Saturday, August 12, 2006

Been very naughty and not updated for a very very very long time – not since mid June.

Was away on business for the last part of June and early July. Bonus of this was I got to visit my favourite city - Istanbul. We stayed at the gorgeous Four Seasons - which to me is 'The' only hotel in the whole world. Sadly – only for one night. It's so gorgeous and right on the doorstep of Haghia Sophia. We had a very short time after business to do a visit to places so I took a couple of colleagues on a very superficial, fast whirlwind tour of the major sites of old Istanbul. They really enjoyed it.

Then a week in Shanghai for workshops and forums. Sounds fun you say... Actually it was - it's great to finally meet all the people on the phone list etc... Learnt a lot about where things are going with the company and found time for good food (I did not eat the jellyfish or the swordfin that was on offer) and good company.

Huge amounts of smog though. We visited a new container port – built on an island 35km off the mainland and joined to the mainland by a 35km long bridge and the smog went a fair way out to sea.






Did some shopping too. Got gorgeous pearls for embroidery and bags galore for my favourite bag ladies (sister, and nieces etc etc).

Here are a few pics of things bought.













On my return I had booked to have a week holiday. I did lots of things that had been outstanding for a while. Bought a new special mattress for my bed, new ironing board (one of those big brabantia ones – yes boring details – but with the ironing involved in all that fabric dyeing – it’s essential).

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