Colin:
Moving to Beijing can hardly be described as a spontaneous move. Last year we considered going somewhere abroad to work and sifted through the various options my company could offer and only after much deliberation did Beijing make it to the top of the list. A position was offered and a moving date after Eleanor would give birth in October made it feel that we had plenty of time to organise our life before moving out in a calm and collected manner. This lasted about a week when we were told that my job had changed and it now meant starting as soon as possible, with the unlikely timeframe of 6 weeks set. Cue a furiously busy time trying to get our house in order for renting, organising visas, packing and spending any spare time seeing as many friends as we could before we left. Many thanks to those who came to visit or rescheduled plans at the last minute - we didn't have much flexibility at this point! Thankfully we saw many of our good friends before leaving with the most common comment being "you're brave". Not feeling all that brave we nodded and said our thanks while wondering how this was all going to turn out. At first glance it does look like a lot of change, our first baby on the way, a new country to live in and a new job to get to grips with. On the other hand I've been told that just the first will turn your life upside down anyway so hopefully the other two pale in comparison :-)
Eleanor:
We have reached the end of Phase 1 of the "Big Move": after the last 7 weeks of crazy organisation, we finally flew out to Beijing. A final trip to the recycling centre, some vacuuming (using the borrowed cleaner after ours had broken with 2 rooms to go the previous day), taking said cleaner back to it's owners and saying a last goodbye, and leaving the car in Colin's work's car park (paperwork already left with a friend in preparation for being sold - thanks Matt!), we were ready to leave. Our taxi to the airport was not as large as we had hoped for but we managed to squeeze everything in once we had utilized the front passenger seat for our largest bag, and had an uneventful journey down.
We had anticipated a struggle at the check-in desk as all 3 conversations we had had with BA customer services had left us with the distinct impression that they would stick to the letter of their hand luggage policy and not allow the violin and viola on as hand luggage. It's not ideal for them them to be in the hold but the thought of baggage handlers at each end was making us very uneasy. In the the end though we were just waved through. Whether this was due to the premier economy seats, local interpretation of the rules or me saying they were coming on as hand luggage in a very certain (and polite) tone is unknown but we were very grateful.
The 10 hour flight was also not as bad as expected, mostly due to the aforementioned premier economy seats (usually it's economy all the way). Slightly more room, better reclining angles, better food (unless that is just standard for BA?) along with a decent entertainment system got us through. We were particularly impressed by a family who had the 2 seats next to us and 3 in front for mum, dad, 3 children and a small baby. When we boarded the plane we had one of those 'uh oh' moments but the children were entertained and slept most of the night and all through the landing and we didn't hear a peep out of the baby. On arrival at Beijing, we got through the passport checks very quickly and were picked up and taken to our hotel.
Moving to Beijing can hardly be described as a spontaneous move. Last year we considered going somewhere abroad to work and sifted through the various options my company could offer and only after much deliberation did Beijing make it to the top of the list. A position was offered and a moving date after Eleanor would give birth in October made it feel that we had plenty of time to organise our life before moving out in a calm and collected manner. This lasted about a week when we were told that my job had changed and it now meant starting as soon as possible, with the unlikely timeframe of 6 weeks set. Cue a furiously busy time trying to get our house in order for renting, organising visas, packing and spending any spare time seeing as many friends as we could before we left. Many thanks to those who came to visit or rescheduled plans at the last minute - we didn't have much flexibility at this point! Thankfully we saw many of our good friends before leaving with the most common comment being "you're brave". Not feeling all that brave we nodded and said our thanks while wondering how this was all going to turn out. At first glance it does look like a lot of change, our first baby on the way, a new country to live in and a new job to get to grips with. On the other hand I've been told that just the first will turn your life upside down anyway so hopefully the other two pale in comparison :-)
Eleanor:
We have reached the end of Phase 1 of the "Big Move": after the last 7 weeks of crazy organisation, we finally flew out to Beijing. A final trip to the recycling centre, some vacuuming (using the borrowed cleaner after ours had broken with 2 rooms to go the previous day), taking said cleaner back to it's owners and saying a last goodbye, and leaving the car in Colin's work's car park (paperwork already left with a friend in preparation for being sold - thanks Matt!), we were ready to leave. Our taxi to the airport was not as large as we had hoped for but we managed to squeeze everything in once we had utilized the front passenger seat for our largest bag, and had an uneventful journey down.
We had anticipated a struggle at the check-in desk as all 3 conversations we had had with BA customer services had left us with the distinct impression that they would stick to the letter of their hand luggage policy and not allow the violin and viola on as hand luggage. It's not ideal for them them to be in the hold but the thought of baggage handlers at each end was making us very uneasy. In the the end though we were just waved through. Whether this was due to the premier economy seats, local interpretation of the rules or me saying they were coming on as hand luggage in a very certain (and polite) tone is unknown but we were very grateful.
The 10 hour flight was also not as bad as expected, mostly due to the aforementioned premier economy seats (usually it's economy all the way). Slightly more room, better reclining angles, better food (unless that is just standard for BA?) along with a decent entertainment system got us through. We were particularly impressed by a family who had the 2 seats next to us and 3 in front for mum, dad, 3 children and a small baby. When we boarded the plane we had one of those 'uh oh' moments but the children were entertained and slept most of the night and all through the landing and we didn't hear a peep out of the baby. On arrival at Beijing, we got through the passport checks very quickly and were picked up and taken to our hotel.
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