5th time the charm....

After 4 failed attempts we finally got it right. Yep, getting a working copy of the movie Gran Torino - it took us 4 return trips to out little DVD shop before they finally had one that would play all the way through.

But we were able to relax and watch the movie this weekend, along with a few other movies and some television series. Ah, and we also made some sangria.

Now we've noticed that we will need to return our season 3 copy of Dexter - it gets through the first 5 episodes before it stops playing...

and so the saga continues...

The young gal who wanted the tips for her service, and her co-worker were to come today to fix the rack where we dry our laundry. Mark sent her a message in the morning to find out approximately what time they would be coming.

Her response, did you buy the hose yet, so we can install it? To which Mark replies no and when are you going to fix the rack? She replies, "Clothesline must ask outside man to change. we don't know who can call and the toilet must waiting my cowork back. We can't repair if you can't buy pipe."

At this point Mark no longer has any patience and calls the women, to ask what the issue is? It comes down to the fact they can't find anyone to fix our clothes line, they want us to buy the tubing for the sink where upon they will fix it, and they are attempting to locate the guy that fixed the toilet the first time. Okay, this is the guy that cracked our toilet the first time he tried to fix it.

Glad we didn't tip her....

Happy Fourth.....

Alright, I'm not as great as Tina - it's only three days later and for our holiday I treat her to the fine dining experience of Pizza Hut. A big difference from her celebrating Canada day by making some outstanding potato salad and cooking up some hamburgers.

But, what I have done to redeem myself is to find a way to get around the great firewall that prevents us from accessing anything interesting on the web from China. It hurts when we can't read about our friends lawn problems...

So tonight we installed Freedur, and it's wonderful . Again we can post quickly and easily - we can read blogs and see their photos. This says freedom more that anything else, it is great to be able to cruise the world of the internet again, but also as mentioned in the site where we found it, to be able to click out and get the joys of the Chinese web that most of the world is missing...

We do wonder if once we get back there is a site we can find where we can tunnel into China, not for downloading music, of course, but for remembering the blocks that we used to deal with.

We're in China, we don't tip..

Yesterday Mark and I were arranging for property management to come yet again to take a look and see the damage from Linfa. They like to visit our apartment, I think it's to check out what we have. Anyway, the young lady who has been assisting us, as she's the only one in the management office that speaks English, sends us a message that she and her colleague will be coming to our place today and oh, by the way forgot to mention we will also be collecting tips.

Tina: "Tips? what tips? We're in China we don't tip."
Mark: "That's what it says.."
Tina: "Send her a message and ask her what the deal is.."

Mark sends her another message. We then get a response from this gal, and I quote: "If someone service with you and you pay the tips, I mean this. I don't how to explain."

Mark then sends her another message stating that we have never tipped, so what's the deal?

Her response, "yes, before I never, this our new rules, I don't know my coworker can repair that in tomorrow, he can check."

Mark and I came to the agreement that since we are laowai they figure that can ask for tips. We then send her a message stating that the landlord can pay the tip. Now I understand why my dear sister Hong disliked going to the market. She always felt like she was getting ripped off, she's Chinese and speaks the language.

Since we were at Temptations yesterday (they were having a wine sale, and you know we couldn't resist), Yih and Shelly basically said what we said, there is no tipping in China and she was trying to get some extra cash.

Today Mark asked Rocky (co-worker and go to person in China) about it, and he too confirmed what we thought. Tips? he says, we don't tip in China.

Needless to say, when she did come today, she had an attitude, and didn't want to assist with getting a new hose for the drain pipe.

Maybe we should have tipped her....

Construction update.

It's been a while since posted an update on the construction that's going on outside our window, so since we've got nothing else new we decided that it's time for an update.

A while ago they started lining dump trucks up as the sun went down and then would truck the dirt away under the cover of darkness.
As the time goes by they keep getting further and further back in the digging, to the point that they've almost emptied the entire lot down to the lower level.
Once they get this all down to an nice flat level I'm sure that we will be able to start getting photos of them building upwards.