Heading for Home

For most of you reading this, be warned. For the first time in 13 months, my side of the world will also be your side of the world. I am heading home tomorrow. Now I warned all of you a few months ago to prepare your livers. I can hope you heeded that message.

But before I get there I have a bit of travel to do. Up at 6:00AM and to the airport before 6:45AM, flight at 8:45AM for over 2 hours to Japan, a 4 hour layover, over 9 hours to LA, a 6 hour layover in LA where I have a meeting with a not so happy customer, and then a 2 hour flight to Portland.

I am looking forward to it.

Oh yeah, I have no phone. Good times.

One Last Trip

So I am staring my vacation down right now but I still had a final trip to make last week. We are in a dangerous place with our largest customer. Recently, we have made a lot of production errors and combining with the fact that the customer is dropping suppliers in July we are on thin ice. That meant my boss and I ran off to Bangkok to wine and dine and have a meeting to convince our customer that we have a handle on things.

As the post below shows, I was dreading this. But the meeting went much much better than I expected and my last few trips paid off in building a personal relationship with the customers so that also helped this time.

Then we ran off to a series of meetings in Cambodia. And we spent a night there. I was able to relax a bit after a late dinner but the problem was we had an urgent price proposal to get to a telecom. That necessitated that I had several Skype confrence calls from 2 airports and had numerous text messages between me and Taiwan on Saturday to finish it all.

All in all, the trip was quite good. We are still in a dangerous place in Thailand but we have some promising leads in Cambodia.

The Ride Continues

Well, I am in Bangkok today. I am getting ready to get ripped apart by my customer tomorrow. But, thankfully, this time my boss will be with me so that--hopefully--means my ripping is slightlyl less.

Back in Taiwan...

Well, I took a long ass 13 hour flight from Joburg after a 3 hour drive and then another flight from Hong Kong to get back to Taiwan for the first time in a week.

I got to fly business class (upgrade) on the new Cathay Pacific 777-300 for both flights (I will write more about it later but it was amazing to get champagne to complement my multiple course meals at 20,000 ft). I also found out I will probably go back to Africa in August (South Africa, Swaziland, and maybe Mozambique and Botswana to boot). Then I may also go to Cambodia and Thailand later this week before I go home for vacation.

So--other than a strange desire for a cigar--why am I not too happy? Well my customers keep slamming me with bad news. I am worried about losing them for things that are well beyond my control or even responsibility. Beyond that, I now have 2 days to correct our production process, do all the follow up for Africa, nail down 2 new customers, get the largest telecom in Africa on board, write 5 reports for a single customer, argue with suppliers prepare for a new trip, and take care of all the other stuff I couldn't take care of from Swaziland last week. In 2 days, mind you. Then I have 1 day to get ready to head home to the US for vacation.

To put a nice crowning touch on this little shit sandwich, I get to meet with both of these unhappy customers this week and next to get my ass chewed out (for something I didn't do but am held responsible for in their eyes), which is never fun. Not looking forward to it but the only choice I have is to grin and bear it.

Oh yeah, almost forgot that given the amount of work I have to do for Africa I will undoubtedly be slammed with stuff while on vacation--necessitating daily reading of work email (what a joy that will be).

Maybe things will be better tomorrow when I have more than 1 hour of sleep.

Where am I?

If you saw the picture below on the golf course where would you guess it is? California, Bend (Oregon) maybe. How about just outside of Mbabane, Swaziland at the Royal Swazi Golf Club?

It is winter down here in the Southern Hemisphere so the hills are brown and not green like they normally are (or so I am told). Either way the country is very pretty.

In Africa

I never thought I would say this...but I am in Africa. Specifically, I am in Mbabane, Swaziland (I was in Joberg, South Africa this morning after a 13 hour flight from Hong Kong).

The digs I have here are pretty sweet. But I will write more about that later and try and put up some pictures. Problem now is the interent sucks.

Edit: re the comments on the post below--no shark cage this time. No time, but hopefully if the meeting goes well I will be back in Africa and get another chance.

Next Trip: Swaziland

I honestly don't feel like I live in my apartment any more. I am here a week and then I am gone a week. So I was happy to get back from Beijing if only to come back to a place that is not a hotel room. (To be clear I love to travel--it is the best part of my job) Then I went to work on Monday.

My boss asked how I was and I told him it was nice to be home. He smiled. I knew it...he had another trip planned for me. "Ok, when is the next flight?" I said, "And where am I going?" Swaziland.

Now all this still has to be 100% confirmed but this trip is to to Swaziland (a little country next to South Africa) with the Taiwanese ambassador as he is a friend of my boss. My boss is coming too. This trip is BIG TIME, no no, HUGE GOD DAMN MASSIVE TIME. You see, I am presenting my company and giving a market forecast for our products to the King of Swaziland. He is the last absolute monarch in the world, has 23 kids and 14 wives, and has some serious cash.

How sweet is that?

Another cool thing I now have 2 sets of extra visa pages in my passport. Too much travel...wait that is an oxymoron.

The downside is that I haven't been off work before 10PM this week getting all my research and presentations done. Packing for this trip will also be different since it is a little chilly in Swaziland now (6-20C) when I am used to much much warmer weather. The other downside is I told myself if I ever go to South Africa I want to do one of those crazy great white shark cage dives--but doesnt look like I have time this trip.

Who knows, when I get back to Taiwan I might have to make another trip to Cambodia.