My official title: Commercial Manager. I'll take it!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Best Job Ever
Day 2 of HFW and I wasn't totally convinced this is what I should be doing. Yes, Greg bought me lunch, but I spent an awful lot of time running around from the bank to the post office doing a lot of admin kind of stuff. Day 3 and I LOVE IT! I spent the am (11:30-3) categorizing, organizing, and filing expenses, which I love. Again it's admin stuff, but fulfilling because there's an end result of organization. I also suggested we write a year end thank you to all of our customers suggesting party ideas for the holidays. So I spent some of the afternoon writing that letter, and come 4 it was time to head to our event. JC and I took a van to the King George V school in Kowloon where we set up our table and started to sell. We're really pushing foie gras, truffle sauce, and of course, wines. But, we get to drink wines while working! And we got some tasty Indian and Japanese food from the function as well. Basically we stand out with plates of truffle sauce and foie gras crakers soliciting people to buy and try our wines. Did I mention this is at a primary school!? This would not happen in America. Come 7 and Paul came to check out our table. Greg generously poured him wine, told me to show Paul around, and then when I went back to work Paul helped by filling the crackers with our products. Paul went over to the beer table (again at a primary school!) and a kid asked if they could have a Coke. "No we can't serve Coke because it's school policy." ha!! I love Hong Kong!!! Toward the beginning of the night I was not feeling selling. I don't like to be in people's faces. By the end of it, it was such a thrill to entice people to the table and actually sell a bottle or tin of foie gras. I think I could get good at this. And here's the kicker. We're sampling wines all night, and guess who takes the open bottles home. Yup, me!!!! Paul and I came home with 6 bottles of wine. He's sold on my job. And so am I :)
Tomorrow is an LKF event followed by Clockenflap. More on Cloken Sunday.....
PS got cold tonight!!! We're pushing high 50s!
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| 17 month anniversary cheese and crakers (not related at all to this post) |
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| My Wednesday night (first) event with HFW at the Lanson |
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| The leftovers from tonight that P and I took home. Asa! |
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| JC packing up the goods. |
PS got cold tonight!!! We're pushing high 50s!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
I Have the Best BF
As I open the fridge this morning I see 5 bacon wrapped scallops from Paul. He made me a first day of work surprise snack and had a congrats card to go with it. How sweet is that?? We have been joking about bacon wrapped scallops for over a year now. It's the only thing he ever made for his ex-gf (also Lauren) and I wondered why I never got any. But now I have. So eat that Lauren.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Day 1 Employed
And I didn't quit, freak out or fall asleep! Success. ha. After Greg took me to a nice dim sum lunch, he told me a little more about what all I have gotten myself into. Apparently they're taking a big risk taking me on because finances are so tight (they're entirely internally funded), but he "has a feeling about me." And I really see a lot of potential for what I can do here. Everything is kind of thrown together. They move from one event to the next and really need to spend some time on the administration, finances, and organization. But we need to get through the holiday season first.
Yesterday we held a tasting for the residents of the Lanson executive suits. My job was basically to man the kitchen; cut the bread and cheese, spread the foie gras, truffle sauce, roll the hams, and make sure the trays kept coming. I haven't worked in a restaurant since college, but it was kind of therapeutic to be so engrossed in what I was doing. My job was to free up time for Greg to be out with the guests. Sales Sales Sales. I did get to taste one wine, a $1,300 Alasace from Spain. Yum. And then come 10:30 it was time to go home. Today I'll be in the office and hopefully will learn about their invoicing and all that nonsense. I have definitely already worn a bunch of hats, and it's just one day! Tomorrow and Saturday and I will be working events. More on that when I find out. Oh and because they pay so little they're totally flexible with me keeping my tutoring. Sweet.
Now tis time for breakfast and then off to the office :)
Yesterday we held a tasting for the residents of the Lanson executive suits. My job was basically to man the kitchen; cut the bread and cheese, spread the foie gras, truffle sauce, roll the hams, and make sure the trays kept coming. I haven't worked in a restaurant since college, but it was kind of therapeutic to be so engrossed in what I was doing. My job was to free up time for Greg to be out with the guests. Sales Sales Sales. I did get to taste one wine, a $1,300 Alasace from Spain. Yum. And then come 10:30 it was time to go home. Today I'll be in the office and hopefully will learn about their invoicing and all that nonsense. I have definitely already worn a bunch of hats, and it's just one day! Tomorrow and Saturday and I will be working events. More on that when I find out. Oh and because they pay so little they're totally flexible with me keeping my tutoring. Sweet.
Now tis time for breakfast and then off to the office :)
Monday, December 5, 2011
December 7th, 2011
Shall be known as Lauren's first day of (real) work since June 18th, 2009.
Greg called from House of Fine Wines (HFW) and wants me to come in tomorrow at 1:30 to start my first day as an employee! As of current there is so much to do that I will basically be doing a bunch of everything. Everything includes marketing, finance, sales, logistics and operations, and I'm hoping lots and lots of tasting :) Once we get a little bit of order in place we're going to sit down and talk again about my specific role in the company going forward. Again, I need some help with some fun titles here. Lauren, Ambassador of Grand Cru. Something along those lines, no? Tomorrow WE are holding a large event at a 5 star hotel for an executive Christmas party. Not bad for a first day, huh!? I assume my role is to get everything set up, make sure a glass doesn't go empty, and keep the crackers full of foie gras and truffle oil. Asa.
Interesting how things all fall into place. Today I also got a response from Steve at Portrait Wines who informs me that lack of experience doesn't necessarily matter in this business. They are very busy this week, but we are going to arrange a tea for later this week (if I have time with this NEW JOB and all!!!).
Today was also my lunch with the women I met at HFW's tasting last week. We had a lovely time chatting about their products over Thai curry pumpkin and a whole fish. I don't think I will ever get sick of that pumpkin. Yummy. Soon I have to tutor for an hour and head down to Central to meet Dean, the wine guy. Hopefully he'll have some good insights into the industry here, and I'm hoping he knows HFW and has something positive to say. Ahhh can't believe I have a job!
Greg called from House of Fine Wines (HFW) and wants me to come in tomorrow at 1:30 to start my first day as an employee! As of current there is so much to do that I will basically be doing a bunch of everything. Everything includes marketing, finance, sales, logistics and operations, and I'm hoping lots and lots of tasting :) Once we get a little bit of order in place we're going to sit down and talk again about my specific role in the company going forward. Again, I need some help with some fun titles here. Lauren, Ambassador of Grand Cru. Something along those lines, no? Tomorrow WE are holding a large event at a 5 star hotel for an executive Christmas party. Not bad for a first day, huh!? I assume my role is to get everything set up, make sure a glass doesn't go empty, and keep the crackers full of foie gras and truffle oil. Asa.
Interesting how things all fall into place. Today I also got a response from Steve at Portrait Wines who informs me that lack of experience doesn't necessarily matter in this business. They are very busy this week, but we are going to arrange a tea for later this week (if I have time with this NEW JOB and all!!!).
Today was also my lunch with the women I met at HFW's tasting last week. We had a lovely time chatting about their products over Thai curry pumpkin and a whole fish. I don't think I will ever get sick of that pumpkin. Yummy. Soon I have to tutor for an hour and head down to Central to meet Dean, the wine guy. Hopefully he'll have some good insights into the industry here, and I'm hoping he knows HFW and has something positive to say. Ahhh can't believe I have a job!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
catch Up!
Oh I am so far behind on this! No posts in 3 days. I'm telling ya, there's something in the water. Laziness water.
Friday evening was bike night! Paul and I took the MTR all the way up to the second to last stop (in Hong Kong) on the East Rail Line to Yan's house to pick up our brand new (to us) bikes. They're super old with no gears, but they're awesome florescent colors and both have bells!! And mine has a basket! While out in almost China we popped into the only restaurant nearby. The place was awesome! It was filled with families who all sat around big circular tables that were filled with awesome looking soups, hot pots, and meat. Of course the menu was all in Chinese, but based on the food on our neighbors tables we figured we couldn't go wrong. We had picked two random things on the menu when a woman came over to us and asked if we needed help. How sweet is that? She got us a seafood soup with vermicelli and a chicken noodley soup. Both were awesome and the whole experience was just really cool. It kind of reminded me of being back in Korea where I always felt like such the outsider (in a good way). You don't really feel that when you're sipping European beers at a pub filled with Aussies, English, Americans and a couple locals...
Post dinner we bring our brank spanking new bikes to the MTR where we are immediately informed we cannot bring bikes without removing the front tires. How are we going to get it off? With our hands? The MTR man tells us to take a cab. We're not taking a cab from almost China and PS our bikes probably wouldn't fit. The man tells us to wait, and returns a minute later with a borrowed wrench from a convenience store!! People are so nice here! We got the wheels off, MTRed it the hour+ to Kowloon Tong, hand screwed the wheels back on, then rode 3km in the dark. But we made it!!
Saturday I decided that I didn't want to go to the MBA program, but I did get back into running! It was a beautiful day so I went out for a lovely 8k run. Not bad. I officially quit for two days. Cathy informs me that's not quitting, but I can't remember the last time I went two whole days without a run. ha. I have to do a post on the perils of running aka Can't-ever-get-full-ness. Another day. Later I met up with Cathy in Soho for a shopping event. We bought our tickets and then walked all around Soho from boutique to boutique shopping and sipping on wine which was provided. The boutiques ranged from home goods to clothes to jewelry and we discovered some really cool streets and stores we had never noticed before, my favorites being General Store and Homeless. Who knew about Gage and Gough Streets??? They're amazing!
Paul had his Christmas dinner with all billion of the Tutor Time employees. It's their ten year anniversary being open, so of course they had a James Bond style dinner. Weird, I know. Paul said it was OK, but still kind of like work. And hey, can we please invite the significant others next time!? We met up afterward in Soho for a flight of wine at Hong Kong's only winery Portrait. I was informed 8th estate doesn't count because they're grapes are procured elsewhere. I started chatting with the owner Steve and told them I was interested in getting into the industry. Steve told me they're always looking for help, so fingers crossed he writes back to the email I sent to remind him today!！
Sunday was Funday with Nina and Kenny!! They're our new Sunday brunch go tos. Last week helicopters and this week boats. Jumbo Floating Restaurant is a notorious place here in the SAR. Everyone knows it's the place to go on a beautiful day for a free flow champagne brunch. Despite it's proximity to Ap Le Chau (remember the 8th estate fail?), the place is amazing. It is literally a jumbo floating restaurant. We hit up Top Deck for a 4 spot on the water. We had amazing views of the marina and all of the insane boats docked there. Reminds you of how much money there is to be had here. If only I knew where it was hiding... And then the food. There was a cold buffet and a hot buffet. Cold buffet boasted crabs legs, sashimi salmon and octopus, a bunch of salads including a delicious pumpkin one, and oysters!! I couldn't begin to count the amount of oysters we ate during our 4 hour brunch. Then the hot bar had eggs Benedict (awesome), naan, curries (both Thai and India), veel, chicken skewers, make your own pita sandwiches, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. Then there was a dessert bar with a crepe making dude, ice cream, and cheese (but only 2). The food isn't the best I've had, it is a buffet afterall, but the whole set up is perfect for an all day occasion. You get to sit outside on the water as boat float by (you actually have to take a boat to get onto the island), get to munch on endless food all day, and to top it off waiters never let your glass even get near empty! We're glad we got it in now because it'll probably be a touch too cold for the next couple months.
Monday Monday Monday. Slept in til the nice hour os 9:30 this am. Biked over to have lunch with Paul, then spent the entire afternoon sipping coffee, catching up on my magazines, and hitting the bookstore. Tonight Paul and I are celebrating (2 days late) our 17 month anniversary. Big one I know. I had picked up some duck pate and a wheel of brie a few weeks ago, and Paul surprised me with a bottle of Baileys (how sweet is that!?) , so we're going to party tonight. I also picked up a block of sage cheese, foie gras, and a couple other cheeses. Should be a rager!
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| Paul in our new fav restaurant |
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| The scene |
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| Yummo seafood mushroom soup |
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| chicken noodley soup |
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| Paul on the new (mini) bike to the MTR |
Saturday I decided that I didn't want to go to the MBA program, but I did get back into running! It was a beautiful day so I went out for a lovely 8k run. Not bad. I officially quit for two days. Cathy informs me that's not quitting, but I can't remember the last time I went two whole days without a run. ha. I have to do a post on the perils of running aka Can't-ever-get-full-ness. Another day. Later I met up with Cathy in Soho for a shopping event. We bought our tickets and then walked all around Soho from boutique to boutique shopping and sipping on wine which was provided. The boutiques ranged from home goods to clothes to jewelry and we discovered some really cool streets and stores we had never noticed before, my favorites being General Store and Homeless. Who knew about Gage and Gough Streets??? They're amazing!
Paul had his Christmas dinner with all billion of the Tutor Time employees. It's their ten year anniversary being open, so of course they had a James Bond style dinner. Weird, I know. Paul said it was OK, but still kind of like work. And hey, can we please invite the significant others next time!? We met up afterward in Soho for a flight of wine at Hong Kong's only winery Portrait. I was informed 8th estate doesn't count because they're grapes are procured elsewhere. I started chatting with the owner Steve and told them I was interested in getting into the industry. Steve told me they're always looking for help, so fingers crossed he writes back to the email I sent to remind him today!！
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| Waiting for the boat to go to Top Deck |
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Plate1: salmon, octopus, crabs legs, pumpkin salad, oysters, artichoke hearts
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| Plate 2: boa, tuna salad, eggs benedict, naan, brussel sprouts, cheese pasta, thai green curry cauliflower |
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| One of many oyster plates |
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| A few glasses of champagne later and I got better at plating; oysters, salmon, tuna pomegranate salad, parma ham, pumpkin salad |
Monday Monday Monday. Slept in til the nice hour os 9:30 this am. Biked over to have lunch with Paul, then spent the entire afternoon sipping coffee, catching up on my magazines, and hitting the bookstore. Tonight Paul and I are celebrating (2 days late) our 17 month anniversary. Big one I know. I had picked up some duck pate and a wheel of brie a few weeks ago, and Paul surprised me with a bottle of Baileys (how sweet is that!?) , so we're going to party tonight. I also picked up a block of sage cheese, foie gras, and a couple other cheeses. Should be a rager!
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| Meet Boo, the cutest dog in the world (according to the title). I <3 bookstores.. |
Thursday, December 1, 2011
BEST NEWS EVER!!!
So I was going to write a blog about my exciting news with House of Fine Wines, but something much MUCH cooler just came into my inbox. Remember when I mentioned I had gone to an aviation fair with Paul, Kenny and Nina? Well, Kenny entered a raffle. And guess who won third place? And guess what third place is?! A helicopter tour for 5 of Hong Kong! And guess who he's bringing!?? Nina's sister just happens to be in town that week, so it's Kira (said sister), Kenny, Nina, Paul and I!!! Check it out:
http://www.heliservices.com.hk/info/detail/Flightseeing/en/
This will be my first helicopter ride! I'm so excited!!! And we're going December 18th which is officially the start of Paul's Christmas vacation. What a kick off!!!!
Ok so other maybe exciting news, I met with Gregior at the Chungking Mansions for some Indian food in TST last night. If you've never heard of Chungking Mansions, google it. It's notorious. Anyway, he voiced some concerns. Concerns being the lack of cash to pay me, me running away with company secrets, potential conflict of personalities (he has a tendency to say fuck. He's Irish.). But, I think overall they need me. They have no systems in place, they could use the help in sales, and hell I'm willing to work cheap. So he's going to chat again with Sean and JC, but he thinks we'll be able to work something out. Basically I would start with a 2 week trial period just to make sure we can all work together. I would be in charge of implementing all the new systems, organizing the office, putting more structure into events, sales, social media and marketing, and most importantly tasting :) I need to think of an awesome title. Lauren McPhate, Wine President. I don't think they'll go for that.... So we're going to reconvene Monday and I'll have more news. WINE!
This week has been weird. I've lost my will to run; I am now on a haitus. To network. To schmooze. Even to blog. Have you noticed? Perhaps it's the weather (it dropped from 80 to 60!) or the holidays, but I am just feeling lazy. And you know what, who cares!? haha. I'm on break from...unemployment(?) until January! Although, today I woke up early and went down to Central for the monthly Social Media meeting at PURE. I went last month and really enjoyed it. Even though it means me getting up at 7. Today we had a great speaker come tell us about social media's use in the wine industry, oddly relevant to what I'll be doing. She was great and really inspirational. Wine entrepreneurship seems pretty sweet. It's so funny at these events though. There are 50+ people, and when you look around the room, I guarantee 90% of people are on their phones or ipads. Mostly Tweeting. hah But I always learn something and get some new apps. Again, didn't feel like networking, so I just booked it after. I did try to go find the December issue of Foodie, but I guess they haven't distributed it. But if you would like a look, check here:
http://issuu.com/foodie.hk/docs/foodie_2011_december_highres_issuu
Check out page 1 contributors. Yeah, that's right. LAUREN MCPHATE.
I did the food review, Street View, and Word on the Street. Notice Nina and Victor. They're both my friends :)
So yeah, just finished off some panetonne, doing some laundry, then Paul and I are heading up to the New Territories to get bikes!!!! Two bikes for $300 (<$40)!! Wooohoo!!!! Tomorrow is another early AM. I'm going to head over to Sai Kung to HKUST for a presentation about their MBA program. For someone who quit unemployment, this seems awfully networky....
http://www.heliservices.com.hk/info/detail/Flightseeing/en/
This will be my first helicopter ride! I'm so excited!!! And we're going December 18th which is officially the start of Paul's Christmas vacation. What a kick off!!!!
Ok so other maybe exciting news, I met with Gregior at the Chungking Mansions for some Indian food in TST last night. If you've never heard of Chungking Mansions, google it. It's notorious. Anyway, he voiced some concerns. Concerns being the lack of cash to pay me, me running away with company secrets, potential conflict of personalities (he has a tendency to say fuck. He's Irish.). But, I think overall they need me. They have no systems in place, they could use the help in sales, and hell I'm willing to work cheap. So he's going to chat again with Sean and JC, but he thinks we'll be able to work something out. Basically I would start with a 2 week trial period just to make sure we can all work together. I would be in charge of implementing all the new systems, organizing the office, putting more structure into events, sales, social media and marketing, and most importantly tasting :) I need to think of an awesome title. Lauren McPhate, Wine President. I don't think they'll go for that.... So we're going to reconvene Monday and I'll have more news. WINE!
This week has been weird. I've lost my will to run; I am now on a haitus. To network. To schmooze. Even to blog. Have you noticed? Perhaps it's the weather (it dropped from 80 to 60!) or the holidays, but I am just feeling lazy. And you know what, who cares!? haha. I'm on break from...unemployment(?) until January! Although, today I woke up early and went down to Central for the monthly Social Media meeting at PURE. I went last month and really enjoyed it. Even though it means me getting up at 7. Today we had a great speaker come tell us about social media's use in the wine industry, oddly relevant to what I'll be doing. She was great and really inspirational. Wine entrepreneurship seems pretty sweet. It's so funny at these events though. There are 50+ people, and when you look around the room, I guarantee 90% of people are on their phones or ipads. Mostly Tweeting. hah But I always learn something and get some new apps. Again, didn't feel like networking, so I just booked it after. I did try to go find the December issue of Foodie, but I guess they haven't distributed it. But if you would like a look, check here:
http://issuu.com/foodie.hk/docs/foodie_2011_december_highres_issuu
Check out page 1 contributors. Yeah, that's right. LAUREN MCPHATE.
I did the food review, Street View, and Word on the Street. Notice Nina and Victor. They're both my friends :)
So yeah, just finished off some panetonne, doing some laundry, then Paul and I are heading up to the New Territories to get bikes!!!! Two bikes for $300 (<$40)!! Wooohoo!!!! Tomorrow is another early AM. I'm going to head over to Sai Kung to HKUST for a presentation about their MBA program. For someone who quit unemployment, this seems awfully networky....
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