China Romance
All About China => Share your love story => Topic started by: Philip on September 19, 2010, 12:36:29 am
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Hi guys,
haven't posted for a while. Have just got broadband internet installed at home.
So much has happened, I could write a book. Will probably post all in good time.
Synopsis first.
My wife is not here yet, but she should arrive on October 15th. I will meet her in Shenzhen, we will spend the weekend together and then come to Hong Kong. Because China doesn't want to let her go, and because Hong Kong doesn't particularly want her to come, she can only come on a 90 day tourist visa, while every other spouse from every other country can get a dependancy visa based on my working visa. Long story.
Hong Kong is hot and occasionally rainy. I commute to Kowloon every day from an apartment in Sai Kung (35 minutes by minibus and metro). My apartment has a view to die for over a beautiful bay. I am 2 minutes away from a beach where I can swim in the South China sea.
My new job is fantastic. I have a great class of 4 year-olds, who are bilingual in Cantonese and English and I co-teach with a Cantonese-speaking teacher.
The metro is the best in the world, fast, clean, cheap with air-con. Shopping isn't cheap like China, but is pretty good as long as you are not dependent upon dairy products. Swimming, canoeing, hiking, cycling, mountain-climbing, they are all minutes away from me.
So far, the only fly in the ointment has been the visa problems with my wife but we've got good at waiting, so we can endure. I did go and see her for a weekend in Changsha last month, which was great.
I am getting a 6-month multi-entry visa next week, so we can go back and forth to China whenever we want.
Regrets? Sorry, what did you say? I was distracted by the view. David E once said to me, 'Run Forrest, run', but I misunderstood his instruction. Instead of running away from my wife, I ran away with her. Whoops! ;D
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some views from my apartment at different times of the day. [attachimg=1]
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Great news Philip , and so close to a bikini beach , beaut photo's , will await the next installment , regards Sujuan and Robert .
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Good to hear from you Philip ;D
Sounds a long way from London!!!! I'm pleased that everything is going well for you, I always liked HK. The visa situation is crazy but I'm sure you'll find your way round it! Best of luck ;D
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Believe me Forest...I am soooooo glad you ran the right way. ;D ;D ;D
Does my heart good to be wrong in such happy circumstances.
Delighted for you both
Cheers....DavidE
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It sounds terrific for you with the exception of the visa issues. I hope that in the future
the two of you will be able to get that sorted out for the best.
and such terrific views from your apartment. best of luck with everything.
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Thanks David and guys.
Hong Kong is strange. In some ways it is like the anti-China. People wait for the lights before they cross the road. They stub out their cigarettes in the ubiquitous cigarette bins. The law is the law here. There are also many British leftovers, not just driving on the left. Other things are very Chinese - eating habits and saving face. But it is remarkably easy to get used to this place. It is so unalien to me. I can't quite believe my daily commute is from a sleepy seaside village to thye most densely-populated city on earth. :)
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Your living 75% of a wonderful dream , just have to get the other 25% to Hong Kong . Your Wife .
I look at my HK calendar everyday and I miss that beautiful City .
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Breathtaking, simply breathtaking........ :D
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The estate agent who found my flat has a conspiracy theory that China and Hong Kong have a secret agreement to prevent Chinese prostitutes from flooding the clean streets of Hong Kong. At first, I didn't believe him. Now I'm starting to.
I came to Hong Kong convinced that my wife would be able to get a dependency visa based on my working visa. The Human Resources department at my school in Hong Kong told me it would just be a formality. But it is not true. For any other country in the world (apart from Afghanistan, Korea, Cuba and Mainland China), it would have been a formality. But I only found out when I arrived. The HRD have been useless and unsympathetic. They said they would find out for me when I expressed my worries, but they did nothing. I had to find out by asking other people. Turns out there are many people, even parents of children in my school, where the father has Hong Kong ID, so do the children, because they were born here, but the mother is from mainland China, she can only have a 90 day toursit visa. So every 90 days, she takes the kids out of school, usually in term-time, to go to China for a week and reapply. How long will they do this? For ever? I call the HRD inhuman resources. They have not apologized for their multiple errors, or shown any reget on my behalf.
So, my wife has been trying to get a 90 day visa. Last week, it seemed she wouldn't even get that. She has been dealing with a particularly unhelpful person at her local office, and, as we all know, she can't apply anywhere else. We were seriously considering living and commuting from Shenzhen, and after I had signed a year's contract on my Hong Kong flat.
In order for her to apply for the 90 day visa the local office needed a copy of my Hong Kong ID card and a return home certificate. I explained to my wife that no such thing exists in Britain. Britain couldn't care less if I ever return home. But I sent a copy of my working visa, which is for 12 months, then renewable.
Hong Kong does not want my wife to come. China does not want her to leave. But I want her to come and she wants to come, and we are both very determined people. So, finally, today, China caved in to my wife's constant questions and let her have the 90 day visa. I will visit her in Changsha in my school half-term on the 16th - we will stay in Changsha until the 24th, her birthday, when we will come together to Hong Kong. Well, barring any more problems.
Well, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
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I am sorry to hear you are having such difficulty but that it appears you have SOME kind of solution. I hope you will be able to work things out in time so that you and your wife do not have to deal with these kind of issues any more.
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Its a tough haul when dealing with red tape and BureaucRats
My wife can only always get a 2 time entry visa thus my reason this time to do the more arduous route of Vancover, Beijing, Shenzhen. She gets to save one entry for after passing the interview in order to collect her visa. Of course having the government involved doesn't mean we will even pass this final hurdle.
I hope you get some sympathy from the government agency involved, but even having to reapply every 3 months gets to be tiring.
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Philip,
I am glad to hear that your wife got her 90 day visa. At least you two can have that time together, barring any other bureaucratic nonsence. Enjoy your time together.
Dave C.
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How long will the application take to renew once she returns to China? My wife had to wait something like twelve weeks to get the pass to go to Hong Kong. It is valid for 6 months but she needs to go to a travel agent to get it signed to the effect that she has a return ticket before they will admit her to Hong Kong!
We have not bothered to use it yet. Mind you we had a lay over in Hong Kong of many, many hours earlier last week and I could have gone out wandering around HK but she would have had to stay in the Airport terminal.
Just as an aside. Many workers in Hong Kong travel back to the mainland on Friday by ferry and return to HK for work on the Monday.
Willy
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Sai Kung indeed is a very beautiful place to live. So many outdoor activity you can do.Have you gone hiking on the Maclehose Trail? I will depart to Saikung tomorrow for national holliday.
My classmate is Hong Kong Citizen, He married a maindland wife, I heard his wife also need to apply for the 90 days visa each time she wants to visit HK. His wife needs to wait 5 years that she can relocate to Hong Kong then she is allowed to work in Hong Kong. Then after she live HK for 7 years,then she can be a HK citizen.
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Well, my wife is amazing. I don't really deserve such happiness. She was due to come to Hong Kong with me this week, but for reasons I will explain, she should be here next weekend.
From the beginning, I told her that I really wanted to have a child with her. She said that she was not sure if she could have more children (she has two already). She asked me if I would leave her if she couldn't have children. I told her I would never leave her. We decided that we would go to a hospital in Changsha last week to check out what the complications might be. A doctor had previously told her that she couldn't have children. I said we should get a second opinion, and this time from an expert. We went to the gynaecological hospital in Changsha. They did some scans, then booked her in for surgery to remove the fallopian tube blockage. She went under the knife on Thursday, the surgery was successful, I spent two days with her, trying to be supportive, and she is now recovering for another week. She is in a lot of pain from the 4 inch incision, but she is very brave and uncomplaining, is getting better every day, and walking around her room a bit. I am in Hong Kong, for work, but I wish I was with her. I have so much admiration for her. We both hope and pray that we can have a baby.
The surgeons were good, as far as I can tell. (Though one of them warned her that I might have a wife and children in England - not very helpful for a woman who has just undergone major surgery!)
The nurses do not really understand the concept of pastoral care, they just give medicine and drips and don't ask how she is doing. But if the surgeons were good at their job, I suppose I can live with the uncaring nurses.
As I said, my wife is amazing. Would I have gone through such pain, uncomplaining, if I had to to go through the same experience? I honestly don't think so.
p.s. sorry, Yan, for not getting back to you. I hope you enjoyed your holiday. I have done quite a bit of cycling, hiking and swimming here in Sai Kung. Today was 28 degrees, still a bit hot for proper hiking. Soon, I plan to take a boat to one of the fabulous beaches that are inaccessible by road. I can't wait until my wife arrives.
Oh, by the way, it is my wife's birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZHIMEI!
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Phil, Happy Birthday to your beautiful wife Zhimei, I truly wish her a speedy and successful recovery and may you be blessed with many happy, healthy children together.
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Nice to hear that Philip. Maybe get across on the ferry to meet you one day as I had to call off our last proposed meet up in London.
Willy
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Happy birthday Zhimei, and I hope you have a fast recovery. I hope the surgery works well for the both of you.
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Hope everything goes well philip,
i hope that your dreams can come true,
the most wonderful gift in life is a baby
with a Chinese wife,
i wish you every success and happiness
regards joey
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Truly amazing women :) May Zhimei have a swift recovery and of course HAPPY BIRTHDAY too,from Min zhi and myself ;D
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Philip,
May her recovery go well and maybe next year the two of you will be blessed with a little one.
Ted
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Best wishes Philip from Sunny and myself.
Hopefully in years to come you will celebrate one extra birthday (or more!!) each year :)
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Great info Philip , we truly hope that all is well and Zhemei is feeling better and can soon join you , regards Sujuan and Robert .
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Philip, I hope your wife recovers quickly and all is well. I know you are looking forward to having her with you.
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Phillip
The nurses are you could say robotic. They just do their job, passing out the meds, change the drip, give a shot now and then. I found the same thing here in Harbin when I was in the hospital. And what the Doctor said about a wife in England, that just goes to show the misconceptions these people have about western Men. Just as people in the west have the same misconceptions of Chinese women.
This journey turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to a lot of people. But most people only remember the bad ones, and it happens on both sides.
Happy Birthday to your wife. And I am glad to hear all went well with her operation. That must have been a big relief in itself.
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Philip ,your wife indeed very brave. Love make her brave! Hope to hear good news from you soon.
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Philip,
I hope your wife has a speedy recovery. Happy birthday to her too, even if it is a little late. Don't worry about the nurses as long as they are giving the proper care and hopefully the operation is a success. :)
Dave C
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Thanks guys for all your kind wishes. Zhimei and I took the sleeper train last night from Changsha to Shenzhen. This morning, I lugged a few tons of luggage through customs (my wife is not in a fit state to carry anything). She had no problems getting into Hong Kong with her 90 day visa. (By the way, with my temporary Hong Kong ID card, I only need to feed it into a machine and show my thumbprint to get through Hong Kong customs - just a couple of seconds - simple). We took the KCR train, 25 minutes - from Lo Wu to Sha Tin, then a 40 minute bus ride to our home. We climbed the 86 steps (slowly), from the road to our apartment.
At about 12.00, we stood out on the balcony, in the hot Hong Kong sunshine, in each other's arms, and looked out over the bay, contemplating the beginning of our future together.
Then my wife searched for the rice (I had a big bag) and perused the instructions for an electronic cooking device, which is like a rice cooker, but multi-purpose. We bought this in China, along with another device I'd never seen - it seems to be a mix of liquidizer and kettle. Soup, anyone?
Wish me luck with the 24-hour rule. This is my first marriage, so the true test starts now, now we are actually living together. I will need to remind myself of thisif I occasionally lapse into bachelor-mode. Ha ha
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Happy days Phillip :) and I hope there are many more to follow. The best of luck to both of you on your new life together!
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Great news. Like you said the 24 hour rule. May it always be foresight and not hindsight.
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OK. Just finished my first term at school here in Hong Kong. Now I have two weeks' holiday. Work has been very good. I have an amazing class of four-year-olds. I only have to play one note on a triangle, and they stop what they are doing and look at me, waiting for me to tell them they have got 5 more minutes to play (in English or Cantonese).
I have been living with my wife here in Hong Kong for a month and a half now. It has been mostly very good, but she doesn't go out much yet. She is much better at Cantonese than I (or she) thought she was, but she prefers to stay at home while I am at work, chatting to her family and friends on QQ and watching Chinese TV. We go for nice walks along the coast road to the local town, Sai Kung, and watch the fish sellers selling their weird and wonderful creatures. She refuses to take the bus, as the HK$5 charge offends her frugal nature, ha ha!
Now, the 90 days of her visa are coming to and end at the end of the month, she must go to Hengyang to talk sweetly to her local official, with bribes of perfume, to get another 90 days.
On the way, we will have lunch with her young cousin in Shenzhen, visit her friend in Dongguan (and try and get a cheap apartment there, while her visa is being processed). Then we go to Changsha, where, depending on circumstances, I will finally get to meet her 2 children and her father, who is not aware that we are married. We hope to accompany him to Mao's birthplace on a bus trip (he has always wanted to go). My wife tells me that he likes French wine, so I will bring along a nice Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a nice St Emilion. I'm not sure if we're going to get drunk together, or he will throw me out, keep the Chateauneuf for ten years, sell it at a profit and hire a hitman to kill me. We'll see.
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Great update Phillip. It sounds like things are going fairly well...with the exception of your wife's visa issue. Glad to hear from you.
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Hi everyone and Happy New Year.
I have just spent a very eventful 2 weeks with my wife in China.
Warning: this is a long post!
On December 18th, Zhimei and I took a train to Shenzhen, then took a metro and taxi to meet my wife’s cousin, David. We had a nice meal and I ordered a laptop and a phone for her son Peng Fei, who is 12. He normally never strings two words together, but he was absolutely ecstatic at the news when we told him on the phone. He has had a rather deprived upbringing, but the computer will really help him with his schoolwork (and his interest in gaming!). David has installed some good software , checked it and sent it to him in Changning).
Next day, we took a bus to Guangzhou and a high-speed train to Changsha. I love Changsha. It is dirty, grey and the buildings are mostly cathedrals of concrete, but I can’t help loving it. It is real. There are amazing contradictions between the aggressive and ambitious building work that is going on and the almost Dickensian housing right next it. I like nothing better than to eat at one of the restaurants with the dishes laid out in bowls on large steam trays. We stayed at the Mellow Orange hotel next to the station – very nice - 169rmb.
On the 20th, we tried to get my wife a check-up at the gynaecological hospital she stayed at in October, but there was a power cut, so the doctors, sitting in candle-light, told her, they couldn’t check anything. We met her Changsha friend in her dark little home. I had a rough, but invigorating massage from the old blind guy who lived next door, for 30rmb. I was told not to speak, even when it hurt, because my wife had told the man I was from Guangdong. I don’t know what difference that would have made (maybe the price), but I’m glad he didn’t massage my face, the game would have been up! We onblyt staye3d for one meal at her friend’s – she spent most of the time screaming at her 8-year old son for not doing his homework. She is still holding on to the idea that she will get compensation for the motorbike accident she had in April – ain’t ever gonna happen, but she won’t let it go. It’s eating her up and she’s taking it out on everyone.
Next day, we did some sightseeing and walking (lots of walking). Why take a bus for 2rmb, when you can walk half of Changsha? Ha ha!
On the 22nd, we took a trip to my wife’s hometown, Changning. To get there, we took a two hour train south to Hengyang, then a 2 hour ramshackle bus ride to Changning. The ticket collector was very entertaining – she spent the whole time arguing furiously on her phone (which had a Benny Hill theme ringtone) and laughing in conversation with my wife. Changning reminds me of those one-street cities in the Mid-West. Montains of red dust covers everything and everybody. I was surprised not to see tumbleweed rolling past. There are no street lights, which was strange. And building sites were everywhere. We checked in at the nearest hotel, which had not been renovated (or even cleaned) this century. We were met by my 74 year-old father-in-law and my 8 year-old stepdaughter, Yi Ting. I shook his hand, he was quiet, but not unfriendly. Yi Ting was quite sweet and mischievous, but we had a nice time playing hand-clapping games as we walked the half-mile to the house she and her brother shared with her grandfather. They live in a large, barely-furnished 6th floor apartment. I gave the father the 2 bottles of French wine. He nodded thank you. Peng Fei arrived at around 8, back from school. We said hello, but he didn’t say a word all evening. Even with my wife, he gave one monosyllabic answer to every 5 questions she asked. He seemed very shy. We all ate a meal at a local restaurant, together with my wife’s sister-in-law and her teenage son. It was quite subdued, but OK.
On the 23rd, we moved into a rather posh new hotel, which looks very incongruous next to all the drab buildings on the main strip. The marketing manager, mistaking me for a big businessman, insisted on carrying our bags and offering us a tour of Changning. My wife went to the local police station to get her visa for Hong Kong renewed and apply for a passport. Then we took the officer dealing with her case out for a meal after she finished work for the morning. We gave her the perfume we had bought to bribe her. It seemed to do the trick. She was happy and smiling talking to my wife, and she offered to send the finished visa and passport to my wife’s cousin’s address in Shenzhen when it was ready, rather than Zhimei having to return to Changning. We went shopping for a computer table and chair and a water heater for the children, we went to the apartment again, to find Yi Ting and three of her pink-coated school friends huddled on the floor doing their homework under a table lamp. We ate duck for the evening meal. My wife decided that the children would stay with us in the hotel, much to the chagrin of her father, who called her a ‘disobedient daughter’ , I found out later. The kids loved the hotel, especially Peng Fei, who enjoyed himself playing games on the computer.
On the 24th, it was Zhimei’s father’s birthday, so we bought him a watch and ordered him a cake. I think he was in a bit of a mood from the previous day, so we didn’t stay long at the apartment. The weather was turning from mild dry weather to cold drizzle, but there wasn’t enough rain to wash the red dust from the streets. In the evening, Zhimei and I went to a coffee shop and watched the street for the children returning home from school. Strange as it may seem, but in the 18 months of knowing her, she has never spoken about her mother, and this despite a few attempts to ask her about her. But, as we sat there drinking coffee, she told me that when she was born, she was very ill. Her mother had not been able to cope, and sent her to her aunt, who brought her up for the first 5 years of her life. She said her aunt was very kind and saved her life. When she was 5, she returned to her parents. Her mother died 8 years ago. Zhimei did not see her very much towards the end. I had originally said I would like to see her birthplace, a village nearby, but now I said I did not need to go. She did not want to go back, and she said that it would not be good if her father’s relatives saw me. He has 9 brothers and sisters, many of whom still live in the village. Three of them have 5 children and they would all expect a large handout if they saw a western man with my wife. But mostly, she did not want to be reminded of an unhappy time in her life. When the kids arrived, I made a little breakthrough with Peng Fei. He wrote, ‘Play magic’ on my electronic translator and handed it to me with a shy smile. I said I didn’t do magic, but I knew some card games, and proceeded to teach him a few simple card games using my trusty pack. He and I had a great time. We spent another night in the hotel with the kids – very nice.
On Christmas Day, we had breakfast in the hotel. As we were eating, we looked out of the window, almost simultaneously. Thick flakes of snow were transforming the dirty red street with a beautiful white carpet. Magical. White Christmas in Changning. Peng Fei and I had a snowball fight in the car park. We watched a few Christmas movies in the hotel room. I helped Peng Fei with his English homework. I had a lot of fun with Yi Ting, giving her piggy-back rides and her teaching me how to write so9me Chinese words.
The next day, we took lots of ‘Moddy’s’ (motor bike taxis) into town and back.It is an experience, 3 on a bike in Chinese traffic. We helped Peng Fei set up a bank account in his name, for him to have a monthly allowance for him and his sister. We had a last meal together with her father in a restaurant. He ordered his favourite, dog. I thought it was duck, the way my wife said it, but, no, it was dog. Whoops.
On the 27th, Zhimei and I took a bus to Changsha and checked in at the Mellow Orange hotel again. The hospital still couldn’t help us. For the next few days, we just enjoyed each other’s company walking around Changsha and looking at the fascinating markets.
On New Year’s Eve, we received the news that Zhimei’s father and children were on a bus to Changsha. The children had the weekend off from school, and her father wanted to fulfil his long-cherished dream of visiting Mao’s birthplace in Shaoshan. They had a few hairy moments on the way, when her father went to the toilet and didn’t return, when Peng Fei was in the line to buy tickets at Hengyang station, but he eventually reappeared. They eventually arrived in Changsha at about 11pm, and we found a restaurant that was open late. My wife went to order the food with the kids. I was left alone with her father. He said ‘cesuo’ and I was proud to show him where the toilets were (long experience of drinking Chinese beer, which goes through me like water, has given me an intimate knowledge of the location of all the toilets in Changsha, haha.) He was suitably impressed. Then we found out that the restaurant was out of rice?!!!. When dad returned, I told him, ‘mei you fan’, and he was amazed that I could speak Chinese, and he actually understood me. He ordered some alcoholic drink which looked like wine, but tasted like meths mixed with vinegar. We shared a toast and he looked almost happy.
On New Year’s day, all five of us crammed into a taxi (the cheapest option) and took a very bumpy two-hour journey across Hunan countryside to Shaoshan. The weather was freezing, with a biting wind to match. We joined a queue to look at the farmhouse where Mao was born, his bedroom, the small dining room where many important meetings were held. Her father and I walked through the rooms, sometimes exchanging a smile. He refused to have his photo taken, but enjoyed the visit. Apparently, my wife’s brothers have been sending him money for years to make trips abroad, to Australia and the States, but they have been too busy with work to accompany him, so he has never actually gone. This time, he was able to visit somewhere he had wanted to go for a long time. We shared some stinky tofu from a street seller (apparently Mao’s favourite dish) and walked around the museum. It was all in Chinese, so I didn’t really understand much. I just looked at the pictures, including some rather Jesus-like portraits. But my wife diligently read the words to her father and he pointed at the portraits and asked who the people were. Stupid me then realized that her father was not only illiterate, but had sacrificed a lot to make sure that his daughter was well-educated. Now I knew why she had advised me not to communicate with him using the electronic translator. Later I asked her if he enjoyed the trip. She said he was happy. The trip home was fun. I think in order to avoid a 10rmb toll, the taxi driver took a country route. We stopped 4 or 5 times, either because of a road accident, or because the road was blocked with a pile of rubble, or because the road just stopped. Yi Ting was sick about 3 times, and I got a real picture of the Hunan countryside.
We had a final meal in Changsha together, and Zhimei and the kids accompanied me to the station for me to catch the 23.54 overnight train to Shenzhen.
So, here I am at home in Hong Kong, warmer than Changsha, but missing my wife and new family. Hopefully, her next 90 day visa will come on about the 10th January. Happy New Year everyone. This Chinese New Year has been the year of the tiger, my wife’s sign. This year will be the year of the rabbit, my sign. I hope it is a lucky year for everyone.
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A terrific read Philip , thanks for all the illuminating descriptions , I have been on an all day bus tour to the birthplace of Mao along with a number of other area's that he frequented , I was told at the time just how many people per week visited this area , and it was mind blowing way over the hundred thousand , now if everyone of them would spend 1 yuan with me I could afford Willy's lifestyle ha ha , but it showed just how revered he is , and yes Changsha is great with its old and new , loved the shopping and the river cruises and also the museum and Martyr's park beside , regards Sujuan and Robert .
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Great read Phillip. I always look forward to your updates.
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Philip, Great story, thanks for sharing. Alan
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wow, a great read about a great and successful trip. I understand about the in law not understanding you, Xia's mother does not speak or understand any English and I have very limited Chinese, I usually stop at Ni hao ma? and wo hen hao, ni? before I embarrass myself. She calls me Jay Ce (my adopted Chinese name, which I quite like) and Xia usually translates for me. But she seems impressed when I try to talk to her in Chinese. She also has a little statue of Mao in the home and every time Xia sees it she says Chairman Mao, I guess after all this time people still are in awe of him and he died in 1976 and Xia was born in 1975.
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Phillip , appreciate your detailed and very nice Time with your Wife - Wife's Family . Happy New Year ( Rabbit ) , now I know your Hopping like a Rabit out of Joy .
haha .. so are we .
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Here are a couple of photos from my recent China trip. One is with my new little family on Christmas day, having breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The other is on New Year's Day, standing outside the farmhouse where Mao was born.
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Thanks for the update Philip, since I always like pictures - I hope that your wife has finally rejoined you with a newly intact visa.
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Wow great pictures Phillip but boy it does look so cold there. I agree I hope your wife received her visa on the 10/1. I am looking forward to my trip in February, besides getting married we are going to go around China for our honeymoon. I can feel a trip to ZARA or some other clothes shop coming on to get some winter clothes when I get there. In Sydney in winter we have about 5 days of 0 degrees only and that is usually only overnight so I do not have anything very warm to wear.
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Today is my wife and I's first wedding anniversary. Life still presents many difficulties and challenges. We are being pulled in many different directions. My job is in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong does not welcome my wife. My wife's children are in China, and I am not sure her ex-husband will let them leave. My family and friends are in England and some of my family, my house and all my belongings are in France. We do not know how we can bring all or some of these disparate elements together. What I do know is that tonight, I will go to a restaurant with my wife, in my local town, Sai Kung, and we will celebrate our first year of marriage. Ours is a love which adversity cannot dent. I wish all the best for everyone on their journey to happiness
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I am glad that I had the chance to meet the two of you. Best wishes on this first of hopefully many anniversaries. Guang Bay my friend ;)
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Happy anniversary. I hope this next year will bring many positive resolutions for you and your family.