Rent day

Yesterday was rent day.

My landlord remembered late in the afternoon, and spent the next 4 hours repeatedly phoning my Chinese friend Cindy (who has become - god bless her - a regular go-between for us) to ask when he could come and pick up the money.

I proposed 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. That may have been unwise.

I had forgotten that the rent was due this month myself (I'm paying quarterly these days). Since I'm not doing so much cash-in-hand work lately, I have to go to the ATM to withdraw the money. Withdrawal limits have improved lately (it used to be a paltry 1,500 kuai per transaction, and 5,000 per day), but not that much - it's still a 5-minute operation on two successive days to get three months' rent and the winter heating charge together.

My landlord is a curmudgeonly bastard - but I think he's very grateful that I always pay in full, and never more than a day or two late.