Wow, thank you all for the congratulations! Yes I am Happy, blissfully happy to be precise, and I can't wait for my wife to arrive here, 48 hours and counting :icon_cheesygrin:
I arrived back in France yesterday after a 24 hour delay due to the volcano cloud over Europe, not so bad considering my son was delayed a full week in Ireland, and it only took one phone call (in English) to China Southern to sort out. Then at the airport yesterday, they had scheduled a second flight to Paris which left a bit earlier than my planned one, they put me on that one and to convince me, they updgraded me to business class :icon_cool: The flight was very comfortable as a result and I slept a full 8 hours, maybe I'll fly China Southern again after all ... upon landing the weather was simply beautiful, mild and sunshine, looks like all the signs are right.
The French consulate in GZ proved to be a bit more difficult than initially expected and we had to go there 3 times to finally get the paperwork accepted, they kept changing their requirements at every meeting, even calling the German consulate for advice, and were obviously not happy that a German could get his wife into Europe so fast when a Frenchman has to be much more patient. Then when they were told they had 48 hours to issue the Visa as previously promised on the phone, they grimaced again but complied. Since my flight was delayed, we picked up her Visa together on Friday and met a family friend to discuss business opportunities. It turns out I have quite a lot of family in Guangzhou on top of the ones in Jiangmen and Zhanjiang, and it's interesting to see how they all want us to live close to them when we move to China, I was even shown a brand new appartment in GZ by one of my new uncles, very nice place in European standard with 2 bathrooms, nice western style kitchen ... and even though the wedding party is not going to happen for a good while, we already got some red envelopes and jewelry for my lady. So many new connections ... I think it will be easy to setup a business once we settle down in GZ, looks like we can even get some party help, maybe even investors as some are quite wealthy and keen for business opportunities, not to mention family friends.
Now we have to figure out how to celebrate the wedding, we'll most probably have to host 2 parties in China and then maybe another one in France, but though I thought China would be too far for people who have never been there and it turns out it is not when I talk to them, so it could well be that most of my close friends and family will join us in Jiangmen for the main event :icon_cheesygrin: and we could possibly skip the French party.
48 hours,
Ingmar
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