Trip

So I was in Shenzhen recently for an unscheduled business trip.
For some time now, I've been persuaded by my brother and father to come aboard their company, in which their efforts have been fruitless.

About a week before new years, where plans were already made to meet up and celebrate with friends, dad calls to have a father-son talk. He started with the usual banter - my life and work in general. Then after a long pause and out of the blue he asked if I remembered how messy the family business became because of the internal conflicts. Bewildered, I nodded and answered at the same time.

"Well I want both you and Koko to be a successful team together." o.0 Uh?
"You can learn from his experience and complement him at the same time. I know you've built up something over there, but its my wish to see the both of you work closely, hand in hand. So do daddy a favor and go to China with him, at least have a break and consider."

I then knew where he was going with this.

Dad has always instilled in the both of us to support each other no matter what. The 'blood is thicker than water' has been an embedded phrase in our lives. I love my brother unconditionally and he likewise, but our working styles are very different and funny as it may sound, I don't want to end up jeopardising what we have, like dad and his brothers. Dad always regretted the family dispute, even if he was the victim. However, he was gentleman enough to let bygones be bygones and paid visits to them during the lunar new year as a show of respect.

Initially, I never understood his unforgiving gesture because he was forced out during the conflicts, and yet we received the best of education and quality of life as a whole. As a maturing adult I began to see he was the bigger man and I was proud of my father. The least I could do was give it a chance while taking it as a holiday.

Sorted out travel details and off to Shenzhen I went. In truth I was excited and happy. Part of me always wanted to visit the motherland and seeing dad so happy I'm giving this a chance. Its not often I see him happy and when there's the stolen laugh, smile or even a grin, its quite a Kodak moment.

While in Shenzhen, because my Mandarin's so rusty, I had to rojak-ed it up with Taiwanese Mandarin, local Mandarin(Pu Tong Hua) and some Cantonese as a means of communication. Hey its been almost twenty years, give me a break!

Though I didn't get to experience the sights and sounds as much, I'm glad to have made the trip. I learned about the Chinese culture, whereby at a business lunch, guests are required to 'feast'. The food though greasy, were delectable, great Szechuan cooking. Not surprising in just a space of nearly a week I piled on almost 3kg's... -_-"

And what's with all the honking???