Saturday 4th June, 2016                  1910

I never realised it had been so long but then time flies when you are having every obstacle under the sun thrown at you.

The interview went very well and the job is mine in Changzhou. If my qualification is accepted by the Public Service Bureau as being sufficient. Well it has been good enough for six years in this province so I see no reason why another would say no but then this is China and different officials read rules very differently. So if it isn’t insurance companies in this province, I am up against beaurocracy in another.

I have sorted my tachycardia and certainly reduced the PVCs yet now I find there’s a “new rule” (there always is here and most of them are made up) so as I was told I had to have my qualification notarised I decided to jump through their hoop. What I didn’t want to do was travel all the way to Hefei and pay perhaps 200y travel expenses (and waste a whole day) if there was a notary public here in Chizhou. There is, Anthony found him for me.

So yesterday I went to see him armed with passport and qualification. Needless to say he hadn’t a clue as to what it was but even he could surely see it was embossed with the seal of the British Government seeing as it is identical to that on my passport. How do you fake that? The best he can do is have the English translated into Chinese and then certify that I was present in his office, that’s what it says in the book and I am who it says on the document. Just marvellous, especially given that it cost me 540y for the privilege. The best of it is, I very much doubt the PSB in Changzhou will know what it is for either.

I now need to return to get the notarised forms on Wednesday and email them to the agency. In the meantime I did some digging on the internet trying to find proof and a direct comparison between qualifications. Sadly that has not proved to be easy although I did manage to “prove” my case using the ONC I had to get and which was just a part of the ticket I ended up with. Ergo if the ONC is one level below a degree then surely something of which the ONC comprises merely a part of what I have then it stands to reason (ha! Reason here???!!) that what I have must be one level at least above - degree level.

I am rapidly losing the will to live here because this morning I read something in which Beijing has decreed all degrees etc must be notarised, however those already in China are exempt if they are simply renewing their permits or changing locations.

Needless to say I am firing every broadside I can at this nonsense but I really don’t need all this uncertainty piled on top of having to uproot from here after six years. I know there are westerners in China who are teaching on degrees they manufactured on their computers but I have always stated I never went to university because I want to be 100% legal and not live in fear of a knock on the door at midnight and the serving of a 7 days notice to quit the country.

I wish I could be confident that I will win this battle but the honest truth is that I am not.