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That’s right – our time here in Singapore is coming to an end.  It’s been short (four months) but very sweet.  It’s unfortunate that I came here to work for a startup whose product was aimed at being sold to hedge funds just at the moment of a global financial crisis, but things could be a lot worse for us.

We’re not exactly sure where we’ll be living, I’ve got a couple of interviews lined up, but we’ll probably be staying with my parents in Somerset until we have something sorted out.

We’ll be moving fairly quickly – before the end of the month – since Laura is pregnant she won’t be able to fly safely for much longer.  Personally I think anything past 30 weeks is getting a bit close and we’ll be around 28.

Our landladies have been absolutely great after an initial freak-out that we were breaking our contract.  They’ve found another tenant for the flat who wants to move in quite soon, which has meant we’ve actualy ended up with a bit of a refund, *and* they even bought our cot and pram (which, I’m pretty certain, they have absolutely no use for).  They’ve been great, and although I doubt they read this blog, I’d like to say a big thank you anyway.

All in all, we’ve had nice little adventure in coming here – Singapore is a great place to live if you like hot weather, incredibly clean and green surroundings, and a fantastic melting pot of peoples and cultures. See you all in the UK sometime soon!

One of the nicest bits of the lead-up to leaving for Singapore has been the wonderful Summer we’ve had, and in fact I’d almost recommend anyone to leave their roots purely for an excuse to see everyone and everything they care about nearby.

Between us we will have been up and down the UK, and also Spain, Italy, The Netherlands and even flew to Alderney (a Channel Island) in the space of about four months; catching up with friends and family and seeing some sights.  We even took a ride on the London Eye to wave goodbye to The Big Smoke.  Actually it was quite a lot of fun (it probably helped that it was our wedding anniversary).

We have arranged a meeting with a lot of our friends a couple of days before we leave – which should be great fun – but such things are always a case of giving each person 5 minutes of your time so that you see everybody.  It’s been really lovely to catch up with individuals and smaller groups as we’ve gone along.

Welcome to the blog!  I’ll be writing about our family’s experience of moving from the UK to Singapore.  We fly out on the 22nd of September, so the first few posts will be about why we’re going and what it’s like to get ready to emmigrate.

Why Singapore?

Many people ask us why Singapore, so I guess that’s a good place to start.  L and I decided that we wanted to live abroad even before we were married last year; it’s not that surprising since we both had international childhoods.  We considered moving to the Middle East as we have links there, but in the end that actually weighed against the region – we wanted somewhere new, and since neither of us have much experience of Asia (L has travelled there a little, but I’ve never been at all) it quickly became our first choice.

Having settled on Asia in general, Singapore cropped up as a good choice for quite quickly – being a modern, clean and safe place (we are thinking of starting a family after all!) as well as having English as the language of business and lots of work for web developers like me.  As a key trading port, it also has amazing links to all its neighbours, which is a definite plus.

There is also the constant 30 degrees weather all year round.  Nice.

But you won’t be able to chew gum will you?

People’s reaction to hearing that you are moving to Singapore usually come in two forms: those who are excited and those who start talking about chewing gum.  For some reason, although Singapore has been both a model for reasoned development and at times harshly authoritarian – it’s the law (which I gather are far less strict than they used to be – more to come later, I’m sure!) prohibiting chewing gum which seems to resonate most with people here in the UK.  I’m personally not bothered about not being able to chew gum, and I certainly won’t mind not having it stuck to my shoes.

As to the greater issue of Singapore’s politics, I think it’s a bit more complicated than that.  Coming from London – where I believe we have more CCTV cameras per person than any other city on earth – I can’t really imagine that it will seem very different.

It’s a long way, isn’t it?

I suspect the hardest part of moving to Singapore is going to be the distance from our families and friends.  Obviously that is the price one has to pay for exploring somewhere new.  I’m really glad that we’ll be able to video-conference with everybody, and plan on doing so as often as possible.  There’s also this blog which I hope at least my mother will read on occasion!

Well, I suppose that’s it for the first blog post.  We’re quite busy before we go, but I will try posting some more before we fly!