If there are any regular readers of this blog or visitors to these pages they will know that I have had to deal with some issues where some of the history pages have been used by others for their own purposes. I have also been told that merely having the stories about my experiences in…
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It was great to get back to London for Christmas and a chance to reset and see family that we have not seen for two years. It also seemed like a major achievement to execute the trip as planned (that sounds like a small thing but in the time of COVID not to be taken…
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On the one hand coming back to London has been great. Wonderful to see my children, I haven’t seen my son for two years. Similarly I haven’t seen Adeline for 9 months and it has been great to see her again, this was touch and go as she works in China and the rules for…
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I have been in the UAE and working at UAEU for just over a month now. Honestly some of that time has been frustrating. The inevitable bureaucracy associated with moving anywhere has meant that I am still living in the hotel. I should be able to get the keys of an apartment today – just…
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No not mine! It is UAE’s 50th anniversary this week. The celebrations are spread over the entire week, I was invited to attend one at the front of the main building of UAEU, which included some dancing (both men with canes, and young children). But very significantly a number of the Founder of UAE’s vehicles,…
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I have not posted for a while, partly this is due to being busy and partly because the hotel wifi is not always great. Briefly on that subject I realise that I have spent almost 4 months in hotels in the last year, various quarantines, the long trip back to Hong Kong and now a…
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That really was a long goodbye! But my time in Hong Kong finally came to an end, I boarded a plane on the 30th of October and started my new position in UAEU on 1st November. The last week has been an intense induction period talking to all those I might interact with in the…
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So I am down to the last week. I finally paid my tax – it was 15% of the final salary figure! Not until after some more craziness. I turned up at Revenue Tower on Friday after the typhoon closure was followed by a holiday. All was in order, but ‘no Sir you cannot pay…
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It turns out that leaving Hong Kong is quite complicated. As it does not have a withholding tax the authorities are paranoid about you leaving without paying the tax that you owe. So they instruct your employer to hold back your pay until you can prove that you have paid your taxes. Nice when you…
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I am pleased to be leaving the Faculty in such good shape. Further evidence of this has come from the THE Global University rankings. The University was ranked at 30th, which is a solid improvement. But more relevant for the Faculty Science was its move to 53rd in the world for Physical Science and 42nd…
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