End of an era

Well today, Nov 15, 2012 marked a milestone and end of an era for me here in China.   I had to say goodbye to my driver, Cash, who has been with me the past three years.  Unfortunately we had to not renew his contract as we had someone move back to the US which put us in the situation that we didn't need the extra van.  So I will still have a driver, in fact one that is probably a better driver, faster and also speaks English, yet it won't be the same.  Cash is loved by one and all and has become like a father figure especially to some of the younger employees.  It was truly a business decision and thankfully he totally understood.  I gave him a couple of nice bottles of Chinese whiskey this morning and he was very appreciative of it.

As an FYI I probably told the story before but his name, "Cash", has a humorous story.  In Chinese his name sounds like "Mr. Jew."  Well my company is a Jewish family owned company and I simply didn't think that was right to call him that.  So I asked what his name meant, translated to English.  Unfortunately it was "Mr Pig."  Again didn't think that was proper name.  Another colleague of mine said "that new driver looks like a Chinese version of Johnny Cash."  And right there folks is how his name came about.  I'm sure he also equated Cash with money so all in all it was good.

He will be missed but hopefully we will see him for a dinner or something down the road.