Yesterday the electrician came AGAIN, because there was a socket that was not working in my room. He came slightly before 7pm, and left around 9.20pm! All the while I couldn’t prepare dinner. Darn. Anyway, my guest room now only has ONE socket that works. The other 2 has been condemned because the original current circuit was no longer working properly. What else will break down in the last 6mths contract I still have? I wonder.

My laptop was starting to crash last week, and I finally gave up and sent it for repairs on Tuesday. Still haven’t heard any news about it, although the first indications are that it’s the Graphics card that’s fucked up. And the laptop’s less than 1 year old. WTF?

It still has a warranty, but the cost to send the laptop to HK for repairs would far exceed doing it here in China. Oh well.

The glaring yellowish thing on the floor IS snow. Picture taken of the train depot opposite my house.

Misty pictures of the Ferris Wheel in Jinjiang Amusement Park. That’s how most days are in Shanghai currently. Try to find the wheel in the daylight picture. Haha.

The Caffe Latte I like to drink. Except I drink from the bottle model instead of can.

That’s my keyboard. Well, no. Actually that’s the wall of a block of houses. Cool, eh? I will try to take a better picture another time. It’s near Xujiahui, about 10-15mins walk maybe from the station.

I went to Ikea today and bought a little over RMB300 of small stuffs. Spent over 1.5hrs although I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. (Sidenote: Aline, yes the place is big). Ok, where I wanted to buy only a couple of things, I ended buying a dozen. Haha! It’s life. I had already done a first trip the other week.

My visa procedures are practically over. I should get the passport with the residence permit in it during the week. It’s taken me some 3 weeks to get it all over.

It’s been a long time since I posted anything. Been busy/lazy/whatever ….

I am now in Shanghai, feeling darn cold. I will spare the rants about Air Mauritius’s lack of Chinese music and movie channels not properly identifiable. There is no HK destination on the list of flights.

I moved into a small apartment, which is not bad, although the toilet/bathroom could be better, and the kitchen’s got no window, meaning that the apartment would for hours smell of whatever I cook. Will decide whether or not to get satellite channels later. There is already a satellite dish affixed, courtesy of former resident.

I got internet back on, although I have to leave the darn modem on all the time. If I shut it off, the laptop has problems connecting to it for the first 5-10mins. I tried changing the network name and password of my wifi modem, but there was apparently a problem, and the password is no longer recognised. I tried resetting it, but that doesn’t seem to be working. WTF? No wifi for the moment, need to connect my laptop to the cable directly.

My HP laptop’s fingerprint scan recognition feature’s gone bonkers. Can no longer use it to log in or redo new fingerprint scans. The laptop’s only a few months old.

I still haven’t bought all my stuff. Too lazy to go out in the cold knowing I would have to fight to get a cab back home afterwards, while carrying awkward bulky stuffs.

Went to a bath/sauna/massage place last Friday. My friend, who is a flight attendant, had dropped by in Shanghai and we decided to go there as soon as she reached her hotel in Hongqiao. It was then around midnight, and after picking her up, we went to the place. Left there after 3am, went to sleep around 4am, then got up at 7am to get ready for work. Felt so sleepy on Saturday (I work full day on Saturdays). I dozed off several times in the afternoon. Good thing not much to do that day.

I now enjoy having a daily drink of Caffe Latte by Suntory. Best drunk cold. Doesn’t do much to your sleepiness.

Oh yeah, I did a physical test as part of the visa procedures, and among other things the diagnosis was:
Suffer from high blood pressure (well, that’s not surprising)
Fatty infiltration of liver (whatever that means)
Abnormal liver function (WTF? I am not a heavy drinker, what abnormal FUNCTION?)
Hyperlipidemia (i.e. likely to suffer from bad cholesterol)
Abnormal electrocardiogram (Didn’t precise what abnormality)
Abnormal cardiovascular system (WTF? Why no details?)
Just reading it makes me wonder if my time’s almost up in this life. Haha.

Looking for a gym in my neighbourhood. Part of my new year resolution of having a better lifestyle and be more fit. Didn’t find any interesting gym on the net. I should walk/bike around looking for those not on the web, but too lazy for that. Best option is to go to Xujiahui’s Physical (on 5th floor of Metro City, just above Xujiahui metro station). However, it is not that big and if I go there after work, the place would be packed and difficult to find free machines. I am considering going there early morning. Get up at 6am, arrive there at 7am when it opens, do an hour of exercise, take another shower, then get to the office by 9am. Feasible in THEORY, except that I know I’m so lazy.

Work has been slow because Mauritius office is closed till January 8th, so I can’t get the information I need to work.

I still have to open a bank account. My passport is currently at some governmental office where the work certificate thing is being processed. Should get it back tomorrow. Then, if there has been no problem, it will be a trip to the PSB to get my residence certificate, and I will be hassle free for about a year (I think).

But having him here meant waking up early, going out shopping with him everyday, accompanying him to whatever places he want to visit (not the tourist sites, he has been here before), looking for places where there might be the stuff he’s looking for, calling and messaging friends to help, trying to figure out what restaurants are decent enough to take him there, get him tickets for metro, bus, train (he spent a couple of days in a town near BJ)… Lots of enegy spent. Well spent I should say, since I am such a lazy guy.

But his departure was a bit at a bad moment. I didn’t manage to watch Liverpool win against Chelsea as I was at the airport seeing him off, then last night I was too tired to stay awake to see Man Utd get beaten (I had only about 2hrs sleep the previous night)…. Hope there will be nothing special for the Champions League Final later this month.

The weather’s gone warm, in a week or two it will be too hot to walk outside, so better enjoy the weather now. I’m going out to feel the sun on me, and read a book at the park near where I live.

However, I am quite annoyed with my current housemate. I have been here for two months, and I still havent’ got my TV or internet so far. Nor the copy of landlord’s ID and Hukou to get myself registered with the PSB (the Public Security Bureau - we’re supposed to register 24hrs after moving in, although they’re not very strict about that). Since I said from the beginning that these two are necessary, I feel that my needs are not her priority. Even the PSB, I asked her to drop there before going to work and ask what should be done (it would take max 5min to get there from our appt), but she says she has to go to work at 8.30 latest. PSB opens at 8.30. But the days when she goes to office late for whatever reason, she doesn’t try to go there either >:)

Also, if you’re going to be having sex with your boyfriend, and you’re kinda loud, for God’s sake, put some music or the TV on. I have odd sleeping hours, and I am not interested in hearing you groaning in the middle of the night. After all, the sole TV set is in your room.

The pots and dishes left in the basin for a day or two, the floor in the dining room and kitchen not swept, I can live with. I am not a very tidy person myself, so it doesn’t bother me much. Me having to take the trash 3 times out of 4, it’s ok. I am going out anyway, and the trash can is just outside the main entrance. You locking your room while you don’t give me the key to lock mine, I don’t care. You are a girl, it’s normal that you want to keep it lock. And you knock before coming in mine, so no problem.

I’m moving to Shuduizi 水碓子, in Chaoyang district of Beijing at the end of next week, as my current rent agreement is coming to an end, and I have to move. Although the rent is about the same, I have to pay additional expense in terms of paying the connection fee for internet (about RMB200), and I’m not sure there are decent very cheap restaurants around there. Will check again after I move in. On the other hand, I’m probably going to do some cooking, which might reduce a little my expenses (not likely, stuffs I buy from the supermarket are not that cheap). Why am I moving to Chaoyang? Well, Chaoyang district is the business district, meaning that if I do get a job, it’s going to be not so far away. Reduce travelling time. I currently need about an hour by metro to get there. From my future appt, I wil be to the Guomao station in about 15-20min by bus.

I might also end up not being too much online during the Spring festival, because by experience the number of net users skyrocket during that period, meaning broadband available gets reduced considerably. Added to that the current problems net users are currently facing since the Taiwan earthquake, it’s going to be a real pain in the neck.

I plan to move to Beijing at the end of this week, where I will be spending the next few months taking mandarin courses and looking for a job there. Now, many people have been (more than) a little surprised. If for learning mandarin, why not stay in Shanghai and do it there? I mean, there are Chinese language schools in Shanghai also.

Well, true enough. But I feel I really need a place where most people speak mandarin all the time. In Shanghai, you can hear Shanghainese everywhere. I am not saying that they can’t or won’t speak mandarin. But you don’t feel the same. Plus I often watch a couple of channels that have Shanghainese dialects… Certainly won’t help my mandarin like that. That’s why I also rejected moving to Guangzhou in the end. As I understand, the influence of the local dialect (Cantonese) is even more noticeable. Furthermore, I love the Beijing accent, more precisely the ‘er hua yin’. I have missed it so much.

As for work, I have a reason which I prefer not to disclose for the moment. This week I need to pack my stuffs, get a train ticket to BJ, figure out the luggage consignment system…. I hope I don’t lose anything when I arrive in BJ.

Picture taken from The Beijing Page

But I was really shocked when my housemate told me I left the appt’s key outside in the keyhole!!!!! I thought I lost the key while I was in HK when I actually somehow forgot it in the door.:oops: It was a miracle no one noticed the key and we were not burgled.:slap: After two months, it’s a real surprise I could have forgotten such thing.

Sorry housemate!:busted:

Anyway, I had a later than expected dinner - after 10pm. And a new set of keys that did open the door from inside .:grin: