Well, as I am writting these lines, I am in again. What happend is that the thing I marked in the picture with a flash (because I do not know the english word for it - and if I think about it the one in German neither) was closed, when I tried to enter my flat tonight. It is supposed to only be closed, if somebody closed it from inside, but there was no one inside. As I life alone at the moment.

 

So I went downstairs to inform our 24hrs guard that I had a problem with the door and that I needed a locksmith. The thing with explaining this kind of thing to our magnificent 24hr reception is that they only speak Cantonese. This is especially remarkable for a building that is exclusively inhabited by expatriats (I reckon anyway that there main purpose is to look nice in their uniforms and to allow the management the claim that we have a 24hrs reception, as they are also not allowed to take mailing, or do anything else that would be of direct use to the inhabitants).

 

Bref, I found a pregnant lady, who would translate for me. This was also not completely unchallenged as she - as mentioned above, in this is an building for expatriats - is Mandarin speaking, but somehow she got the point across. Whereafter, the guard explained me - through her - what she had already told me before: this is impossible, there must be somebody in that flat. As mentioned above: I do life currently alone. This I explained - again. Meanwhile the husband of the pregnant lady had joined, followed by what I suppose to be his mother. He got an explaination of the situation by his wife - in Mandarin - and told me - in English - „this is impossible, there must be somebody in the flat“.

 

I wont go into all the details. Anyway, in the end - after repeated ringing at the appartement door - a locksmith was called (obviously the person in my appartement was taking a shower or sth. like that and was therefore unable to hear the ringing), who shortly after arrived. Meanwhile, I was in the company of 10 Chinese individuals (the locksmith, the pregnant lady, her husband, her mother in law, the husband of the mother in law, three security guards, and two „friends“ or sth. like that), who all considered the fact that the door was closed from the inside impossible and who had all asked me, if I had already eaten (what - by the way - was not the case, what did not exactly improve my humour). We were to many to all fit into the lift, when we went to my floor and my flat.

 

The locksmith tried and opened it, the door swung back revealing 6 curious faces on the one side (the number of my supporters was reduced by the lift ride) and a very messy and very empty appartement on the other side...

 

Now, I am having dinner. Sick faan, finally.