‘Catching up and moving East

‘scribbling from Schiphol – en route from Cambridge to Hangzhou for a variety of business opportunities.  ‘back in the mid-80’s, I visited Korea, Taiwan, and Japan twice and was really enraptured with the people and the culture.  Although I took a course at the University of Washington about Pacific Rim culture and politics, I never got back to the area, so this is both a renewal and an extension.

I’m not sure what to expect of it: ‘never having been to Mainland China I only know what I read in novels and magazines, a blend of James Clavell and James Fallows.  I hope for Internet access (at least enough to keep up with mail, short blog posts, and Skype) and peace with the local foods – otherwise, I’m pretty adaptable and am expecting to see and learn a lot.

The put a lot of pressure on the past week: a huge load was shoveled, but I wish we’d closed on a few key items.  The contracts are slowly coming together with our Universities as we go back and forth over what percentage overheads to include in their Full Economic Costing (FEC) models,.  Our lawyers have engaged with our consultant’s medical institution, frustratingly having to offer royalties in exchange for his consultancy.  We completed our diligence on a company with a new colo-rectal cancer test (I have to get to the other end of the digestive tract in my net project).  We applied for a Framework grant as part of a Mediterranean consortium building an artificial bladder.

All of that is fun to be part of and, perhaps soon, could pay nice dividends.  But  it’s mostly fitting my ambitions to work on creative projects with good people, to bring worthwhile innovation to patients, and to have an opportunity to keep what we win together.

Anyway, time to wing East with a clean conscience.  ‘Pictures, sorties, reflections from the Far East for the next 10 days.