beat...

Totally tired. Long day. 5am up and dealt with another client's
issue from not listening. 6am, ironed my dress shirt, 615am, iron-
wife rushing me out the door w/ her to gym. Worked out. 7:15am,
showered, shaved and inhaled my Starbucks b'fast. 7:40am, walked to
client office. It's big. It does power, shipping and all.... we
were to train a team of Chinese employee with a Western manager on
effective communication. 8am, We went to the conf room for setup. We
stripped the tables away and make every sat closer. Rule 1, tables
with them sitting at each end, just a road block.

All 14 participants. I had to say, it was quite impressive to see the
employees so involve, so hungry for knowledge, and so willing to help
each other. There were lots of "ah-ha" moments. And the course
design by us (spent all day Thursday putting it all together), were
geared to provide them theories, tools and hands-on practice to bridge
the gap. I had to say, didn't see much gap there at the end of the
day. It was quite satisfying to see people improved over an 8-hour
period. Traditionally, new employees in Shanghai switch job every
year or so, this company's employees stay... some over 18 years. That
has to say something about the dedication this company does to its
employees.

4:35pm, course done. We were heading out, looking for a taxi to cross
HuangPu river for a potential client biz meeting. The manager who
participated the course and was the main driver for the course, picked
up his mobile and talked. 30 seconds later, his driver with the Buick
mini-van appeared. "Take it" he said, "just tell the driver where you
need to go". Wow, what luck! I kept forgetting there's another
little nicety working with Expats. We made it there right on time!
If we were to take a taxi,if and when we could get one at 4:35pm,
would be a miracle. We were on time. This client, another multi-
national. The building we were in, this company owned, 30 stories or
so. Just across the street from the two tallest buildings in Shanghai
and two of the top tens tallest in the world.

An hour meeting, switched gear from teaching to biz meeting.... Then
dinner ....

8:00pm. Home.... Sore from Arthritis (weather prediction for
tomorrow: humid, cold and wet).... Tired from everything today.....

Tomorrow rest day. Gym in the morning, Internet portal consulting,
more gym... and then this good friend of ours volunteered to cook for
us and will have her assistant bringing food to our apartment!!! How
good is that?

Sunday... 5:30am.... Another 106K ride.....