It Smells Like Miami

A meeting at the Four Seasons.  The owner of the last company I properly worked at was a fan of the Four Seasons.  He wife worked for them.  She booked events for them, as I recall.  Our company was one of her accounts.  And so, quarterly business reviews were at the Denver Four Seasons because we had a deal there.  And sales kick offs were at the Miami Four Seasons and the customer event was at the Las Vegas Four Seasons, on the other side of the Mandalay Bay, where the bump-stock madman, murdered so many people from out his VIP suite window. 

The Beijing Four Seasons was nice to see arrive.  Put it near the U.S. embassy.  Across from the time-honored Beijing landscape, the Kempinksi Hotel and the Friendship Store.  Liang Ma Qiao is as good a place as any to stick a new five-star hotel, though there was nothing about the location or the building itself that seemed particularly distinct.  It made me wonder what I would have done.

The smell when you walk inside the Beijing Four Seasons is distinct.  It smells like Miami to my nose.  I imagine I’m in Denver.  Upstairs we have our meeting.  I consider the view out to the embassy compound that I have never before, of course, this being my first time above the second floor of the building.  Lunch, later, is first rate.  The salad bar is not the least bit predictable.  I keep picking at the large hunk of parmesan cheese another guest has set out for the table.

A colleague likes to host people at his hotel, across town.  He doesn’t want to drive and meet me.  I know this about him.  I’ll work with it.  I am driven now, across and over towards the Grand Hyatt.  If Liang Mao Qiao is probably one of the most convenient places for a business hotel, Chang An Jie is, these days at least, is one of the least convenient places to consider.  “Where r u?” He texts.  “Not far.  Three blocks” I text back.  Poor Dongcheng.  It was never really built for traffic.

Later, I'm heading out.  I call a Di Di.  The guys twenty-five minutes away.  I cancel it.  A cab lets someone out and I’m in the back before the driver can say ‘no.’  “New World Department Store in Wang Jing, if you’d be so kind.”  Charge the phone.  Charge the phone a while before you make that call, you’re late for.  And with that meeting, met,  I can head back home.  But when I get there I quickly notice that the electricity is off.  OK.  Candles.  Lighter.  Electricity charging card.  The service desk tells me its 6:30PM and there is no one there who can take a credit card charge. You’ll need to go to the ATM and get yourself some cash.  I don’t want to go anywhere, anymore.  I am notably ready for this day to be stationary. 

Friday 5/18/18