Bored of Britain?

Kashgar: within reach at last?

But Kashgar still called. Despite all the positives, we packed our bags. I had been accepted by a language school in France but planned to take our time getting there. We spent half a year travelling round China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Borneo. We walked in the jungle, chased monitor lizards on deserted islands, climbed Mount Kinabalu and visited ancient ruins. Eventually Kashgar was within reach. Unfortunately, my partner, being unimpressed with the Gobi sandstorms, could not be persuaded to venture further in the desert.

Starting a successful business in France

In September 1999, we arrived in Dijon, France. While teaching part-time, I worked on a proposed pilot children's programme in Spring 2000. This was a success and when a Dutch businesswoman, Debby Smits, bought the school I was working at in June 2000, she supported the expansion of the children's programme. I spent ten months refining ideas developed over nine years, we arranged open days and demonstrations in a large commercial centre. At the time the programme started, we had 40 kids involved. By September 2001 it was clear that there was no competition and we launched it under the registered name of bee-lingual kids.

Having committed ourselves to a few more years in France, my partner and I took the plunge. We bought a house in a Burgundy village of 15 inhabitants with enough cows, pigs and sheep to make us feel as though we were back in the Scottish Highlands. Although Burgundy is glorious, we're coming up to four years here and...

Back to Britain?

Not in the near future. Maybe after a Kenyan kids English programme or a Mongolian language school. I still haven't seen South America, and, of course, there's still Kashgar.

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