I thought I would try something different this week, and write about my typical day when travelling. So, welcome to "A Day in the Life...". This was my day on Friday (give or take a few of the boring details)
Most of the hotels I stay in are bartered with the station. They are basic, and reasonably comfortable. And only about about 300 RMB per night (AUD$50). My 4 nights in Changchun were spent at the "Fifth Season Hotel". Newly refurbished, and comfortable. Only problem was the breakfast. I enjoy cereal, toast, bacon, eggs. You know. Normal food. So, the choice of fish porridge, noodles, and other Chinese cuisine didn't really appeal to me.
The hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the office. Sounds good? Yes, at the moment. A fresh, 6 degrees each morning. I won't be walking during the middle of winter though, where it gets down to -17. Arriving at the office (which is in a 20 floor building), there are 3 elevators. Not a bad wait on Friday. Usually you have to wait 5-10 minutes, and sometimes you won't get dropped off on your floor. If there are too many different floors pressed, they will usually choose a few, just so it doesn't stop so much. Once, we were dropped off on the 13th floor, then had to take the stairs down to the 12th. Thank god it wasn't the 2nd floor.
Let the day begin! Friday was a busy day, and mainly revolved around airchecks with the DJ's. These can be anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours. Because of the need to have everything translated, it can take twice as long as it would normally. In this photo, XiaoYan (English name Smile) is on the left. Smile is one of our youngest Program Managers. On the right, is Arlene, one of the DJ's. And Milly (all round legend, and half my assistant, half assistant to the COO, and helps me translate when needed) is taking the photo. I think she might be camera shy.
After the busy morning of airchecks, it was time for lunch. Always a nice surprise to see what we are eating each day. Friday, it was noodle soup - served in a plastic bag and eaten from a plastic tub (as you can see in this picture). Surprisingly tasty. And cheap. And hand delivered. Alot of places in China you can order on the phone, and they will deliver so you can eat in the office. Lots of different options too. Oh, and to balance the cuisine, we had Pizza Hut on Tuesday. A proper pizza hut restaurant, where you can sit down. Just like you could do in Australia once, before they all became takeaway.
The afternoon was more airchecks, and review with the branch manager. Then it was party time! Changchun was the most recent station to achieve monthly revenue of RMB 1 million, and to celebrate we had a "Million Club Dinner", with all the staff, the COO and also the Executive director. Lots of food, red wine - and the dreaded Chinese spirit Baijiu. (Note to self. Never organise an early morning flight after a night of drinking Baijiu. Result = Bad). In the photo is our Executive Director Ken, myself, Branch Manager David, COO Luca, and Nanjing Branch Manager Hongtao.
After the food, the 2 bottles of Baijiu, and the 16 bottles of red wine, we moved onto a local KTV. KTV = Karaoke. You are shown into your own private room, with your own Karaoke system. We ordered more drinks, and the singing began. It took we while to navigate through the system, but they had a great selection of English songs. Alot better than in Hefei where I last did Karoaoke. Time for some Billy Joel! I did "It's Still Rock n Roll to Me" first. About 2 hours later, when I was singing it again, I realised that I had already sung it that night. But everyone was too drunk to notice.
As I said, there was plenty of drink on the night. One thing the Chinese love doing is celebrating with alcohol. The red wine, the champagne, the Baijiu (I recommend that everyone try Baijiu at least once. Just so you can appreciate what I'm going through), and then the Budweisers at the KTV. It's a matter of grabbing a beer, choosing your favourite song, and belting it out in front of everyone. All these bottles are still full.
I did notice however, that not everyone was singing. I think of the 10 or 15 of us that made it to Karaoke, there was about 5 of us singing, including me. I think I managed a few Billy Joel songs, Smokie, ABBA, and Elvis. I remember seeing the Sugababes as a choice and thinking "Who would sing the Sugababes?". Oh, and we managed to sing along to the English parts of Gangnam Style, plus tried to dance the moves. Very interesting at 1am.
In this photo, our COO Luca singing with one of the Changchun staff.
OK, so maybe it wasn't a typical day the way it ended, but it definitely was a big day. As I mentioned, I didn't plan the flight back to Beijing that well as I needed to be up at 7am. Not a good thought when climbing into bed at 2. Oh, and the taxi ride to the airport was interesting. I'll save that for the next blog.
