But before I get started, have a look at this piece, found via Danwei. All that American harping on about contaminated imports from China always reeked of hypocrisy, and that article only increases the stench. It’s amazing that such a strongly Christian nation can so blatantly ignore Matthew 7:1. [Update: Wow. My posting a link to that article inspired a couple of childish, petulant comments by some guy who takes issue with my opinion, but doesn’t want to demonstrate why I’m wrong in any way that would be considered rational, and who then goes on to rant about how crap my blog is. Well, if you don’t like my blog, don’t read it. Never would’ve thought that a simple trackback appearing in the comment thread of that article would provoke such ire.]
Anyway, so what was so mercifully quick? My trip to the PSB Entry-Exit Management whatever they call themselves. See, although I work at big, huge BeiGongDa, I work for one very small office within BeiGongDa, and the office is overwhelmed with recruiting new students, so I was given the necessary forms and money and sent off to the PSB to pick up two passports newly residence permitted: mine and some other foreign teacher’s who I have yet to meet. All up the trip took an hour. Taxi from the BeiGongDa main gate up to the Pingleyuan intersection, straight down through Jinsong Qiao and on to the Second Ring Road, northwards up to Xiaojie Qiao. In to the PSB, ask a baoan how I get my passport, he says pay first, then go to desk 24, I say thanks and stand in the cashiers queue. Five minutes later, pay, go to desk 24, which is the one immediately to my left, anyway, pick up these two passports, take the receipts, and out into a new taxi, and back the exact same way I came. Then straight over to the office to drop off the receipts and this other guy’s passport. One hour, and I must have been in and out of the PSB in maybe 15 minutes. Like I said, mercifully quick, and painless. Amazing.
So now I’m legal again, at least until June 29 next year.
And Beijing is still enveloped in this thick soup of murk. Twice this week a cool breeze has blown up in the afternoon and cleared the air, only for the murk to return the next morning. This, I tell you, is cruel and unusual punishment.
For some reason lzh got a craving for hotpot yesterday afternoon, so she bought the all the stuff necessary on her way home from work. She bought the “lamb” from the market, and when she got home, asked if it smelled alright. Well, I don’t know what exactly was in that plastic bag, but there was no way in hell I was going to eat “lamb” or any meat that reeked that badly. Fortunately she’d also bought chicken which looked and smelled like chicken, so she cooked curry chicken instead. It was good, but trying to eat curry anything (or hotpot, for that matter) in this weather is a recipe for spontaneous human combustion. Fortunately we managed to avoid bursting into flames, though.
I still feel like I’m melting, though. See, the trouble is my electric fan is at a friend’s place because she rented a room that had no aircon. She’s supposed to be moving soon, so hopefully that means I get my fan back. I hate aircon, and most of the time a fan is more than adequate for keeping me cool. And besides, the only aircon in this apartment is in the bedroom and it isn’t quite strong enough to cool the whole place. But even if it was, all I’d do is open the windows and turn the fan on. Fresh air, even if it is fresh Beijing summer humidity and pollution murk, is a million times better than that poisonous gaseous shite that comes out of air conditioners.
Note to self: Don’t go listening to the radio, watching videos, tv or films online, or downloading said videos, tv or films. BeiGongDa charges per bit or byte or whatever, well, charges by the volume of data, not by time, meaning all those things are going to eat up my internet money superfast. I spent eight hours yesterday listening to Kiwi FM, and funnily enough, that ate up 20 kuai. And I’d just put 100 kuai on my account yesterday morning. Oops.
