Summertime Seafood…
As promised last week, I hit Di Shui Dong on Sunday night for some Hunanese food. Friend Jeff and I had nearly creamed our (respective) jeans a couple weeks before at this iconic place, and I needed another fix. The grub was as brilliant as the previous time, and my fellow patrons had the added benefit of getting to hear me try to order in Mandarin. The waitress was momentarily flummoxed, but I eventually got it right. A mighty cute woman at another table could hardly suppress her giggles, and shot me an enticing smile. I thought about sending a drink her way – she was waiting for her takeaway order – but then my food arrived and pornographic thoughts of a different flavor seized my mind.
Work’s been pretty reasonable lately. On Monday I spent a few hours writing a project proposal, and then went to a client to wrap up a smallish project. All in a day’s work. IT looked to be decent week. But you never know what’s coming down the road…on Tuesday I awoke with a sore back, and felt pretty old trudging to the shower, then heading to work. To make matters far worse, for lunch I decided to get a bit adventurous and departed from my usual classic cob salad at local chain Element Fresh, and instead opted for a seafood and vegetable dish. Tasted OK, not great, and I probably wouldn’t have gone for this one again…what confirmed that sentiment was that I got a bad case of seafood poisoning and that absolutely shattered me for the rest of the week. I spent much of the ensuing days parked on the toilet, and was pretty feeble the rest of the time. I went to work each day, but was only about half-speed.
George, my colleague/roommate, arrived on Tuesday to find me in poor physical condition. But he had brought a nice present, an iPod docking unit, the Klipsch iGroove SXT. Brother-in-law Dave, master of all things audio, has one of these, and I’d been on the lookout for a good product for a while now. This one is small, fills the room with sound, and is only about US$150 – half the price of a Bose. I hooked the Klipsch up and it worked like a dream. Finally, some good sound to welcome me home each day.
On Wednesday, I wasn’t feeling any better, back or tummy. Went to work, got stuff done, but had to go home around 3 p.m. to rest. There’s nothing quite as bad as seafood poisoning – remind me not to eat seafood in the summer over here. I was told that in’92 in Mumbai, and it still holds. I had really trusted Element Fresh, it’s a great Western-style chain, but you never know.
Thursday morning I still felt like crap and put myself on Cipro. I always carry around a 10-pack and wind up using it once a year. This was the time to go for it. I made a note to get my next 10-pack when in Thailand or another wide-open sort of place. Had senior partner meetings all day, sitting down was agony for both stomach and back, so I stood for about 6 hours and made it through the day. This being ill thing was really getting old. I’m rarely sick and get pretty cranky when I’m incapacitated like this.
On Friday we had to do mid-year reviews of all the consultants working for us. Fairly smooth session, and I was feeling somewhat better, probably because of the antibiotics. In the afternoon we found out we sold a major project, one we’d been working to get over the line since I got here in early June. Very good news. Business is really picking up, and we’re all feeling better as a result.
Was supposed to meet a client for drinks that night…but his National Sales Manager resigned at 5 p.m., and he had to postpone. I was more than happy to take a flyer and get more rest. As it turned out, he finished around 8:30 p.m. and was in the mood to go get pissed, but by that point I was reclined and about to conk out. He called a bunch of times and left me some texts, I sidestepped all those and left some lame excuse.
By Saturday morning the Cipro had really kicked in. I did an hour of yoga to straighten out my back, then packed for a business trip. Took a cab to the airport, took forever to get there – lots of construction like always here in Shanghers. Was flying through Bangkok to Singapore, would spend the night in BKK. Never a hardship, that.
Guy sitting next to me on the flight was a complete slob…his elbows were in my side half the flight, and at one point he pulled out his flight bag, had a minor puke in it, then put it back in the seat pocket. Charming. If this is what we can expect from the next huge wave of Chinese tourists, well, count me out.
I managed to write a few short essays during the flight for my Foreign Service exam process. These were the ‘Personal Narratives,’ five mini-essays about my supposed leadership, interpersonal, communications, management, and leadership skills. Not only do you have to write an essay for each (not that hard, 200 word/1300 character max – quite short), but you need to provide a reference/contact person and contact information so they can confirm your account. That makes it infinitely harder – I have lots of options for every one of the 5 categories, but sometimes they occurred in a random airport, or resto, or client office, and there’s no way I could confirm the stories. So I really had to narrow things down – I did it, but I had to wrack my brain to come up with decent instances and contacts. I swear I’m always challenging myself – a normal person, with a job, wouldn’t bother to torture themselves like I’m doing. I guess it’s simply my nature to have a lot going on at any given time…
Landed in Bangkok. The Immigration agent almost stamped a pristine passport page – I had to ask him to stamp a cluttered page instead. That was close – I really need those blank pages for visas. Thai officials are pretty laid-back and carefree – watch them carefully.
Met friend Bob for an alfresco dinner, near VP Towers, where he lives and I crash when in town. Great meal, with beer, all for US$12 or so. The value out here just can’t be beat – I’m sure I sound like a broken record, but it’s just heavenly. After dinner we went out for a few drinks, good fun…then back to VP for a long sleep, I didn’t get up till 10 the next morning. My flight onward to Singapore wasn’t till evening, so I had a reasonable day in front of me.
Bob and I walked around Soi Rangnaam and sampled from various street food vendors for lunch. I started out with fresh pineapple – succulent. Then a grilled sausage…then some noodles…finally some mango. Could eat lunch like that every day. Thailand is food porn heaven.
Was halfway through my Cipro ten-pack and feeling better every day. Decided to keep working on my back, went and got a great massage at a place on Soi Thonglor. Felt 5 years younger when I walked out.
Said bye to Bob and caught a cab to the airport. Was looking forward to seeing Singapore, it had probably been 4 years since I’d last been there. Landed and headed to my hotel, the Pan Pacific, which was very very nice. I don’t mind staying in these sorts of places, I’d really lowered my sights and standards on my sabbatical and you do sort of feel a bit special when staying in these ritzy places. As I took the glass elevator to my room, I noticed a huge pool and vowed to take a dip the next evening. I’d brought my swimsuit and was ready for some underwater rhymes.
Monday morning – had a fairly important client meeting which went OK. The clients were a bit hard to read, and the scope of the meeting probably could have been better defined. But we’re likely to get a followup meeting, so it went well enough. Then I bopped across town and had lunch with another client, who I knew from his old company years ago. He hasn’t changed a bit – a crafty and inscrutable fellow. We chatted over lunch and made some work plans. It’s sort of nice being able to slip back into this stream, I still know tons of people from ‘the old days’ and they still remember me, apparently fondly. I must have done something right…
Sinagporean cabbies are wonderfully chatty. Nice contrast to dour Chinese drivers (there are notable exceptions, though). Got the lowdown on the new Sing casinos going up – they will charge locals $100 Singapore to enter. Probably a very good idea. And I even managed to get into some good political discussions with the cabbies – they had no problem criticizing the government. Good for them.
Had dinner with a former client that night, got some intelligence from him on my meeting that morning. We went to a hole in the wall Vietnamese place which was sensational – reminded me of my time in Vietnam nearly two years ago. Gotta get back there before long.
Had a conference call that night, but it was thankfully cancelled…so I went for my promised dip in the hotel pool. Absolutely glorious – hot air outside, warm pool water…and when I submerged there was music playing, they have some newish system that allows you to hear below the waterline but not above. Kind of cool. How do I insert this type of experience and ambience into my everyday life, people?
Went out for a drink or two downtown, around Orchard Road. Ducked into the Grand Hyatt, where I’d stayed many times…had a beer in Brick, the bar next door…and finally wandered around Orchard Road and checked out a few places. Mostly pretty dead (it was Monday night). Seems to be a general nightlife malaise due to the recession – it’ll pick up again before long. Anyway, the night served as a good Singapore refresher, many old memories came back to me.
Back to Shanghai on Tuesday. On the flight I managed to make solid headway on an article I’m writing for Fortune China magazine, on the Chinese pharma market and how MNCs are doing therein. When I landed at Pudong Airport and went out to get a taxi, I saw a fellow holding a sign that read:
YOKO ONO
I thought about sticking around and seeing if Ms. Ono ever showed, but I wimped out and just caught a cab home right away. Seems I’m still unskilled at relaxing and seeing what happens…
On Wednesday morning there was the solar eclipse – people over here went crazy over this. Friend Tochimoto-san came over from Tokyo just to watch it in Shanghai, an epicenter of sorts. Another friend went just outside the city, to a viewing area, to watch it. Unfortunately, the weather was shit and the clouds made it hard to really see much. I turned back to my laptop, and only when a junior consultant came over to say hi did I turn around and gasp – the sky was completely dark, and it was fucking outright weird. The darkness lasted for 7 minutes or so, all of us were pressed up against the glass, mesmerized. Then it gradually became light again, and we dispersed.
Went out that night with Tochimoto-san, my old colleague from our Tokyo office. Hadn’t seen him in 3-4 years. Terrific guy – now runs his own consulting company in Tokyo. We both bitched about the recession – in Japan it’s particularly bad. Ugh. We met at Xintiandi, had a couple beers at Kabb Bar, then had dinner at my fave Di Shui Dong, where Tochi sweated as he gulped down the meat and peppers. Finally we repaired to Tongren Lu bars and had a laugh with the bargirls before we took off, both of us had morning flights to catch.
I got up with a slight headache – but nothing worse – on Thursday. Caught a cab to the airport – I was able to fly from nearby domestic airport Hongqiao, and not far-off Pudong. Airport was pretty mobbed, but not too bad. Easy enough flight up to Beijing, where I had a few meetings lined up. Went to our office, dropped off my stuff and said hi to a few folks, then went to my first meeting.
We’re trying to sell a wargame type of project, this meeting was about that. Went fine, looks like we’ll get the work, but it will take a few more weeks. Normal course of things. Went back to the office to work before my next meeting. Got an email from the Beijing exec assistant, who was taking care of my travel plans. The email read ‘Driver ZHANG changed to driver HUANG.’ This fellow would be taking me to the airport the next day, to fly back to Shanghers. That change of drivers looked acceptable to me.
The weather suddenly got bad – the skies went dark and it started to pour. I was going to my next meeting at 5 p.m. with George, who was flying up right then from Shanghai. His flight was late…looked like he wouldn’t make it…then the flight took off and it looked doable. I rushed over to my hotel and checked in, George was staying there too and it was close to the client’s offices. The weather really makes things crazy here, I hate when it rains.
Meeting went well, then we were done for the day. Went to dinner at South Beauty, a major chain here. After that, I decided to close down the laptop and watch TV, a rare event for me. The 2nd Indiana Jones movie was on cable and I watched that – chewing gum for the mind. Went to sleep at 11 p.m., another rarity – had to get up early to do some reading and then do a conf call with some colleagues. Fun fun fun.
Had my morning call, that went fine. Then had a huge hotel breakfast, usually I don’t manage to squeeze these in, but decided to go for it. Then raced over to our office for a quick meeting with our China Chairman, old friend Ed, and finally went with driver HUANG to the airport to fly home. Funny two days in Beijing.
Flight was delayed 2 hours – we were sitting on the tarmac, waiting, in the sun…next thing I knew it was pouring out. China really has bizarre and crappy summer weather. Very hot/humid, and very wet. Oh well – I heard part of Mumbai was under water the other day due to the monsoons. It can always be worse, I need to keep that in mind.
Took a nap when I got home, that helped me salvage my energy. Got up and went for a decent run around the Jiaotong University track. Decided, it being Friday night, that I’d go out to O’Malley’s for a drink. Hadn’t been there in years, the place hasn’t changed. A rare proper Irish pub in China. Fell into conversation with paper engineer Bruce from Scotland. Good guy. And the staff were friendly too, I should get back over there before long, it’s a classic hangout. I still haven’t found a “local”, which might be a good thing. Eventually I’ll find and choose a place to visit regularly, for now I’m happy to sample the fruits of the city.
Went for a couple beers at Manhattan on Tongren Lu, then had a late-night turkey reuben (more or less) at City Diner nearby. Haven’t been to a true 24-hour diner in ages, this one did the trick. Will be back before long, methinks.
Slept till 10 a.m. Saturday, the wages of the week had to be paid. Got up, did a bunch of errands. Got a haircut…went shopping for food etc…did 45 minutes of yoga, blissfully. Got an email from Mark K., who had initially recruited me for Monitor many years ago, in NYC. He contacted me via LinkedIn, but didn’t remember our mutual history, only that we’re both Darden alum – which is immediately obvious on LinkedIn. I reminded him that we’d met and he’d interviewed me. Let’s see how he responds, I hope I didn’t embarrass him…
Met former colleagues Yichung and Derek at Cantina Agave at 4 p.m. for margaritas. Not my usual routine, I like to go out much later – but they have infants and need to tailor their schedules around them. Fun catching up – traded loads of gossip. At one point two of our current junior consultants wandered by, to get a coffee – they were obviously working today (our office is nearby). We waved and said hi – I was quite happy to be sitting and drinking margaritas. Obviously.
Went out for a few drinks that night, but kept it mellow. On Sunday I got up lateish, went for a run at Jiaotong, and had lunch with George at New Heights, a balcony place on the Bund. Pretty good grub…afterward we walked off the meal around Suzhou Creek, where there’s simultaneously lots of new building, and areas where you still feel old, classic Shanghai in the air. I need to do some more exploring around there, and everywhere. Lots to investigate in this city of mine.
Cranked out a few documents during the afternoon, then had dinner with George at JBH, an upscale place near our flat. Ate lots and total bill was about US$20. I love it. Sunday night Chinese meal for this Jewish boy, all for US$20 for two. Methinks I’ll stick around for a while here, there’s lots to like. Over and out.
Tags: Travel
mbsloney
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