Wow, so it’s been a long time since I’ve made an article.
What have I done recently?
In no particular order, but.. for the ones that are really important I will write a separate article about… I have just today watched 2 movies – Arrival, & The Accountant. I would recommend The Accountant, but not arrival.
Been listening to some new good music on Spotify, been thinking so much about all the little projects I want to do including bettering my YouTube channel. For those of you that don’t know… I actually have 2 YouTube channels, 1 linked to this website sippingfromthebrewingpot, and another one that is specifically for motorbiking, it’s a vlog channel (video blogging) and it mainly focuses on China.
Recently I decided to do a collaboration with a friend called Galen, for which our first video is talking about winter & winter driving in the 2 different countries we live in, The Netherlands and Beijing. (I know Beijing isn’t a country….but it’s a big place and winter driving in Beijing is different than in the South…so you can see why I specify like this.)
Anyway… we still haven’t come up with a proper name for our own joint youtube channel… so that is restricting us a little bit. My brother came up with the name ‘Round Eyed Riders’ which we both think is hilarious, however it might generate a little bit too much heat, especially when it will have a lot of content about China in it, and it will be open mainly to foreigners that probably don’t know much about china…. And might not be able to see the humour in it.
So anyway, if anyone has any suggestions… please, all are welcome.
We figured we’d go for something with the word ‘syndicate’ in it. Because its technical definition simply means a groups of people with common interests….but of course it has badass connotations….like ‘a drug syndicate’ see… so that’s the direction we’re going in. And also I’m a fan of alliteration, but also something to do with motorbikes would be good.
I’ve recently finished many audio books. I’ve been going through all of the Drew Hayes books I can find… I honestly think he’s shaping up to be my favourite author. Honestly everything this guy writes is just pure Gold.
All Drew Hayes books available on audible.com (opens in new tab)
I recently finished NPC’s and the sequel Split the Party from the Spells, Swords & Stealth series. Waiting for the 3rd part to be released. (It’s a fantasy dice role playing game transferred to a book …and its actually pretty damn cool)
Then whilst I’ve been waiting for this 3rd book to come out I got myself The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant and it is damn awesome! 
And what a title right?
So I finished the 1st book and I’m now on the 2nd called Undeath & Taxes. Plus as soon as I’ve finished this one, I will buy the 3rd book in the series.
All of these books are by Drew Hayes. Honestly, I’m thinking of dedicating a little page just to him.
Wednesday the 11th of January, I had the big Yearly Business Review with our main client….for which I am key account manager… so a shitload of work…for which I really didn’t want to do..but in the end everything went well… and the presentation went quite smoothly.
I can’t release the name of our biggest client… but I guess I will do when I finally leave this company…. But I think 1 thing to know is that how these very important meetings really work is not a massive presentation between 10 people either side… it actually happens in a small room… sometimes without even a projector… and it’s a very informal discussion.
Conversations are frank and to the point, and questions can be asked at anytime.
So when that was done… I had organised to take some time off…because 1 I needed it, and 2, my friend Pierre was about to leave France to spend some time in Australia… so I decided to fly down and spend the weekend with him.
I’ll write a separate article about that, but I left Thursday and came back Monday morning. It was great to get away and very good to catch up with Pierre and his brother.
Coming up I’ve got a business trip to Manchester of all places… I will meet a new potential client for which we’ve been conversing since February. There’s a chances that they will be just as big as our main client at the moment. Plus I will meet representatives from MIDAS- government agency for the foreign investment development of Manchester… to see if we can expand our business to the UK, and maybe set up business…given that there’s usually government incentives for this kind of thing, as compared to the easy….but expensive option of setting up in London Heathrow.
So I’m flying out Tuesday, meetings on Wednesday… and then fly back Thursday.
I will be so so happy when next week is done. There will be a huge weight lifted off my shoulders…however before that… I need to do a lot of work..that I just don’t want to do.
For tomorrow (Sunday the 23rd) I’ve signed up to do a Chinese language meetup in Rotterdam. So I’m actually quite looking forward to it. Because at the moment all I’m using my Chinese language skills for is business Chinese… and it can get tedious at times.
Also, as I think I’ve explained before…there’s maybe only 2 people that know my true Chinese ability… so there’s many people that believe I am either completely fluent…or… can’t speak Chinese at all….which I can guarantee is not the case. But it will be nice to have a fresh start.
On a related note, I will be doing an informational video soon about how to buy motorbike parts from Taobao.com (Chinese domestic e-commerce website) for which I’ve bought a nice new microphone so I can do the screen recording with audio.
Plus I’m looking to do a moto-vlog all in Chinese. The 1st topic will be ‘what does the word “laowai” really mean?’ Done from a historical perspective, followed by an ignorant Chinese perspective, followed by the modern actual transition of the word in modern China.
Yes, this will be all in Chinese, and it will be shot as I’m driving around in the Netherlands…. Fairly ironic right?
I plan to check things through with my friend Pedy, for accuracy of Chinese.. although I’m fairly confident I can get the grammar correct on-the-fly.
Also kind of related to the things I’ve already stated… I’ve been playing around with, and made a little introduction video for my moto-vlog. Check it out. I will obviously improve it as the videos get better and better.
By the way, on the looking to improve my vlog, I subscribed to this channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyiFrd0mCcQRH-C13qc-wzQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyiFrd0mCcQRH-C13qc-wzQ
I would definitely recommend it. This guy gives great advice on how to improve the quality and look of your YouTube channel. I’ve taken his advice on the microphone and on channel art. I’m looking forward to improving the channel step by step.
Oh, and I’ve also got a good Chinese friend that keeps contacting me about potentially using our Chinese e-commerce knowledge for creating a business between Australia and China. So… I’m actually looking forward to doing something with that.
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