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I went to meet the people from Save the Children today.  I had been a little nervous about the meeting, as I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I was pleased to find they are really sweet people, the work they are offering sounds really exciting AND although I asked to volunteer, they are going to pay me. 

I am not going to start for another few weeks so that I have time to settle in to our new place and study up a little on what it is I will be doing.

It’s a little scary how everything seems to fall so well into place for Patrick and I.  We must have been really nice people in our past lives.

Lucky for me, cuteoverload.com can still be read in China, so I am able to borrow pictures of pugs from them to beautify my posts while I wait to get myself organised with my own photos…

Now that we have a nice big apartment with a huge park just downstairs, I have asked Patrick to buy me a puppy.
I couldn’t decide for ages between a miniature poodle (without the silly haircut) or a pug.

I finally decided on a little ugly pug, because they are just so ridiculous looking, and I like a dog that makes me laugh. I also read somewhere that they hate the heat, aren’t very athletic, and if you take them for too much excersize they start to wheeze, and you have to take them home.

Hold on a minute, I thought… That’s ME!

Ugly little pugs and I seem well suited. The final point that sealed my decision was when I heard Patrick asking around about where to buy a good pug in China. “Pug” in Chinese is pronounced “Bugger”. TeeHee!

‘Where are you going?” … “I’m taking the little Bugger to the park.”

I don’t know how much time Patrick and I will be spending in our lovely new apartment now we have found our comfy, friendly net cafe.

Patrick is already a VIP member, and I would be if I was allowed… I can’t become a member because I don’t have a Chinese ID card.  Mean!  Now I have to pay 50c and hour instead of Patrick’s rate of 20c.  Hmph.

I guess it’s not really going to break the bank….

Our combined 70c or so per hour gets us a sofa, two wide screen monitors on very fast PCs, a wall behind us so no-one can hover about looking over my shoulder, and access to lovely clean toilets with DOORS.  (That actually is very good luck).

Not forgetting to mention of course, the kitchen that serves grandma-style meals.

Finally, and best of all, we can watch hundreds of movies and TV shows which are all sitting on the cafe’s server.  Don’t even need to buy $1 DVDs! 

This is the life.

Patrick and I happily set off to our newly found tea house this morning for coffee.  We were a little disappointed to find the coffee tasted awful today.  We shouldn’t have been so quick to get excited about the place.

Luckily the staff were very sweet, so came over to ask Patrick how to make the coffee better and after thanking him for his lesson dashed off to prepare us another cup.  The lattes were much improved the second time around so hopefully after Patrick’s wise teachings we have a nice coffee to look forward to on weekends.

Our complaining about the quality of the coffee and acting like know-it-alls must have impressed the owner, who promptly cornered Patrick to ask him if I would like to manage their cafe for them.  What a way to get a job!

Patrick politely (I hope) declined, so  I might just have to go and hang about impressive companies complaining until I get a really good job offer.

We have finally found a nice, safe, comfortable internet cafe. Now I am happy to sit and use the net for a few hours without feeling I have to look over my shoulder every few minutes.

…Our dinner just appeared in two little lunch boxes, it looks like it was prepared by someones grandma. I’m not entirely sure where it came from. Very tasty though…

We spent the entire day today choosing furniture, and are now happy that we have ordered furniture for all but two rooms, and all from the same store so it will match perfectly. None of the furniture is what I imagined I would buy, so I am a little concerned I will change my mind about it later… Don’t think I will though.

I am so excited now that we are getting closer to moving, and am really looking forward to getting to know our new area better.

In addition to the park downstairs from our apartment, I have seen a few other large green areas around Hefei, so can’t wait until the weather improves a little and we have a bit more time to explore. I hope we will have time to carry on our Tokyo tradition of eating lunch in the park at least once a week.

I still haven’t had much chance to take any photos, and no chance to upload any because I never remember my USB cable… But I will get around to it soon. The sky was almost blue through the smog today, so I am hoping that was the beginning of a trend that will bring some more nice blue-sky, not-humid weather for photo taking.

I spent a day this week looking around near the first apartment I lived in in Hefei. All the stores I knew before have gone, but there is a huge new tea shop that sells beter coffee than the coffee shop it replaced. Now at least we know where to get a good coffee, which is one of the most important things to know when moving to a new city.

…I have just spotted the food cart being wheeled about the room, so now understand where our dinner came from. It is good they are ensuring all the gaming addicts here get a good meal!