a day in the office

09:30, arrive at the office - Air-condition is broken. In fact – when you want it to cool – you set it for heat, and vice versa – go figure the Chinese interface…

10:00, heading to the (‘sink-less’) kitchen. Preparing instant coffee. Heating the coffee in the microwave (water dispenser reaches max ~90 degrees). Enjoying the first sip - - - to find out that the milk is sour. No coffee for me today. Heading back, disappointed, to the office.

10:30, At least 3 people are sick (flu).

11:30, doing lunch with W, a leader in the team. He reveals his megalomaniac plans to control a bigger team. Ridiculous.

11:35, the waitress serves the noodles and spills the brown souse on me. The day is getting better by the minute.

14:00, All the employees take part in an image movie for the Chinese media

14:32, T put makeup on me (!). Perhaps we take this image movie a bit too seriously!?

15:00, The office gets warmer (air-condition doesn’t work…). I turn on the improvised machine I set up in my room: a combination of a ventilator & a humidifier. For the rest of the day I will be working in a ‘cloud’…

16:00, Another meeting where I need to handle the joint work efforts between J and W. they are way too emotional and struggle like children.

17:00, T attacks a department in a remote office with a nasty email. So much for ‘constructive confrontation’ he preaches for.

Earlier this morning, Z showed up wearing a Tux. Including bow tie and everything. So very unusual.

Surreal.