Starting out

With blogs and bloggers all around me I've succumbed to the fad. At least, I think I have. I'm not sure how it will progress but here is the first posting.

Who am I? Two days ago I went with my wife to register our marriage in the local office. It can't be done without a Chinese name so I stuck with one I had been thinking of for some time; "Long". It means dragon and is an acceptable name here. John can be made to fit Chinese characters so that's me now; Long John - the surname comes first.

Registering the marriage? That is a long story, much longer than it should be, and it is all told on my wife's blog (in Chinese if you are interested). She has become something of an expert on the matter and her blog has attracted many engaged couples.

It started earlier in the year after we had decided to 'tie the knot'. Should we get married here? It seemed the obvious choice and the traditional one as my fiancee had grown up here and her family would be around, even if mine were far away. Where is this? Sorry, I didn't tell you, did I? Could be anywhere, couldn't it? With a Chinese name you've narrowed it down to the Chinese-speaking world. Actually it's Tainan city in Taiwan - former home of the Oscar-winning director Ang Lee. So, no mean city! Maybe you are looking at a piece of Tainan right now since many of the world's LCD screens are made in the high tec industrial area here.

Back to the question - where to get married? I looked on a website, what should British people do to prepare to marry here? First get a certificate from Britain showing my single status. Easy? No. It's like making application to marry in England; I would need to be resident there for three weeks while the application was posted at a registry office; - to get permission to marry in Taiwan! For a start, I didn't want to be away for that long, couldn't afford the time, and, anyway, I had only just been there to visit my family. There is an alternative: The Hong Kong authorities do not need such a certficate. We could get married there and register in Taiwan on our return. At least that was how it seemed from the first information. To cut it short; it's what we did - back in February, and then two days ago in August we completed the process. The rest of that story can wait till later if I still have the energy and memory to write it down.

Now it's time for a short rest before I go to work. Where? When? What? Why? How much? ......So many questions.....wait.........please.......if you really are interested then I'll keep writing. Bye for now.