On the move again! Chris & John Move to China Just to let you know and as it's just recently happened, we have hardly told anyone yet, so you are one of the first to know, that I am going to China with Chris! I think Chris has done brilliantly for us both and this time, I am in on HIS coat tails! OK, so, about OUR "holidays" this year: We go to China on Sunday 14th August 2011 with a one-way ticket each! Chris has landed a job right out of the blue to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), which is what he has always wanted to do in Spain and never managed it as it was never well organised and poorly paid. He came across this one quite by chance as a job under Manchester! It appears that someone else in the same group got theirs from a Liverpool job site. But, it's in Shenzhen, which is near Hong Kong. It's well organised, pays reasonably well and comes with a free two or three bedroom apartment on a complex with 50% chance of a swimming pool and gym etc! All expenses with the flat are free as well and it has air conditioning. It suits me as well, as I officially retired on the 22nd July, so can get my pension paid out there, or I can draw money on my debit card out there. It appears that it will buy 10 times what you can buy here, so we should be back to the lifestyle we used to have! (Or more even!!!) But, right at the start it seemed that they wanted me to do some teaching! They mentioned to Chris 12 hours a month for me, which let's me get subsidised BUPA on Chris's policy, that they also subsidise. But, the hours for Chris are still only 16 hours a week full time! It all sounds too good to be true and you can get paid for extra private teaching jobs as well, especially in their holidays at summer and winter camps. They mentioned a good rate for a two week camp for Chris. There are also opportunities to do private tuition. So, during the week in our spare time, we can go exploring the area and also Hong Kong. I have had a look and there are even some Geocaches around. Not as many as round Manchester, but enough to make it interesting for us to see new areas, but we will have to use public transport. I think they have a metro as well as buses and trains. Foreigners are not permitted to drive in China it appears! That suits us quite well really. We go to Michele’s in Newbury on Friday 12th August and Andrew is picking us up from home - What a star! Grand daughter Izzy's party is on Saturday 13th August in Basingstoke. Michele takes us to Heathrow Airport early on the morning of Sunday 14th! We fly to Hong Kong via Mumbai early Sunday 14th and arrive Monday 15th. We are then met at Hong Kong airport and open bank accounts there. We are then taken the 35 km or so through to Shenzhen by car. Shenzhen is a city of 20 million people! Apparently Beijing now has more people than the whole of the population of the United Kingdom! When we went 15 years ago it only had a population of about 15 million! Mind boggling! It’s apparently known as “FBN” by the German guy. I asked what that meant and was told that it means “f’ing big numbers”! We spend the first 5 to 10 days on a training course and stay in a Holiday Inn for something like £12 per night! The last Holiday Inn we stayed at in France a couple of years back cost us 118 € per night! We are both looking forward to such an incredible opportunity. I know that we have only been back in the UK and in Manchester for just over a year, but this is too good an opportunity to miss. We discussed it with our families and were strongly encouraged to go for it! So, off we go again! I wonder if we will stay for the year. Perhaps we may stay several years. Time will tell! It appears that there are opportunities to move to another area after a year. There was talk of Chris teaching Spanish in Macau which was once like Hong kong, but a Spanish protectorate. That would be quite interesting too. We are VERY excited with only a few days to go! We were at an Internations monthly event one evening in July and a German guy there has a Chinese girl friend from a town near Shenzhen and was raving about the area! We had a conference call with the organiser one Friday lunch time with some key questions about the move which made us even more relaxed about it, as it is being so well organised. A guy in Spain we know with a Chinese wife told us about the reduced Internet, Facebook, YouTube etc in China. I asked about this and we will have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) so will be able to get FULL Internet with everything that we are used to, Western style. That means we both can use our London Numbers on Skype to phone UK landlines and can also use Skype for free with all those who have Skype. Also, mentioned above and as you will know, I officially retired on Friday 22nd July and became an OAP!! It's really weird, but they offered ME the part-time job on the same day as I retired! This will be for 4 hours a week teaching English to corporate customers and I accepted! He actually asked if I wanted full time and I declined! So much for being unable to get b***er all in the UK for the last year and not making any money, then we BOTH land jobs in China right out of the blue! It's quite well paid as well! It should keep me out of mischief too! We will keep in touch. Meanwhile, take care.
Chris & John