After a 3 day journey, including a day stopover in Seoul, I arrived in UlaanBaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, on Saturday 6th November. At least my body arrived; my brain hadn’t quite caught up. (‘Nothing unusual in that’, I hear you cry.) The time difference between this part of Asia and the UK is 8 hours, so reality was a bit fuzzy. It is reckoned that it takes a day per hour of difference to get the body clock back to normal. At that rate, I’ll just be ‘normal’ again before it’s time to return to the UK. Oh, joy.
One part of my anatomy, which most definitely arrived on time, was my rear end. After sitting on it for 14 hours in an airline seat, it felt as if it has been tenderised with a wooden mallet. Someday they will design and aircraft seat that is comfortable on long-haul flights and doesn’t cost a small fortune to occupy.
I saw our new cashmere scarf ranges, hats, gloves, and socks. They look and feel wonderful, but then again, I would say that wouldn’t I? They will arrive in our warehouse about the end of November and then we will get them onto the website for you to see, and make up your own minds. I think you will be impressed.
Our scarves are warp-knitted, to the exact width and length we specify. This may not mean much to some of you, but it gives superior handle and wearing characteristics to the scarf. Because the yarn is knitted along the length of the scarf, as opposed to side to side as in most other machine knitted scarves, it wraps and hangs much more easily around the neck. As each one is knitted individually, it retains its shape, loft, and softness far better than a woven scarf.
We make our scarves a bit wider and longer than most, in keeping with our promise to bring you the very best quality and value possible, and help keep out the winter chills.
On Tuesday, our Senior Designer Manger and I arrived in China to meet friends and colleagues at our garment factories. As I write this, a good part of the Gobi desert is airborne and is gusting past the window in cold, billowing, clouds of fine, yellow, dust. Everything is covered in a layer of powder. The wind will no doubt die down later in the day, but these dustings are a very regular occurrence in this area and are welcomed by the local farmers who say that it contributes to the fertility of the land. Given the diversity of cereals, fruit, and vegetables on sale, it seems to be working pretty well. Everyone else thinks it’s a real nuisance.
'Mongolian Wind'
Our hosts are hospitable almost to the point of embarrassment, not only in the social sense, but also in their determination to fulfil our exacting product standards and learn more about our market. They freely admit that we are their most challenging customer. We’ll take this is a compliment.
We are working on the production designs for our next collection due in February; styles and colours for next spring in fine silks and cottons; and first ideas for Winter 20011/2012. If you have ideas for styles or colours that you would like to see in our collections, then let us know. Use the response form listed on the home page of the website.
We only work with people who treat their workforces well. This goes beyond the legal minimum of the countries in which we work. We also try to judge how the workforce is dressed, how many private cars and motorbikes are parked in the factory, and how long the people we meet have been employed. Having long-term employees usually mean that the employer is fair and pays good wages.
As I write this, I can see and hear they workforce passing the office window of this particular factory, going to lunch. There is a lot of laughter and loud chatter. Not a bad sign, on the surface at least.
We just had lunch. I counted 24 dishes, for 10 people, served from a revolving glass centrepiece. Crab, fish, beef, quails eggs, quail, braised beef, pork ribs, baked peanuts and horse chestnuts, bamboo shoots, soups, pumpkin, broccoli, and on and on. All washed down with green tea. If eating was an Olympic sport, these guys would be medal winners. What I need now is a 30 minute kip, but back to work…
Today is the 11th of November and is an auspicious day for weddings apparently. We passed a wedding lunch on the way out of the hotel. The bride was dressed in a tight fitting tunic and skirt in traditional vivid, scarlet, silk, and the groom in a natty grey lounge suit. It’s a noisy affair, with guests crammed into every available dining room and hall. Food is flying past on trolleys pushed by harassed staff at the fast trot, and bags of nuts are being handed out to all and sundry. The floors are covered in peanut and pistachio shells and the husks of sunflower seeds are accumulating in drifts in the corners of the corridors. The air is thick with cigarette smoke and greetings as friends and relatives bump into each other for the first time since the last wedding or funeral.
All through last night, every 40 minutes or so until dawn, booming explosions could be heard in the sky over the hotel, as blast mortars were launched, as I later found out, from 4 large metal tubes in the hotel car park. This is to frighten away evil spirits who otherwise might come to the wedding and bring bad luck. I have to admit that I was on the side of the evil spirits by about 4.30 in the morning, but now knowing the reason behind the bombardment made me feel a little better inclined towards the bombardiers. But not much.
Going back to Mongolia in a few days’ time to look over more products and go over what we have done.
