On work permits, electricians and this blog - in reverse order

If anybody out there is already reading, please apologize if the blog changes drastically over the next few days/weeks. I'm still trying to figure out what works best.

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Today I had asked my employer if they had heard any news from the Immigration Department about my work permit. I received an email back saying that they had and the news were that my permit would be ready in one or two weeks. That was partly good news. It gave some certainty that they were processing it, but I really couldn't imagine another two weeks of no work.

To my surprise, a few hours later, after a few rounds around the apartment, picking up a few books, reading lots of stuff online, I received a call saying (and I paraphrase): "This is P, I'm on my way to the Immigration Department, your work permit is ready." db responds: "What? That's great news." P: "Yes, you could come pick it up tomorrow afternoon. You should also start planning a trip to Macau or somewhere to validate it." And so, my afternoon was made. What a relief.

I've lived in HK before and a few other places, and travelled to many places. In my short lifetime I've had to apply to more visas than countries I've visited. All that to say that I'm used to all the paperwork and never been rejected. Nevertheless, I can never get rid of the anxiety brought by the possibility that someday I'll meet the immigration official that will make my life miserable. Oh, the pains of holding a passport that doesn't match my nomadic nature. Allow me to repeat: what a relief!

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And now on to the Electricians.

At some point after the good news, my internet connection went down. A quick look to the router and the blinking lights were off, and so were those of the router. Tried turning on the TV - no response. Went to get a cold drink - no lights inside the fridge. Turned the lights on in the living room - and turned them off again, it's still bright outside. At that point I had figured out that the plugs weren't working, but switches were. Then I remembered the "click" sound I heard last time I was in the kitchen, which I thought had come from the street. A breaker must have gone down. Checked the fuse box - indeed, the breaker that controls the subset of breakers controlling the circuits for all the plugs was down. My attempts to bring it back up again were futile. I spent a quiet afternoon reading.

When S returned from work and after a few phone calls to family remembers trying to gather some knowledge about what had gone wrong, we had to resort to Master Electrician (ME).

We called, he promised to be here in 20 min. Sure enough, he arrived or at least that's what he said on the phone to S, but he wasn't here. It turned out he went into the building next door. S looked down the window and informed me that ME had left the building next door cursing. I had heard him. This wasn't a good start.

Finally he made it to our place, walked in, started looking around, looking at plugs. I had decided to keep my mouth shut and let S deal with it, as I had already gone as far as I could before she came home. I told myself: "Give ME a chance, he probably DOES know what he's doing."

More walking, looking at switches. S tried to explain our understanding of the problem - that either the stove or the fridge had caused a short circuit and burned a fuse. More looking at switches, appliances, the water heater, the "Exit" light. Deep breathing.

I saw the lights of the router come back on and think: "finally he figured it out." But no, more walking, looking at switches. Losing patience, I asked what he was doing now, through S of course, as my Chinese is über-basic at this point. He said he was still making sure that the the stove is the problem. Ok.

After two hours (possibly more) ME concludes it's the stove, but he can't fix it because he cannot get to the cable. Huh? "Yes, the stove is too old. You should change the stove." What? He screwed the fuse box back in, told S its $500, she told him that was too much, ended up paying $400. Still too much, we agreed, but we were too hungry to argue. The whole incident made us skip dinner.

The conclusions: I should have trusted my electrician skills, which surpassed those of ME; I should have asked how much it was going to cost before he came in (stupid that we didn't do so); and more importantly, I should have trusted my instinct that this guy had no idea what he was doing -- it's a trait that crosses cultures.