A Note from Guangzhou

The latest from the North:


Alas, still in Guangzhou. Things are fine despite everything. "God bothering" didn't work, by the way, although still I'm optimistic. Maybe I just needed to learn that you shouldn't put a time limit on miracles.

But that's just me; the word from everyone else is to give up all hope of recovery of belongings since the Guangzhou police are usually in on these things and the police report is simply about working out what was taken so they can figure out their cut. Also heard that the police say I am a low status person so they aren't taking it seriously and won't even look into it. To change things required the Consul to take me personally to the police station, with a high status car, chauffeur and snooty translator and strut around his VIP-hotshotness and because he hasn't done that it sent a huge message to the relevant authorities here.

It's a bit hard to take that my Gucci scarf carries more weight with the Chinese authorities than my M.A.

And on an even more personal front, it doesn't help that Guangzhou water is very hard and since I washed my hair it's all out of control and electric. It's hard to convince folk that you are someone who deserves to be treated with respect when you look like Sideshow Bob.

Nonetheless, I am expecting to be freed tomorrow.

Guangzhou is an extremely pretty city, by the way, so it's not all bad. Keith came up for the weekend and we even had a very good time.

So that's the news. Naturally there will be more once I'm back in HK where I can blog properly.