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Jetlag

Between late flights and socialising with customers, I've been getting about 3 hours sleep per night! This had me terribly worried up until yesterday. We arrived from Hainan really late, and I went streight to bed, exhausted. But I still work up at 4:30am. I half expected to fall asleep half way through my presentation (or Bob's presentation), but I managed to keep going. Actually the meetings were sucessfull. Then I figured it out in the cab back to the hotel, I'll sleep when I'm tired, and worrying about not getting enough sleep is pointless - especially since it was probably keeping me awake. Armed with this new philosophy I managed to get a good seven hours last night. OK, it wasn't just the philosophy, the bottle of wine might have had something to do with it...

Business

I think the key thing, if you sell software and related services, is to work with local people. I've added a slide to my presentation:


Yes, I had a Big Mac in China! Big Mac here is about 10 RMB (€0.90), and in Ireland it is about €3.50. The point is, developers here cost about one third what they do in Ireland but have more or less the same lifestyle (due to reduced cost of living). Also, they want local control of everything. Luckily there's plenty of scope in what we sell for local work - mapping, hosting, support, application development, etc.

Next...

Going to Beijing today. Tomorrow evening going back to Hong Kong, in Hong Kong until Monday night and I'll be home on Tuesday! Actually that's the original itinerary, it hasn't changed.