http://www.dawn.com/news/1303222/pia-on-a-wing-and-a-prayer (warning: graphic picture)
Pakistan International Airlines sacrificed a goat in front of an aircraft to 'ensure its safety'. This is after the recent accident.
I'm speechless.
Dec 19, 2016
Dec 5, 2016
Prices
Green capsicum 9.96 yuan per kg
Bread 8 slices (half bread) 6.8 yuan
Tomatoes 3.96 yuan per kg
Potatoes 1.76 yuan per kg
Sweet corn 2 pieces 4.20 yuan
Photos from Suzhou
Near the office. The stone balls are all over the place and meant to prevent vehicles moving on to pavements or areas they are not supposed to be in.
Dushu Lake from the hotel window:
Night scenes at Moon Bay and surroundings
Christmas decorations in the hotel:
Getting the "Alien Employment Permit"
Getting to work in China is a multi-step experience - get the offer, get a medical checkup done, obtain a "Police Clearance Certificate" from the passport office, get an employment license + invitation letter from your prospective employer, get a Z visa from the Chinese consulate, arrive in China, obtain an employment permit and then obtain a residence permit.
I have, of course, gone through almost all these steps and today was the day I got my "Alien Employment Permit". The immigration consultant had applied for it last week and we went to collect it today. I took a taxi from the hotel to the "Suzhou Industrial Park - One Stop Service Center".
This was early in the morning, before the office actually opened; and I could see people arriving and forming queues. Initially I waited upstairs because the office address was mentioned as being on the 1st floor, but I went down again when I saw the consultant standing downstairs. There were a couple of "photography rooms" where you could get the correct-sized photos if you didn't have any. I stood in that line because there was only one of my passport-sized photos left. There were about 10 people in the queue before me and they were processed quickly as soon as the office opened. It was quite professionally done and there was even a coat available there that you could wear if you wanted the formal look.
Once the photos were done, I was asked to wait. I sat and played with my phone, and then was called inside the police area of the office. Remember, it is a "one stop service center" so there were representatives of various departments all in the same office. The police section seemed to be staffed entirely by women. I was handed over my employment permit and then I signed the application for the residence permit and another photo was taken. And that's it! We were done. Most of the time spent there was spent waiting.
I do wonder whether it would have been so straightforward if the immigration consultant hadn't been there. She did run around a lot and had everything in order. The residence permit is expected to arrive next week.
It is also a new experience for me to have to ask for help for almost everything due to not knowing how to read or speak the language. It's put me in an illiterate's shoes for the first time in my life and it's certainly not a good feeling.
I have, of course, gone through almost all these steps and today was the day I got my "Alien Employment Permit". The immigration consultant had applied for it last week and we went to collect it today. I took a taxi from the hotel to the "Suzhou Industrial Park - One Stop Service Center".
This was early in the morning, before the office actually opened; and I could see people arriving and forming queues. Initially I waited upstairs because the office address was mentioned as being on the 1st floor, but I went down again when I saw the consultant standing downstairs. There were a couple of "photography rooms" where you could get the correct-sized photos if you didn't have any. I stood in that line because there was only one of my passport-sized photos left. There were about 10 people in the queue before me and they were processed quickly as soon as the office opened. It was quite professionally done and there was even a coat available there that you could wear if you wanted the formal look.
Once the photos were done, I was asked to wait. I sat and played with my phone, and then was called inside the police area of the office. Remember, it is a "one stop service center" so there were representatives of various departments all in the same office. The police section seemed to be staffed entirely by women. I was handed over my employment permit and then I signed the application for the residence permit and another photo was taken. And that's it! We were done. Most of the time spent there was spent waiting.
I do wonder whether it would have been so straightforward if the immigration consultant hadn't been there. She did run around a lot and had everything in order. The residence permit is expected to arrive next week.
It is also a new experience for me to have to ask for help for almost everything due to not knowing how to read or speak the language. It's put me in an illiterate's shoes for the first time in my life and it's certainly not a good feeling.
Hunting for a supermarket
It looks like the place I am currently living at is somewhat in the newer side of the SIP, so there aren't too many shops around. There is, fortunately, a Papa John's just across the street and I've been there a couple of times.
I was told about a supermartket in the "Dushu Lake Neighborhood Center" which is not too far from where I live. I could take the subway, but I decided to walk down to get a feel for exactly where it is, to see the sights along the road and to general get some exercise from the walk. I managed to locate the subway station on Google maps and made my way there, with the supermarket somewhere in the vicinity. It took about 15 minutes of walking at a leisurly pace and I came across the entrances to the subway and a large building with "Dushu Lake Neighborhood Center" written on it (in English and Chinese).
Now, here's the difficult part - I couldn't figure out the way inside because there was no obvious entry point. There were a couple of doors marked "Cellar", a hotel entrance and a bus stop with buses going in and out. I finally stopped 3 youngsters who had apparently got off one of the buses, and asked them where the supermarket was. It looks like they understood what I wanted but weren't comfortable responding in English. Finally a girl pointed down and I understood that it was underground. I still needed to know how to get there and then they actually took me all the way in and down and pointed out where it was - very helpful, I must say.
I wandered around a bit inside the store, picked up some fruit and vegetables but had a tough time with the labels for the other items I was thinking of getting. Paid for my stuff in cash and walked back. The whole exercise took me about an hour.
I was told about a supermartket in the "Dushu Lake Neighborhood Center" which is not too far from where I live. I could take the subway, but I decided to walk down to get a feel for exactly where it is, to see the sights along the road and to general get some exercise from the walk. I managed to locate the subway station on Google maps and made my way there, with the supermarket somewhere in the vicinity. It took about 15 minutes of walking at a leisurly pace and I came across the entrances to the subway and a large building with "Dushu Lake Neighborhood Center" written on it (in English and Chinese).
Now, here's the difficult part - I couldn't figure out the way inside because there was no obvious entry point. There were a couple of doors marked "Cellar", a hotel entrance and a bus stop with buses going in and out. I finally stopped 3 youngsters who had apparently got off one of the buses, and asked them where the supermarket was. It looks like they understood what I wanted but weren't comfortable responding in English. Finally a girl pointed down and I understood that it was underground. I still needed to know how to get there and then they actually took me all the way in and down and pointed out where it was - very helpful, I must say.
I wandered around a bit inside the store, picked up some fruit and vegetables but had a tough time with the labels for the other items I was thinking of getting. Paid for my stuff in cash and walked back. The whole exercise took me about an hour.
Dec 4, 2016
Painful
I had downloaded all of the device drivers from HP for my new laptop and saved them for future use. The day of “future use” is here, the webcam stopped working and I’m thinking of reinstalling the drivers. Unfortunately, all the downloaded files have names of the form “sp?????.exe” so there is no way to tell which file is which driver. HP, what were you thinking?
They are not the only ones, sadly. Why is it so difficult to name files in meaningful ways? I’m now invoking each file and renaming the executable just to find my webcam driver…
Gmail
Doesn’t work via the mobile app or via the web interface.
My workaround was to link it to my outlook.com account and let them figure out how and when to fetch my gmail emails. Works fine.
But I also just found out that adding the gmail account under my Outlook desktop client also works! I don’t know how, since it needs to connect to the imap.gmail.com server, but yes, it does seem to be working right now.
Dec 2, 2016
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