Well I've been a bit cheeky. Around Xmas week I found that SOL had regained some value against the USD and although I felt guilty I exchanged enough not only to pay for the mortgage but to pay for a potential ticket back to China as I reasoned I had enough for another month off work. I was angling for an excuse for some time but none were forthcoming (at least none that Tan would agree with). Then it hit me that last year A Wu and his wife had been deadly serious (if a bit drunk) about opening an English school in Pingguo. So on the 1st of January at 4pm I pinged Haiwei to ask if Pingguo had an English school. A couple of minutes later he rang me to say there certainly was not and that I should bloody well start one. Well I know it's not as easy as that, but it got me thinking that at least I could start investigations. Then I asked what he was doing at midnight his time, and of course the answer was "drinking" so I took it with a pinch of salt. But later that night, his 9am, I asked him again and he still said it was a good idea, so it wasn't just the drink talking.
I sort of forgot about it for a bit but then late on the night of the 2nd I was in touch with him again but this time it was me who had imbibed. Haiwei said he knew the relevant people in the government plus the teachers. But I'd already mentioned it to Tan who said it was impossible and not to dare to go into business with him as he was in debt. That was a fair reality check. But then she said it would be better to do a summer school instead. In fact this was a far better idea; minimised risk if it went tits up and less liability. So at some time after 1am I had a look at flights. Blimey only just over £500 with China Eastern, and despite Tan's criticism of them from October (tiny seats, no alcohol with meal etc.) I thought sod it and nearly bought tickets for Saturday 13th January. I was just about to click "buy" when I had the foresight to check the City schedule and found we were playing Newcastle at 5.30pm on that Saturday. So I checked the Friday 12th flight and it was only a tenner more so had a "sod it" moment and just bought the tickets via the Trip app to get a tenner discount and there I was, £535 poorer but the excitement I felt was almost already worth that alone. Nine days of anticipation to go! Normally I like to buy with some time in advance as you sort of appreciate the time looking forward to going. But I had to go early as Tan had said she wanted to go in April till the summer, meaning around 4.5 months, and I'd have to be home to support Xixi for GCSEs.
Of course Tan went ape when I told her the next day. I suppose I should have checked with her first. But in fact I'd told her I'd made some money and had offered her the chance to go to China for the lunar New Year and she'd said she didn't want to go there alone then. I don't quite get why then she announced she'd be going (alone) in April and I wouldn't take the kids till late June but thought better than to bring up logic. It was done, and she made sure to give me two massive coats that were too big for her to bring back to A Xia.
So roll on a few days and after a couple of goodbye pints with Andge and Awl on Thursday night I did my packing, knowing I'd have forgotten loads of stuff but I had my passport and phone and charger. And one adapter.
It was easy to get up at 6am for a 12:10 flight from Gatwick. I realise we're quite privileged as I got there door-to-door in just under an hour. There was no queue and I had a little hope of getting a row to myself again as the kind lady moved me back from row 71 to 72. I felt little guilt asking for a G&T at 10am (the second time asking for such a drink in the morning in two months), but less guilt for the other three, as I was planning to sleep. Blimey, they said the gate was closing at 11:50 and it was 11:42 by the time I got there but a woman was screaming to hurry up as I was one of the last two people. Gosh, ok then. It was only about 2/3 full so no problem finding a space for my main carry-on bag and annoyingly there was a woman on the other side of my row but at least it meant we had two seats each, and I stuffed my backpack under one of the seats. Well well over the 8kg limit but in the rush no-one was weighing.
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| My last western breakfast for a while I hope |
The flight was thankfully nondescript save for some turb about 3/4 of the way through. I did manage to watch one film: Mr Bean's holiday, which was less funny than I remembered. And I got some minor adrenalin buzzes as the flight attendants spoke to me in Mandarin. Ok, so they didn't have wine or spirits (at least not in economy), but contrary to what Tan had said, they did have Qingdao beer which was better than nothing. Plus I had some carry-on, which after the meal with a cocktail of Mel and Phen helped me to get 4-5 hours of fractured sleep.
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| I Phen asleep about here... |
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