China Stories

It's Aliiiiive!

13th May 2008 15:00, Flora

Sean and I put the site up live today! There's still some content from what we've done up until now to be added, and, with Gerald, Maria and Doneil heading off to China tommorrow (!) hopefully they will start sending back lots of videos, pictures and text to let us all know how they're getting on.

Del is working on 2 new things for the site. One of them is a production family tree which will show where everybody fits into the team - who works for TV, radio or the web, who's going to China and who isn't (I'm not - boo hoo)! So the site is just going to keep changing and getting bigger and better...

This afternoon I'm going to head off to do some shopping for 'Scottish Icons'! G & M are going to take some things which remind them of Scotland to show to the chinese school children they meet. Stuff like tablet, pictures of highland cows and castles and some modern and traditional music. Doniel is going to bring his kilt!

What we'd really like is to film the children's reaction to stuff they might not have seen/heard before - then we can put the video up on the main site later.

Flora's next entry

Got 'em!

13th May 2008 15:00, Gerald

The visas that is.

Wow. What a bit of stress that was.

I arrived at the Consulate in Edinburgh to pick up the Visas when it opened at 9 AM. I was pretty nervous, as you can imagine after yesterday's misunderstandings but this time things went a little smoother and they told me to come back at 11.50 to pick them up. So far so good.

I thought it best to return at 11.30 just to be safe as the Consulate closes at 12 PM and 10 minutes would be cutting it fine. I was told to wait for a bit longer when I arrived but I expected that, being early. 11.30 came and went.

As did 11.45. So did 11.50. And so did 12PM.

I was finally called up at 12.10 and asked for the fee. Fine. But no. Wait.

It was 5 pounds more than I had! And they only accept cash so my credit card was no good either. After a bit of grovelling they said if I was extra quick then I could run along the road to the bank and they would stay open until I got back. Now "along the road" might sound like a short sprint but it was, to my surprise, about a mile. I tell you I am not the sprinter I was in my youth (really, I was - a champion as well!). I don't think I have ever been as tired as I was or have breathed as heavy as I did on my return to the Consulate. The people just laughed at me. And quite right too - I was a mess! The message? Keep fit and go easy on the snacks and DVDs!

Anyway, the Visas are now ours. I have a cool new stamp in my passport and I am leaving for China tomorrow! Hurrah!

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