Six Months

So this time six months ago I had just about reached the Dodgess' house. When I arrived it was about as large a weather difference as you can get. I left the UK and it was completely white. I arrived into bright sunshine and a temperature in excess of 30C.

When I arrived I had my suitcase and my cello, and that is it. So, I had a reasonably clean slate to start with when building my life over here. There are some obvious differences between life here and in the UK. Firstly I am rarely cold. Occasionally the air con is a little too cold. Although I have a horrible feeling that I have become soft. Very soft. June was somewhat grey, and, dare I say it, cool. I felt a chill one rainy evening on the way home, but when I reached back the temp displayed on the weather gadget reported it was 25C... 


Work is perhaps surprisingly similar in many ways - the design codes, the thought processes etc. Throughout the six months I have only really worked on 1 project - design of an MRT viaduct. This is different from the UK, where I would only work on a project for a week at a time. The work has been enormously varied. I have a slightly flexible role, and have worked on fire, vibration, and cost studies, as well as more hard core structural engineering report such as constructability and structural design.

I have been working towards my chartership. I'm likely to sit the exams in September in Hong Kong. This has involved me trooping into work on Saturday mornings in order to complete the reports and presentation - when I try to do this at home, I completely fail. I still have quite a bit of preparation to do for the exam so I guess I'll be going back on several more Saturdays.


I also do more music over here. I am involved with The Philharmonic Orchestra which seems to do concerts every couple of months. I almost certainly do more music over here than in the UK - something for which the Dodgess certainly deserves the credit - the range of her contacts is quite staggering!


Meanwhile the Dodgess has been busy establishing herself a niche within the music world here. Perhaps most notable is a link up between Raffles Academy where she teaches, and Birmingham University. She has also completed her PhD, and is currently on an A380 on her way to the UK to collect the certificate.


And all the while we've been arranging our wedding and receptions. I've heard a few nightmares from friends about arranging weddings, but ours seems ok I think. I mean, I have no real frame of reference - I've not organised any before. But it is nice to be able to choose what we want for our day.


So that's the past 6 months. What of the next 6? Well, in these coming months I get married, have a honeymoon and wedding reception in the UK. I also chartership exams to sit, the project I'm working on at the moment finishes the design and moves into the tender stage. All in all, I think that it's safe to say 2010 will have been a distinctly busy year.