(Written January 6, 2009 - Hong Kong)

Arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday night around 7pm. The flight from Chicago to Hong Kong is over 15 hours! It is a long time to sit still. Just as the plane doors closed, a passenger fell ill. The paramedics had to come on board to help. It looked to me like the passenger had overindulged on alcohol and had passed out. When the paramedics tried to revive him, he became belligerent and somewhat violent (he was small compared to the fireman). Anyway, the whole scene took more than an hour to resolve. Two good lessons, 1) never drink before a 15 hour flight (no matter how much you think you need a drink to make it through a flight like that) and 2) it is possible to make up a delay of over an hour when the flight is 15 hours. We landed only about 20 minutes late. Not bad. At one time we were traveling over 600mph!

Our showroom is in the Grand Stanford hotel. We have a two room suite. The front room has all our products displayed. I sleep in the other room. Its a nice hotel and a nice room. The director of marketing and a few others from our office did a great job setting up the room. Everything is displayed perfectly. And our new catalog is printed and looks amazing. I am so proud.

There are at least 20 other companies using the hotel for meetings and showrooms. Some of them are companies you know including K’nex, Ohio Art, and Leapfrog. It is fun to see our name among these well known brands.

We have had a busy first two days. Early Monday morning the meetings started and they continued all day. By day, we have presentations and meetings. Then at night, the team and I fill out quote sheets and prepare samples.

I think the buyers are starting to really understand our company. We are providing innovative puzzle ideas and manufacturing them to a new standard. No one is very optimistic about the economy in 2009, so our combination of innovation, high quality and outstanding value helps us stand out.

If I ever figure out how to upload a picture to this blog, I will upload a picture of our showroom.

More as the week goes on.

JP