Now, *this* is a post I should have written ages ago but somehow (as in most cases these days) Twitter overtook blogging because it is so much easier to write a bunch of tweets on a mobile device of some kind when living normal life than to sit down and write a blog post.
By now, most people I know know that I’ve moved to Singapore because I’ve either bombarded them with face-to-face chat leading up to the move, or they’ve similarly but asynchronously been bombarded by my 140-character diarrhea on Twitter. (If you care about that, I’m trying to do it from @DouglasIBurns.) But, to spare friends who have not had the joys of either experience who I might be seeing for the first time in a while at Openworld, here are a few facts that might make conversations a little less painful ….
– I now live and work in Singapore.
– It’s my first job as an employee of a company other than my own for around 22 years. Those who know me well will understand that this fact is the most surprising and scary of all!
– Singapore is fantastic and don’t believe a large majority of what you read about it on the Internet. There’s usually some truth in there but it’s exaggerated, both positively and negatively. If you’re expecting some kind of pristine, well-oiled, boring Utopia, then you’ve got the wrong place. There are definitely elements of that, but I’ve been smoking my little head off whilst having a relatively cheap cold Tiger beer in less-than-salubrious surroundings. It might be slick and sterile by Asian standards, but it’s lively and real enough for me.
– I have DBA privileges back for the first time in a long time and I’m enjoying that immensely. A senior role that gives me scope to actually *do stuff* is more than fine by me!
– I think our original intention in moving was to give it a try for the minimum 1 year that would be required, but probably 2. However, I keep running into people who thought the same and are here 4, 6 or 8 years later. I can understand why.
– Little known fact: I moved to Singapore when I was around 9 months old because my dad was posted here by the Royal Air Force, just as Singapore was becoming an independent country, and left when I was almost 4. So I grew up in Singapore, but remember nothing about it. However, my older family adored it and they’re all looking forward to coming back to visit. I still haven’t visited our old home yet. I wonder if it will provoke any memories? As my eldest sister pointed out, I celebrated my first birthday in Singapore and (hopefully) I’ll celebrate my 50th one here too.
– Despite the move requiring a lot of effort, I feel re-energised by the place and so hopefully I can get back to more blogging again, particularly as I’ve had 3 months of interesting issues to contend with, although there will be limits on what I can blog about unless I can reproduce some non-specific test cases 🙁
– I am *so* pleased that Morten Egan decided to come here too. He’s not only a stellar worker, but a pretty top human being too and it’s good to have someone around with similar humour and sensibilities. We’ll conquer the world together! (actually, that last bit may be a joke)
It’s safe to say that it was a great decision to move and thanks to @madsjt and @RCT_Enterprises for taking it on with me! Other than that, no more Singapore chat here. Follow this Twitter account if you care.