Now that the rain has stopped and the temperature has risen, we are enjoying our new home town, Chippenham, a lot more!
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Yesterday was a day of many frustrations, but today was a little better. We now have a TV, my updated driving license arrived (allowing me to apply to open a new bank account) and, most importantly, our boiler was fixed, allowing us to have hot showers at long last. We now have to find a way to get an official document which has Jiajia's name and our address on it. Everyone says they need one from someone else first to provide one!? Yesterday we checked out the route to JD's new school, passing through woods, by streams and to the sound of birdsong. Today he went on an induction morning there and thoroughly enjoyed himself, including making a "new friend"! JD then spent this afternoon attacking our overgrown garden, managing to leave it as "just soil" by the end.
My brother Dave drove us from Hereford to Chippenham yesterday and we saw out new little house for the first time. It's in Gabriel Mews, a 2-bed with a small (overgrown) garden. Our good friends Krista and Stuart live in Chippenham and have been buying furniture, decorating and repairing our house over recent months to make our move there as smooth and homely as possible. They've done such a great job - we were gobsmacked when we arrived at how "ready" it was for us to move into. Tomorrow we plan to go hunting for a washing machine, a car, a TV and a hoover!
JD's new Secondary School in Chippenham was finalised yesterday when we accepted an offer of a place at "Sheldon School" (our first choice). Another small step towards our relocation to the UK.
We've also visited half a dozen other properties during our time in Chippenham with a view to buying another one to rent out. As we drove back to Sidcup yesterday we decided to make an offer on this ground floor flat in West End Close. Our initial offer wasn't accepted but we think we might be close to an agreement. Watch this space.... [23rd July: Our revised offer was accepted. Let the paperwork begin!]
One of our main aims for this year's visit to the UK was to view the flat we purchased earlier this year (sight unseen, but on the recommendation of trusted friends!). It's the one behind the white car. We were very impressed by the repairs and decoration that had been done for us by a handyman and our friends. A tenant is already in.
My brother Dave (plus wife Sarah and daughter Esme) visited us in Chippenham yesterday [top left] and it was really lovely to see them all. JD still has a few memories of when Dave and Esme visited us in China. Their visit coincided with Chippenham's annual festival which, this year, was themed around space and sci-fi. I was dead excited to see a phalanx of stormtroopers [top right].
I drove us down to Chippenham in Wiltshire today in a hire car. Earlier this year we bought a small buy-to-let flat here and we hope to move to the town permanently sometime in the 2020s. We'll spend a week here getting to know the area better and looking at more flats with a view to invest again later if we can. But first things first - a slow puncture to deal with!
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AuthorPaul Hider lived & worked in China for over 20 years and kept this blog to share his rather odd life there. Past blog entries
July 2024
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