I’ve remembered why I blogged from Japan. Yes, it’s nice to record what we do, both for ourselves and to save writing the same emails over and over to family and friends – but it is also a way to let the stress out.

Stress levels currently soaring in the pink house. (On the bright side, it is helping to reduce the alcohol mountain, which we will not be allowed to take with us.) If we are to get to China before the start of the school year, all documentation must be submitted before 26th June. Not all documents are straightforward – Maggie being born in Japan feels less like a fun story of adventure and more like a complete pain in the bum just now – and government agencies do not move fast. (When you email them, you get a boilerplate email back that says that if they decide to reply, they will do so within 5 working days. If, however, they decide your query is pointless and stupid, they will just delete it.)

So, (last October) ‘Shanghai’, he says. ‘Only about a 5% chance I’ll get the job. Hardly likely at all. YOLO*’. I say ‘mmm’ in what I imagine is a noncommittal tone, and off we go.

A couple of sleepless nights then I kind of forget about it. Corporate wheels turn very very slowly. We don’t book a summer holiday or commit to anything much after the summer, but otherwise it is business as usual. Maggie chooses her options and applies to go on the school Spanish trip next year. We do not sign up for another 2-year phone contract.

Time passes. I start to casually cross-examine anybody I know who has visited China, in a purely disinterested manner. We will definitely know by January. By Easter. Soon.

May, Cameron has a job interview. We can start to make plans, although the job is not formally announced for several more weeks. The relocation team do not wake up for another month or so but at least we can get a head start on choosing schools, getting vaccinations and so forth.

So here we are in June, trying to get officially approved copies of various certificates, which have to go to (somewhere in the government) for 10 days then the Chinese consulate for nobody knows how long, and wondering why we must go to London for a medical when there are perfectly adequate doctors here.

*He does not say YOLO, of course, nor are there wacky hand gestures. He’s a man in his forties. The sentiment is expressed in a complete and grammatically correct sentence.