Where am I? I am in a hotel and I can see the Bund and the Pearl Tower and the glistening lights of Shanghai. The last few days have been bad emotionally but I am now tired of the lingering and wishing to get stuck into my job in the Middle East. Sunday, like Saturday was a wash out. I awoke and took a cab to the hospital for the last of my jabs. From there I went to my office to type and print out the reference letter for my Ayi. My Ayi. Such a wonderful person and very symbolic of my experiences of the average Chinese citizen. Firstly we didn’t employ her to work weekends but she offered to do so and she worked every day until I moved out. She made me tea and toast every morning and cleaned the flat every day. She helped pay my bills and she helped with anything I needed with nothing less than the wish to do so as if it was her duty in life. She never once rolled her eyes and never once gave it anything less than everything. This is what those fuckers that manoeuvred to get me fired fail to realise – attached to me are people that depend on my employment; our Ayi, our driver, the pizza delivery guy, the City Super Supermarket that sells crap imported food for high, high prices. All these people depend on me and now I have gone. I couldn’t give a jot either way obviously apart form the Ayi. To me it was, and still is, the very worst part of leaving here. Knowing that someone, so kind and so warm and happy in our family and adored by my son has to be fired and work with another family. Its very very sad.
I stayed up until 4AM Monday morning trying to pack and remember what I would need in Bahrain for six weeks whilst our belongings are shipped to our new home. I packed my sons toys away and again, disassembled my sons cot. I threw away hand written notes my wife had made about places to buy things, food recipes and places to eat and shop in Shanghai. I threw away traces of our life here. I was awoken at 8:00 AM Monday morning by the Ayi letting herself in and busying herself in the kitchen until I emerged from the bedroom awaiting the usual cup of tea. Normally this would be the start of her week but this was her, and my, last day in the apartment. Together we packed with me giving her things to put in boxes and then at 9AM the moving company arrived. More packing until a few hours later they had finished and I handed back the keys to the landlord. There was just the two of us – me and the Ayi. I had lots of Mao’s and Fen and Yuan coins I wanted to put in the bank so together we set off for the China bank. She helped me count the coins inside the branch and then that was it. Goodbye. She waved down a taxi and I put my case in the boot and we said our goodbyes both of us with tears in our eyes. She had just lost her job and I was leaving my home. I got in the taxi and didn’t look back it was too much and I cried for a few minutes after we pulled off.
Into the office and more small talk before finalising my salary and then to a hotel. The hotel. My first visit to Shanghai was early last year with another company (the yanks) and the very fist night we had a staff lunch in Hyatt on the Bund. It seemed like a magical place and I vowed to return with my wife but it never quite happened. So, for the sake of symmetry and in order to recuperate after a hellish week I checked in. Its freezing right now in Shanghai so there will be no poignant last minute strolls around the streets I have known and loved but more looking out of windows which this hotel does very well. Its luxurious and expensive yes but seeing as I don’t have anywhere to go or anything to do I have spent a lot of time here and got my moneys worth. Tonight is my last night and I can see the Pearl Tower and the Bund for the last time for a long time. It is still with a great deal of sadness that I leave here, my home and my colleagues but working where I am I have little choice – the company is going nowhere in Shanghai and I need to work with quality people and gain more experience in my industry. As they say – its a no brainer. I will be back of course but not for a year or so. Today I fly out to Bahrain (its 1AM now) and I leave Shanghai for a new life with new challenges but I will leave a part of me here forever. China, Shanghai has changed my perspective on life and given me much more than I have given it. I guess in the Paris of the East it apporiate to say au revoir. This is not goodbye.