WHAT a long day

whew! and we're back... well, i'm back. cindy's still in zhuhai, hanging with pops.

flew in this morning with alvin. wow. remind me never to do that again. fly home in the morning, i mean. it was fine, i rolled in around 1 pm and worked a full day so it was productive enough, went to all my meetings, made it through my inbox, etc. etc. fine. but god i'm tired.

may be heading to milan on friday for a home acc show. my first time in italy, so i'm not complaining, but i won't be strolling in a piazza, eating with mario batali, and buying armfuls of prada and missoni. more likely i'll be walking the show for a day and a half and spending the rest of the time in meetings. yay! but hey, like i said, i'm not complaining. if work keeps you interested, than it's a good thing. take it from the burnout baby.

hk was good, just way too short. landed friday night, met jen and cindy out for drinks, then back to allen's place for a shower and some work. cindy and i stayed up till 3-ish, and i passed out on the couch and dragged my ass up the next morning to meet biann and alvin in mongkok. we wanted to look at phones; alvin's pretty much decided on the prada phone, and i fell in love with the blackberry pearl, but after an enlightening convo with a salesguy about smartphone coverage on the mainland, that quickly fell to the wayside. still not sure what's going to happen, but i have 4 more weeks and then i can land an international phone account and i guess maybe reconvene at that point. with myself, i mean. there will be no hiding from work calls when that comes down the pipe, tho. i will be unhideable. not that i hide... from... my boss...

i did get to have lunch at tsui wah (oh heaven of heavens) and alvin and cindy and i all met my family out for a good canto dinner later. i trolled for shoes the whole day, but didn't see anything that struck my practical side and my whimsical side. cannot walk to work in heels, as much as i try. managed to hit up most of causeway bay for what i needed and squeezed in a little IFC after dinner, just to check out lane crawford's personal care and gifting area. didn't find any new brands for us, tho, but they do have a brilliant visual merch team in that IFC store. love.

what else... went to jen's new pad for a second dinner/bbq. june showed up, visiting from seoul, with bf and friend in tow.all good fun. i just met june but i really enjoy how strong her personality is. she's just... herself. it's kind of offensive at times, and really blunt, but i appreciate honesty far more than diplomacy so it's just pure entertainment. jen has this fuggin amazing deck that just about doubles her square footage and was genius enough to buy these rocking chairs with nice soft cushions to sink into. several glasses of wine and champagne later and i rocked myself unconscious, carefully coated in mosquito repellent and exhausted. shopping can be killer.

zhuhai is interesting. driving along a highway parallel to the water i could squint my eyes and almost pretend i was in waikiki driving from the airport. the water is dirty as hell, but there are interesting rock formations along the beach and really lush hillsides. quite nice. we spent far too little time there, saw the house - all 4 stories of it - and spent the later afternoon playing in the pool like otters. awesome! it's one of the nicest backyard pools in that its long enough to do actual laps, and leaves enough room in the yard for plenty of landscape. i had a ball. the fun really began when we all went to take showers, as no window coverings were up yet and all the showers are essentially against walls of windows. i showered in the dark (it's actually pretty fun, try it sometime), but i'm sure the neighbors enjoyed the show regardless. we thought it was pretty hilarious. cindy's dad got home around 8-ish and took us to an amazing dabino dinner. gotta love the hotpot! we ate ourselves sick, and cindy's dad broke out his johnnie walker blue label and we had beers and it was jolly.

a nice weekend. i'm pooped.

work was fun today - my projects are starting to come together and we got our samples back for the gifts we'll be giving out at the anniversary party and they came out really nicely. i'm happy with them. i really have to say, there's a satisfaction that comes with identifying with the positioning of your brand. it's nice to know that your work and your eye and taste count for something other than a cute wardrobe (can i even say i have one of those any more?), even if it's just small things. touches, really. all i need now is to get into a decent apartment and i'll be feeling - as the oracle says - right as rain.

sigh. nighty night. i'm glad to be home, even if shanghai is the ghetto country dirty weak-imitation version of hong kong.

xoxo.