I had a big shock yesterday when I was asked for 3000 yuan estate agents fees, because in UK only the seller has to pay. That's a lesson, we shouldn't expect anything to be the same in other countries.

I learned that the seller who purchased the flat as a new-build in 2010 had lost money because property prices hadn't changed enough and the tax payed by the buyer is very much higher on a new flat than the tax I agreed to yesterday. So that wasn't bad to hear.

I was wilting yesterday as this parchment sized agreement half the size of the table was characterised and duly stamped with red fingerprint.

Now I have another inconsistency, too difficult to ask the wife as my laptop with the google proxy is broken and as she understands English not and I know no Chinese we normally communicate via 'Translate.' The inconsistency is this, I was told that when we want to sell the flat our presence will be required in the country to sign forms and stuff. But yesterday they wheeled in this lady whom I could swear I spotted selling pancakes earlier, and introduced her as the flat owners sister, the flat owner living miles away in China. It was her whose fingerprints were used on the owners behalf.

I am here alone this morning but the dad made a surprise appearance with thick wads of cash which he placed before me. I was/am stuck for words not only because I don't have any, and just said 'Sheer Sheer' which seemed sensible if given thick wads of notes like something out of a bank hoist. I wonder what he's up to, telling me to f**k off, paying me a dowry or paying me money for the flat??????? The mother is always pushing me two hundred or three hundred yuans. I am going to take the elastic bands off and spend an few hours counting now. This marrying a Chinese does seem profitable I must say.