I'll be in Chicago from the 16th and departing back to Shanghai on the 28th in the early morning. Give me a shout or send me an e-mail!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Home for the holidays...but first snow in Shanghai!
The day before I was to return to Chicago for about 10 days Shanghai was covered in snow. You should have seen the little kids going crazy. Snow isn't totally foreign to SH but generally it is a few flurries and that is about it. Well this time we ended up with a fair amount more and plenty even sticking to the trees and buildings. Here are a few from around my place in Xintiandi...
I'll be in Chicago from the 16th and departing back to Shanghai on the 28th in the early morning. Give me a shout or send me an e-mail!
I'll be in Chicago from the 16th and departing back to Shanghai on the 28th in the early morning. Give me a shout or send me an e-mail!
Asia Pacific Championship - 1/2 Ironman - Laguna Phuket, Thailand
Well as I mentioned before I was "training" for another 1/2 Ironman (1.2m swim, 56m bike and 13.1m run) in Phuket, Thailand. The good news is that I did the race, the bad news was I didn't train hard enough. In the weeks leading up to the inaugural race there were media reports describing it as what could be the most challenging course in the world for 1/2 Ironman...oh great!
Day before the race the bike is ready to go and so am I sort of....
I should point out that the day of the race, Dec 5th was the King's birthday. The King of Thailand was 83 that day and the longest governing monarch in the world. He has been in power more than 60 years! All these notes on the right were signed by me and other athletes to hopefully give us a bit of luck...
Here is the swim start. A very unusual course because you swam about 2/3 of the 1.2mile swim in the ocean. From there you got out and ran across the sand dunes for about 150m and then dove into a fresh water lagoon to do the final 1/3 of the swim. It was my first time racing in ocean and while I loved the saltwater for the buoyancy I can't say it tasted great. Plus the thought of looking around for sharks got my heart pumping. The biggest challenge was the lagoon actually. In that the lagoon tasted like motor oil! They had been ferrying athletes via pontoon boats all morning and the oil runoff was brutal!
But I did finish the swim. 1/3 (at least segment wise) done with the race! Now let the fun begin...
The bike was 56m or 90km. It was characterized not by hills but by mountains! Two that were exceedingly difficult. However many stretches of road were amazingly scenic through the countryside of Thailand, small villages, etc. There were lots of spectators out, including many little school kids making lots of noise and cheering us on.
The first major mountain stretch came at kilometer 45 of so. We basically came around a corner and looked smack dab straight up! Most people attempted the climb thinking we could see the top. I'm not sure how far I made it before doing as most others did and walking my bike up. Now for those of you who understand heart rates this will put it in perspective. WALKING up the mountain my HR was between 167-175 which is very high! Back to the course. When we thought we were to the top, we weren't, it was just another switchback. So tried to ride again, dropped my bike chain causing my legs to flail and me to simply fall over and off the bike. No pain as I wasn't moving but it was rather funny.
Finally at the top one thinks the fun is about to begin right? Get to cruise down super fast? Nope. These were areas marked as "yellow flag" areas. This meant according to the rules - no passing, hands must be on your brakes, you must sit up on the bike, etc, oh and you can't go more than 12mph! Why? Because the descent was so steep and so full of curves that someone would have died on the course. Honestly it was all I could do to pull the brakes hard enough to stay below 15mph!
The 2nd major mountain and far and away the hardest was at kilometer 80 out of 90. By that point my legs were completely jelly. I biked as much of it as I could but of course I dismounted and walked my ass up that too at some point. I would venture to guess that 90-95% of folks walked these mountains.
Finally the bike was over and it was time for the run...or in my case the very slow jog. My legs were burning and had nothing in them. The run thankfully was very flat and through the Laguna Phuket resort area. So we ran on all sorts of terrain from golf courses, to asphalt, through an Elephant park, etc. It was two loops and I did my better on the 2nd loop than the first as my legs slowly started to recover.
I guess I will need more training to do this race or others while living in Shanghai. But all in all I am thrilled I did the race, met some great people and surprisingly had a lot of fun.
The first major mountain stretch came at kilometer 45 of so. We basically came around a corner and looked smack dab straight up! Most people attempted the climb thinking we could see the top. I'm not sure how far I made it before doing as most others did and walking my bike up. Now for those of you who understand heart rates this will put it in perspective. WALKING up the mountain my HR was between 167-175 which is very high! Back to the course. When we thought we were to the top, we weren't, it was just another switchback. So tried to ride again, dropped my bike chain causing my legs to flail and me to simply fall over and off the bike. No pain as I wasn't moving but it was rather funny.
Finally at the top one thinks the fun is about to begin right? Get to cruise down super fast? Nope. These were areas marked as "yellow flag" areas. This meant according to the rules - no passing, hands must be on your brakes, you must sit up on the bike, etc, oh and you can't go more than 12mph! Why? Because the descent was so steep and so full of curves that someone would have died on the course. Honestly it was all I could do to pull the brakes hard enough to stay below 15mph!
The 2nd major mountain and far and away the hardest was at kilometer 80 out of 90. By that point my legs were completely jelly. I biked as much of it as I could but of course I dismounted and walked my ass up that too at some point. I would venture to guess that 90-95% of folks walked these mountains.
Finally the bike was over and it was time for the run...or in my case the very slow jog. My legs were burning and had nothing in them. The run thankfully was very flat and through the Laguna Phuket resort area. So we ran on all sorts of terrain from golf courses, to asphalt, through an Elephant park, etc. It was two loops and I did my better on the 2nd loop than the first as my legs slowly started to recover.
I guess I will need more training to do this race or others while living in Shanghai. But all in all I am thrilled I did the race, met some great people and surprisingly had a lot of fun.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
1 year
Well it is now official, I have lasted one year with my new company. Not quite one year of officially living in China since I didn't move here until February but still one year with Richloom Fabrics. After 14 years with my previous employer and now only one year here, it seems a lifetime ago that I was in my previous job.
I'm thrilled with my decision to join this company and I haven't looked back one time. The people and the organization are top notch which is huge. The amount that I have learned and absorbed in 2010 can't even be put into writing. I started knowing the industry because it is related to furniture but not the real specifics of the textile trade. Now one year later I can say I feel relatively comfortable with textiles.
The past year has not been an easy one. The year started with the usual of employee challenges. It is typical that after Chinese New Year employees change jobs, want more money, etc. As we had about 45 people at the beginning of the year we are large enough to have this type of problem. Now at the end of the year we are at 59 employees and every day is a challenge.
We have experienced excellent sales but lower margins thanks to rising material costs. We have had some quality issues that have forced me to learn more technical aspects of the business as well. Plus we have had to deal with the rising of the value of the Chinese currency vs the US dollar. Last but not least the unprecedented skyrocketing of material costs. I use the date of Nov 8th as our M-Day for material day. That was the day that all broke loose and went haywire.
So I look back on lots of accomplishments and with plenty of pride about surviving through what has been a tough year. I'm sure the year ahead won't be easier on many fronts but at least I'm far ahead of the game by now knowing the textile industry much better.
I'm thrilled with my decision to join this company and I haven't looked back one time. The people and the organization are top notch which is huge. The amount that I have learned and absorbed in 2010 can't even be put into writing. I started knowing the industry because it is related to furniture but not the real specifics of the textile trade. Now one year later I can say I feel relatively comfortable with textiles.
The past year has not been an easy one. The year started with the usual of employee challenges. It is typical that after Chinese New Year employees change jobs, want more money, etc. As we had about 45 people at the beginning of the year we are large enough to have this type of problem. Now at the end of the year we are at 59 employees and every day is a challenge.
We have experienced excellent sales but lower margins thanks to rising material costs. We have had some quality issues that have forced me to learn more technical aspects of the business as well. Plus we have had to deal with the rising of the value of the Chinese currency vs the US dollar. Last but not least the unprecedented skyrocketing of material costs. I use the date of Nov 8th as our M-Day for material day. That was the day that all broke loose and went haywire.
So I look back on lots of accomplishments and with plenty of pride about surviving through what has been a tough year. I'm sure the year ahead won't be easier on many fronts but at least I'm far ahead of the game by now knowing the textile industry much better.
Duck Crossing...
On Friday morning I got an e-mail from one of my customers that he was stuck in a traffic jam. He was on his way from Shanghai to a factory near the Hangzhou area.
Ever seen a duck crossing?
How about thousands of ducks, upon thousands of ducks?
As my buddy said, "just another day on the way to the office."
As my buddy said, "just another day on the way to the office."
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