Travel to the South-East Asia: Hong-Kong and Taiwan
Part 4. Business meetings - Abit
02 February, 2004
"We aren't supposed to start a day with whisky, are we?" - Andrey said coming up to the refrigerator and pouring some tequila for himself :-)
- That's much better. Now you can work fine, - and switched on the notebook.
Our meeting was postponed to 2 pm, so I decided to snatch a nap for two more hours after breakfast, and the boss, a workaholic, started making up Starter's review: what if our employees won't cope with that while he is away-))
Tequila - a good companion in life and at work...
Souvenirs are ready - 3DNews' pots and packages-) 
Awaiting the first business meeting in the hotel's hall. Tony and Scott - Abit Computer Corporation - came to pick us up to the hotel, so we headed for the "homely" lunch at "In house" restaurant, walking and talking.
"At home", i.e. "In house" -)) Just at the lunch, Andrey got down to implementing his cherished dream - learning the Chinese language. He leeched to Tony and Scott and started noting down Russian expressions in the Chinese translations with English transcription of course in my notepad-))
Well, guess which phrases my boss, a reputed fancier of charming Chinese ladies, decided to learn? -)))
Of course, the first phrase he asked from "advisors" was "I love you."
Then it was "how much is ..." etc.
All that was noted down in the course of lazy talk about new hardware rigs, Abit's plans, forthcoming CeBIT, June's Computech...in my notepad, and when I read all the phrases in sequence using my logics - the picture that built up was clear enough-)))
- I like you.
- I love you.
- How much is it?
- It's too expensive!
-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
How do you like it?
The boss is remediless!
Had some snack, talked, drank a bit of beer and headed for Abit's office
Abit's building 
Tony, Andrey and Scott near the Abit tower
On the first floor of Abit's tower, there is reception and a small cafeThen they led us over all the floors and showed us round absolutely all interesting in the huge establishment of Abit.
Some products of Abit
The office. Folders for materials about Abit products
Andrey is taking pictures of all the interesting and especially new
Smoking area.
At Abit, there are anyway some people who smoke - in other companies the boss, a confirmed smoker, felt much worse as if on a plane-)))
The boards are piled in a very handy way - not in bulk like on Andrey's bookshelves
Scott, me, and Joe Chen, sales director
The bunker, protected against all known radiations - they call it a torture room.Andrey is taking pictures of all - Tony's work-place, the work-place of Janet who is now living in the US, the office and the office girls of course - all with whom ever met at Computech or CeBIT...
A lot of people are immediately jumping out of their "pigeonholes" yelling "Andrew!!!", falling on his neck-))
Andrey rejoices every meeting as directly and sincerely as they do. It is pleasing and heart-warming watching that.
A whole floor in the building is allocated for a gym for the employees...
Also here, an unofficial tennis match between Abit and 3DNews was held.At the cafe on the first floor, I was given a heavenly fruit tea - lots of fresh fruits cut up into sections with which the tea is drawn on very low but permanent fire. Heavenly tasty.
As they explained to me, that is a favorite drink of Chinese ladies.
I was sipping and sipping it until I drank a whole teapot...
Meanwhile, Abit's leading employees were interviewed by Andrey. The interview was long enough to fill up a 1.5 hr audio cassette on my Dictaphone. Andrey relies much on our glorious HuMMer - poor chap, how can he listen, grasp, decode and translate all that into digestible Russian language?
Abit's employees who sustained Andrey's hail of questions - sales, video boards, motherboards, plans for future...
Jason Hsu, Abit's executive vice-president, decided to get acquainted with us.I was curious to listen, but frankly I hardly understand more than one third of the talk, but the customary technical terms helped me grasp what the talk was about.
After walking around the whole building, they drove us for lunch to a Japanese restaurant.
They serve such giant crabs with all its close and distant relatives over here...- Will you do with six sushi?
- Sure!
We started thinking over our order while we are given the menu, but our hosts were discussing something in Chinese for as long as 20 minutes. In the end, they didn't give us the menu, but started bringing in...
Most delicious Japanese sushi, sashimi's and rolls...The head waiter, a charming Chinese lady of European type, looking very much like our common acquaintance Lena Bunj, was very careful to us. What else I like is the stylish decor, the smart partitioning of the restaurant into zones and halls with regular rice straw and aquariums. This is one of the most fashionable restaurants in Taipei - they often celebrate top-level meetings over here. The major and the president visit it sometimes.
I couldn't help taking pictures of the sea gifts. 
The meat was fantastically delicious, but there were no more strength to eat more...You simply can't imagine how much we ate up, I was unable to count the changes of courses... I noted a huge crab, but when they brought in the most delicious soup, then even Andrey who normally eats little contrived to eat up a couple of porringers. Then.. they served with tea and fruit desserts and some cakes... No, I can' remember a lunch like that in my whole life - thanks to Abit, fed us to the fullest!
Wow! What's wrong with my complexion?!)))) For the whole lunch, Tony and Scott who normally drink a bottle of whisky with Andrey for three, were able to cope with merely a small bottle of beer and couple of sake cups each. How can you drink much in the boss' presence? - A bit scaring...
By the way, when they brought in the bill, Andrey was asked to practice pronouncing the phrase "It's too expensive" in Chinese, because he already practiced the phrase "I like you" many times during the day.
Having thanked the hosts fir the fine and most interesting day, for the special care we were given, and the heavenly lunch we headed for the apartments - to fill and extinguish our gluttony with whisky.
Whisky helps that and immediately makes your body and spirit feel better.
I quickly chat over ICQ about events in Moscow where it is the very heat of working day (it's late evening over here), reading emails and giving place to Andrey.
German Klimenko, in reply to my stories about the Sunday with the PS "you anyway can't and don't like to relax" says " ÐÐÐÐÐÐÐÐS: "yes, you are walking.. but someone has to work, haven't they?"
Looked how 3DNews, Hardwarez were doing, checked how Sandytimes is going. The boss immediately spotted that the button size is 5 pixels greater than needed.
It is incredible how he could notice that!! But.. he was right.. there was a bug-)))
Andrey's best-known phrase: "The pixel hurts the eyes!"
| Some lyrical digression.
I remember coming to the boss in frustrated mood, tears in the eyes, I am quivering with despair or something.. Having seen me in such a a state, he says to me sympathetically says:
- "I can't soothe, really can't at all... Perhaps I'd rather teach you how to process photos in Photoshop to make them clear and nice. Upon my soul, that is so becalming, you will see it - it will help!"
-))))))))))))))))))))) |
For the whole day Andrey was trying to get through to Melody Mo (GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY) to confirm our tomorrow's meeting.
She is not there - what a trouble, not available on the mobile or at her workplace - only the voice of the answering machine...
Finally, he leaves the message:
- Hi, Melody. I don't love your answering machine - I love you!
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