Even though we had some hiccups with picking people up from the airport (delayed flight and incorrect arrival time), there was still enough of a buffer to allow the event today to go smoothly. Our client had their driver (Terry) pick everyone (Fabrice, Robert, Roger, Nancy, Richard) up from the airport and drove them directly to the hotel (Grand Formosa Regent) to drop off their bags and for Nancy to change. We were supposed to have lunch at this nice dim sum restaurant but due to the lack of time we had a quick meal across the hotel (Shangri-La Far Eastern) where we were having our press conference and presentation at. Robert's been doing these presentations for years so he had no problems and Roger who had been nervous prior to leaving New York really kicked butt. When I was putting the presentation together I was iffy with Roger's portion since it included so many graphs, metrics, etc., it looked unbelievably dry. He really pulled through and conveyed his methodology smoothly, it was interesting and even entertaining (his delivery mostly).

Then... it went to hell. After our portion of the presentation, while Robert, Roger, and Fabrice were speaking with members of the audience and the press I booked it to the airport, only to find that my flight was cancelled. The last flight to Singapore, out the door. I considered staying the night in Taipei and leaving tomorrow morning with the rest of the gang, but their flight was all booked. So my current plan is to fly into Hong Kong later tonight and then take the first flight out to Singapore in the morning. I'm sitting in the lounge right now (actually very decent compared to the rest of the airport's condition) waiting for the food coma to hit me. I didn't have any breakfast and only the small lunch with the rest of the crew, so once I got into this lounge, I went straight for the noodle bar. In the span of 10 minutes I ate two bowls of noodles, two pork buns, a mini ham & egg sandwich and two cups of Nestea. Going to take a break before I have another bowl of noodles and possibly some more buns. Company paid for the ticket, up to cheapo's like me to really make full use of it (especially since I'm not downing the alcohol).

Which brings me to this topic I've been mulling over in my mind. Since joining SASI I've been confronted with many situations where I've had alcohol available to me. Whether it's been gatherings at the bar on the ground floor of my office, social gatherings/events, pre-flight lounges, in-flight service, or client dinners I've been turning down alcohol left and right. Just now as I was grabbing a cup of Nestea, in a neat row above the soda fountain were 5 or so bottles of liquor attached upside down to these self-serve machines. Took a photo with my phone, but I left all computer at the conference so they could use it for the presentations, no cables, PSP or anything else with me. I'll Flickr it tomorrow after our presentation. I suspect that tomorrow is going to be another whirlwind of activity and then a little R&R before we hold four presentations on Monday and Tuesday.

Oh I did end up taking that bubble bath this morning at the expense of breakfast, should have gotten room service. That'd be a nice conversation with Mark as I file my expense report. Yeah Mark, this was for room service right there. I was being lazy and chilling in the tub watching TV, so I figured I'd have some food brought up. The bath was a disappointment though. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I just laid in the tub until I became a prune watching CNBC. Whoopdeedoo. Baths are definitely overrated. Showers all the way.

Though my phone works, please don't call me unless it's an emergency =T. Again I'll probably have to go through it on my expense report and having to put down Chewy's phone sex for when I mistakenly picked up the phone last night when he called will probably cause enough head turning.

No photos with me I'll add one tomorrow. And yes I do have a few more Taipei 101 shots that I can upload.