Inspiration is all around

The S’pore Grand Hyatt Executive club has an interesting set of architectural free standing wood sculptures.  … A little out of scale for a home but they do stir the creative juices. All created from a single tree and cut from solid sections

Deep breathing in the Philippines

The rest of the week is filled with meetings and interviews. Singapore;  its never ending construction and re-construction projects, making, despite the changes, a never changing landscape of construction cranes (national bird-local joke) and road-works. Over the past 25 years that I’ve been doing business here.  The place still generates fast a pace business excitement and maintains growth in almost every sector.

Robbie continues her adventures in the Philippines (in GREEN)

Tranquil scenes from Robbie's underwater oasis:

“Now is the winter of our discontent”

“Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York”  Shakespeare,  Richard III

Discontent being “COLD in China” and Substitute “Singapore” for York  and you have a start to January.   On the 4th. Robbie setoff to the Philippines for a 3 week SCUBA safari. Jan 5th has me on a China / Singapore trip.

Landing in HK on Friday (7th) morning and bee-lining to Dongguan the energy sapping stick to your bones cold diluted any fun to be had shopping for tea.  Saturday my Taiwanese friend Tim came over for dinner. This gave us a chance to catch up since his Oct. trip to the US was cancelled.  Sitting in a restaurant where everyone is eating, still clad with their winter apparel, another winter joy in DaLang

Factories will start losing workers this coming weekend and will not restart until Feb 9th. From a 3 Day CNY shut-down to about a 3 week vacation … times have changed.   The dynamic growth in consumer spending is mindboggling  ..  Prices for a typical winters coat in most retail shops are in the 500-700 RMB range unheard of a couple of years ago. (close to months wages for a factory worker)

In Wuxi we encountered a different cold ..An Icy, 5 below, cold that cuts through, coupled with the driest air .. No fun!  I don’t have the ambition to  take photos for this post .. the Great Fire-Wall of China persists and that takes the fun out of blogging.

Friday 1/14/11….  Singapore: equatorial equilibrium, much to be said for this .. arrived about 9:00pm finally thawed out by Saturday morning.

A few underwater shots from Robbie:

1-1-11 and Closing out the year

Saturday 6:00 am and a moon sliver lights the trail, a perfect morning for a run. After a 50-50 mix of Pu-Erh and “Old TGY” time to “finish” a tea-tray. I had to set up a small heat tent, the ambient temp was just too low for applying finish.Working a treat, the heat tent helped finish this small, but rewarding project.  All set for an inaugural brew.

Friday, 12/31/10, Sub-Zero last night gave us some windscreen frost .. Robbie & I head south to San Clemente for breakfast. The morning yielded a bright sunny day with no wind .. about mid 50”s (F) perfect to squeeze in a project that will straddle 2010 and 2011.

A new Tea Table (茶几 Cha Ji) for my office. This size will be better suited to cohabitation with various other office/desk sundries. I’m looking for; simplicity of design that is easy to make, without complex set-ups to produce a sloped surface that drains and directs water to the overflow well.