It may have been mooted that I am not one for dithering about with half measures, but the move to China has been quick-sharp even by my standards. Turns out, when your Chinese contact says the turnaround from interview to start date is swift, what they actually mean is something along the lines of 'pack yer bags Laowai, you leave in two weeks'. As a result, the last fortnight has consisted chiefly of packing everything I own into two suitcases, photocopying everything of note in triplicate and running around like a maniac saying goodbye to lots of very lovely people. It was this last item that gave rise to the birth of Operation Glorious North. Objective: return to the lands of my birth and fill myself up with as much Yorkshire as humanly possible in order to sustain a continued period of absence on t'other side o' t'planet. To this end, I boarded an Eddie Brown bus with my stepdad's male voice choir (avg age 73, knowledge of Avenue Q hit 'The Internet is for Porn' unnervingly precise) bound for Gunnerside, a small village in the Dales straight out of a James Herriot novel. There, the Gunnerside Ladies had laid on a spread which made the feeding of the 5000 look like a small child's afternoon snack, and after the concert we all repaired to the pub to drink Black Sheep ale and have a raucous, marginally slurred sing. See below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9qQiQWOILk&feature=youtu.be It could not have been more Yorkshire if I had smeared myself in Wensleydale and danced hatless on Ilkley Moor. As I sit writing this in a Soho bar, in the centre of the city I fell in love with three years ago, I have still not really got to grips with the fact that I am leaving in less than 24 hours. A very lovely young man thrust a flier for the Raindance Film Fest into my hands a minute ago and I thought 'oh yeah, that looks ace, better do a ring-round and see who's up for it' before realising that I would likely be teaching some poor unfortunates about the three kinds of conditional by the time it was aired. But to practicalities: bizarre as it seems, I am in fact leaving very very soon, and due to the Great Firewall that is I will have zero access to social media, so the best way to get me is on email: [email protected]. I will also update this blog as much as I can, though if I do go quiet for a while please do assume that the mental-by-Western-standards working hours (five days annual leave. FIVE!!) have temporarily eaten me and I will be regurgitated soon. Will miss you all tons and tons, please do stay in touch and come and stay if you can! Look forward to updating you on all the juicy titbits...