October Break

I’m sitting in Shanghai Airlines first class lounge as I wait for my flight to Qingdao. The first class lounge is nice, a bit understated by the standards of first class lounges. As if I have a lot of experience in first class lounges. The reason I am in the first class lounge is because Yang got some kind of break on the ticket. Yang, the kids, and her dad will meet me in Qingdao and then we will spend five nights on some island whose name I can’t remember. So it is kind of like the perfect vacation  light for me – no kids on the plane and first class.

I haven’t seen Yang and he kids for three nights and in reality it has been more like six nights. Because of the holiday, last weekend was shifted as a working weekend and at work we had execs swing through town for three days of planning sessions. The planning sessions are pretty simple. We tell the execs what we want to do. Then they tell us that this is stupid and instead we should do this something else. We all agree, shake hands, and say what a fantastic plan we built together. Which looks amazing like the plan we had originally proposed. Then the execs fly away and we are eager to help them with their bags.

We did have one special exec visit this time. When he travels, I am told, he stays at one of the worlds best hotel chains. He stays there because he owns half of the chain. I got to do a short presentation to him which is a kind of a right of passage for where I work. It went very well, which is not the normal case from what I am told, perhaps it was the big mac this exec had for lunch. Anyway, here, I am with him and a few co-workers on the day I presented.

For the past four days, I’ve been at my organizations annual offsite, this year held in Shanghai. The best part about the offsite for me is seeing my co-workers in a different context, be it doing the river dance, or playing drums to “we will rock you”, or not being able to hold their alcohol. The worst part about the trip is needed to share a room with a co-worker and explaining that it is normal for westerners to take showers in the morning vs. evenings. This year my roommate had to cancel his trip at the last moment. To which all I can say is “thank you”.

So they are about to call my flight. Maybe I will take one more pass through the first class lounge buffet and grab another diet coke. Or maybe I will just site here for a moment and breathe.