I was up in Beijing on Monday where it was -5 degrees and then I headed off to Singapore where it was 35 degrees - quite a difference! It was my first trip to Singapore and it seemed like a lovely city, very clean, a bit like a Disneyland version of Asia! I had meetings all day but in the evening I met up with Sarah who I used to work with back in the day at kpe. We had dinner in Boat Quay which is a very picturesque harbour area with loads of bars and restaurants.
Boat Quay Again
Christmas Tree - bit weird in 30 degree heat Raffles Hotel
Claire used to organise this ball when she worked at the British Chamber of Commerce, and invited us along to enjoy an evening of Scottish Country Dancing!
Cecile and I (me in my £40 made-to-measure DJ which was very dapper!) Claire and Bryce (Bryce used to play rugby with some of you at King's - small world!)
One of the many things I love about Shanghai is that I can walk to work in less than 10 minutes, no more Victoria line for me! It's an interesting walk too, I go up Ulumuqi Lu which at 7.30am is an explosion of breakfast activity, I took some pics this morning: Omlettes Breakfast pies Fruit and Veg Home delivery Dumplings Sorting the... ..crabs And then when I get to my office, I can see my house from here!!! We live in one of the towers right in the centre of the photo.
Ridley Scott was in Shanghai this Monday on business and I arranged for him to come in and speak to some of our creative staff from Ogilvy, JWT, Y&R and Grey. Ridley started out in advertising and still owns one of the world's leading production companies RSA Films. We showed him some work and chatted for an hour or so - really nice guy!
We went back to the Fabric Market to pick up Cecile's coat from last weekend which looked great! We were invited to a ball next weekend and since my dinner jacket is in a container somewhere between London and Shanghai I figured I might as well get a new one made, which is cheaper than hiring onw is in London. I managed to sort one out no problem although most of the negotiation was done pointing at a grainy picture in a catalogue called "Western Style Clothes", the lady that measured me up didn't speak much English so we'll see how it turns out! I'm slightly worried that she misunderstood me when I expained the lapels should be shiny, maybe the whole thing will be shiny satin!!! The Fabric Market - organised chaos! Cecile planning her next purchase! Cecile outside Fat Girl Silk which I fear may have a branding problem!
We signed the contract for our flat this week and got the keys. On Saturday we said goodbye to the Four Seasons and headed for Ambassy Court. Our development is in the French Concession area of Shanghai which is really beautiful and still has lots of its original charm. It is also close to most of the foreign consulates and embassies which makes me wonder whether it was supposed to be called Embassy Court but someone spelt it wrong! We needed to buy a tonne of stuff for the flat, including a bed as I didn't fit in the one provided) so we headed off to Ikea. This will come as a shock to those of you that know the hassle I had with Ikea when I moved into my flat in London a couple of year's ago but Cecile had never been to one and I figured it might be different in China. It's still a nightmare shopping experience but at least in China they can afford to provide some staff who can help out, best of all once you pay for all your stuff you give the cashier about £5 and they deliver it and build all your furniture the next day, lovely! I Love Ikea! I Bloody HATE Ikea!
After navigating the crazy Shanghai traffic for an hour and in between conference calls (yes everyone China is 8 hours ahead of the UK!!!) we managed to enjoy an amazing tennis match at the Shanghai Masters last night. It was Federer Vs Roddick and since Federer is staying in our hotel and Cecile saw him at breakfast we decided to support him. He lost the first set and was up against 2 match points in the second set tiebreak, but then came back to win the match - amazing! It was our first time at a live tennis match and what an introduction! Action shot of Federer Action shot of Roddick
I'm now finally spending some time in my Shanghai office which is great, getting in to a routine. This is the view from my window: certainly beats London where for a year my office was a cupboard without any windows then I graduated to a view of a car park!
This morning I went down to see the HSBC Champions Golf tournament where I saw Tiger Woods practicing his putting: Then we met Claire and Bryce for lunch and headed off with Claire to the Fabric Market which is an amazing place. You can choose any material you like and then have a tailor knock you up pretty much any item of clothing you like. Cecile couldn't resisit so ordered a winter coat in cashmere for around £35, I'll be heading back for some suits!
Then we went back to Three on The Bund where we'd been invited to a lecture by Thomas Friedman whose book "The World is Flat" is one of the best ever written on China and was a major influence on me wanting to come out here. Then dinner at Coconut Paradise with Monica - a friend Cecile met at her language school. Cecile and Monica cecile's fish - not spicy My green curry - very spicy!
On Friday evening we went to DongTai "Antique" market which is a street market in the old part of town. The antiques certainly look old but every stall has pretty much the same thing and you can't help thinking there is a factory somewhere in Shanghai churning out all this stuff! Then we went to a lovely french restaurant called Salaya as we didn't fancy any more chinese!
I had to fly to Hong Kong to sort out part of my visa so arrived pretty late on Wednesday night. I woke up to find this was the view from my room: Last time I was in Hong Kong the pollution was so bad you couldn't see anything so I took the opportunity to head up to the Peak and check out the view from there: Then with visa stuff sorted back to Shanghai!
Spent most of Tuesday at the Times Yomiuri conference which was pretty interesting. In the afternoon the Japanese prime minister Abe-san came to speak to us, Tony Blair had joined in via video conference earlier in the day (obviously nobody dares say no to Mr Murdoch!). Abe-san showed up with some mean looking bodyguards but I grabbed a pic of him anyway: Then Later Martin and I went for our now traditional Kobe beef dinner, this is the dtuff from cows who are massaged and fed beer every day, its amazing! mmmmm meat cooked in front of your eyes 2 veg kobe style!
Je suis enfin inscrite aux cours de chinois a Mnadarin House! Fiona la responsable de l'ecole me fait part des activites de l'ecole: je saisis cette opportunite pour aller visiter dans l'apres-midi meme le village de Qibao a 18km de Shanghai au sud. Village construit sur le fleuve. C'est un vrai village typique avec pleins de tres etroites ruelles!! Tres joli et plein de monde! Donc rendez-vous a l'ecole vers 14h: je ne vous dis pas la galere avec la circulation je suis arrivee en retard! Evidemment!!! C'est Connee une des consultantes de l'ecole qui m'a accueillie, c'est une fille tres sympa et qui parle tres bien anglais. Nous avons pris 2 taxis pour 9 ''etudiants''. Ils viennent tous et toutes de pays differents: US, Amerique du sud, Suisse, Espagne, la Hollande ... Arrives sur place nous avons flane dans les minuscules ruelles, avec beaucoup de commerces de tous genres: fruits et legumes, stand de brochettes de viande: poulet, porc et franchement certaines viandes je ne sais pas du tout quelle type c'etait! Au premier regard, la brochette semblait tres allechante amis de plus pres oh la la cela a l'air bizarre....enfin evidemment bizarre a mes yeux et non pour les chinois qui mangent de tout! Sur le chemin j'ai achete des patates douces frits et c'etait delicieux!!
Am in Tokyo for a couple of days at The Times Yomiuri Conference hosted by Rupert Murdoch who's always been a bit of a hero of mine. We hitched a ride from Shanghai with a very generous client who invited us on their private jet, a G4 which is by far the most bling thing I've ever done! G4 jet (obviously not the one I was in!)
We checked in the hotel and headed off to hear Mr Murdoch give the opening address, we ended up on the front row so I snapped this shot whilst the press were taking their pics! Later at dinner I caught up with Chris DeWolfe who is one of the myspace founders and seems to be at every conference I go to! He introduced me to the other founders, one of whom is Tom who will be well known to anyone who uses myspace, which actually is probably nobody reading this site! Anyway I thought it was pretty funny, I never realised he was a real person!
