Tuesday August 9, 2005 9:00 pm

A strange day today. Inspection day two.

The audit day went well. We gave the inspector a demo of our ultrasound machine. This is a portable unit that is the size of a laptop and you can use for cardiac, obgyn or pretty much any other ultrasound purpose. He was very interested - this was a demo that was over an hour long - using different attachments for internal organs, heart, etc. The inspector said again that his has history of some problems in his family - in addition his brother in law is a cardiologist so he has personal reasons for looking more closely here.

However - we did talk a bit more about the product my business has here and his interest has increased a bit more here. Tomorrow he will look at this area in more detail and audit a bit more intensely. So - Hopefully everything goes well! I really want this guy to finish the inspection tomorrow and not come back Thursday as he has planned right now.

The auditor had gone on a tour Sunday and purchased some pearls (very famous here) and he paid a lot more than he should have - so we arranged to try and go return them for him. He also asked if we knew of any DVD stores here - so we arranged that too.

So - at about 2:00 pm today we left the facility with him - took him to the DVD store (I am standing there thinking "I can't believe I have an FDA inspector in a pirated dvd shop" - but he happily purchased about 10 movies. Very strange thing!!!

After that we returned some of his pearls for him and he was very happy to get some money back from this.

Finally we took him to a traditionally chinese tea house for a tea ceremony. It was very interesting - a specific process for making and pouring the tea - special cups to drink from and cups that you smell the scent of the tea. The restaurant had a buffet of different dishes that we could select and eat - as always here our hosts bring us more food than we could possibly finish!

There were many kinds of antiques and really interesting art and decorations here - it was a beautiful place to just sit and relax. Each table is in a little room of it's own - so very private and quiet. Our host told us that often they will go there for a whole afternoon and drink tea and play cards. We just don't have places like this at home. Even coffee shops where you can sit and chat are not as private or cosy - and you never feel that you can just sit for hours.

So - tomorrow will be an interesting day. I am hoping all goes well since we will be back to the product I am most involved in. My stress level has been pretty high these past two days. Today my legs feel as though I have had a hard work out - tired and sore. I think it is because I am sitting so tensely during the audit.

hopefully tomorrow we can wrap up early again. I'd really love that to happen.

Tina