Category: General

For people of pallor China is a paradise for finding employment. They’re not necessarily the best jobs they are jobs. Competition for candidates is so fierce that even defective candidates can easily be placed. In urban centres of any size Europeans, Antipodeans and North Americans under forty seemingly can’t walk for ten minutes without receiving at least three job offers. Huzhou being relatively small I’ve escaped this exercise in tedium. Then again, I’d actually need to leave my flat to be seen and in the past weeks that’s been too much to ask. Problems arise when the Chinese assume that they can treat Westerners in the same way they treat Chinese. In China, the massive population allows for employers to treat employees like rubbish and arbitrarily change their wages. It is not unheard of for employers to not pay all wages. An acquaintance, a Briton who teaches in another province, told me the story of an American he heard of who was not paid for the last two months he worked. They only finally paid him after he threatened to smash all the windows at their school.

Continue reading “Augen Zu”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/11816095/EU-suspends-45m-cash-for-Scotland-over-irregularities.html

All together now, with JM leading the chorus – “I blame Alex Salmond.”

I woke up last night with a start. I wasn’t sleeping that deeply anyway – the construction site across the street was once again going through the night. Bang! Bang! Bang! Beep! Beep! Beep! Crash! Boom! Clang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Once again I was sleeping on the floor. The rusty springs on my “mattress” have collapsed further giving anyone sitting or lying on it the feeling of being sucked into quicksand. There was something crawling over my foot, something small and light but very strong, cold and hard. I pull my feet in and, illuminated in the faint light pouring in through the window; saw a two-inch-long brown cockroach. I rushed across the room to get a broom and dustpan and promptly sent it flying into the night. I was dripping with sweat. It wasn’t especially warm last night – the low 70s. I’ve been sweating profusely recently. My thin, cotton nemakimono was soaked.

Continue reading “Living With the Han V: not my type of midnight snack.”

I often wondered about the person who arranged for me to go to China. He is in some ways a remarkably kind person. He’s a loyal, patient and forgiving person who tries to do the best he can. At the same time he can be almost unbelievably dense. Some people grasp subtle points, some people need to be spoken to bluntly. This particular chap needs to have points beaten into his thick skull brutally, painfully and for extended periods of time. Tone and rhetoric so violent that it would prove insufferable to a rational person for 2 minutes barely makes an impression after an hour with him. This hard-won impression, much to my regular chagrin, often proves fleeting. For the longest time I thought that this was simply a sign that he had a mild form of autism and should be, in that context, forgiven. I can now conclusively say that this has less to do with any sort of spectral disorder and more to do with being Mainland Chinese.

Continue reading “Living with the Han IV: There Are Ways…”

The victim was black. The attack was racist. The BBC makes everybody very aware of those facts. But what they do not say is that the perpetrator was Asian, leaving the casual listener to assume that he was white.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33847293

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11793709/Bradford-school-stabbing-sentence.html

I see that the latest controversy on the Great British Bugger Off is that they have swapped the KitchenAid Artisan food-mixers for Kenwood ones in the big tent. While Mrs FEEG swears by (and sometimes at) her Artisan, I cannot see that this really makes a lot of difference. Mary Berry is still an annoying old dear, Paul Hollywood still deserves a bit of a slap, and the contestants are still fairly weird. Some nice, but sometimes overcomplicated,  breads, cakes, pies and pastries result from the contest, though.
Continue reading “A right old mix-up”

Both Bearsy and I registered for the upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10 on our machines. We were warned that the upgrade might take some time – but both of my Win 8.1 computers and one of Bearsy’s were upgraded on the 29th July with no apparent problems, although I, for one, couldn’t see what all the who-ha was about.

I don’t actually see that there is much difference – but Bearsy was somewhat saddened by the loss of the Charm thingamy wotsit. To be honest, I wasn’t too sad since the darn thing kept popping up when I didn’t want it.

Having got my two main machines sorted, I decided to upgrade my Sony Win 7 laptop. It proved extremely useful when a visitor came earlier this year and demanded the loan of a laptop while she was here (that’s another not very happy story!). So I upgraded – and I couldn’t log into my Microsoft Account, and I couldn’t add other users – which negated the whole purpose of keeping the thing in action.

In the meantime, Bearsy didn’t wait for the upgrade on his second machine – but downloaded it – again with no problems.

Yesterday, I decided to take the step of putting a clean install on my Sony – Readers Beware! Having wiped Win 7 and everything off my lap-top I got an error message of “Inaccessible Boot Device”. It would seem that I am not alone, and a fair few other upgraders have had their computers rendered useless.

I am stunned, I know Microsoft are renowned for releasing programs with bugs – but this is not just a bug it’s a super-fatal-bug…

Incidentally, I mentioned above ‘no apparent problems’. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3… made, built and sold (I assumed) by Microsoft. I love it! But, the Pen no longer works properly under Win 10. It is, so I’m told, an ‘known’ problem. For Heavens Sake – if Microsoft cannot even ensure that its own products work properly after an upgrade of this kind – how many other ‘known’ issues are there?

My German mobile works in China. Even the original German SIM card works. This is a relief. I was involved in an hours-long argument, often heated, over whether I should purchase a smartphone in the People’s Republic. As a rule I refuse to do such a thing. I enjoy being detached and unreachable. I spend enough time on computers for work purposes. There is no need to have a miniature computer with me at all times. Never-the-less, I consented to purchases a Chinese SIM card. My Chinese teratoma’s father lives and works in Huzhou and agreed to help me buy one. Communication was difficult due to his very limited English and my lack of desire to learn Chinese. SIM card duly purchased, he drove me to a friend’s company for tea.

Continue reading “Living With the Han 3: What Were They Expecting?”

I had a bad day at work. More on that later. Until then, this.

http://www.songlyrics.com/radwimps/order-made-lyrics/

I walked through Huzhou last Saturday in a desperate attempt to change money. I did not expect a good rate of exchange or stellar service, but I did expect it to be possible. After all, even with the rise of touch-pay mobile phones and nearly-universal use for bank cards it is still advisable to carry some cash. My efforts were futile. Most banks only exchange money on weekdays and only for their customers. The one bank that will exchange currency on weekends for non-account holders is the Bank of China but they require extensive documentation and special residence papers. At that point, I had neither. In frustration I quietly returned to my flat with a small pile of cash in hand that might as well have not existed. I went to sleep nervous. The internet installer was supposed to have come the following day and I could not pay him. At around 1 AM I woke up and decided to give it a last go. A bank was 2 blocks away and they had a secured cash machine. My losing streak broke – my account was open and I could withdraw cash.

Continue reading “Living with the Han 2: other than that it wasn’t so bad.”