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Coming Back to the UK (or: The Merlion’s Miaow)

pete — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:47:47 +0000

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!

Don’t try walking to work

pete — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:46:55 +0000

In London I was used to a 40 minute walk to work, which I didn’t mind at all – especially since public transport would take about 30 minutes anyway.

I’m in much the same situation here – it’s about half an hour to walk and 25 minutes by bus. However the problem here is that after walking for more than about 10 minutes you get very sweaty, and it’s not a nice way to arrive at the office every day.

It’s a shame because I find walking to work a great way to get some gentle exercise. Fortunately since we live in a Condo, we have a pool right on our doorstep!

Suspicious (Ex-Pat) Package

pete — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:35:41 +0000

Once we’d booked our flights, I set about trying to find work – mostly using www.monster.com.sg – and it didn’t turn out to be too hard.

I was offered a job working for a local startup company, whose business is in rich media and financial reporting. Since I’m working for a local company, and haven’t been sent to Singapore by a large corporate, I don’t get all the package benefits that such people do (accommodation paid for, flights ‘home’, etc).

That being said, my wages should be fine for us to have a good life on, and if L should do some work (currently she’s thinking about retraining) it would just be a bonus. Also we’ll be keeping our flat in London, and renting it out, so all in all we’re in a fairly stable position (credit crunch notwithstanding).

The other option for us would have taken quite a bit of doing. The most likely route would have been to start getting work for financial organisations here in London, instead of mostly media ones, and then work on a posting out to Singapore from there working for the same company. This could have taken years and would not have been much fun – so all in all we’re pretty happy with the way things have worked out.

Oh yes, I also get some stock options in the startup so if things do go well and the company floats then we might do very well indeed!