Dragon boats

2009 is the year of the Dragon. That's great, because the year I was born was also the year of the Dragon, it all fits and it's another sign... I've always kept a look out for signs and I still regret not following that eagle in Garda. Anyway my horoscope says that I will prosper at work and in love. It also tells me to keep my head down.

Didn't mention the race course though, although that could be work, and keeping my head down might be gybing. You never know.

Anyway I'm at the McConaghy factory in Zhuhai working on three little Dragons. The quality of these machines is great and the team here are professional and really nice people, a couple of French, several Australians, a Brit, but the majority of course are Chinese. All the Chinese employees have Western names which is odd and I don't see any reason too, I can pronounce their real names fine.

And so by way of respect, I have given Andrew and myself Chinese names. I have not been flippant and thought hard about it. At 76 kilo's Amac gets "Chin to phat! and after the i-phone incident I get "Wai u dim"

It's great to be at McConaghy's, not only to finally see and touch the boats but to meet the people who are making them. The atmosphere here is good, long hours have already been worked and what Andrew, Mark and the team here have already achieved is remarkable. We have a way to go, the midnight oil is being burned and we arrived home so late last night that even the late night restaurants were shut. Dinner came from a Chinese version of "Iceland" which may be a bad example, because like the country, I think they too have gone into receivership, but you get my drift.

Anyway I chose my dinner because it had Jackie Chan on the front. Bad idea. All I can say is that man has a very unfortunate diet and those things have one use only.

I had my first "cosmetic dither" today. I knew this would happen as I've always liked great looking boats and appreciated good design, but I saw the tapered booms... And I'm sorry, but things that beautiful shouldn't be on a boat. I may try to get a second hand one and keep the good one for my wall.