Stanfords Finest

I was told that I had won one of the lucky draws in the works do I had walked out of. My luck personified. In the day Ronnie, Big Boss and I all sat together and went through my work which was deemed pretty good by the big boss leaving Ronnie silent. I coolly slided the knife into the back of my hapless co-worker and from now on am free of the chains that bind me. Its not easy having to highlight the failings of others but if they impact upon your being what choice do you have? Beijing looks like being on for the end of this year but we will see if it comes true. I left work feeling positive again. The weather is back on track and the coldness is a distant nightmare. Feb really was a shit month.

Magical weekend in fact the stuff dreams are made of. Me, my wife and our child all together. My wife is now transformed and back to her old self. It’s great. When this all goes well the work shit tends to fade into the background although it has been nagging at me over the weekend. I feel revitalised. I am ready for whatever this week throws at me. Let’s go.

My worst day at the handbag factory yet. There are some long and boring issues that I can go into but suffice to say that there is a lot of movement behind the scenes at my company and I have unwittingly stepped into the crossfire. My immediate boss is local but lived in the west for many years when it looked like (to the Hong Kong population at least) that China was going to invade and destroy Hong Kong in 1997. Alas it didn’t happen and now 10 years later there are PRC flags hanging from the wall and talk of the motherland oh, and lots and lots of Yuan flowing over the border but that’s not a factor is it? Of course not. Wash my mouth out. I find the characters that fled but are now born again Chinese and proud kind of hypocritical and I take my hat off to all those (locals and others) that stayed in Hong Kong during the handover when times were far from certain. Those people, in my opinion at least, are real Hong Kong people not fair-weather friends. There are Hong Kongers that fall into the hypocritical category that I know and I feel a kind of wariness around them (not because they deserted but because they over compensate the Chinese and proud angle) and I now have that feeling with this guy. Good time colleague but when shit has potential to hit the fan then you won’t see him for dust. Oh, and he is a dwarf who reminds me of a Cantonese Ronnie Corbet but that’s neither here nor there. He is nice from time to time but not exactly a hard-worker and always dashing to Macau or Shenzhen on business (nudge nudge wink win). Always walks around the office quickly in this ‘look how busy I am’ way and tells everyone how busy he is. All the time.Just like the lazy bastards I used to work with in Local Government in the UK who would do nothing all day but pretend to work ticking off the days until they retire. (more…)