Fame and fortune awaits…

Kung Hei Fat Choi – a bit of good news at the start of the year of the golden pig, I'm just about off my crutches, woohoo… My ankle was actually as good as better a week ago but I then managed to twist it again playing golf over the long weekend. I'm sure I don't need to say that I won the golf but unfortunately, shooting for the green on the 18th, I managed to knock myself over on a practice swing - 180 yards from the semi rough needs a bit of a welly, d’oh!

Once again Chinese New Year was great, as well as the golf in China I hit the islands of Lantau and Lamma for some BBQ'd meat action and possible the highlight, my work annual dinner...

OK, I'll level with you, it was more of a black out. Hours of Mah Jong, Chinese speeches and endless calls of "gome boi" (literal translation 'dry glass') wasn’t my idea of a good time. The only benefit if you can call it that was that I discovered why the Chinese like to shout “gome boi” and skull their drinks and not sip them - Chinese spirits taste sh*t!

For once this month I actually thought that my sales teams were going to hit my targets. Alas yet again it wasn't to be, so to try to encourage them I've been running a few training sessions. This is always entertaining, mainly because half the time they clearly don't understand me but that's ok, when I get them to fill in evaluation forms everyone always gives top marks, happy days.

Seeing as work isn't making me rich I'm thinking of pushing myself as an international celebrity... I keep getting texts saying I’ve been seen on TV as the advert I helped in is now showing around the clock here in HK plus I also took time out of my busy schedule this week to present at a very important, high powered i-gaming conference in Macau (PCIG 2007, produced by the wonderful River City Group).

Now it’s not for me to say I was great, but... Actually, I was absolutely bricking it until moments before but my 40 minute slot and I think Sue (RCG’s CEO) had a few doubts about her sanity in asking me to speak, but once going it was surprisingly painlessly. My topic was "Cultural Considerations for Business in Asia" (I’ve been here almost 2 years so clearly an expert!) and the 200 or so delegates laughed in the right places and none of them threw anything or booed me off so...

Obviously I stayed on after the conference to attend the cocktail party at the Wynn casino, soak up the accolades and drink too much with Dawn, Sue and co from RCG along with Penny and Peter from ATE (my last company in UK). It was great to catch up with them all again but have to admit I wasn’t at my liveliest when I got to work only 4 hours after taking the long ferry ride home at the end of the night!

And seeing as that was about 5 hours ago that's about me,

Until the next exciting instalment.

JP

so close but ...

How often do you get a text message asking for "ugly sex", though I'm not 100% sure what it is, not often enough is probably the answer but that’s the text I thought I’d received a few weeks ago! On re-reading it and noticing who it was from and realised it was a foreign reversal of the of “the fairer sex”, a phrase I'd recently used but still, for a while there I thought I may be in love....

After too long I’m pleased to announce I have a new food to report on - turtle shell. The reason I was eating turtle shell goo was that it’s apparently good for all that ails and as I’m on crutches (another story) the lads in the office thought it a good plan. In the name of experimentation and adventureI gave it a go – it’s been a quiet month - but have to say I’m not convinced, no gastric or medicinal benefits were felt!

In other news, I'm undefeated on the footie pitch in ’07 but my rugby team is still without a win, I’ve enjoyed celebrating as the Mighty Mighty England have hopefully come through the bad times with wins at both cricket and rugby and I’ve been looking after the mutt (Sean’s dog Sonny) for what feels like forever (in reality 16 day).

Apparently I’m too old be playing rugby, at least that’s what the people in the are saying. I’m not sure but this could be due to the shiner I was sporting a couple of weeks ago, or the strapping on my knee, or maybe the crutches I’ve been limping around on for the last week!

I actually blame the mutt for the crutches, although I’d damaged my ankle on the pitch it was Sonny dragging me over on it that sent me to A&E. On the bright side I got to impress people in the hospital with my wheelchair wheelie skills and now own crutches to go with my wheel chair. They offered me a zimmer-frame originally but I felt that was pushing it a bit too far!

Other than that its been a fairly quiet month, the fun fair was in town so I’ve now ridden a big dipper with views of the fragrant harbour (Hong Kong’s literal translation) and there’s been the usual mix of birthdays, horseracing, housewarmings and just spending of my hard earned beer tokens. February looks set to be a little more stressful but we’ll see ….

Laters

JP