to do is get his secretary to make sure it’s when he’s going somewhere “interesting” like Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons or the Riverside at Bray and not a bistro round the corner!
Moin and I got to back to the hotel by 22:30 and then spodded up to the 70th floor to waste some camera memory, for me to make friends with the good Doktor (Blavod cos they didn’t have Grey Goose :@( ), and for us both to look at the beautiful hostesses in very tight skimpy glittery black dresses. Mmmmmm. It’s now after 01:00 and I’m planning to stay up as long as possible so that I crash on the plane and adjust back to UK time as quickly as possible. I’m also going to tip ice in the bed and turn the air con up to full to try and get my body used to the Arctic temperatures that I am definitely not looking forward to. Farewell 38degC until I get this way again.
Hope these updates haven’t been too boring….hugs
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no subject
Date: 2002-12-18 09:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-18 10:04 am (UTC)SNIIIVVVEELLLLL !!!!!!!
WAAAAAAAAAA
miss you xxxx
Re:
Date: 2002-12-18 10:11 am (UTC)Flying at 09:00, check-in at 07:00, cab at 06:30, valet breakfast at 06:00, valet collecting luggage from room at 05:45, alarm at 5:30... that's only 3.5 hours away so I guess I'll get some sleep
no subject
Date: 2002-12-18 12:00 pm (UTC)xxx
no subject
Date: 2002-12-18 01:13 pm (UTC)*sigh*
no subject
Date: 2002-12-23 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-23 11:41 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-12-23 01:04 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-12-18 10:06 am (UTC)It'll be good to be home and hugged
A Friends comment about the Durian:
Date: 2002-12-18 10:36 am (UTC)Re: A Friends comment about the Durian:
Date: 2002-12-18 01:51 pm (UTC)Re: A Friends comment about the Durian:
Date: 2002-12-18 08:15 pm (UTC)It smells just as bad processed as I found out. I try to be innovative about the snacks I bring to my D&D group and I had picked up some durian wafer cookies at the chinese market thinking that they couldn't possibly smell as bad as the real thing. Oh how wrong I was. I ended up having to seal the package up in a zip lock bag so it didn't stink up the whole house.
Re: A Friends comment about the Durian:
Date: 2002-12-20 12:58 pm (UTC)That's my contribution on the subject!
Re: A Friends comment about the Durian:
Date: 2002-12-22 12:29 pm (UTC)