Patience



Wednesday in Shanghai

Firstly -- this photo has nothing to do with Shanghai or it being Wednesday... it's the last lunch that they made for me in China earlier this week and it was so beautifully presented that I just had to take a photo. And, yes... this Asian curry tasted THAT GOOD as did the soup that I taught them to make last spring. (We do a lot of cooking theory there! Lots of fun sharing!)

This is for all of you who always tell me how fun it must be to travel so much for a living.
A description of my day today...
...not a complaint as it's the normal way things go:

~Hotel Alarm set for 6:15am.
~Blackberry alarm (back-up) set for 6:45am and across the room -- just in case -- but I never need it for flights (I can will myself out of bed.)
~ My blackberry goes off and I bolt out of bed... the hotel alarm clock somehow lost power (nice!) and is blinking 45 minutes late!
~ Dash to get ready, check out and taxi (10 min) to the Airport Express to check my one small bag (carrying the purse-o-fun and the computer case)...get there just in time to make the cut off for my luggage and my plane to be the same.
~ Hop the speed train to the airport. Bat eyes & smile for the only seat available. Get it.
~ Get a skim (ick - trying to be good) caramel (not being good) macchiato and a fruit cup (good!) at Starbucks and board the plane

Time check: 9:35am

~ Fly 2hrs to Shanghai
~ Land at 11:40am to find this airline parks in East Jabip and we'll be bussed to the airport terminal. NOTE: this is my first time on this particular airline.
It's 90F with air so thick you can chew it.

Time check: 11:50am

~ Now to whiz thru immigration and snag my tiny bag and be on my way... yah, me and 500 other people. (Strike 3) It's now lunch time in China... so only 3 windows are open for passport check... wait... am entertained by screaming Chinese man who's verbally assaulting an Immigration Officer. Wait some more. Get my toes stomped on and thrown aside by business men who dive for a new opening window. They knocked the older couple behind me right over. Yes, I helped them up.

Time Check: 12:10pm

~watch carefully to see a new window opening and I'm fast enough to be the 4th person in line...Finally thru Immigration...and have my one little bag that was waiting on the belt for me...

Time check: 12:30pm

~ Marilyn meets me at the airport and we grab a quick lunch (because by the time we reach the hotel it will be between lunch and dinner - good luck!)

Time check: 1:15pm

~ Get in the car to head for the hotel. Should take 1 - 1.25 hrs. Drop bags and go the 45 min. to factory to get 2 hours in before they close @ 5pm. Trust me -- you haven't seen traffic like there is in China. I can say its better in Shanghai than in Dongguan. At least in Shanghai they all know which side of the road to drive on and you don't randomly see a car coming at you.

Arrive at the HOTEL!!!!! Time Check: 4:10pm Too late to get to factory and I loose today's work time. Skys open, thunder/lightning and torrential rains... it does clear some humidity.

Recap - left hotel at 7:15am for a 2 hour flight and arrive at hotel @ 4:10pm missing workday (all the more for tomorrow!)

So, I sit here in my hotel at Midnight - with OK room service, catching up on the paperwork that I haven't had time to get to yet, watching reports on Rita -- now a #4 hurricane, repeated over and over on CNN (one of three English channels that are coming in today.)

Thankfully I love what I do... otherwise I'd go nuts!

Current work hours logged this trip: 167 hours = 13 days...and counting
...the day after the night of food poisoning was a short one - 10 hrs...so it brought average down.

Good news -- I did get 6 rows of knitting in on the car ride before the stop-start got to me and I had to close my eyes.

A funny to leave you with in case you haven't seen it yet...
Artists erect giant pink bunny on mountain

I did a few searches and haven't found it to be a hoax - but who knows --- funny if it's true -- funny if it's not! Click on title above for the article.

Back to work I go... lots to do before meeting up with the knitteratti in Hong Kong on Saturday evening!