mandag 13. april 2009

Back in the office again

Back to work again after a great and relaxing vacation week in the middle of China, watching pandas (even cuter live than on Discovery channel ; ) and several old temples, of which one was still inhabitated by buddhist monks.

I have just a few weeks left here in Shanghai, so now it's time to get the final work done. Today I've completed a task about secondary (recycled) aluminium production, going through a lot of uncertain statistics and trying to sum it up for the Asian countries. I've also booked flight tickets for next week's visit to our joint venture plant Erdos in Inner Mongolia in distant, north China. I'm really looking forward to visiting such a remote, exotic place and to get the opportunity to compare a Chinese silicon plant to the Norwegian and Icelandic ones I've seen before - you will get an update from that in the end of next week!

Today I had lunch with an Orkla colleague who, together with a friend, are travelling around the world, dropping by Shanghai this week. I hope my sofa will prove more comfortable than the night train from Xian... = ) My colleague Anette was curious to get an update on the activities in Elkem and Orkla during the last few months, there have been a lot of organisational changes recently to adapt to the turbulent times. With all these guests coming and going it doesn't feel like I'm too far away from home...! Especially not when they bring what I miss the most (well, after family & friends of course) - breakfast items, candy & magazines from Europe...*happy sigh*
From pandas and temples, back to the office again.