SLUUURRRP!
I'm warming up to a cup of coffee (again) in the office. And I'm definitely developing a stomach for *drum roll* hot water from a Chinese thermos flask (which, I think, was from the hot water tap just next to the toilet down the hall).
The trusted water dispenser (doesn't do Evian but it sure is purified drinking water, at least) broke down today and nicely, we had to make do with the thermos, which the A-yi on my office level refills every other hour. Tastes metallic, my coffee. But it's a pathetic 3-in-1 so even if the A-yi did boil water from Kashmir, it will still taste dodgy.
So as I went to the back of the office to get the thermos, I passed by my co-workers' terminals...two of them (they were the only ones left anyway) were playing some solitaire mahjong game. You mean, all this while they weren't working?! All this time in the last 3 months that I've been here?!
Thank goodness I don't understand Shanghainese - all the banter that I've been hearing behind my back could have been about them comparing high scores! Or worse still, their children's weddings...I shan't go the egotistical way and suggest that they're bitching about me. I'm nice.
Well, who isn't slacking. After all I'm blogging. Maybe they're stuck as well, waiting for some bureaucrat to approve this proposal or to accredit that course. They play computer games, and I just rave insanely on the keyboard...
But I'm off now, to the Shanghai "premier English-language newspaper in Shanghai and surrounding areas" Daily office - Clark Kent's waiting for me. Actually it's the advertisement office that's waiting for our dollars. Collating ad rates to do a budget report.
"Its target audience includes the 60,000-plus local expatriates, more than 2 million overseas travelers a year, and a large number of Chinese elite." Sounds impressive huh. Not my money anyway.
"As Shanghai gains prominence as a world-class metropolis, so will Shanghai Daily join the rank of the world’s most prestigious newspapers." I'm hoping to avoid saliva projectiles on my way there later.
The trusted water dispenser (doesn't do Evian but it sure is purified drinking water, at least) broke down today and nicely, we had to make do with the thermos, which the A-yi on my office level refills every other hour. Tastes metallic, my coffee. But it's a pathetic 3-in-1 so even if the A-yi did boil water from Kashmir, it will still taste dodgy.
So as I went to the back of the office to get the thermos, I passed by my co-workers' terminals...two of them (they were the only ones left anyway) were playing some solitaire mahjong game. You mean, all this while they weren't working?! All this time in the last 3 months that I've been here?!
Thank goodness I don't understand Shanghainese - all the banter that I've been hearing behind my back could have been about them comparing high scores! Or worse still, their children's weddings...I shan't go the egotistical way and suggest that they're bitching about me. I'm nice.
Well, who isn't slacking. After all I'm blogging. Maybe they're stuck as well, waiting for some bureaucrat to approve this proposal or to accredit that course. They play computer games, and I just rave insanely on the keyboard...
But I'm off now, to the Shanghai "premier English-language newspaper in Shanghai and surrounding areas" Daily office - Clark Kent's waiting for me. Actually it's the advertisement office that's waiting for our dollars. Collating ad rates to do a budget report.
"Its target audience includes the 60,000-plus local expatriates, more than 2 million overseas travelers a year, and a large number of Chinese elite." Sounds impressive huh. Not my money anyway.
"As Shanghai gains prominence as a world-class metropolis, so will Shanghai Daily join the rank of the world’s most prestigious newspapers." I'm hoping to avoid saliva projectiles on my way there later.