It's finally starting to warm up in Beijing. After almost 3 months of mostly below zero temperatures, freezing wind, frozen lakes and super low humidity, we're starting to get more than a couple of degrees above zero, which is fantastic!
Yesterday I went out without a jumper (although still with thermals, gloves, scarf, beanie and down jacket) which is great and it got up to 8 degrees in the middle of the day today. I went out without my beanie and it wasn't freezing!!
We're heading to Thailand for a week on Sunday, I'm really hoping that it warms up a bit more by the time we get back.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The long and complicated power process
I may have mentioned before, they don't send electricity bills here like they do at home. Basically there's an account system that you top up when it runs low and when it's running low they put a note on the door to let us know. Each apartment has a card that you can add credit to top up the meter with.
The problem is that I didn't notice the note for a couple of days! So I saw it this afternoon and realised that I might run out of power at any point.
The other problem is that last time we did this, the cleaner took the card with her and I didn't find out what happened to it! So I called the estate agent and (eventually) found that she didn't have it. I called the office and (eventually, after trying to let the office lady know that I didn't want another pass and I didn't want to leave a message for Jane) had to ride over there on the coldest day so far to pick up the card.
Once I got the card it was easy, I just had to take it to the payment office, give them some money, take the card back and add in the credit. Of course the meters don't have the apartment numbers on them (why would they?) so I also had to work out which one was the right one. It turns out that C(3) on the meter means 3-C on the card. Clearly.
So now I have electricity again :)
The problem is that I didn't notice the note for a couple of days! So I saw it this afternoon and realised that I might run out of power at any point.
The other problem is that last time we did this, the cleaner took the card with her and I didn't find out what happened to it! So I called the estate agent and (eventually) found that she didn't have it. I called the office and (eventually, after trying to let the office lady know that I didn't want another pass and I didn't want to leave a message for Jane) had to ride over there on the coldest day so far to pick up the card.
Once I got the card it was easy, I just had to take it to the payment office, give them some money, take the card back and add in the credit. Of course the meters don't have the apartment numbers on them (why would they?) so I also had to work out which one was the right one. It turns out that C(3) on the meter means 3-C on the card. Clearly.
So now I have electricity again :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)