Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Pied à terre

Well, here it is. We finally made it into our new pad in Shanghai - as madly Chinese as our 'other' place (since we're keeping both of them on) in Harbin, you'll be pleased to note.


The, ahem, gorgeous bedroom furniture below comes complete with huge, matching, jade green, mirrored wardrobes. NOT our choice - and that bedspread HAD to go.

I must admit there were times (as you'll have gathered from the previous post) when I really did doubt that this would ever happen. But there are advantages to the Chinese aversion to forward planning. You say you want something fixed and they'll fob you off indefinitely, but in the end they say 'Oh, I'll just call my mate and get him to come round and do it NOW'. And he actually does. What are the chances of moving into a new place in the UK on a Saturday and getting an internet connection, a change of locks, satellite TV installed and a broken washing machine fixed (I just knew it would be broken), all by Tuesday afternoon?

As usual, the process of collecting the keys, signing the contract and getting shown where everything was took a cast of thousands. At one point on Saturday there were nine of us -me & Peter, our interpreter, the landlord, the landlord's friend, the landlord's friend's girlfriend, two guys from the agency, and the landlord's friend's mate who'd been called to fix the satellite TV 'now'. Trying to get any questions across, via the interpreter, while everyone is shouting at once and clamouring to anticipate what you might be asking and be the first to answer it, is a bit like attempting to do business with a class of eleven-year-olds. Today three different workmen came round who I think probably were eleven-year-olds, judging by their youthful appearance.

But we got there in the end. We haven't really moved that much of our stuff down from Harbin yet but will do so gradually over the next few weeks. But at least we've got a place to call home in Shangers now, so we can escape the bonkers hotel and hopefully my obstetrician will stop hassling me. And how many homes come with one of THESE (below?). It's a mousemat, by the way.

So, now the next thing - to organise our holiday in Japan - in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. Last week Peter tried to set up some meetings with Japanese customers while we're over there, and was told this was 'too short notice' for the Japanese! Yet somehow I seem to have convinced myself that finding accommodation in Tokyo and Kyoto at one of their tourist season peaks won't be a problem. Am I turning Chinese here?

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