For the past few weeks I have been planning my next visa run and then trying to think of the one after that which will be around March next year. The upcoming visa run will take me to Singapore, where I am hoping to catch a glimpse of the Solar Eclipse which is taking place on the 26th of December. When I was looking at the “Time and Date” website I happened to notice the small pop up which spoke of the next eclipse. I’m lucky that it just happens to coincide with my visa run. I’ll visit Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand before returning to China.
Next year holds so many unknowns for me, I don’t know if I really want to return to China, I don’t know if I will get another visa because I will be 60 years old and the visas for a longer stay other than a tourist visa have age restrictions so I’m told. I’m not really sure if I want to return to my current accommodation, which is an Airbnb house and for the most part it is OK but other times it interferes with my life and I hate it. Most of the people that have been though here have been OK, but at times it becomes oh so tedious having to cover the same ground with each new person that comes through the door and of course some of them are just a bloody nuisance… If it was a share house with the same folk then that would be ok, and so there is part of me that will come back here because the location is perfect but sometimes the compromises are too great and this may win in the end. So if I don’t live here, where will I live?
I would like to live in the UK for a while but if I do this I will of course have to find employment as I do not have the finances to live there for months on end. I doubt if I can sign on the dole because I haven’t lived there for over 30 years and then this brings its own headaches, too many questions. The last time I did this was back in 1991 when I returned from Australia, I went to the brew to see if I could sign on and it was like the Spanish inquisition trying to get my 30 pieces of silver from them. They had me sitting in a small room sitting opposite the “Brew person” who was sitting behind what looked like bullet proof glass. I brought in my return airline ticket; those were the days when they actually gave you a proper ticket. “Why was I coming back to the UK? Why am I not staying in Australia? And so it went on and eventually after I signed my life away I got me Giro. If I had been a refugee or a newcomer to the UK instead of being a British citizen then maybe the process might have been easier and so I will not hold my breath if I follow this path on my return, although then again maybe the pain of a meeting like this might be worth it, after all the last time I did go back to work for a few weeks and I would have paid my dole money back to the government. Mind you they got very pissed off when I tried to ask for a tax refund on my exit from the country and to this day I feel that there are flags and big notes beside my tax file to inform whoever I talk to that I may be a bit dodgy, which of course is not true of course, mind you I did get done for tax evasion back in the 80’s, but that is another story. I hear that the current dole is around £72 a week and this would be a nice little top up to help me survive a few months in the UK, once again I’ll wait and see what happens and I’ll go the brew and ask a few questions.
I want to go and explore old places and new places, I want to walk the West Highland Way and Hadrian’s Wall and maybe cycle some of the national cycle way, but at the end of the day this all costs money of which I really do not have enough of. If I could stay for maybe 3 month and do what I wish to do and stay in the UK over summer and then depending on what happens with the China thing, the visa etc, then maybe I’ll return here or it’s back to Australia for a bit.
Anyway I think I need to leave China by the end of March 2020 and then I’m thinking of going to Petra, Egypt, Greece and I would love to go to Barcelona before finally arriving in the UK to start my adventures there. On the way back east I’ll fly to Sydney and then go back to Brisbane before my next move. By this time I will have my answer to the visa question and then I will either stay in Australia for a bit and get back into the rat race for a short time to replenish the bank balance, but this will also bring new challenges and so 2020 has many questions but very few answers at this stage, but I will of course deal with each one in due course.
At least I have choices, which is a good thing and I am happy to embrace change and a little uncertainty in the knowing that no matter what I will do all will be well. I have great faith in myself to find a solution to the problems that I encounter along the way and of course “Luck” has played a big part in my life and long may it continue.