The week ahead in Shanghai
Here in Shanghai i continue to be a little bit skint for several reasons. My flat contract stipulates that i pay the rent three months at a time, and so i must fork out for October, November & December in one go. This leaves me with very little left for the rest of this month, but once through that things will be ok again. Also i had a visit this morning from the electricity board who needed paying for an overdue bill of 600 Yuan. This is about £60 which for two months electricity in China seems quite high. It was the heat of summer at the time though, and i needed the fans on all day long to combat the high temperatures. Paying bills here in China is a little different to UK, where you are not forced to join Direct Debit schemes. Instead i have to request the apartment block’s receptionist to pay them for me. The whole process seems a bit long-winded to me, but then it is China after all!
I was a little worried when the electricity lady turned up at the door this morning, banging quite loudly when she arrived. She spoke not a word of English, but fortunately had an English instruction list for me so i could settle her bills with no problems.
Ruby had some good news today over her job which might keep her in Ningbo for the time being. She has moved departments to a far more successful team which should ensure her much higher bonuses. The company seems tight to the extreme, and so only gives money to employees on a results-based system, with low monthly salaries. She’ll be dealing with Walmart now on a regular basis which will help her to practice her English every day. She is also to start to sell some things on Chinese ebay too, such as small little traditional antique type things. Her father is a successful businessmen with his own factory and so i am hoping she has the same entrepreneurial skills!
If her new role proves successful then it would be better for her to stay in Ningbo for the time being as she is at the start of her career and looking to learn as much as she can. There is of course little opportunity for me in Ningbo and so we will have to stick to weekends together for the foreseeable future. Perhaps it is wise not to rush things anyway, i think. With my terrible track record in relationships i should be a little cautious, hahaha. 
I have been keeping a close eye on my friends Chris & Lil’s Travel Blog which has many interesting stories and photos of their trip around the world. Currently they are in Africa and doing some wonderful things. I hope that linking to them from here will help their friends to locate this blog on Google more easily. We may meet up together in Vietnam around December time.
My sister had good news on Sunday in that her wedding will still go ahead in a few weeks after some admin problems. She is to marry in Morocco and this brought some issues, which now seem to have been resolved. For various reasons i will not be there unfortunately, but will be at the second wedding next year in the UK. She plans to hold that in East Anglia, close to the coast.
There are a few things on this weekend to look forward to, namely a boys-only work night out on Friday and then the latest England football match on Saturday night, which kicks off around midnight, Chinese time. Many of the Europeans at work enjoy superclubs as they’re often called here, which are basically just cheesy clubs. My days of visiting such places are well behind me now, but it should be a laugh just for one night atleast. Maybe the company will pay for some drinks too, so i expect i shall be there. The club we expect to go to is called Muse. I do not like ANY of the music that i have heard in most Chinese venues so far (British bars aside!) and so will probably need to concentrate on drinking instead in order to enjoy myself.
At home during weekday evenings i am slowly working through my vast collection of “TV to watch”. With 24 nearly complete i have to say my current favourite is House, which is good for a quick watch after work. I also managed to download it in High Definition, so the quality is great. Heroes is back too, but i am starting to think that its all just a bit silly now and that i should quit that. I have Terminator: Sarah’s Chronicles too, but that is distinctly average. I loved the original films but this is not worth bothering with, in my opinion.
Leave a Reply