Wednesday 2nd June, 2021 1700
That was the longest ever English corner at 3½ hours! Sunday was lost. Gratifyingly, the entire affair was conducted in English but annoyingly, having asked me to prepare an activity, they never needed it. Took me an hour of online shopping at Tesco to put it together too!
I did go to McDonald's afterwards. I'm not quite sure what I had though, it was either a new menu item or a special guest appearance. The girl who speaks English explained what it was – patty, cheese, the usual bits plus barbecue sauce from somewhere – could have been Morocco for all I remember. I wasn't keen on it though and left half. Should have stuck with a Big Mac or the fish. I wonder if Just Eat will be coming to this area soon?
I am happy to report that Our Man In Shanghai did today visit the British Consulate to apply for my new passport. I am not so happy that he threw a spanner in the works by sending me something that I haven't found on the GovUK website. Apparently when the new one arrives I have ten days from date of issue to get my residence permit transferred from my old passport to my new one. A royal pain in the backside, previously you simply carried both passports until the permit was renewed. Particularly galling for me because my permit runs out early September and I really don't want to apply for a new one early because they won't (I don't think) add on the unexpired time to the new one. Not sure what's going to happen now, yes if I give them my passport for four weeks I can travel domestically on the chitty they give you but somehow if I want to go abroad I don't think I will get very far on an A5 photocopy.
And today's class (which was responsible for dragging me to English corner) now want me to attend their cookery day this Sunday! I hate disappointing my kids but I really had to refuse for a few reasons:
A) It's from 0900-1600
B) They almost certainly wouldn't have the equipment for western cooking at the venue
I don't fancy spending seven hours cooking, I don't even do that at home.
Nearly forgot. After being notified of my passport application being lodged and chided for not providing my address for the UK debit card
(which I had, seeing as it's my address here) and now worried the payment might be refused, I tried to log on to my bank account to ensure the money had been taken.
I ended up doubting myself because every time I entered the 1st and 3rd digit of my security code I got a “quack quack oops!” there is a problem with the connection, please try again. Not “there were problems with the log in details”, this was something I have never seen. Unsuccessful after many attempts, I went to school.
Tried again on my return and the same thing. I was beginning to think I was developing Alzheimers and had the wrong code. Contact the bank. I could call them and be on hold for an hour or I could live chat online. Except you can't unless you are logged in! Then I spotted that you can message them on Facebook so I clicked that. No need to message. The second message in was someone going ballistic over the same thing and the bank apologising.
At least I'm not losing my mind (well not too much of it anyway). Hope it's not ransomware – that would really screw any possibility of summer holidays.
Alice Wuhu (going to start her PhD in Hainan in September and who is coming to Yunnan with me) wanted to borrow my flat for a week on 23rd July, would I still be here? Yes, it's my last day of exams. She has signed up for some course here in Lanzhou.
Passport issues notwithstanding, could be perfect. One big happy family for a week with me and two girls then Alice and I off to Yunnan for a fortnight. And I can time our leaving day so I get to Suzhou, Anhui (important distinction as there are two Suzhous) for the best days to see Joan, before my Pilgrimage To Pudong.
But flying from here to Kunming is not good, neither is the train. The train takes just over 24 hours and arrives around midnight – I do not like to pay for an hotel room and get half the time. Flights are either arriving late night also or leaving here at 0720, meaning leaving home at five with a pre-ordered car/taxi. My preferred flights are lunchtime-ish but business class at 0720 is 1030¥ yet on the lunchtime job is 2860¥. That's half the cost of a return Shanghai – London economy ticket!
Ask Brenda, or whoever your contact is to contact the local PSB. In Shanghai it is easy to get it changed over, less than an hour in the building and then pick up the passport a couple of days later.
ReplyDeleteAnd they don't add the extra days on if you apply early. Over the years I've gone from late December to now mid November. Just applying a few days early each time.
She knew absolutely nothing about it and asked me to send her info so I sent what you sent me. Doubtless she will contact her mates at the PSB to get the info.
ReplyDeletePretty sure that here is incapable of swapping it over and it wll need to go to Beijing. Shanghai is after all a Tier 1 city. Lanzhou? Not sure I'd even class it as Tier 2 even though it is a capital!
I've had to ring the bank as I still can't log in. Got them to flag up the payment to UKPA to make sure it gets honoured.
ReplyDeleteEveryone loves mobile and online banking instead of cash?
The cash in your pocket is always ready and reliable and never goes down as long as you are wary of pickpockets.
They will only process the payment when the package gets to the UK. I got an email when the passport left China and another when it arrived in the UK.
ReplyDeleteGot the first email today. Just wanted to make sure there was no problem with payment. It was funny when I was speaking to the girl at the bank and she said matter of factly there were funds there to cover it. I nearly choked on my jing jo - there's enough there to cover nearly 40 passport renewals!
ReplyDelete