A shot in the arm

Good morning.
I have an hour to kill, so thought I'd update on this morning's activities and my current living conditions.
Oh I've fixed the photographs from yesterday too, damn flickr.

This morning I had a 07:30 start to go for a medical check up.
Part of the process to get a Beijing resident's visa, which I need if they're not going to turf me out of the country.

So a driver picked me up at 08:00 and off we went to Haidian International Medical Centre for the aliens medical examination.

Despite a surfeit of bureaucracy, the whole procedure was damn quick and efficient. I was in and out in under an hour, having completed a form, an ECG, a physical exam, an ENT exam, an eye exam, a chest X-ray, provided blood and paid 660Y (£50) for the privilege. I should get the results within a fortnight.

For those of you that might have been worried (ie mothers) the blood sample was totally sterile, they followed good sharps handling procedure, using a new point and everything. In fact unlike the last time I had to give blood in the UK it was totally painless and stress-free, she found a vein immediately and the whole thing was finished before it started.

I then left the medical centre for the driver waiting for me outisde.
This was the same Mr Zhang who'd picked me up at the train station on Monday morning. He's a smiley chap and I feel guilty for him ferrying me around without being able to engage in good-natured banter beyond Ni Hao, xie xie and Zai Jien. However on both occasions in his car, we've now been able to bond tutting and making noises at a bad driver / pedestrian. It breaks the journey up and despite us not speaking the same language, it's a universal moment.

I then returned to my little pad:
Bathroom

Shower:

Living area:


I then had to think about breakfast, it wasn't allowed before the exam y'see?
Now, if you've been reading this blog, you've probably noticed I'm rather enjoying the food so far. However, I have to say that breakfast is the hardest meal of the day. It's just been difficult identifying anything particularly breakfasty.
So this morning, hunger led me to nip out the back door of the residence here to the little local shop, which has everything you couild need, except maybe cereal.

This is what I settled on:

At first glance it looks pretty suitable eh?
A yoghurt and a filled croissant / pastry thing.
Well the yoghurt was fine, if a little sugary.
I'm sure a little more investigation will find a suitable breakfast yoghurt.
The pastry thing unfortunately was filled with beef floss, a fact I discovered after closer investigation following a curiously flavoured first bite.

Oh well, you live and learn.
Now I'm off to explore another route between future home and work.
And then as I said yesterday, an afternoons house hunting.
I'll take some photos and video which I'll post when I get back.