Our holiday party

The theme of the evening was Old Shanghai or 1920s Tang style.

Hamming it up

The emcees and I

Our genius engineer

Laoban

The charming Planning team

The planning girls looked stunning, all dressed in 1920s style dresses.

A and F, muy simpaticos

My colleagues

The Planning group's performance

The Planning group's performance

Kudos for best costumes

Our performance went on without a glitch, despite that in preparation for it we did not rehearse enough. Our colleagues in Planning rehearsed every evening for a week, and all day yesterday. Their musical skit was very polished. Nevertheless our presentation was popular.

In preparation for our skit, we prepared some props in a way it is a metaphor of how things get done. Our script included a short dance to a Hawaiian style jingle bells by the girls, an interruption with a gangster line-dance by the guys, the entrance of our boss, the girls joining the guys in dancing a choreographed meringue-complete with twists, another line dance by everyone and finishing by singing a traditional jingle bells. For the gangster skit, a senior manager considered that our hatchets made of architect scales strapped with foam looked poor. He inspired the graphics expert to come up with a perfect picture of a hatchet. Ironically, it was made in Sweden, the most peaceful country on earth. After two of us trimmed the pictures, the graphics expert disappeared into a long break. Next it was up to me to figure out how to build the props. I put spray mount on one and pasted it on foam, then carefully used an electric foam cutter to cut the hatchet shape. Then i glued the mirror image on the back. We had a realistic looking hatchet. After 45 minutes, I had created two and a colleague pointed out that I was being too meticulous; it needed to be cut fast even if it was not perfect. No one would notice faulty cutting. She slashed and dashed, I glued, and within 45 minutes we had the remaining 6 hatches completed. That's how we get things done. Someone points out a problem: "We're doing it wrong; it could be done better.” Someone figures out how to represent the idea beautifully graphically. Someone meticulously figures out how to build it. Then someone figures out how to create it fast even if it's not perfect.