Ni Hao,
A round up of the latest news… I will pre-warn you that it is mostly going to be talk of work since that is all I have done this week!
So my company have that big presentation coming up in a couple of weeks which is important for us as the company in question is a big player, which is what I have been working on so hard for the last few weeks… sourcing fabrics & collating all the fabric technical information, and then having those fabrics made up into sample garments so that we can apply the ‘washes’ and then making up presentation boards and arranging the presentation room (see pics). Hopefully we can demonstrate our diverse capabilities as well as our ability to be innovative.

Its been super busy and involves a lot of time consuming bits and pieces which seem to eat into my daily schedule (nowadays I can never believe it is lunchtime/dinnertime already!). But this project is now nearly wrapped up and all we have to do is rehearse the presentation itself ready for the clients arrival… so I thought my part was pretty much done… handing over the info to management to present and then…. last week I was talking with the product development manager, asking her what she plans to talk about and how she will present it etc when she asked me if I wanted to it instead since I have done so much work on the development…. Well I can hardly say no now can I?! So now I have to prepare for that and try not to poo my pants too hard when the big day arrives! Actually, previous to that we have a rehearsal tomorrow with the two big bosses, going to have to put my brave boots on, try not to mumble or talk crap and get my ideas across in a semi cohesive manner!

The other thing I have been working on is an analysis project to assess the mills that we work with and to see if we can somehow consolidate this (huge) list of vendors in order to increase our bargaining powers.
There is a LOT of data collection & analysis involved and I am horribly behind schedule and seem to have developed a bad habit of promising very optimistic deadlines I am not always sure I can achieve… Im trying to be impressive, for example this conversation with my boss last week:
Me:‘oh yeah no probs, I can do that for you, it will be on your desk next Monday morning’
Boss: ‘really?! Are you sure you can do it in such a short time?’
Me: ‘of course, you see Im so productive, efficient and organized and generally brilliant that I can do that for in a flash.’ (whilst thinking shit… shut up Tanya that’s going to take you aggggeeeeesss!)
Boss: ‘well, good, Im glad to hear it, good work & I look forward to receiving your report!’

So now I am working on a Sunday… with a 2day hangover I might add, but the good news is its still early afternoon and the report is pretty much finished woohoo!
Now I can start the second stage this week as the project is divided into 2 parts.

So apart from work I have just been resting mostly… Last night I went to a Karaoke bar for the evening where we bought a bottle for the table rather than order individual drinks as there were quite a few of us (we almost got a bottle of Jaegermister but I was like hell no way that’s so damn strong!). Karaoke was fun (they really do love it here!!) I of course did not sing, because lets be honest who has heard me understands how truly terrible I am!... but it turns out that a lot of my friends can not only sing but do it amazingly well… I was thinking we were set for an evening of tuneless wailing but in actual fact it was like being on the front row at a Chinese concert haha.
We also played a lot of Chinese drinking games involving dice… and counting… in Mandarin, such a good way for me to learn my numbers well, although the whole speaking in a foreign language thing slowed me down and meant I kept losing and had to keep drinking… and the more I drank, the worse it got.. downward spiral me thinks!

Not much else to report I think… apart from the fact that my pigging stupid laptop is broken (god knows why, last Sunday it was perfect, on Monday morning it starts making strange clicking noises and freezing up??!!) Im taking it to the doctors soon but until then Im afraid I have no skype as I am currently using my work laptop… I am going to download it but will have no webcam and may not bring my laptop home with me every evening/weekend.

This week Paula arrives for not just one week (as I originally thought) but TWO weeks as she managed to extend her flights/holiday etc… woo hoo, a real good treat, Im soooo excited! So I will update next at some point with pictures of our antics.
I am so looking forward to showing her around, seeing her freak out over chicken feet, teaching her some basic survival Chinese, and having my Bessie mate here to chat to! I feel as if I havnt truly had a proper decent chinwag in ages… and that’s no disrespect to my new friends but they obv do not know me as well as Paula.

Well time to sign off… miss you all and only realized properly that this xmas I have to spend without my family/friends L big time rubbish… Im going to miss the crimbo eve party, being sat in my pjs taking it in turns to open pressies at Dads whilst stuffing my face with selection box chocolates, and my round robin trip to see everyone (& eating multiple turkey dinners!).

Hope you are taking good care of yourselves & each other.
Tx