Category: General

I’m in New Jersey today, in the ex Lucent Technologies office in Whippany. First time here. And the first time in the US for work.
In Shanghai I’ve moved into the new rented apartment, which comes with internet, etc but as expected all blogs are blocked by filters in China. So I’m not able to log into my site to update anything at all. I’m sure they installed filters in the gateways to sniff out blog sites. Will be spending the coming months to find a way to get thru this.

So, on Monday I went for the compulsory health checkup in a government medical centre somewhere near Hongqiao in Shanghai, and today (Friday) they have sent the results by express mail. The summary of which will be sent to the immigration along with my passport and 5 passport photos first thing on Monday morning. What I was told is that the permit will be obtained within 7 working days after sending, which means that in 1.5 weeks from now I should have a work permit on my passport. I don’t know about other country, but compared to France, its about 1000x faster here in China to get a work permit!

Spent the first weekend walking around in Shanghai city on the puxi side (what else!). Went to an electronics centre which I heard from colleagues sells stolen goods. Surprisingly everything there looks like used items. No idea if they were stolen or not, and didn’t think that the prices were interesting. At least not interesting enough for impulse shopping.
After that, went looking for the new place where they sell photo gear, and I have posted another article about where to find it along with the coordinates for those of you GPS gearheads.

Enjoy this picture of  what’s so nice about Shanghai. You get strange stuff on the streets! In this case they were laying new cables on the sidewalk and they just leave all these reels of cables lying all over the place. Taken with my new used DSLR.

Finally on my way over to Shanghai after spending 2 days in Kuala Lumpur and a further 4 days in Singapore. Will be spending the next week or so getting my chinese work permit and papers on the shipment from France ready so that I can travel again for work around the place. Will be putting up in the Ascott Pudong for the next 1 months while looking for an apartment. Typically it seems that it takes about a month for all these to be done. Only problem is that I have been moving around on a prepaid SIM card all these while, so will not be reachable by any previous numbers until I get my SIM card sometime in the week.

I’m writing this from ANA Hotel in Tokyo tonight. Just got a call this morning to be on the next flight (tomorrow morning that is) and will be on my way to Wellington New Zealand for another project. THe projection today is to be there for the next 3-4 days (basically over the weekend).
So that’s all for my first trip to Japan. 1.5 weeks in total, had the whole weekend to roam around the  popular places, bought a new used camera and probably will be back again soon for work and hopefully some holiday as well. Tokyo is not that expensive after all, after coming from Europe that is. Compared to the rest of Asia (except Seoul) its definitely more expensive, but not prohibitively so.

Been in Tokyo for the past 1 week and I have another week more to go. This is my first time here and I’ve been to all the popular places already this weekend. Popular like Ginza, Shinjuku, Roppongi (where my hotel is) and Shibuya. Not for getting Akihabara.
Things are generally expensive compared to the rest of asia, but in line with prices in places like Paris. Only problem is that it doesnt seem that a lot of people on the street speak too much English, so when I try to eat in local places there’s a lot of sign language required. Fortunately they seem to speak sign language rather well.

Bought nothing from Akihabara, the place where you’re supposed to find any electronic gadget. But did finally get my digital camera replacement from a small place called Nakano. Bought a used 4mp DSLR, and so far still quite happy with it.

Other than that, I will have to be careful with my cash because on the last day will need to take transport to the airport and pay for last minute ticket penalties. Other than that, hope to finish Tokyo city (at least the places people will ask me about) this trip and then do suburbs later.

Hectic week trying to get everything done before leaving. First up was my second Hepatitis vaccination with Havrix (name of the vaccine)… Did it in the office infirmary since they’re the one that’s asking me to take the first one 6 months ago. So now I’m covered for another 10 years before I have to take my next shot.
Next up is the cancellation of my RATP train/tram/bus subscription. I was thinking that I had to pay some penalty but the cancellation of the contract (or suspension, if you want to call it, up to a year) is easy enough, just walk into any RATP office, tell them you want to stop it, and they will key in the month you want to stop or suspend the subscription and that’s all. Only problem for me is usually the 12th month is free, and since I’m cancelling it only after 10 months after subscribing, I dont get the free month subscription! Dommage.

The movers are coming next thursday. I should be flying out of Paris next Saturday. What do I do with 1 week more to go?
Most of the adminstration stuff with the moving is taken care of by the company, so lucky for that. I will have to cancel my Freebox internet/phone subscription and my bus/metro card but other than that, the other stuff is to think about what things I should buy to bring with the rest of the shipment to Shanghai. Clothing is one, but not too much since generally things are cheaper in China. Bought a bread machine as well since we’re not sure if they sell a lot of them over there. Cooking utensils… they have it in China but at least I trust more the EU standards not to put dangerous chemicals during the manufacturing of things like non-stick pan (even from the same brand). So this weekend will be the last weekend for us to do last minute shopping.

Continue reading “One week left to the end of my time here in France”

Two more weeks to go before the packers come for the move to Shanghai. Trying to think of what I need to bring over there. Just yesterday I was out to get a bread making machine, after tasting the substandard Brioche in Shanghai last week on business trip. Finally got my hands on a Staub cocotte as well, that heavy metal cooking pot/utensil. It was not that easy having to lug those two items back from the centre of Paris to Boulogne-Billancourt by metro. But got back safe, and hopefully today I’ll try out the bread machine since its Sunday. Not that there’s no boulangerie open on Sunday, but they’re a fair bit of walk away.