What a hectic day!

I went twice to the Indian Visa office today, all the way to HongQiao, one shower and 5 changes of shirts!!!!!

It was raining this morning, but very humid and cold. I walked to the Indian Visa office to pick up my visa. It was a good hike, about 40 minutes. I was soaked outside and inside. The Goretex rain jacket repelled the rain but could not wick away my sweat; so i cooked. Got to the Visa office and found out the consulate did NOT issue my visa as promised!!!!! Good thing the Visa office was staffed by young Chinese eager to assist. They called and 5 minutes later, it was promised to be issued by 430pm. Fine. I hiked back to my house. 40 minutes later, soaked thru and thru, my first change of clothes.

Second round began 30 minutes later. Had to get to HongQiao to meet my aunt Connie (Queen of Macau) and my driver. I took the subway and then did a 20-minute hike to HongQiao Yin Bin Guan. A Chinese state own enterprise. My aunt and her friend decided to stay there overnight as they were impressed with the decor. Soaked by the time I got there. I had one less layer as in the morning. Too hot with that Pategonia shell. I wonder if it actually breath. I started to wonder. Dried off shirt while waiting for them at the lobby. Then her friend decided to get an haircut at my hairstylist place, next door in the same complex. OK. That was an hour and half later. Connie did a trim too. Since there was no time to do any out of town sightseeing; they went to my area with driver. Note: driver been waiting since noon. Clock ticking and he got paid well for sitting. O well, their money.

3rd round an hour later for me, a change of shirt and started hiking back to the Indian Visa office. OK, rain stopped. I had only one layer on. Cooling... Wrong! Humidity after the rain, even though the temperature was nice, but humidity was high. Half way on HuiHai Road, I was dripping. I could feel my sweat under my jeans (It's in wash as I am typing). Got there.... O... Passport still at India Consulate. Well, if I knew that, I could have walk over from my apartment!!! 15-minute walk rather than 40!!! And on top of that, not sure if I got it! Hey, I bought the ticket on Thursday AFTER the visa guy at the consulate said "done, no problem will give you Thursday afternoon". Right, Indian... Giving every one a bad name for his country. I was there at 4pm waiting until 5pm before the box arrived with all the passport. OK, hike back to my apartment; 530pm - dark already outside and I had to organize a dinner in the evening via SMS message to 4 different groups of people. Chinese and English. Text, walk, Text, walk. I adopted the no texting and walking. Specially in dark streets and rush hour traffic.

Home!!!! 615pm. Soaked. Stripped, showered, cold shower that was to cool down. Fresh shirt. Phone rang, looked at watch, time to go. The dinner was in Xin Tian Di in a Shanghainese restaurant. I'll take whoever visiting there. Good food. I met up with iron-wife on the same route I did twice already prior. Good thing only half way!

O.. couldn't count. Only four changes of clothes today.

The driver, we paid him RMB1,000 to drive Connie and her friend from noon to 10pm. After the conversion, cheap huh? I'll do the same for anyone coming here. It's quite common for people to do so. And convenient.

Wow, my mandarin has improved. Even conversing with the driver pretty much all day. About a year ago, the only language coming out of my mouth was English. And now, I text and spoke Mandarin, ok enough that I could place the driver to the right place and organize a day trip. ;-) All without the supervision of iron-wife. Haha.