Tennis Masters Cup - Shanghai 2005

I have been remiss...

It’s been a while since my last update. Not because of a lack of worthwhile things going on, but because I had to make choices, like either blogging, or sleeping, working or sitting on buses.
Alas, I chose the activities that actually are necessary to my existence, rather than electives like trying to squeeze humor and meaning out of my sojourn in China.

Let’s see...

Well… I got here pretty much intact... I left the house for the airport at 6:45 am EST - Jax to Newark to Beijing to Shanghai. No upgrades, window bulkhead seat on the Newark-Beijing segment.
The only hangup was my connection in Beijing. I had to claim my bags and clear customs in Beijing and then go to the domestic part of the main terminal.
When they finally stamped my carnet I wheeled my 5 (huge) bags to China Eastern’s ticket desk and got checked in it took nearly an hour and a half.
I arrived in Shanghai at 9:00pm on Sunday night... Another hour to get to the Mayfair Hotel…
So… 27 hours of airports, airplanes or automobiles...

From the “Things that make you go Hmmmm...” Department:
I got a note from Polly that they overfueled her flight and she and several other passengers were bumped from the flight.
Nice. Interesting fact though… her checked bags and equipment made the plane and the connection and were in Shanghai awaiting her arrival.


I hit the arena in Qi Zhong the first thing on Monday morning. It was pretty cool. The floor was finished and looked great, but there was no one inside the place. I think there were five people in the entire building... They were still working on the outside- the VIP & hospitality tents, catering stuff, etc. I was expecting to see the video cubes being installed when I arrived, but it was not to be...
I know I asked 4 or 5 times in July and in October during our testing when they would start installing the cubes and was assured they would be on-site on Monday the 7th.
Oh well… I did some housekeeping- checking out where our equipment would be going, marking the floor for the cube locations, other little make-work details, then headed back to the Mayfair.

The only drama for the first few days was the effort at getting to and from the arena every day.
Qi Zhong is hell-and-gone from everywhere... It is an hour each way to and from the arena.
To make it even more of a challenge, taxis never voluntarily go out there to randomly cruise for fares, so you have to call a cab company and hope they will have a car in the area to come pick you up, or take a chance you might see one that has just finished dropping off someone in the near vicinity...
I got lucky a couple times, and not so lucky a couple times too...
I had a nice long wait in a drizzling rain one evening.

Eventually everything came together... Video Cubes are all installed, tested, software running,
Graphics...uh... graphing.
Things are looking pretty good here...

At the Mayfair Hotel, the hookers are doing a bang-up business. Heh...
In addition to the TV Tech Staff, the Operations Staff, there is also most of the Media staying there, so there has been no shortage of clients for the girls...
I think it’s pretty funny to see the bar girls walking with one of the press guys or one of the TV crew... Everyone who has been there more than a week, (especially the hotel staff) knows who the hookers are and get a laugh to see them walking through the lobby with their victims.

Oh well.

There is a video wall out there that needs some graphics...

More Fun on the Menu coming up...
Stay tuned.

TBG Out-