Le Rôdeur

Too many things happens,  and as always never enough time to write something interesting in my blog. And yesterday night I was way too drunk to write anything valuable.

Drunk ? Het lapinou, what’s happening to you ?

The answer is simple : I was invited to the grand opening of a new factory, in a place I though was near my hotel. First mistake, because I needed more than 2 hours to reach my destination, with a nice bill around 240 RMB for my ride in cab. Rain was really stong and I must I have nothing to complain about, specially every time the driver had to go out of his to ask his way. Dumb as I am, I wrote the address down on a paper but I forgot the telephone number. But in China there are no number on buildings, just the name of the streets. And when the streets are more than 5 Km long it starts to be a bit messy…

And so, I was really really late. And of course I was also the only foreigner there. This information is important later in this day… And Phoebe was waiting for me and could introduce me to the big boss. Interesting meeting, interesting peoples.

And as I missed the opening at noon, the big boss invited me to the gala in the most expensive restaurant of the city… And things get messy again. Because I was foreigner, everyone wanted to drink with me. And we were a lot of people in this restaurent… really a lot. Happily the diner started early and finished early too. I had to refuse some invitation from other factories boss to have a last drink and was driven home by a really nice guy, who have his own factory and was aking products for other french companies… Interesting as I said, and I should be smart to catch some informations…

I tall french guy in suit lost in a big 14 millions souls filled city in southern China… This is certainly the best way to describe me this week. And I kind of like it !

So the song of the day is White Rabbit from jefferson Airplane…because 1967 was a nice year I never met. But anyway problems with rabbits, size, unexpected states of mind are always topics which ‘talk’ to me in some weird ways.

But no link today for this great music, Youtube and other media online depository don;’t work here in China… or maybe THIS ONE

Back to China. Life is sometimes funny, or is it just that like makes fun of us ? I can’t say. All I can say is that it feels strange to ba back in China after more than a year between Japan and France. Everything looks strange to me, the landscape, the peoples, the language, the buildings, the weaher… Everything looks like new challenges, everything looks like a new trials. I feel lost. Completely lost.

Anyway I am here for a special purpose, unlike last time I went to this country. I was a student and I’m now a businessman. What a word… Businessman ! Let’s say that I am simply here to fix problems. That’s my duty in my work, maybe in my life too. Fixing problems and trying to think about new options to go on.

So I’m here in this strange and over heated city. Fist step in CHina and first scam : the taxi thing, or how to pay 3 times the normal price to reach the hotel. I knew about it, but there’s something broken somewhere in my bloody brain that makes me completely unable to say NO to someone. That’s just crazy thinking about that, and seing myself dealing with a swindler knowing that any option involving this guy will cost me money… Not the first time, maybe not the last neither.

At least the talking with the driver was interesting and forced me using the few vocabulary that came to my mind. And then I could reach the hotel.

The hotel is really amazing (let’s say for chinese standarts). Building is brand new, rooms are clean, bathroom looks like a real one. Nice improvements compared to the average level of quality I was expected in this country, especially after staying one night in a cheap hostel in HK. I took a few shots as proof, and i will certainly publish them soon…

It’s about time for me to meet the guy we are working with from France. I have the feeling that it’s not going to be easy. I have the feeling that nothing is going to be easy from now on, and I’m not sure I’m happy with that fact.

In fact it’s most a first attempt to write something than really a first… something.

First of all, why the hell am I writing in english ? What’s happening in my poor mind to swap from Moliere’s language to Shakespeare’s ? I just don’t know. or maybe have I too many reasons to summarize all in just a single answer.

To make a fast answer, let’s just say that I am using an QWERTY keyboard without the french special accents, and it’s a reain pain in the arse to always swap from US keyboard to french one just to fix the spelling of some words. So the use of english is just a matter of simplicity for me.

As you can realise if you are a native english speaker, my english is far from being perfect. This is a second reason for me to use it : I started to really learn english when I was at college and wanted to translate articles from the ‘White Dwarf’ magazine. Then I improved my english looking at movies and playing Everquest. Maybe it’s time now to take my studyes to a brand new level and train everyday by writing a few sentences.

So, what’s up ? What’s happening in this strange world of ours ? You will read that, but later…