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August 1, 2008 at 2:51 PM

Here I am in Southern China. Not Bejing for the opening of the Olympics, but in the far southern end of China - working. This project I have been working on for 8 months is now coming to a close. The implementation starts tomorrow.

At the last minute I decided to bring by trust worthy old man (15" viola) rather than my 16" (Hilda) as I originally planned. The flights were bound to be booked solid, and the weather - think hot and steamy. So, the old man came with me on this trip once again. However, he has languished in the hotel room for the past week. He was only taken out once for a checkup and tuning, then back in his "bed".

Our days have been beginning at 7am, with breakfast, lunch AND dinner served in the office. We don't get back into the hotel until sometime around 8-9pm. I'm beat. I'm tired. I want to practice but have ZERO energy. By the time I make it back to the hotel, I take a hot steaming shower to try to loosen up my shoulders and relax my back. Then right off to bed to start a new day doing the same thing all over again.

Maybe tomorrow I will have time to practice, just a little bit at least. Ten minutes would make me happy. But for tonight, I blog, then go to bed to start another long day.

Just one more week, this project will be over. Just a week. Then I can play again. Just one more week...

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on August 2, 2008 at 11:32 AM

Wow, these trips to China sound really grueling. I think I'd have a terrible time coping with the jet lag, especially multiple times per year like you do.

Why do they have to send you there rather than doing things remotely? My husband is a software engineer and he's on conference calls to China weekly or more, but he never has had to go. (He might, however, have to go to Hawaii in a few months for work--poor fellow!)

From Terez Mertes
Posted on August 2, 2008 at 10:57 PM

Busy, busy you!

Karen - my husband has that too. Weekly conference calls to Taiwan. The problem is that he's on the call at 10pm on Monday and then still has to get up at 5am to get into work by 6:30a, so it makes for quite the long Monday and Tuesday. But it beats the travel and the jet lag, I would agree. Mendy, hope your trip is productive and you get to catch up on violin time at some point!

From Mendy Smith
Posted on August 4, 2008 at 5:06 AM

This is the "go live" week with Oracle. Everyone is on site for this rollout. Once this is over, my life will be going back to "normal": once conference call a week with Asia, only 1-2 trips per year, etc...

I DID finally get to practice for about 1 hour the other night, but that was all. Haven't picked up my viola since then. Maybe tonight?

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