The mysterious Mr. Gao…
Mr. Gao… He works at the university and apparently is approved by the State Affairs Bureau for Foreign Experts or whatever it’s called.. Whatever, he’s a powerful part of the equation to getting a job in China… Why? Well, he’s the dude that sends out the invitation letters. Without one of these you can’t get a visa, and without a visa there’s no way into China.. So he’s a demi-God in the process of getting work.
Today, he suddenly decides that my passport scan is unreadable.. WHAT? You’ve had it for 6 months and all of a sudden you can’t see it? Apparently that’s the case as he casually mentioned to another teacher…
Fortunately, this other teacher alerted me to this problem - Now I have to re-scan and send him a very large (one km square) pic of my mugshot on the passport, plus (to be on the safe side) every other size in between… Covering all bases!
With less than 9 weeks to go this has now become a priority .. I need to do this ASAP because he will only write invitation letters on Mondays.. Which is really weird, cos they need me more than I need them, but that’s the way it is 
Anyway, it will be done AGAIN with a smile on my face and hopefully the letter of invitation will be arriving on my doormat within 2 weeks - At which point I can get the visa.. Then I can book a flight.. Ho hum.. 8 weeks and counting..