Back in Osaka
Boy, oh boy. Did I miss this blog.
I got back from Bangkok on Friday morning (Oct 1) where I spent a couple of days on my way home from London.
This trip was one of those times where mind-blogging would have been just the ticket. But alas, the technology just isn’t there yet. But I guess I should do the next best thing and get my moblogging situation setup. Or perhaps I should go back to web-based blogging.
So many decisions to be made.
So let me give you a brief rundown of my time away.
Mon Sept 20: Left Kansai at midnight. Arrived in Bangkok at 5:30 in the morning. Had a massage and settled in for our 7 hour wait for our connecting flight.
Tues Sept 21: Arrived in London in the evening. Made our way to our office where we had dinner and then collapsed from exhaustion.
Wed Sept 22: Went to our storage place to pick up furniture which we took to our showroom in Bermondsey, near the Tower Bridge. Spent the rest of the day until early evening setting up, making calls, planning the week.
Thursday Sept 23: Press, buyers and designers started coming to visit us. The response was hardly overwhelming, but the ones who did make the journey seemed impressed. Went to 100% design in the evening, after which I sent my colleagues home and went out with I, a friend from Japan whom I hadn’t seen for about 5 years.
Friday Sept 24: More of the same. A long lunch. A longer dinner.
Saturday Sept 25: Ditto
Sunday Sept 26: A lazy day- no interviews with the press were scheduled, so I met some aunts and uncles who had driven down to the London for the day. Enjoyed a Sunday roast lamb dinner in a pub by the Thames, it was a beautiful, sunny day. My first time to really relax in a week, and of course it was great to catch up with the Forbes and the Franklands. Went to visit C, another friend (whom I hadn’t seen for more than 7 years) and had an evening well-lubricated with vodka tonics, laughter and stories of getting mugged.
Monday Sept 27: Bagels again for breakfast, and our last full day in London. Stuff had to be packed and carted across the city back to our storage facility. Dinner at the office and then said my goodbyes to friends.
Tuesday Sept 28: (Scott’s birthday) Got up early, packed and headed to Paddington Station. Checked in our luggage, got our seats to Bangkok sorted out and then headed to the airport. Got on a jetplane. Left on a jetplane.
And that was London.
Impressions:
London is exciting. London is dangerous. London is expensive, yet bagels only cost 15p at the Brick Lane “beigel shop”. It’s also incredibly dirty- my shirt collars were black when I took off my shirts at the end of the day. Seriously. It has great galleries and amazing architecture.
I want to live there. Kind of.