上海灘 (Part II)

26th Oct (Thu)

Went to the conference venue really early in the morning to recruit respondents as they are having a pre-conference forum. My luck was pretty good and I managed to grab 6 doctors (which is half my quota) and made appointment with them. Loads of waiting and stoning though, coz I can only go disturb the doctors during their breaks.

B arrived in the afternoon. Such a relief that help finally came. Both of us did an interview each in the evening too, which was good coz we may be able to finish work earlier.

Went to 茂隆餐廳 which the colleague from accounts recommended for dinner after the interview. It was a really small place and we had to wait for an hour outside the shop with the cold wind blowing at us! Was feeling tired and started to develop a headache, so by the time we 　went in, I didn't really have any appetite. We ordered 紅燒肉, 酱鴨, 豆苗, and 螃蟹魚湯, which the shop is famous for. But then, I find the dishes too salty for my liking. The only thing I enjoyed there is probably the crabs which has got loads of roe!

Went back to hotel after the meal and collapsed promptly on my bed. Zzz...

27th Oct (Fri)

Our client sat in for 2 of my interviews today. Thank God the doctors were all pretty talkative and the client was pretty ok with my performance. Phew...

For the recruitment part, luck wasn't quite on our side though. Didn't manage to find enough doctors to hit our quota, which means that we still need to do recruitment the next day. Getting a little worried.

After a long day at the conference venue, we went to a nearby restaurant called 敖龍食府 for dinner. At the main entrance of the restaurant was this photo of the boss with the previous HK governor. The food was pretty nice, at least, less salty than what we had at 茂隆. And no waiting (thank goodness).

We had 糖醋小排...

素鵝...

Beef stew...

And 小籠包...

The 小籠包 is quite nice and the skin is really thin. Yummy!

28th Oct (Sat)

A pretty ok day. Finished recruiting all the doctors (thank God!) in the morning so we could go out for lunch and some shopping before interviews in the afternoon. Upon recommendation of the convention centre staff, we went to 港匯廣場, a huge shopping mall at 徐家匯. There are many restaurants on the upper levels and we tried out this Korean BBQ place called 韓風. The place uses charcoal to BBQ the meat so it's really nice and juicy! The service was excellent too! The waitresses kept coming to our table to help us BBQ the meat. Fantastic!

After lunch was shopping time. But the mall was way too big. Walk til very tired especially when we were both wearing heels. So went back to the convention centre soon after that, only to realise that one of the doctors couldn't make it for interview that evening. Started to get worried again. What if more doctors "fly us aeroplane" the next day?

Finished the other interview early so we went to 小肥羊 for steamboat dinner. Long queue again (it seems like we always have to queue for meals). We took the queue number, walked back to our hotel to put our stuff, walked back and still have to wait very long. But well, the food is not bad, especially the mutton.

29th Oct (Sun)

Could sleep in a little late in the morning before interviewing around lunch time. Got doctors postpone interview again! Getting really worried by now coz what if the doctors fly us aeroplane in the end and we can't find anymore doctors (it's already the last day of the conference). In the end, we had to do 3 interviews the next day at the doctors' office. Really risky. Keeping our fingers crossed.

No more interview for the day after lunch time so we met up with SW, an ex-colleague from Shanghai office, and MF who's currently working in Shanghai office. Went to 陝西北路 for bag shopping. Some of these shops that sell A grade fake branded bags are well hidden in small alleys and in some hidden rooms in shops so the whole experience is pretty exciting.

After bag shopping, we were all hungry and went to this restaurant called 蝶園 at this place called 新天地. 新天地 is a hip area full of cafe, restaurants and pubs converted from some old buildings. So it's a fusion of the new and the old. We had some pretty nice food at 蝶園, which include cold dishes like 醉雞 and main dishes such as steam fish, egg yoke crab, as well as 干絲, which is beancurd that is cut into very fine strips cooked with 金華火腿. Nice.

After dinner, we went for dessert and chat til late. Since SW is Singaporean and MF is M'sian, we had a great time chatting in Singlish. It's been soooo long since I talk in Singlish man. Shiok!