D-Day. Or C-Day as it should be known. D-Day is actually tomorrow. Anyway, today's the day we fly to Beijing. It's been a manic few days leading up to this what with all the packing and sorting stuff out at the flat, but we've finally got there. Jeez, we've got a lot of luggage. 2 massive 23kg bags plus our 2 travel packs which weigh about 17kg each, each of us has a small rucksack to take as carry on, loaded with books, chargers etc which weigh another few kilos, plus I've got the camera and Linds has her handbag. Guess it is our life for the next 6 months! Picked up and taken to Heathrow T5 where check in is so smooth I don't actually realise we've done it. Literally rock up to a desk with bags and passports and were done. Go through security and end up having my backpack checked as when you look at it on the x-Ray monitor, all you can see are wires and a pack of batteries, so it does look pretty suspect! Once that's done, grab a bite to eat and then head towards to departure gate which turns out to be the furthest one possible, so it's a mad rush to get there. Once we do though, it only gets to our turn and we're told we've been upgraded from premium economy to business class! What a result. Thank you BA. I think that's the most excited I've ever been in my life. It's amazing. The seats are enormous and they turn into beds. I got straight into the champagne before we've even taken off. Why not? Then we get given a menu and it's like proper fine dining. Really delicious stuff. I have a goat's cheese starter followed by beef. Lindsey has a fishy, prawn type thing to start and then some sort of pork stir fry, all washed down with more fizz, pouilly fuisse and chateau Neuf de pap. Tough life! Watch a couple of movies and have a nightcap of 18year old single malt and then catch a few hours' kip. Wake up and freshen up with the complimentary elemis travel kit and then it's time for breakfast. Full English? If you insist. Ha. That one, 10 hour flight has now ruined air travel for me for ever more. I only ever want to fly business class now!

So we land a bit later than planned and spend ages in the queue for immigration. Finally get through, pick up or bags and then get out to arrivals where we're met by a guy called Sean who works for Salmon. Poor b*****s been waiting for 2 hours! It's funny cos he recognises me because of my beard. Knew it would come in handy! Thankfully there's a car laid on for us so we don't have to do battle with the taxis. It's pretty humid and really hazy. I think it's the famous Beijing smog, but Sean tells us it's just the start of a storm. Don't really have much of a first impression of Beijing at this stage because all we can really see are loads of cars and high rises. Get to the apartment complex, through the security gate, into the building, lift up to the 10th floor and into apartment 1003, out home for the next 6 months. Those bags are heavy and I'm sweating like a beast. Teach me to wear shirt and jeans! We literally just dump the bags and then head out to the local shopping mall as the apartments hardly got anything in it, so we go buy some towels plus a few groceries. Needless to say, the rain has started to come down really heavily, so we have to but an umbrella too. Very upmarket mall with high end shops and spotlessly clean. We're the only westerners there I think. We certainly are at the restaurant Sean takes us to. It's lunchtime by now and absolutely packed. You get a ticket and then wait for your table number to come free. All very organised. So we sit down and let Sean order for us. Bearing in mind it's just the 3 of us, there's a lot of food. There's a spicy fried tofu and butter/kidney bean dish, a dish of stir fried veg, some sort of chicken with pineapple and then a huge bowl of spicy noodle soup with pork and veg. All delicious, but far too much food, especially when you consider how much we ate on the plane. So we pay (about £10!) and then get a doggy bag to take back with us. Think we're both pretty jaded now, so head back to the apartment after saying our goodbyes and thanks to Sean.

So the apartment. What can we say? It's on the 10th floor of a 37 floor building in a complex called Phoenix City. It's one bedroom, bathroom, living area and kitchen and comes in at the equivalent of £900 per month. Property here is apparently really expensive. So far there's a bed, wardrobes, TV, aircon unit, couple of bedside tables and chest of drawers in the bedroom, plus a bit of bedding. Bathroom has loo, sink and shower enclosure. We had to buy the towels earlier! Living area has big sofa, coffee table, aircon unit, table and chairs and TV cabinet. Kitchen is really basic. Fridge freezer, gas hob with 3 rings and oven, microwave, sink and a few cupboards. There's hardly any work top space at all. And hardly any kitchen stuff. We've been bought a kettle, some glasses, cutlery, bowels and knives. Big shopping trip coming for us! So the layout is you come in the door and straight into the living area. The bathroom is off to the left (there's also a washing machine in a little hideaway near the bathroom), the bedroom is kind of straight ahead and slightly off to the left and the kitchen is off to the right. Wooden/laminate floors throughout which, quite frankly, are a b***** to sweep! The complex is pretty big and there are 5 tower blocks in all, plus nice grounds, swimming pool, tennis courts, shops, laundry, kids nursery and playground. It's all gated and you need a pass to get in, but everyone seems to let every b***** in who wants to come in! It's funny, cos even though our building goes up to floor 37, there are only actually 32 floors as the number 4 is classed as being unlucky (spelt si in mandarin which is the same as death!) as is 13, so floors 4, 13, 14, 24 & 34 don't exist. At least there are reliable lifts!

So, once we've left Sean, got back to the room and taken stock of our surroundings, it's time to crash for a few hours as we're spent. Wake up feeling suitably refreshed (not), have a shower and start unpacking. Realise there's only a few hangers in the wardrobes, so another thing to add to the list. Takes a few hours to unpack and find a home for everything, by which time it's time to eat again so we reheat some of the food from earlier. Linds gets a text from one of her new workmates asking if we want to meet up and get shown around, but jet lag has well and truly kicked in and we kindly decline. Decide that a movie then bed is the sensible option. So that's it. The first day of June next 6 months of our lives. The excitement is almost too much to take! Ha.