When I woke up today it was absolutely bucketing down and continued to do so all day! I have only bought a few pairs of shoes and the canvas based ones I wore today got soaked through about 10seconds after leaving the hotel and stayed wet all day with my clammy feet inside sliding all over the place, I probably have the beginnings of trench foot now! Going to have to track down some more stable footwear pretty soon!!

So today I headed to the Shenzhen office for the first time, which is situated just inside the border of mainland China. It’s about an hour commute from central HK and pretty easy to get from one to the other but you do have to pass through immigration every time you enter or leave! It’s in effect, leaving one country and entering another twice a day for the next few weeks for me, my passport is going to fill up pretty rapidly just hope it is easy to obtain a new one out here (will have to look into it) to avoid any problems! Once I had cleared immigration we headed for the taxi rank and I was asked for begging money from a Chinese one armed dwarf…umm bit strange!

In China everyone drives on the right (as opposed to the left in HK) and the plugs and currency are also different, so anyone coming to visit me bear this in mind! (you will also need to apply early for a Chinese visiting visa otherwise you shall be stuck in Hk!!)

The SZ office is in a building called the Tian An Cyber Park, which is huge and very modern (with its own Chinese restaurant where I had Dim Sum for lunch, or Dim Yum as I have nicknamed it!)… it is very different from the HK office which is quite old by comparison! I looks like a lovely place to work and as of 2nd October I shall be permanently based there.

This afternoon I met Winnie (who is the smallest person ever, even smaller than Lindsay! –I felt like an absolute giant next to her!). We went for some flat viewings, saw 4 flats to choose from, all lovely… and they all come furnished and with serviced providings (maid twice a week etc…result!). There were 2 in particular that were much nicer, the first was only a 10 minute walk from work, it was huge with a spare room and a balcony with views of the park/golf course! The other is about 10mins away by taxi/bus and whilst smaller, was absolutely beautiful in a gorgeous building and closer to the shops…aghh cant decide (but have to very soon!) so I have told my boss that either would be fine by me and that he was to make the executive decision! So once I have a finalized address will post some pics up!

By the time I left the SZ office and got to and cleared the border and got the tube back to the shuttle bus station and then the bus to the hotel it was very late (9pm!) so hope I am settled in SZ soon to avoid doing the commute for too long!

Off to bed for me, back to the Hk office this week, looking forward to having Wed off. It’s a pubic holiday as on Tues night everyone has a big dinner with their familes and stays up late to see the full moon, whilst eating mooncake and making a wish for the new lunar cycle (or something like that I think!) so wed is a public holiday to recover. I shall instead be indulging in some instant noodles for one and my own special mooncake in the hotel and some much needed rest!

Sorry to anyone who has emailed me and I havnt got round to mailing them back yet, I am so tired when I get back from work that I just about manage to write this and a quick shower!

Lots of love,

Txx