Seven days to go and tonight we had duck, wine and courgettes with honey.

Jeremy has arrived from France and immediately took charge of our well being.

I got a visa to the States today by spending 5 minutes on the computer putting in very basic info and received an entry number by return. Actually I am lying, in fact I spent almost an hour but that was because the server I used did not support the program. After 45 minutes of trying different ways, someone suggested I should try internet explorer instead of firefox and then it took indeed only five minutes. 

It is day 12 or so (approaching 250 hours) since we started to apply for a visa from China to Germany. Tomorrow the German Consulate in Shanghai will receive a phone call from Germany asking why two artists wishing to attend the opening of an exhibition showing their work and in possession of an official invitation are required to present information beyond that listed in the guidance notes.