Matts blog

I’m not sure China has quite got the concept of e tickets for air travel yet, it should really be collect ticket at airport service, though thats obviously not quite so catchy.

So for the second time in 18 months I’ve quit my job, and this time it was a lot easier than with Thus. I think I’d kinda got a bit fed up here, theres only so long you can work with lathargic, un inventive people before it starts to wear off on you, and I don’t want that to happen - as nice as my collegues are, they’ve not got a get-up-and-go attitude, its like walking through treacle ;( I’m also ready to get on with New Zealand, I’ve already been checking www.trademe.co.nz to work out whats going to go in my shed, I’m just not sure what to build first, the jet engine, a sand rail, or something else.

I’ve also finally got tickets out of China - my last day of work is the 13th December, and I fly on the 15th, the lovely people at Seven Seas are coming to take away all the junk we’ve bought here (which will no doubt break in 2 months time) on the 12th.

So for the second time in 18 months I’ve quit my job, and this time it was a lot easier than with Thus. I think I’d kinda got a bit fed up here, theres only so long you can work with lathargic, un inventive people before it starts to wear off on you, and I don’t want that to happen - as nice as my collegues are, they’ve not got a get-up-and-go attitude, its like walking through treacle ;( I’m also ready to get on with New Zealand, I’ve already been checking www.trademe.co.nz to work out whats going to go in my shed, I’m just not sure what to build first, the jet engine, a sand rail, or something else.

I’ve also finally got tickets out of China - my last day of work is the 13th December, and I fly on the 15th, the lovely people at Seven Seas are coming to take away all the junk we’ve bought here (which will no doubt break in 2 months time) on the 12th.

You would think that ordering tickets on a website and collecting them would be straight forward, even in China, but Oh No! it couldn’t be simple could it?? When I arrived at the Jianwai SoHo building to find I couldn’t collect international tickets at the weekend. So Monday arrives, and I had an email waiting for me, the flight I’d booked doesn’t fly on that day!!! Fantastic automated booking system…

So after a several phone calls and transfers to non existant extensions, I eventually rearrange the flight, and get email confirmation of the details, and attached to it a thread of emails coming from the VP of Asia Pacific of Exedia, commenting on the quality (or lack thereof) of the international elong call center. Obviously after my previous 2 hours of dead end phone calls I took this opportunity to provide some real life feedback to the top, find the views on internal emails escaping.

I was quite suprised to find, 30 minutes later, that I had an email waiting for me from the VP, and an interestin one too, and since then I’ve had a number of others from elong staff, shame the attention to customers wasn’t this high in the first place

Anyway, I finally have my tickets, and now I’m off to trade in my elong points for something - points really do mean prizes!!!!

So I have just ordered flights to Melbourne on the 14th December, via Guangzhou for the bargin price of 3600RMB one way. Which makes it all very official, I’m leaving china. Not quite sure what to make of it yet. …

So we’ve decided its time to move on from China, Lizzie has had her working hours significantly reduced, and I’m missing being active and doing sports (and cooking food in an oven) so I’ve decided to not renew my Chiese working visa and have started to apply for Jobs in New Zealand, I’ve already heard positive things from a couple of recruitment agents so maybe I’l end up with the job of my dreams. Its likely I’ll be in Oz for Christmas then fly to NZ and start a job after the new year, but everything is very flexible right now!

I’m most looking forward to driving, cooking lasagne, riding my bike (without the risk of being run over), and talking english without havng to slow down!!!

So, here we are in Xian, pretty cool place (cold too) but obviously the highlight is the Terracotta Army, its quite an amazing sight, I’d seen pictures before, and talked to my parents about their trip several years ago, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as impressive as it was. As usual theres pictures at the usual place.

For all of you out there that want to take advantage of cheap calls from NZ, China, US and UK, and hopefully Australia shortly, check out www.0064.co.nz I’ve been developing and using it to keep in contact with family all over the place, and its pretty good, and cheap. Best of all though, I run it, so if you have problems, you know who to talk to!!

I was getting on a plane to leave South Africa at the end of an amazing trip, wish I was there now