On August 11th 2011 we left the fresh air and beautiful countryside of Wales to set off on an adventure in SE Asia. Our belongings, all packed carefully into a storage container and labelled either ‘shipping’ or ‘storage’, await our return.
Leaving Wales on August 11th 2011 with 'the boy' - our eleven month old baby
After living in Wales for eighteen months post a period of living and working in Mumbai, India, we realised that the job opportunities that we are both experienced in and would satisfy us long term did not exist. We were faced with a choice; move back to London where the bulk of UK media jobs are based or take a risk and head off to Asia for a life changing adventure. I’m happy to say that we chose the latter and the risk has paid off.
After two months of travelling it was time to get our heads in gear for the little challenge ahead, to find a job! We both had an interesting meeting with a London contact who is now the CEO of a media company in Singapore. It threw up a few interesting avenues to investigate for both my hubby and I, but we decided to hold off contacting the recommended agencies until my hubby had met with a company he had arranged to see in Kuala Lumpur, five days later.
His meeting went well, so well in fact that they invited him back two days later to discuss the opportunity in more detail. The morning of his second meeting we were so excited. I walked around the city centre with ‘the boy’ for a couple of hours trying to imagine what it would be like to live in Kuala Lumpur. Could this become a reality? Would the risk of leaving everything behind with no income between us pay off?
Four hours later he returned with a huge grin on his face. He’d done it. He’d been offered a job and not just any job, a Director level job with huge scope. We were so excited but decided to put the celebrations on hold until the contract had been signed and sealed by both parties. Two months of final negotiations were fringed with nervous anticipation as to whether the opportunity would become a reality. It has.
Kuala lumpur by night
The new job commences on March 1st giving us enough time to continue our travels around Cambodia and Vietnam, visit our family and friends in the UK, before shipping our possessions and our life to Asia (again).
Are we nervous? Yes of course. Will we miss our family and friends? Yes hugely so, but with technological developments and travel being so much easier these days the world feels like a smaller place than it did even ten years ago.
We join our growing number of friends who have made the leap to move abroad. In the last few years we’ve had friends from London who now live in San Francisco, Boston, Texas, Vancouver, Argentina, Auckland, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. Friends we made in Mumbai, India who now live in Singapore, Bangkok, Washington and Melbourne, and friends we both made independently whilst travelling in Australia who now live in Papa New Guinea, Kathmandu and the Sunshine coast, Australia. It’s a global network of friends that continues to grow and now we’re a part of.
In short, the risk’s paid off and we’ve been lucky and hit the jackpot.
a backpack, a buggy, a baby... 