Service Award

I mentioned earlier that I received my 10 year Hasbro service award in January from the HFE office. We receive a gold medallion as a token.


Here I am with my boss, Winston.

Here are all the service award recipients and their managers for this year. In addition to myself, I had 3 employees receive long term service awards.

Left side reads "Hasbro", middle says "10 year service" and right side is my Chinese name "Bo Mei Si". Yay!

Winter Freeze

Dear Hong Kong,

I did NOT sign up for this. I knew about the hot and humid summers but I did not sign up for cold temperatures. Especially when there is NO heat here! 

For those playing in degree F... 3.9 C is 39 F! Okay so not freezing but without heat it is COLD. And it's been raining so it's a wet damp cold. 

My friend lent me a small heater... It's about the size of a loaf of bread so I at least have a bit of heat in my bedroom to sleep without shivering.

I ventured out for lunch with friends today. It's cold out here! 

Thankfully for Sunday afternoon I have a sweatshirt, fleece blanket, glass of red wine and a Law and Order marathon.

Danielle's Visit

Danielle stayed after Toy Fair for a few days to see more of Hong Kong

We visited Stanley Market Friday in the rain. Luckily it is mostly covered so didn't dampen our shopping spirits.

Saturday we ventured to Big Buddha. The weather was not good. It was cloudy and windy so made for an adventure on the cable cars on the way up.

We started with smiles in the cable car until the wind made it swing around. Then it wasn't so fun.

And then we disappeared into the clouds.

 Dark and cloudy...

I caught one great picture when the clouds parted for just a few seconds it was a bright blue sky.

 
 The monastery at the Big Buddha.

   

 Hello Kitty displays were everywhere

Transformer bus!

Cow!

There are 12 warrior statues... this one is my favorite. His weapon is a conch shell..... what kind of weapon is that? Are you going to hypnotize me with the sound of the ocean?

On the way back the cable car stopped twice. We still don't know why...

Saturday night we did a participation dinner with people from Hasbro HK office.

The most cooking I've done in HK! Look at the focus on sauteeing mushrooms!

Sunday I got up at 4:30 AM to go to a bar to watch the patriots game which started at 5:30 AM here.

 
Sunday we went to brunch at Hutong with friends. There are two shows and this one was the noodle maker.

The other show is the mask changing dancer.

 And of course the highlight of brunch!

A helicopter came to land at a nearby hotel. We tried to see who it was but couldn't.

Monday we went to the Peak since the clouds had cleared a bit.

 I then convinced Danielle to go on a short walk with me to find the Victoria Peak Garden... guess what... the walk wasn't so short. Poor Danielle... she's a good sport for putting up with me saying "it's just around the next corner" about 10 times...

There were a number of couples in the park taking their wedding photos.

Lunch at the Peak Lookout!

Great visit with Danielle to show her HK.

Event Week - January

The second week of January is always very busy here. It is HK Toy Fair so many US visitors come for a visit. 

Tuesday we did a small service award ceremony. I received a 10 year service award.

Left side reads "Hasbro", middle says "10 year service" and right side is my Chinese name "Bo Mei Si". Yay!

Monday was Inventor Expo and cocktail party in the evening. Tuesday we had Partner Cocktail party after work. Wednesday was Partner Summit where all our manufacturing vendors come for an all day meeting. 

I had to present a few times this week. 

Here is me presenting at Partner Summit. No worries, all items on screen launched in 2015. Nothing sensitive there. 

Wednesday night was the Women in Toys Night at the races. It was a great networking event. I have joined the founding committee of the Hong Kong chapter. Here is the founding committee (very professional, we know)!

I haven't been to the horse races in over 15 years. So I decided to place a bet. A guy at the event had bet on the the first 4 races and said he lost on each one. He helped remind me how to review the book and place a bet. He looked at the standings of the horse and the jockey and the odds.

What did I do? I reviewed the names of the horses. That's all I need. The favorite horse in the race was "Mr Right" which I thought would be a good horse to bid on cause we all want Mr Right to win. But because he was the favorite the odds weren't particularly good.

So I picked "Back to Black". I like black and I like Amy Winehouse. So I put HKD 50 for Back to Black to win in Race 5. The race started with many other horses in the lead and others were cheering. The guy who had helped me said "Oh my God, you won't believe who is taking the lead". If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that Back to Black came from the back and won the race! Woohoo. I turned my HKD 50 into HKD 480! I took my winnings and stopped...

Here is view from our private box. 

Thursday night was the HFE Annual Dinner held in Shenzhen. It was a party of over 600 people. It is held a a hotel in the ballroom. This year was different because the corporate senior management were all in attendance. And they danced and danced... those pictures and videos are under lock and key for later use as necessary!

 

 
The theme was cosplay so many people wore costumes. If we didn't have costumes, there were a ton of props there for us to use.

This is the Preschool Category Team.

These are the 11 Category Leads at HFE. "V" for victory.

Iron Man with a tall Pepper Potts.

So fun to have US visitors here as well.

 Vanessa, my coach from management training who is from Australia.

Lovely anegls: Anita and Panny!

These were the contestants for  best costume!

 

Minnie Mouse in a sari.

Michael is the only one who makes me feel short here.

My mentee, Kyle and me.

Costing team! Isaac, Jacky and Dora.

Amit giving his opening speech. He is forced to stick to his script because it is translated on the screens around the room.

Okay, I will put on one wig...

Sea full of people!

And don't forget that we dance! Yokai Dance!

What a fun and crazy evening. So great to be a part of such a wonderful celebration for all the hard work these teams do every day.