In case there's still life out there...

figured, what the hell, might as well update a little.

so it's almost 4th of July. a day i've come to cherish, given that i don't necessarily have the same freedoms i used to. well...freedoms yes, but let's just say, i'm trying to "take it down a notch" to keep myself out of jail. you should be pleased about that mom!

anyhow, so...since the new year...well, career-wise, things have changed. i am now "director" as my pseudo-boss called me, of the mediavest buying team. who knew? i asked if that comes with a payrise and got a firm "don't think so." but from what i can gather, that basically means i manage a few monkeys (and i really do mean monkeys...you'd be amazed the shit they can't string together!!) and have now become best buds with the smg group cfo and finance director. not bad folks to be chummy with but as such, i've unofficially designated myself mediavest finance director as well. nobody seems to have any trouble with that title so i think i'll keep it. so that's it on the work-front really. oh, except that the team i work on just won a bronze lion at cannes! woo-freakin-hoo! quite pleased as it's the biggest media award globally!

ok. so now, i think that's really it from the work-front.

the usual travel update? well....let's see. met my mom and 94-yr-old great-aunt in china for 12 days of sightseeing and meeting some family. great-aunt was going back to china for her "little sister's" 90th birthday party! very interesting trip to see "the homeland" - not quite what i expected but interesting nonetheless. we started in beijing so did the great wall, national palace, tiananmen square, summer palace garden/park, birds nest stadium (olympics), shopping markets, etc. then headed off to shanghai. not as many landmarks in shanghai, but bustling city for sure. headed to hangzhou, my great-aunt's childhood home, and then to suzhou, a very japanese-looking chinese city (in my opinion anyway). squeezed in an extra destination and spent a day in wuxi which is where my dad was born. met my grandma's last living sibling, #11 is the only one left). that was actually really nice. all my grandparents are deceased so it was kind of surreal to meet someone connected to the family from that generation! he seemed genuinely happy to meet his big sister's grandchild as well! also met some of my dad's cousins.

that's the national palace grounds, the great wall, mom and i with some olympic mascots, some kid with a funny haircut and my great-uncle and his wife leaving the family burial grounds.

it was a lot harder getting around china than i thought. even though my mom speaks mandarin, for some reason, it seemed even she had a hard time communicating. and when i went off exploring on my own...man, the broken chinese that came out of my mouth? who knows?

other than that, my one lasting impression of china: it's crowded. no kidding. one billion people? it's bound to be.

so that was april.

in may, the first of our american crew defected back to america (well, technically, they went to doha, qatar for a month first) so a few of us girls took a little weekend holiday to doha. doha's pretty boring. not much to tell. the most exciting thing there is the islamic museum, designed by i m pei which is actually quite impressive.

here's the extent of doha. spent a day at a resort, lounging by the pool. after that exhausting few hours, us girls lazing in bed with our afternoon treats, and then the islamic museum

still enjoying life in dubai, but definitely having the necessary mini-breaks. went to istanbul a few weeks back. met up with the boys i met travelling in nz four years ago!

istanbul is a beautiful city. the people, in my opinion, leave a bit to be desired but still a great city. got to see europe and asia in one weekend! and it only cost 65 cents to cross continents (by ferry).

the tiny panoramic is the view from our hotel. bottom is blue bosque through a window at aya sofia, rish, me and sicknote hanging at our favorite place, the dervish cafe which looks out to basically the pic on the right which is the blue mosque.

so, that's me in a nutshell i guess. mostly just travel updates. will try to be better about the next post. heading to prague in a couple weeks so will have more pics to share!