The Nomad
I am packing up again. It seems to be a part and parcel of life every other year for me!
Way back in Feb 2003, I took the first step out of Singapore to Melbourne for my studies. It was a decision I made in a matter of a couple of months and have never looked back or regretted since I made the choice to leave. The last two years have been summarized as mainly full of downs on the personal front and perhaps the choice to leave this place was something I had to do to bring my life back up again.
I arrived in the UAE in Nov 2007, after a year's stint in London from Oct 2006 to 2007. I was fortunate(or unfortunate!) enough to be sent to site to deliver the project, which to date has actually moved on from what was a barren landscape of sand and nothing else! The F1 race weekend is happening in a week's time and to have witnessed the transformation of this desert island over the past 2 years has been nothing short of amazing. The life here has been surreal for the first year. I guess it comes with a pay check I will probably never get working anywhere else. The enpowerment of being an expat in this country made up mainly of poor blue collar workers sometimes overwhelm the rationality of one's mind. Many have fallen foul to an extravagant lifestyle which left them burdened with credit debts when the bubble burst last year. Being a rather sane individual when it comes to spending within my means, I will leave here in the black.
The plan now (I say now because everyone who understands me well enough know how fickle I am) is to go home for a week and a bit after the race weekend and tender my resignation or negotiate redundancy(sure it is not going to happen!) end of Nov. I have not committed to a date for flying out yet, but really should get on to it so I can work backwards and know how much time I have to sort out all the bits & pieces here before I leave. The tentative date is around Christmas for now. A backpacking trip to South America for 3 weeks is still on the cards in Jan 2010 before flying out to Melbourne mid Feb 2010. Hopefully in between, my little baby nephew will arrive and not while I am in SA please!
After getting my own pad in Dubai, I realize how much I want a place I can call my own for more than a few months! I love my current lifestyle at the moment in a materialistic sort of way and will really hate to leave it all behind. The sad fact is that there is nothing more to my life here other than forced entertainment to fill in the time. I am not alluding to the fact I dislike everything I do here, but more so about the emptiness I feel about being here. Work is stagnated and stifling. I do not see myself growing over the last year(yes, the height too!). It is disappointing considering that was one of the primary reasons I moved out here. It had been a valuable learning experience to start off, but enough said for this entry.
Way back in Feb 2003, I took the first step out of Singapore to Melbourne for my studies. It was a decision I made in a matter of a couple of months and have never looked back or regretted since I made the choice to leave. The last two years have been summarized as mainly full of downs on the personal front and perhaps the choice to leave this place was something I had to do to bring my life back up again.
I arrived in the UAE in Nov 2007, after a year's stint in London from Oct 2006 to 2007. I was fortunate(or unfortunate!) enough to be sent to site to deliver the project, which to date has actually moved on from what was a barren landscape of sand and nothing else! The F1 race weekend is happening in a week's time and to have witnessed the transformation of this desert island over the past 2 years has been nothing short of amazing. The life here has been surreal for the first year. I guess it comes with a pay check I will probably never get working anywhere else. The enpowerment of being an expat in this country made up mainly of poor blue collar workers sometimes overwhelm the rationality of one's mind. Many have fallen foul to an extravagant lifestyle which left them burdened with credit debts when the bubble burst last year. Being a rather sane individual when it comes to spending within my means, I will leave here in the black.
The plan now (I say now because everyone who understands me well enough know how fickle I am) is to go home for a week and a bit after the race weekend and tender my resignation or negotiate redundancy(sure it is not going to happen!) end of Nov. I have not committed to a date for flying out yet, but really should get on to it so I can work backwards and know how much time I have to sort out all the bits & pieces here before I leave. The tentative date is around Christmas for now. A backpacking trip to South America for 3 weeks is still on the cards in Jan 2010 before flying out to Melbourne mid Feb 2010. Hopefully in between, my little baby nephew will arrive and not while I am in SA please!
After getting my own pad in Dubai, I realize how much I want a place I can call my own for more than a few months! I love my current lifestyle at the moment in a materialistic sort of way and will really hate to leave it all behind. The sad fact is that there is nothing more to my life here other than forced entertainment to fill in the time. I am not alluding to the fact I dislike everything I do here, but more so about the emptiness I feel about being here. Work is stagnated and stifling. I do not see myself growing over the last year(yes, the height too!). It is disappointing considering that was one of the primary reasons I moved out here. It had been a valuable learning experience to start off, but enough said for this entry.