Monday 26th...back home again after my second visit !!!
Ming and I met up in Singapore, she had never been out of China and was very excited to be going to a foreign country. She was a bit intimidated by the prospect of all the rigmarole to go through on her own, but many detailed briefings on QQ seemed to do the trick and she made it Ok.
She was quite a celebrity on her flight, because the Singapore Immigration Forms had to be filled in in English. She had a queue of about 30 people wanting her help with the forms !!
How great it was to meet again, all the emotion and affection was still there and we were like a couple of teenagers !!!
For 3 days we did all the touristy things and my credit card got a hammering as I expected...but this Lady spoils me in so many ways it was a pleasure to do something in return for her, so she got a load of western clothes, shoes, bags and cosmetics. Normally I hate shopping but this was so different, it really was fun and we had a lot of laughs.
She was so taken with all the Lao Wei's in Singapore, she had never before seen a Muslim Woman all covered up, or and African/American, only in the movies, and she was fascinated by blonde women !!
She just wanted to sit on a bench and watch the World go by...she seemed to think that I could instantly recognise every persons ethnicity, so had to make up lots of stories on the spot !!!
She was keen to try many different Western foods, and we did the lot...including Pizza !! But I was tickled to discover that her favourites were smoked salmon, Wasabi , croissants and cheese and Chocolate Mousse....for breakfast....YUK !!!
After "doing" Singapore, we tracked off to Chengdu and I splurged on an upgrade to Business Class for us...that was special and we "lorded" it up for a few hours on the plane. I get a lot of pleasure from her sheer delight in all these new experiences....does my heart good !!
We had no problem with language, her English has really improved with the many hours we spent on QQ and learning English. Again, I am totally impressed at the way she has learned so much...what a woman.
Chengdu was an endless eat-through with the family, lunches and dinners every day, Mahjong sessions for tiny money and a lot of scotch drunk with her Dad and her Uncles. Dad and Mum have learned a few words of English, but we still manage to converse in a mixture of English, Russian and Chinese. I must admit I have been forced to unlearn my Chinese, because the Chengdu dialect is totally different to what I had spent a lot of time learning.
On another note...I was very close to settlement on an apartment, with Ming as the owner and me as an "interested party", but the recent moves by the Chinese Govt about property purchases made me realise I might be buying at the top of the market..not a good place to be !!. So at the eleventh hour, Brother in law was able to get me out of the deal....I am sure he greased a plam or two, but now I will wait for a little while because property prices are tipped to fall up to 20% in the coming months.
So in summary Guys...a delightful second visit which completely reinforces what a treasure I have found...we both look forwrad to the future with great excitement and anticipation.
A few photos for you all are attached.
Cheers
David
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