I'm back! Better than ever!!

It is almost two years since my last published post, and I feel the urge to blog about Life in Asia again.  I thought it was right to stop after I returned to England, but it also feels right to start again now.  I had many 'silent followers', but it seems I still have a lot of people visiting the blog even now.  I was humbled by a comment left by an anonymous visitor only a few weeks ago saying that one of my blogs (more like a rant when I re-read it) had helped him.  He or she didn't say why or how, but I felt I must have touched someone - thanks go to them for visiting, and I hope everything is sorted out with their problems.

Since returning from Hong Kong in June 2009, a lot has happened.

• I couldn't settle back into working in the UK after spending the best part of three years in the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong
• I was playing a bit part role in the company moving around in this project and then that one, not having much in the way of job satisfaction
• I was offered voluntary redundancy and I left my job as an IT project manager with the 'Food Travel Experts' in June 2010
• Khamma and I married in August 2010
• I started my own business as a Willwriter in October 2010
• My father survived a cancer scare by having major surgery and bouncing back stronger than ever

How do I feel now? Fantastic and I have never looked back.  My love for Khamma grows every day, my business is showing signs of success, my closeness to Mum and Dad is fantastic and I feel a much better person than I did before, in fact I am a better person than I was before!

The one thing I miss is Asia.  I often think about Singapore and Hong Kong.  I had great times there and I realise how lucky I was to spend great chunks of my life exploring off behind the tourist cash traps, working and living in different cultures and being paid for it.  It could not have been better, but jobs like that don't last for ever and I could see that my chance had come, I had taken it, but likelihood of it being repeated was slim.  Thanks anyway if anybody from the Food Travel Experts ever bother to read this.

Why am I a better person?  Simply, because I am my own boss.  No more meetings with scores of people, listening to endless points of view.  I make my own decisions, usually in seconds not weeks and months and I do everything, which means my actions make my results, equals my satisfaction.  Of course I get things wrong from time to time, who doesn't?  But I can see my efforts work.  Everything I do is for a reason, that is to make my business work. Before I do anything I ask myself 'what's in this for me?', and 'does it cost money, or does it make money?'.  A lot of people working in a company as big as the Food Travel Experts don't ask those questions and it used to frustrate me so much.  Of course I have had many moments with my head in my hands thinking I should have toughed it out knowing my salary would be in the bank at the end of the month.  But I am better for coming out of the comfort zone and making something out of nothing.  I often wonder what my colleagues at the FTE thought of my business idea, and I am sure there were (are) several who dismissed it.  It will please me to let them know it is going well, if ever I meet any of them again.

In my next blog I am going to tell you about the day Khamma and I decided to get married.  We have recently witnessed the Royal wedding, and the cost of that is impossible to compute.  I compare it to our wedding and I feel slightly embarrassed I got change out of £30.  Those people that know me will not be surprised by this revelation, but I must admit I am amazed myself!