pantone801

The Press Check Continues

// September 25th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // Work

Saturday- a whole day spent at SNP on press. The printing went well, and I viewed all three covers of the books I am here to check, and they looked fantastic. I feel such relief to see the completed books being printed, the next milestone will be seeing them on the shelves in bookstores. The printing went well, except for 1 page that was giving the printer grief, he had a few problems trying to match the colours to the existing pages, and he would get one side of the sheet right anf the other would go out of whack. Then he would get both sides correct, and the registration of one of the colours would go out. We spent over an hour tweaking that one sheet and by the time I signed it off the printer was probably very glad to see the end of me. I had a western style lunch with Khadija and Bevan at the Hyatt here in Dongguan. The Hyatt is an even more oppulent hotel than the one I am staying at, but I can’t help wondering if it has fem-bots too?

I had a queit night at the hotel, watched some chinese movies, and had another club sandwich and beer for dinner.

The SNP druver picked me up and 9 on the dot and drove me to Shenzhen. I still cannot get over how bad they are at driving. Indicating is optional, and the constantly weave the traffic, and most of the time do not even drive in the lanes- they will sit between them.

I checked into the Hotel in Shenzhen which is very nice to, but the Royal Oriental was much better.

SNP Dongguan

// September 25th, 2006 // No Comments » // Work

I met Kadijah, Maggie and Bevan, who I have been dealing with through the whole project, and they showed me to a small room with a couch, TV, and table which is my room at the plant. I dumped my baggage and we then headed straight to the printing press. The printers seem very competent, and I always have 2 English speaking staff with me on the press, so communicating with the printer is really simple. I am also very impressed with the quality of the printing.

After press checking several sheets Kadija took me to lunch at my hotel, along with Maggie and Bevan. I checked in and was yet again separated form my luggage, but this time it was just concierge dropping it off to my room. We ate at the very opulent restaurant in the hotel, Kadijah handled the ordering which was great because there are no menus and the staff spoke very limited English. We ate thinly sliced lotus, and cows fat that was also very finely sliced and seasoned, it was rather tasty, but very rich. For our main course we had prawns, pork strips, beef in a sauce, steamed fish, and vegetables. The prawns were most interesting because the other at the table were eating them with the shells on, including the tails, I tried it and it was quite good (at least they did not eat the heads). The steamed fish was served whole. Kadijah asked the staff to take it back and bring us it served on individual plates, and I got a piece that had several fins, it was tasty, and Kadijah was impressed at how I will eat anything and how well I can use chopsticks, I just hope that she does not see this as a challenge to gross me out.

Over the border

// September 25th, 2006 // No Comments » // Travel, Work

At 6am the every light in the room flicked on to maximum brightness, and a voice form the TV announced in an Asian/electronic voice GOOD MORNING. I sat straight up and nearly had a heart-attack. The TV then proceeded to play a jingle about how the hotel is just like home, but the electronics are better. I headed straight to the kitchenette to grab a coffee only to discover that the coffee has powdered milk added, and I hate white coffee, so I settled for a green tea, and ordered an iron from reception (which was a better experience than my recent trip to Auckland). Just after 7 I headed down to meet the driver who was scheduled to collect me, and he was already waiting.

We had to pick up a couple more staff from the printer at the New Territories so I managed to see a bit of the countryside, which was very smoggy. We then headed to the border. The driver dropped us off at the arrival hall, and took my luggage and the vehicle through the vehicle entry (I was not very happy about being separated from my luggage). I qued at immigration, and picked the slowest que, and the funny thing was the tourist has not filled their immigration cards in, so they would stand at the front of the que trying to frantically fill it in, and holding everyone up in the process. A few rows down another que opened, and everyone ran for it to try and get through more quickly. The funny thing was this little Chinese man tried to que jump past a big American fella. He was not impressed and almost knocked his lights out. I got through eventually and met the driver with my luggage at the other side. I did not realise that the Chinese drive on the right hand side of the road (that may explain why the battle to drive in Auckland), so I got quite a fright, and we saw a minor accident between two cars who did not know they had to give way to each other. A few blocks away we swapped cars and drivers, and we not had a right hand drive vehicle, which took us to SNP at Dongguan.

Arriving in Hong Kong

// September 25th, 2006 // No Comments » // Travel, Work

After a slow start I left Brisbane at 11am, and the flight over was uneventful. I had a window seat, over the wing which obscured most of the view. The plane was a rather new A330 and I had my own personal screen and watched Wah-wah, Kenny, and Basic Insinct 2. Flirting with the air-steward paid off- he kept plying me with red wine and snacks through the whole flight. The guy next to me had no idea why I was getting the attention, but he was not complaining because each time the attendant offered me a drink my neighbour ordered one too.

I landed just after 6 pm, customs and immigration were simple, the heat sensing SARS scanner was interesting. I caught the train to the Kowloon Station, and followed the exit signs, and somehow managed to find a free hotel transfer service (who had never heard of my hotel). They agreed to drop me on Nathan Road and from here I found my way to my hotel Mingle Place.