I’m moving again! Six weeks, said my boss this morning, and I want to hear that you are settled in Shanghai with your family and ready to start work. Here is the phone number of our relocation specialist company. Call them for all the help you need with everything, including the movers. The first problem was telling my wife. Luckily the children are all out of the house so it’s just the two of us and our stuff that the movers will have to attend to.

Who will I play bridge with was my wife’s first reaction. Then it was followed by …and what about shopping? and …but I don’t speak the language... Then I called the movers to come and look at what had to be moved. We move once every ten years or so. The movers move someone every day. Things look different to them than they do to me. I see a mountain of problems. They see another routine job.

It was at 7am on a Friday morning that the movers came marching in. By noon they were out and the house was bare, not a thing to be seen. Anne and I moved into the Holiday Inn at the airport for a week until our flight.