I write this post half way through a task that I have been putting off for the last few days. The ground floor of the building where I work is a cheap but excellent restaurant serving Shanxi food (that's spicy, sour and uses lots of garlic along with plenty of noodles and dumplings to fill your tummy).
One of the tasks that has to be completed during this week is translating the 25 page menu from Chinese into English. I am on page 14, where I am currently grappling with "fragrant and crisp wind flavours",and "Sliced husband and wife with spicy sauce". Other than the odd names, I am loving learning so many words about food!
The manager here was not so impressed that I was translating the menu myself and not using an internet translation service and that I was bothering to translate the whole menu. Although I adore menus with excellent translations - personal favourites include: fried sea bears, little chicken safety eggs and fungus borulumugubumgus - I am not willing to be responsible for such a menu. Isn't the point of me being around to make sure our English is perfect?
As for translating the whole menu, I really hate going out to eat here and being given the much abbreviated shortened menu full of dishes selected for "foreign tastes" - the way to get the chance to eat something new if you don't speak Chinese is for it to be recommended - so the whole menu will be translated into English. All 25 pages. Included the slices of husband and wife in spicy sauce.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
The longest to do list and the world's biggest market
I love a good list. My to do list for tomorrow runs to 5 sides of A4. I wrote it in the car on the way to a furniture market this afternoon where I went to price the cost of furnishing the 2nd floor and 5th floor of The Phoenix. I was issued with a driver (yay!) and two men to accompany me. I am not sure why there were two of them but there are lots of things I am not sure about so we shall not dwell on it.
We drove through a large gate that said "Nine Stars Market" and I was told that it was the biggest market in Shanghai. I asked where we would park the car, and the driver said he would park in the furniture section of the market. We drove on and on and on...and on and on. The market continued. Forty five minutes later, we arrived in the furniture section of the market. It really is the biggest market in Shanghai and certainly the biggest shopping place I've been to. I am sure it could rival Meadowhall or Blue Water! The furniture section had a sofa city, a table city, a PVC floor covering city...you get the picture.
After 2 hours I had a bad case of IKEA syndrome - desperate never to look at another piece of furniture (as all chairs had started to look the same) but with a strange desire to by remarkably low priced bowls with brightly coloured lids that nest inside one another. The prices seemed high until I sat down now and looked through my notes and photographs - £50 for a dining table and chairs, £400 for an 8-seater leather sofa! Even with the rapidly decreasing British pound, it's still cheap!
Somehow I have to select chairs, tables, sofas and bookcases - all within a very modest budget - and make the Phoenix lounge look very far from low-priced. Quite a funny job for a woman who only owns a few book cases and a miniature chair and chest of drawers as her only bits of furniture! Good job I played with my dolls' house a lot when I was little!
We drove through a large gate that said "Nine Stars Market" and I was told that it was the biggest market in Shanghai. I asked where we would park the car, and the driver said he would park in the furniture section of the market. We drove on and on and on...and on and on. The market continued. Forty five minutes later, we arrived in the furniture section of the market. It really is the biggest market in Shanghai and certainly the biggest shopping place I've been to. I am sure it could rival Meadowhall or Blue Water! The furniture section had a sofa city, a table city, a PVC floor covering city...you get the picture.
After 2 hours I had a bad case of IKEA syndrome - desperate never to look at another piece of furniture (as all chairs had started to look the same) but with a strange desire to by remarkably low priced bowls with brightly coloured lids that nest inside one another. The prices seemed high until I sat down now and looked through my notes and photographs - £50 for a dining table and chairs, £400 for an 8-seater leather sofa! Even with the rapidly decreasing British pound, it's still cheap!
Somehow I have to select chairs, tables, sofas and bookcases - all within a very modest budget - and make the Phoenix lounge look very far from low-priced. Quite a funny job for a woman who only owns a few book cases and a miniature chair and chest of drawers as her only bits of furniture! Good job I played with my dolls' house a lot when I was little!
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
How high to set the bar
The last 7 days have been rather tense and I haven't had the energy to focus on writing. I am really grateful to those of you who sent messages of support and encouragement. The Chinese call this "adding oil" or "加油" and I really needed it.
All the oil helped as the cogs seem to be grinding a bit more smoothly now. My pay deal was agreed yesterday, but without anyone checking with me whether a substantial cut in income would be a problem. I very nearly lost it and seethed all the way through the 'celebratory dinner' for having sealed the deal. My manner was duly noted and a new pay deal was agreed today resulting in a pay packet that still won't make me rich but will give me twice the amount agreed yesterday. I am bemused to say the least.
Deal done, I had a meeting with the construction team this afternoon to talk about finishing the bar on the 5th floor. The design for the bar is very simple, a rooftop terrace with a large glass roof over a deck and a cute Chinese style house for the days when the weather limits sitting outside. It will be lovely. I say "will be" because the man who designed the bar neglected to consider that a bar might need running water... and so there is no water supply inside the lovely Chinese house. The floor is also sloped so considerably that I can roll cans of coke down it with the Resident Poppet as the new best game of the year. Amusingly, when I mentioned this to the restaurant manager who has taken care of the construction thus far, he just replied that I never asked for it to be flat! I am now responsible for this renovation and for thinking of all the things that no one has thought of to date. Things like fridges. And air conditioning and the electricity supply to both things. It may sound tedious and it probably is but I had such a lot of fun figuring it all out.
I also have to start the designs for the cultural lounge on the 2nd floor. Remind me to say that I want the floor flat!
All the oil helped as the cogs seem to be grinding a bit more smoothly now. My pay deal was agreed yesterday, but without anyone checking with me whether a substantial cut in income would be a problem. I very nearly lost it and seethed all the way through the 'celebratory dinner' for having sealed the deal. My manner was duly noted and a new pay deal was agreed today resulting in a pay packet that still won't make me rich but will give me twice the amount agreed yesterday. I am bemused to say the least.
Deal done, I had a meeting with the construction team this afternoon to talk about finishing the bar on the 5th floor. The design for the bar is very simple, a rooftop terrace with a large glass roof over a deck and a cute Chinese style house for the days when the weather limits sitting outside. It will be lovely. I say "will be" because the man who designed the bar neglected to consider that a bar might need running water... and so there is no water supply inside the lovely Chinese house. The floor is also sloped so considerably that I can roll cans of coke down it with the Resident Poppet as the new best game of the year. Amusingly, when I mentioned this to the restaurant manager who has taken care of the construction thus far, he just replied that I never asked for it to be flat! I am now responsible for this renovation and for thinking of all the things that no one has thought of to date. Things like fridges. And air conditioning and the electricity supply to both things. It may sound tedious and it probably is but I had such a lot of fun figuring it all out.
I also have to start the designs for the cultural lounge on the 2nd floor. Remind me to say that I want the floor flat!
Monday, 2 February 2009
An Ode to Blocks in the Road
I was expecting some bumps in the road on my new working venture. Things have been rather smooth over the last week and it was making me nervous. Thankfully I need not worry much longer as we have hit something more like a giant hole in the road rather than a bump!
Contract negotiation is an interesting activity here in China. We have presented our bilingual plan for the Phoenix lounge three times now. The lady who owns the building and will be the main investor is very happy with the plans and does not want to change anything. This made me feel very pleased with the level of our work and the ideas we've generated.
The road block is the management fee that she will pay to the company I work for. I had been assured that this was all agreed and covered off in the contract I signed before Christmas. However, the murky waters now reveal that she hasn't agreed the fee and that she wants to set it at 4000rmb a month for two people working full time. I know that labor is cheap in China - but it's not that cheap. If my company accepts this fee, I will earn less than the lady who works on reception! And I will be her manager, the manager of the bar, the project manager for the construction of the culture lounge on the 2nd floor and responsible for all the staff in the whole place. A mere 45 people.
My company insists that everything will be OK - but this odd system of negotiation where everything is vague, contracts are signed but don't seem to mean anything and no one will actually formally commit to anything is rather stressful.
It's hard for me to describe the cultural difference - but I shall relay an anecdote which I hope will reflect the experience.
The second floor of our building needs extensive renovations - in ou business plan I said that we would need 45 days for the building work to be completed providing the construction team starts work next week - this plan includes 7 days contingency for any unexpected issues. I have watched enough episodes of Grand Designs to know there are always issues. I was told that 45 days was too long to put in the plan and we needed to say it would take 14 days. But it won't, it will take 45 days. But still, we have to say 14 days because we will be judged on how fast our plan says we can open the second floor for business. But the second floor will not be ready for business within 14 days. That doesn't matter. The plan doesn't have to reflect the actual activity or time frame. The plan just reflects the plan.
I am not in Kansas anymore.
Hopefully over the next week, I will have a clear idea of what my actual salary will be (rather than the one that is in my contract or the offensive offer on the negotiating table). It's all fascinating - and horribly frustrating at the same time. Luckily I found chamomile tea in the supermarket so at least I can relax!
Contract negotiation is an interesting activity here in China. We have presented our bilingual plan for the Phoenix lounge three times now. The lady who owns the building and will be the main investor is very happy with the plans and does not want to change anything. This made me feel very pleased with the level of our work and the ideas we've generated.
The road block is the management fee that she will pay to the company I work for. I had been assured that this was all agreed and covered off in the contract I signed before Christmas. However, the murky waters now reveal that she hasn't agreed the fee and that she wants to set it at 4000rmb a month for two people working full time. I know that labor is cheap in China - but it's not that cheap. If my company accepts this fee, I will earn less than the lady who works on reception! And I will be her manager, the manager of the bar, the project manager for the construction of the culture lounge on the 2nd floor and responsible for all the staff in the whole place. A mere 45 people.
My company insists that everything will be OK - but this odd system of negotiation where everything is vague, contracts are signed but don't seem to mean anything and no one will actually formally commit to anything is rather stressful.
It's hard for me to describe the cultural difference - but I shall relay an anecdote which I hope will reflect the experience.
The second floor of our building needs extensive renovations - in ou business plan I said that we would need 45 days for the building work to be completed providing the construction team starts work next week - this plan includes 7 days contingency for any unexpected issues. I have watched enough episodes of Grand Designs to know there are always issues. I was told that 45 days was too long to put in the plan and we needed to say it would take 14 days. But it won't, it will take 45 days. But still, we have to say 14 days because we will be judged on how fast our plan says we can open the second floor for business. But the second floor will not be ready for business within 14 days. That doesn't matter. The plan doesn't have to reflect the actual activity or time frame. The plan just reflects the plan.
I am not in Kansas anymore.
Hopefully over the next week, I will have a clear idea of what my actual salary will be (rather than the one that is in my contract or the offensive offer on the negotiating table). It's all fascinating - and horribly frustrating at the same time. Luckily I found chamomile tea in the supermarket so at least I can relax!
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