I had a bit of a sleep in this morning.  After breakfast I got everything packed and checked out.  I had some time to kill so I went to the rooftop swimming pool to relax for about half an hour.

I then went back out to the stadium with their actual laptop, and got it all configured.  This is where I found the internet access was no good where we wanted it.  Luckily I had bought a range extender with me, and managed to get them going with that.  But it took a lot longer than I expected.  My original plan was to wrap things up in about an hour, and then get to the airport and do the free tour of Singapore.  I was there for about 2-3 hours so missed that one.

Eventually it was all up and running reliably and I went to the airport.  I did a bit of duty free shopping for Datascore while I was there, and then had a beautiful Japanese meal for dinner.  Finally it was time to board the plane and go home.

I didn’t sleep well – my feet were hanging off the end of the bed.  So once I had showered I asked at reception if there was a room I could move to for tonight.  They didn’t have a non-smoking one, unless I upgraded for an extra $30.  Given the quality of my last room, I asked to see the room before agreeing to the move.  Now this was more like it!  A proper room to stay in when travelling!  So I agreed.

It was just after 10.00, and breakfast finished at 10.30, so I went and ate while I still could.  I then packed and moved to the new room, and started setting up for the stadium.  It took me a couple of hours, and then I arranged for Tim to come to the hotel so I could train him up in the air conditioned comfort.  We went through everything, and then caught a taxi out to the stadium.

No major issues setting things up, except Tim left the laptop in my room at the hotel!  So in order to demonstrate the system, I had to get things running off my laptop instead of their one.  No big deal, but makes it all a bit more exciting as there was some “on the fly” troubleshooting!  The umpires came out and I had Tim train them (to check his understanding of the system).  It took longer than I expected, and I don’t know why, but everybody was happy with it.

After we had all finished, I went back to the hotel, and then found a nice place nearby to have some dinner and a few drinks to unwind.

As we had nothing on today (other than flying out), and a 12.00 checkout, we had a nice sleep in.  Once checked out, we left our bags at the hotel and went for a walk to get some food.

We went back to the hotel to get our bags, and then caught a taxi to the High Speed Train station.  We still had some spare time so we walked around and intended to do some shopping – but there was nothing practical to buy!  So we caught the train to the airport.  The high speed train was a slow one – we only hit 300 kph!  It was amazing how quickly we got to the airport, considering how long it took to get from the airport when we arrived.

Once checked in we explored the airport for a while.  In typical form, on an afternoon flight, that gets us to Singapore about 10.00, allowing Brett < 2 hours before his flight to Melbourne, the plane was delayed.  Eventually we boarded, but were told we can’t go due to other delays, so spent another 40 minutes sitting on the plane but still at the gate.  Finally we were given clearance and we took off.

Once we arrived in Singapore, Brett had about 20 minutes to change planes.  So we said goodbye, and I caught a taxi to the hotel.  As I walked in to the hotel, I heard somebody say “Aah -Datascore”.  It was Tim dropping off the laptop to be used at the stadium in Singapore, and he had seen the sign I was carrying.  So we sat down and had a chat.  Eventually Tim left, and I could check in.  Unfortunately there were no King sized bedrooms on a non-smoking floor – so I had to take a room with 2 singles.  I was quite surprised when I saw the room – it was very poor.  But it was late.  I needed to unwind so after putting my bag in my room, I went for a walk and had a beer in a bar.  Eventually I went back to my room and called it a night.

After such a late night, we weren’t keen to wake up early.  Jon also wanted a late start, so we had agreed to touch base around 12.00.  By the time Brett and I woke up, we had well and truly missed breakfast.  So we went down to the Cafe and had something light.  I was quite hungry, as happens when I don’t eat for a while.

We caught up with Jon and went to the stadium.  The Chinese had managed to get the net up quite well.  There were a couple of little issues with the nets that Brett and Jon dealt with, while I finished configuring the scoreboards and network.  Brett trained Jon on the system while I caught up on a few little issues.  Once we had put the Datascore signs up, we took some photos, and called it a day.

Back at the hotel, Brett and I had a swim to relax and cool down.  We discussed a few plans for Datascore, as well as my plans to go back to Japan to be with Kaoru again.  We came up with a strategy for moving forward and ensuring we’re not overloaded, but able to keep our high priority customers happy.

We did the same plan as the previous night – got in a taxi, picked Jon up, and went to dinner.  This was a Chinese meal, where we were able to order lots of little plates of food and experience a range of flavours.  It wasn’t the small, corner Chinese restaurant I would have liked to have gone to – in fact there were several Westerners there.  But we had a great range of food.  After dinner we went to a Pub for a few drinks.  We were all fairly tired so we didn’t stay out much past midnight.  We said goodbye to Jon and went back to the hotel.

We both slept very well.  Once awake and showered it was time for a full buffet breakfast.  Jon came by and picked us up around 10.30 to make a start on the day.

Because they had never seen Indoor Cricket nets before, Brett spent most of the day directing the Chinese labourers on how to put them up.  I spent the day finalising configuration of the system, and getting everything working from a Datascore perspective.  It went fairly smoothly – a couple of hiccups, but nothing out of the ordinary.  Jon left me to do my thing, which makes life so easy – he was there when I needed to ask him something, but he wasn’t asking questions every 5 minutes.

It was a fairly hot day, but luckily the computers were in the air conditioned office.  So I had the luxury area.  It was very muggy whenever I left the office though!  Around 6.00 we had done all we could, and it was time to leave.  We were dropped off at the hotel to have a shower and freshen up, and Jon went home.  At around 7.30 we got in a cab, gave the phone to the driver (with Jon on the other end) so he knew where to take us.

It was about a 30 minute cab ride to Jon’s place.  He got in, and we drove a bit further, to the restaurant he had booked for us.  So a 45 minute taxi trip, covering 25km came to RMB 114 – less than $20!

Dinner was at a Bejing Duck restaurant.  It was fantastic!  They brought the full, cooked, duck to our table, cut it up in front of us, and all we had to do was wrap it in the pancakes.  It was delicious!  We had a few other nibbles as well, and then the rest of the duck came out in a soup for us.  Surprisingly the restaurant was quite empty.  By the end we were the only people in there, and this was about 10.00 at night!  Jon took a phone call from his partner that picked us up from the airport – checking that we were happy, enjoying dinner, etc.  He was very concerned that we were being looked after.  Luckily Jon was a good buffer – knew not to be overwhelming, but also look after us well.

After dinner we caught a taxi to an Irish-themed sports bar, which a mate of Jon’s is the manager of.  James joined us for a few drinks, and before we knew it, everybody else had left there too.  We were told last drinks and that we were being kicked out a number of times, and then we realised it was 4.00 in the morning!  So we got in a taxi and did the 40 minute trip back to the hotel (dropping Jon off on the way).  The sun was coming up by the time we got back.  We weren’t up for long before calling it a night.

Time for another new place… another new Datascore installation, with some adventure.

Brett and I caught a plane to Singapore, leaving about 12.30am this morning.  I think it is the worst service I have received on Singapore Airlines.  It took them over an hour to get food to us (and we were the front row of the section), and they wouldn’t serve a drink before the meal.  I managed to get a little bit of sleep before landing in Singapore about 6.00 local time.

We had a cooked breakfast at Singapore Airport, and killed the 2 hours, before hoping our plane to Shanghai.  I was asleep very soon after sitting down, and skipped breakfast.  So an hour in to the flight, I was feeling quite rested, and ready to watch a couple of movies.  Eventually we finished the flight and landed in Shanghai.

Immigration was nothing like we expected.  I was prepared for it to be a long, slow process.  To our surprise, it was quite efficient!  Because we got money out before going through, we were probably the last from our flight, and somebody was already standing there with our bags and signage sitting on a trolley!  We went through the “Nothing To Declare” line, and nobody even looked at us, let alone stopped us!  So there we were, now just looking for a sign with our names on it.

Jon, our host was running late.  We called him after we didn’t see him there, and he was just parking the car.  So 10 minutes later, we met him and said G’day.  He’s South African, but has lived in China for over 11 years, so speaks very fluently.  The person who drove him, one of the investors, didn’t speak any English other than Hello, so it was a 3 way conversation from the airport to the hotel.

Our room wasn’t ready so we left our bags at reception, and were taken to the stadium to see what we were in for.  Well, it wasn’t a surprise – there were no nets up, but the carpet was down.  And at least the TV was up.  We could see that it was going to be a successful stadium, and had a lot of potential.  Jon was very motivated and great to deal with.

After a look around, we caught a taxi to the shopping centre, so I could buy a laptop for them.  I had opted to buy one here, rather than in Australia, because, let’s face it, it *must* be cheaper in China.  Well, boy was I in for a surprise!  A low end laptop was ~AU$600!  I managed to get the price down a bit, so we bought it there, rather than waste the night looking for a cheaper place.  We then went to a sports bar for dinner and drinks.  Because of the area of town we were in, there were no authentic Chinese places, so we ended up at a “TGI Fridays” -type of place.  It wasn’t too bad, but not what I originally had in mind.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, and spent the next hour or so setting up the laptop.  It had been a long day though, so I went to bed around midnight local time.