Hi guys,
My lao po and I have just returned from a five-week trip to Europe, to visit my family in England and to visit my house in France. We are still not much closer to knowing if we will live in England, China, Hong Kong or France. England has most of my family, decent job prospects, but rising utility bills, expensive transport, social unrest and eroded pensions. China has my wife’s family, good job prospects for my wife, but reduced wages for me. Hong Kong has a good standard of living, decent wages, low taxes, but the impossibility of my wife finding work here. France has my house, a good quality of life, but very little chance of finding a well-paid job, for a few years at least. We can rule France out for the time being, because I need a well-paid job. But the other three are definitely in the running. I’m not too worried though. As long as we are together, home will be where the heart is.
My wife was happy to meet my parents, my 5 sisters, brother and their families. We stayed round my parents and my siblings’ houses. We did London touristy things, we visited the school where I taught last, went to Chinatown. We took a trip to Devon, to the village where I was born, including the house where I was born. We scrumped for apples, and went to my grandparents’ grave. My wife was not impressed with the English summer!
We went to France, stayed with my parents again in their French house in Eastern France, then drove to my place in the Limousin in the South-West, staying there for 18 days. My lao po took a while to warm up to the place, the weather was not great at the beginning, and the house needed warming up too, having not been lived in for a while. But then the sun came out, we settled in, I continued to rebuild my stone wall (with my wife carrying some stones!), my wife went fishing in the river, my sisters and brother came for a few days, some barbecues were had, and Sylvain came with his wife and daughter for lunch.
That is a potted history of our trip. It was important that my lao po and I had this chance to get an idea of how life could be in Europe. She had never been on a plane before this trip (she was fine with it), let alone been outside China, so she needed to find out something about the cultural shift required when you travel half the way around the world.
Now I am back in Hong Kong, and yesterday my wife returned to China, to get another 90 day Hong Kong visa, and to begin to retrain for a different career.
I have included some photos: us with my parents, her catching a little fish in my river, our meeting with Sly and family, my stone wall (will it ever be finished?), and my beloved French house.
