There's a reason why it's called "Red Tape"

The past week has been dominated by sorting, packing, moving stuff, talking about packing, strategizing about our move to Suzhou and talking to others about the aforesaid...


We received our license to work in China and although we cannot even begin to read the fine print, we are very happy that we have negotiated the system this far. "Red tape" are two words I've been thinking about quite a lot these days. It's interesting that the colour "red" is chosen, possibly to describe the anger, rage or steam-coming-out-of-your-head-stuff when having to deal with the bureaucrats of society. The fact that "tape" is used, possibly refers to the fact that when one has gone red and lost your temper, the feeling of desperation is further accentuated by a feeling similar to being wrapped up in tape so tightly that you cannot move your arms or legs! Dante's Inferno is suspiciously silent on the subject of where exactly bureuacrats fit in. I mean, look at the word "bureaucrat". Why is the spelling so difficult? You have to leave your computer every time to look up the word!



After being given 3 sets of differing advice about completing the local visa application process, I took a trip to the Chinese Consultate in Sandhurst yesterday. There was quite a lot of anger being exchanged between members of the public and the members of the People's Republic behind extremely thick bullet proof glass booths (I wonder why). However when I got to the front of the line and proudly displayed my "Alien's Employment License of the PRC", I could see a change in attitude from behind the counter and even got a smile! One surprise is that we all need to do quite a substantial medical check up. One of the categories on the medical information form requires from the medical practitioner that he has to certify that we do not suffer from anything that may disturb the "public order and security". Hold thumbs all go well...


Another little bit of drama is that we lost our apartment that we "reserved" (or thought we did) last week. Apparently the landlord (who was willing to wait for us) was not prepared to wait any longer and gave us an ultimatum out of the blue to sign the lease immediately. Despite mild protestations from our side he/she decided not to accept our final offer. Anyway, Maggie our competent house hunter in Suzhou has assured us there's no need to worry, she has plenty nice apartments lined up. One possibility is in the same block of apartments but higher up in the building. We would like to see the place first before committing, so the plan is to move into a serviced apartment for the first week or so until we sort out the housing problem...


The last weekend we spent saying "early byes" to friends and family and did not worry too much about the move and all the red tape. A very pleasant weekend, with Irene and I even managing to celebrate our wedding anniversary by having a quiet breakfast at Roots.

We have booked our tickets for the 30th of March so we are down to 12 days and counting!! Hold thumbs for our last preparations!

Talk soon!