Wednesday, 19 September 2007
The Great War of China!
Another busy day but with slightly more drama than usual. It was interesting to find out more about the workmanship and techniques that go into restoring our furniture. Drying rooms where the walls are covered in blankets and constantly sprayed with water, are used to dry out the many layers of lacquer under strong hot lights. Everything is handmade on site right down to the metal door furniture. Got back to the hotel in the afternoon in time to catch a fracas in one of the clothes shops between two ladies. Lots of shouting and then we saw some blood, but thankfully a hotel doctor turned up with a white coat and a stethscope. Off to find some more treasures today.
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Treasure hunting
After a very enjoyable first night in the Shangri-la Hotel, we were up bright and early to visit the first of two suppliers. Our contact Cherie picked us up at 9am and as usual was outrageous and had us laughing all the way to the factory. We enjoyed copius amounts of green tea before Cherie and her boss Mr Chu showed us around and we found some fantastic products. As well as some of our usual buys we also discovered some very exciting new and different pieces, which we are sure will get a great reaction from our customers and the press.
Every Picture Tells a Story 16 September 2007
The final meeting in Jakarta may possibly have been the most hopeful of the day (decisions yet to be made) - we were given the opportunity to see examples of workmanship and range of furniture on a laptop presentation - however amongst a comprehensive archive of factory shots, popped up pictures of busty blondes and other tittilating surprises we assumed he'd kept for his own viewing pleasure - this was amusing for Mimmi & me as we tried our best to be seriously impressed with sideboard craftsmanship and wood qualities only to have the occasional X-rated magic eye picture interrupt the presentation.
And Now We Are Three.......................Monday 17th September
Back again to Hong Kong where Mimmi & I met up with Chris, showroom manager of our Chelsea store, who flew in from London, thrilled to be on his first trip to the Far East. He arrived in good sprits and we set off on the boat trip, to Zhongshan in China, to prepare for an intense and highly enjoyable 4 days of selecting restored Chinese antiques
The final meeting in Jakarta may possibly have been the most hopeful of the day (decisions yet to be made) - we were given the opportunity to see examples of workmanship and range of furniture on a laptop presentation - however amongst a comprehensive archive of factory shots, popped up pictures of busty blondes and other tittilating surprises we assumed he'd kept for his own viewing pleasure - this was amusing for Mimmi & me as we tried our best to be seriously impressed with sideboard craftsmanship and wood qualities only to have the occasional X-rated magic eye picture interrupt the presentation.
And Now We Are Three.......................Monday 17th September
Back again to Hong Kong where Mimmi & I met up with Chris, showroom manager of our Chelsea store, who flew in from London, thrilled to be on his first trip to the Far East. He arrived in good sprits and we set off on the boat trip, to Zhongshan in China, to prepare for an intense and highly enjoyable 4 days of selecting restored Chinese antiques
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Sunday 16th. Finding a new supplier in Indonesia
Jemma here -We arrived in Indonesia yesterday, from Hong Kong. We arrived in Hong Kong on Friday spent the night with friends in the beautiful Deep water Bay area. However we might have had a little too much to eat and drink in Wanchai, being keen to put jet-lag at bay, and it was a tough wake up call yesterday at 6am to return to the airport in to fly down here, we were both pretty quiet on the 5 hour flight!
We're staying in Jakarta, the capital city of Java, the most densley populated island in the world. There's little in the news about the recent earth-quake, but as it was in a remote area of Sumatra and the warnings of a Tsunami came to nothing, it seems, for most of us, to have passed by.
The temperature here is a debilitating 33 degrees and 85% humidity here which makes coping with the tiredness a bit tougher. However all our meetings are at our hotel, so not having to travel on the national domestic airline or spend much time on the roads is a relief going on past experience!
Potential suppliers today have arrived, from cities in Central Java, with lorry loads of furniture samples, made to our templates. The hunger for a contract is apparent, and we especially felt sorry for the two guys who'd driven for 12 hours in a tiny truck through the night. The reason for night travel is that, being the month of Ramadan, they are fasting during hours of daylight (even water was refused in our meeting) so travel at night allowed refreshments along the way.
As always, we now haved to decipher what was 'really' said in our meetings; communication is tricky in the sense of language, as well as culture, and we need to be sure that a new supplier will do their best for us once there is 6000 miles and just email between us, as containers full of mistakes are costly.
Our final meeting is about to take place and then we can relax for the evening and hope for a night uninterrupted by jet lag ( a couple of bottles of wine do help here with Brandy Alexander night-caps). We've a 6am start tomorrow to fly back to Hong Kong. Here we will meet our colleague, straight off the flight from the UK, and then get the ferry to China where we have daily visits to restoration factories to select restored antiques for our Winter collection
Jemma here -We arrived in Indonesia yesterday, from Hong Kong. We arrived in Hong Kong on Friday spent the night with friends in the beautiful Deep water Bay area. However we might have had a little too much to eat and drink in Wanchai, being keen to put jet-lag at bay, and it was a tough wake up call yesterday at 6am to return to the airport in to fly down here, we were both pretty quiet on the 5 hour flight!
We're staying in Jakarta, the capital city of Java, the most densley populated island in the world. There's little in the news about the recent earth-quake, but as it was in a remote area of Sumatra and the warnings of a Tsunami came to nothing, it seems, for most of us, to have passed by.
The temperature here is a debilitating 33 degrees and 85% humidity here which makes coping with the tiredness a bit tougher. However all our meetings are at our hotel, so not having to travel on the national domestic airline or spend much time on the roads is a relief going on past experience!
Potential suppliers today have arrived, from cities in Central Java, with lorry loads of furniture samples, made to our templates. The hunger for a contract is apparent, and we especially felt sorry for the two guys who'd driven for 12 hours in a tiny truck through the night. The reason for night travel is that, being the month of Ramadan, they are fasting during hours of daylight (even water was refused in our meeting) so travel at night allowed refreshments along the way.
As always, we now haved to decipher what was 'really' said in our meetings; communication is tricky in the sense of language, as well as culture, and we need to be sure that a new supplier will do their best for us once there is 6000 miles and just email between us, as containers full of mistakes are costly.
Our final meeting is about to take place and then we can relax for the evening and hope for a night uninterrupted by jet lag ( a couple of bottles of wine do help here with Brandy Alexander night-caps). We've a 6am start tomorrow to fly back to Hong Kong. Here we will meet our colleague, straight off the flight from the UK, and then get the ferry to China where we have daily visits to restoration factories to select restored antiques for our Winter collection
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