its was a waiting game. waiting for replies, waiting for confirmation, waiting for all to be in place. No replies at all yet, even from the embassy trade office. Need to squeeze them. but did all I can, so it was jus waiting.
finally, first phone conversation with the supplier in europe at 12 midnight plus. then was a mail sent. So damn glad! after fretting the whole damn day asking myself what's my next move if this or that don't happen.
still, gonna squeeze the trade office that has no replies. the person was quite 'ya ya' when she promise to check out some details and reply this morning. by 1500 the office closed with no news to me. can hear she was trying very hard to 'slang' but in vain.
don't try to throw me your potatoe smoke. so don't action with your command of words or pronouncation when you have nothing solid behind.
so... planning the next step in process. delighted to see some progression in place. huat huat huat ar! think think me.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
no no, tour replaced by meetings. again..
too shag last nite to blog after touching down..
last day at groningen, going to catch a night flight at around 9..
woke up early as usual at the same breakfast at the hotel, then plan to walk around laer around the city square leaving my dad alone for his meetings. in the end, kenna dragged to the meeting. ...!!! thought can walk around to buy some nice stuffs.
checked out and arben came to pick us up. went to the office and carry on meetings and deals. finally finally finally. the meeting finished. everyone was very happy. made lots of good deal. fritz then took us out for lunch as Arben gonna rush off for his flight to London, he's going to watch the Chelsea vs Arsenal game... at the stadium of course. went to fritz girlfriend restaurant to eat some asian food, she's of indonesia origin. guess wat i ate... Nasi Padang! they're selling nasi padang and had a factory selling ba-pao at the back. fritz got us a 1class train tickets to the airport. it beats taking a car there cause sure jam.. its friday and after work. nice ride to amsterdam airport though.
after 5 days didn't get to buy much soveniers, after all i'm there for business not tour.. went to buy chocolates and some small soveniers at the airport. after check in we went to this dfs shop and bought some hugo boss stuffs, its alittle cheaper than Singapore.
13 hours flight. knock out on board. touch down at Changi Airport with blessings from the sky. haha. finally. its good to be home somehow.
last day at groningen, going to catch a night flight at around 9..
woke up early as usual at the same breakfast at the hotel, then plan to walk around laer around the city square leaving my dad alone for his meetings. in the end, kenna dragged to the meeting. ...!!! thought can walk around to buy some nice stuffs.
checked out and arben came to pick us up. went to the office and carry on meetings and deals. finally finally finally. the meeting finished. everyone was very happy. made lots of good deal. fritz then took us out for lunch as Arben gonna rush off for his flight to London, he's going to watch the Chelsea vs Arsenal game... at the stadium of course. went to fritz girlfriend restaurant to eat some asian food, she's of indonesia origin. guess wat i ate... Nasi Padang! they're selling nasi padang and had a factory selling ba-pao at the back. fritz got us a 1class train tickets to the airport. it beats taking a car there cause sure jam.. its friday and after work. nice ride to amsterdam airport though.
after 5 days didn't get to buy much soveniers, after all i'm there for business not tour.. went to buy chocolates and some small soveniers at the airport. after check in we went to this dfs shop and bought some hugo boss stuffs, its alittle cheaper than Singapore.
13 hours flight. knock out on board. touch down at Changi Airport with blessings from the sky. haha. finally. its good to be home somehow.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
meetings. dinner. CASINO
the day started off with chilling breeze and light drizzle. got up as usual and met frits again. drove my dad and i to the office 40mins away, lucky them having the office away from downtown, so the avoid the traffic both going and after work.
long long meeting today, sat buy the side and see the deals being made.. 'WOW' again, never did i expect such figures. Being a director is not easy task, seeing Arben and my dad making decisions, never stop pressing the calculators against the exhange rate. its no easy task, respect them. In business its also about give and take, I help you, you help me and find a equilibrium at the end of the day that both sides gain from it. Not always its all profit where only one party will gain, but also helping each other to gain with the overall margin. many things comes into play with business, the logistic, the operations, the finance, the manpower.. etc etc. of course the higher you go the more risking taking decision you'll make.. but those below running the errands have to work hard too. finally finally it was fruitful and deals made. Arben really impress me alot with his way of doing business, the way he talks, he react, he decide.. not bad at all. He's actually not a dutch, but he's actually from Kosovo. He's really someone who absorbs the good essence of different cultures fast, smart fellow.
Went to dinner at humphrey's.. a typical local cafe that they wanted me to experience how the people chill out there. Met up with more nice people there. Arben came to fetch us together with his wife, Ergyn's brother Erkang and his wife.. on the table was 10 person, though we're in groningen, there's only one dutch and that's frits. the rest are from kosovo and 1 turkish. seeing the unable-to-understand menu, i anyhow pick up something though erkang was explaining to me.. it came a quail! so i was telling them about my experience on JCC in Brunei on how i killed the quail to eat during survival.. Hearing so much conversation, I think i wanna visit Kosovo one day. afterall, it could be a good place to invest next time.
Casino! finally.. went over to this casino known as 'holland casino'.. i won about 400 euros about S$800+.. jus by playing blackjack. quite cool having the whole bunch of us there playing for fun with our age ranging from me 21 to ergyn 27.... to my dad and Arben around their 40s. though the culture are quite different back home, but they're really fun-loving people. especially those guys like frits, ergyn etc.. not proud or wat, jus happy always, of course, afterwork.
tmr gonna roam around the area alone, its my off day! lol.. finally a day without meetings.
long long meeting today, sat buy the side and see the deals being made.. 'WOW' again, never did i expect such figures. Being a director is not easy task, seeing Arben and my dad making decisions, never stop pressing the calculators against the exhange rate. its no easy task, respect them. In business its also about give and take, I help you, you help me and find a equilibrium at the end of the day that both sides gain from it. Not always its all profit where only one party will gain, but also helping each other to gain with the overall margin. many things comes into play with business, the logistic, the operations, the finance, the manpower.. etc etc. of course the higher you go the more risking taking decision you'll make.. but those below running the errands have to work hard too. finally finally it was fruitful and deals made. Arben really impress me alot with his way of doing business, the way he talks, he react, he decide.. not bad at all. He's actually not a dutch, but he's actually from Kosovo. He's really someone who absorbs the good essence of different cultures fast, smart fellow.
Went to dinner at humphrey's.. a typical local cafe that they wanted me to experience how the people chill out there. Met up with more nice people there. Arben came to fetch us together with his wife, Ergyn's brother Erkang and his wife.. on the table was 10 person, though we're in groningen, there's only one dutch and that's frits. the rest are from kosovo and 1 turkish. seeing the unable-to-understand menu, i anyhow pick up something though erkang was explaining to me.. it came a quail! so i was telling them about my experience on JCC in Brunei on how i killed the quail to eat during survival.. Hearing so much conversation, I think i wanna visit Kosovo one day. afterall, it could be a good place to invest next time.
Casino! finally.. went over to this casino known as 'holland casino'.. i won about 400 euros about S$800+.. jus by playing blackjack. quite cool having the whole bunch of us there playing for fun with our age ranging from me 21 to ergyn 27.... to my dad and Arben around their 40s. though the culture are quite different back home, but they're really fun-loving people. especially those guys like frits, ergyn etc.. not proud or wat, jus happy always, of course, afterwork.
tmr gonna roam around the area alone, its my off day! lol.. finally a day without meetings.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
day 3. meeting. amsterdam.
woke up and met frist and Arben.. they were really nice to drive my dad and i down to Linden for another meeting.., Again. we have some discussion with this company whom we haven't worked with yet. prolly gonna further some plans in future with them too. it was once again good to see how communications takes place and deals are made. once more i'm impressed with how the dutch managed their business, it seems so organised.
we were on our way to amsterdam... then hailstorm! lol.. little ice cubes jus start falling from the sky.
went on to Amsterdam to tour around the place, finally felt like a tourist after two and the half working days. had a short tour around the area.. went to visit the famous sex museum! lol. its a 'WOW' and must see! hee. walked around seeing those majestic monuments around the place and finally chinatown and the red light district. and also the 'coffeeshop' that sells weed... its a must see too! seeing the amount of bicycles, even a multi storey parking for bicycles i think after China, its here with world's mostly desly populated bikes. wanted to pick up some soveniers for my buddies and friends back home but Arben and Frist was around, i didn't dare to buy much cus they will surely foot the bill! so jus got a nice orange cardigan and a momento shirt., of course they pay.! Arben was nice to give me his original Ajax Amsterdam towel. yeah, the dutch are really into soccer. Ajax, PSV etc. Arben is flying over to england this weekend for the Chelsea Arsenal match.. i should have plan to stay longer and fly over too. Holland's a really nice place, i'll be back again.
after driving abt 2 hrs back to our hotel, we met frist at night for dinner and we had korean food. finally eating rice and not potatoes. and of course, drink again. we had a stroll back to the hotel. it was f**king cold! rain and stop rain and stop. even at amsterdam it was kind of freezing due to the breeze.. at night its worst. but not as bad as last nite when we were at giovanni's restaurant, when we were at the outskirts. the chilling breeze slowly breath through our face, the sounds of century old church bells walking us with our hands in the jacket, shivering through the square surrounded by pure dutch style houses, it was nice. really nice. but 'cold sia..' and too bad, no girl beside me.. haiz!
time to sleep. tomorrow meeting again.
we were on our way to amsterdam... then hailstorm! lol.. little ice cubes jus start falling from the sky.
went on to Amsterdam to tour around the place, finally felt like a tourist after two and the half working days. had a short tour around the area.. went to visit the famous sex museum! lol. its a 'WOW' and must see! hee. walked around seeing those majestic monuments around the place and finally chinatown and the red light district. and also the 'coffeeshop' that sells weed... its a must see too! seeing the amount of bicycles, even a multi storey parking for bicycles i think after China, its here with world's mostly desly populated bikes. wanted to pick up some soveniers for my buddies and friends back home but Arben and Frist was around, i didn't dare to buy much cus they will surely foot the bill! so jus got a nice orange cardigan and a momento shirt., of course they pay.! Arben was nice to give me his original Ajax Amsterdam towel. yeah, the dutch are really into soccer. Ajax, PSV etc. Arben is flying over to england this weekend for the Chelsea Arsenal match.. i should have plan to stay longer and fly over too. Holland's a really nice place, i'll be back again.
after driving abt 2 hrs back to our hotel, we met frist at night for dinner and we had korean food. finally eating rice and not potatoes. and of course, drink again. we had a stroll back to the hotel. it was f**king cold! rain and stop rain and stop. even at amsterdam it was kind of freezing due to the breeze.. at night its worst. but not as bad as last nite when we were at giovanni's restaurant, when we were at the outskirts. the chilling breeze slowly breath through our face, the sounds of century old church bells walking us with our hands in the jacket, shivering through the square surrounded by pure dutch style houses, it was nice. really nice. but 'cold sia..' and too bad, no girl beside me.. haiz!
time to sleep. tomorrow meeting again.
day 2. 1803
came back quite late yesterday and was too 'seh' to blog anything down.
tues. 1803
woke up quite early and finally met up with Frits, t
he guy whom my dad's been dealing with. he look like zidane somehow with his shaved head. We went over to his office and he showed us around, after that we sat down for meeting with his boss and him. meeting was quite lengthy but certainly an eye opener for me.. seeing how the dutch do things and communicate with clients, i'm impressed with the way they manages their business. we went out for lunch at this local cafe by the port then head back to office again for more meeting.. went back to the hotel for a rest before heading out for dinner.. 
negotiation meetings at times are tiring because u have to think alot and becareful with words and at times you really have to be tactful. when in a negotiation, u'll have to start thinking of the next move or rather start to read the opponent's mind when you're doing the talking. everything have to react to suit the mood. u cannot be pai seh to say something to protect your own interest or neither to deny all offers to suit yourself. its a skill to balance i guess. just sitting there seeing the facts and figures alone kinda 'wow' me already. Euros been strong recently whereas the dollars been dropping, this situation gave asian who are in transaction with european countries a big headache when their doing business backhome with the greenback. imagine when just 0.01 cents of difference could multiply up to a few digit figures.
dinner was at this really nice italian restaurant where i got to know more nice people. together with the boss Arben I got to know Giovanni, the owner of the restaurant and Ergyn, a young architect that's 5 yrs older than me.. the dinner was really good and it was pure european style of dinning. Arben was generous to offer us the best wine in the place and expensive conag after our meal. i thought it was the end of the day, but we went on for another drink back at the city.
i hop on to Ergyn's car. he drove me around and finally went to news cafe at the square, drink again!. got to know him alittle better and realised that he's a young promising architect. guess wat? he's doing town planning now.. he's only a few months into business and start receving many projects on hand, africa, south america, holland etc. only 27, own a busines with his brother. he's from Kosovo originally, hearing his life story, i think he's quite a respectable young guy. he gave me his namecard and told me to contact when i'm nearby.. after talking to him, i realise that dutch architecture has a unique sense of her own.. no wonder most of the famous architects in the world are dutch, they also have very good skills of building dam and water system.
though it feels kind of weird going out with older people and talking all about business and making money, yes and i was damn bored at times. but 'bo bian'.. this was an eye opener for me and really, the world is big, can't finish earning money. i learnt many valuable lesson today.. hope it will be a good help for me in future.
tues. 1803
woke up quite early and finally met up with Frits, t
he guy whom my dad's been dealing with. he look like zidane somehow with his shaved head. We went over to his office and he showed us around, after that we sat down for meeting with his boss and him. meeting was quite lengthy but certainly an eye opener for me.. seeing how the dutch do things and communicate with clients, i'm impressed with the way they manages their business. we went out for lunch at this local cafe by the port then head back to office again for more meeting.. went back to the hotel for a rest before heading out for dinner.. negotiation meetings at times are tiring because u have to think alot and becareful with words and at times you really have to be tactful. when in a negotiation, u'll have to start thinking of the next move or rather start to read the opponent's mind when you're doing the talking. everything have to react to suit the mood. u cannot be pai seh to say something to protect your own interest or neither to deny all offers to suit yourself. its a skill to balance i guess. just sitting there seeing the facts and figures alone kinda 'wow' me already. Euros been strong recently whereas the dollars been dropping, this situation gave asian who are in transaction with european countries a big headache when their doing business backhome with the greenback. imagine when just 0.01 cents of difference could multiply up to a few digit figures.
dinner was at this really nice italian restaurant where i got to know more nice people. together with the boss Arben I got to know Giovanni, the owner of the restaurant and Ergyn, a young architect that's 5 yrs older than me.. the dinner was really good and it was pure european style of dinning. Arben was generous to offer us the best wine in the place and expensive conag after our meal. i thought it was the end of the day, but we went on for another drink back at the city.
i hop on to Ergyn's car. he drove me around and finally went to news cafe at the square, drink again!. got to know him alittle better and realised that he's a young promising architect. guess wat? he's doing town planning now.. he's only a few months into business and start receving many projects on hand, africa, south america, holland etc. only 27, own a busines with his brother. he's from Kosovo originally, hearing his life story, i think he's quite a respectable young guy. he gave me his namecard and told me to contact when i'm nearby.. after talking to him, i realise that dutch architecture has a unique sense of her own.. no wonder most of the famous architects in the world are dutch, they also have very good skills of building dam and water system.
though it feels kind of weird going out with older people and talking all about business and making money, yes and i was damn bored at times. but 'bo bian'.. this was an eye opener for me and really, the world is big, can't finish earning money. i learnt many valuable lesson today.. hope it will be a good help for me in future.
Monday, March 17, 2008
day 1.
touched down at amsterdam at around 0515, after a 14 hr flight.. then was rushing around the airport trying to find a way to get to dusseldorf. took a train in the end after realising its faster and cheaper this way. got on to the morning rush together with the rest of the people, its jus so convenient to cross borders without having to stamp passport. almost lost while transiting the train, luckily met this nice holland medicine student whom showed us the way. finally reach dusseldorf and took a cab from the subway to the trade fair. its like playing amazing race, rushing and getting help from locals.. lol. 
reaching the exhibition hall, my dad and i met up with his friends from holland and we went into the wine fair together. prowein 08. it was an eye opener for me going to such place, seeing how they 'talk things out'. tasted lots of wine etc etc.. from french to chile to aussie, from shiraz to merlot to rose.. it was jus sip sip sip and sip all those wine. so... its like paying 31euros and u and 'drink all you want'! sadly, i can count the amount of asian i see there with my fingers, thought can find some local contacts there..
my first business card i give out this time was to this old man from austria. it was quite random, he was chilling out at the bench beside me and we jus struck out a conversation. he's producing some really nice leather casing back home.. but i'll rather jus buy one of it and sent to china to mass produce. =X
after walking round the place i see that there's a growing trend for 'rose', seems like everywhere is having it.. and guess back home this rose thing will pick up soon.. its more like a girl's drink.. sweet and smooth and in red or pink! so this trend starts among girls, demand will follow suit.. then something else caught my eye.. I shall not say the name of it jus in case some fellow start fighting for the distributorship with me.. found this sweet nice drink... its a blend of something and something, sparkling and the best of all! from organic strawberry...! where is it from? cannot say.. lol. after seeing all these, i think i better start coming out with plans...
reaching the exhibition hall, my dad and i met up with his friends from holland and we went into the wine fair together. prowein 08. it was an eye opener for me going to such place, seeing how they 'talk things out'. tasted lots of wine etc etc.. from french to chile to aussie, from shiraz to merlot to rose.. it was jus sip sip sip and sip all those wine. so... its like paying 31euros and u and 'drink all you want'! sadly, i can count the amount of asian i see there with my fingers, thought can find some local contacts there..
my first business card i give out this time was to this old man from austria. it was quite random, he was chilling out at the bench beside me and we jus struck out a conversation. he's producing some really nice leather casing back home.. but i'll rather jus buy one of it and sent to china to mass produce. =X
after walking round the place i see that there's a growing trend for 'rose', seems like everywhere is having it.. and guess back home this rose thing will pick up soon.. its more like a girl's drink.. sweet and smooth and in red or pink! so this trend starts among girls, demand will follow suit.. then something else caught my eye.. I shall not say the name of it jus in case some fellow start fighting for the distributorship with me.. found this sweet nice drink... its a blend of something and something, sparkling and the best of all! from organic strawberry...! where is it from? cannot say.. lol. after seeing all these, i think i better start coming out with plans...
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