Kaitain
Active Member
Rather than post off-topic in the "how to post an email" thread, here's a new one. Lovely board software, by the way, very gentle on my rather slow office connection 
I was trying to think back to when we last really spoke, and apart from a small volley of messages when I started my brief flirtation of working with a vendor, I don't think I've really posted since I was in Saudi all those years ago.
So... came back from Saudi at the beginning of 2010. My wife and #1 son returned from China to the UK at about the same time. We got back to our little old house in darkest East Northamptonshire and discovered to nobody's surprise that we hated the place. But I had a bit of time off between returning and resuming my job in the UK, and discovered that I quite like not working.
So I've changed jobs. Twice. One that was a great deal of fun, with a friend as my direct senior and a role that forced me to learn SQL, VB, C# and other bits and pieces in order to nurse a cumbersome piece of software my industry relies on through that project. Unfortunately the overall boss was a micro-manager, and I can't stand to work for those, so when offered the chance to work from home for the same money, off I went. That was probably about the last time I posted on AOA, just after joining the control systems vendor. But... very bad office politics, plus no paid overtime and not enough staff in my particular role meant I found myself working 70 hour weeks (paid for about half that) and losing sleep for no benefit. Plus said company took the view that they owned their staff - people were expected to drop everything, even while on vacation, whenever they called. So when my original employer in MK, who'd since been bought out another company, came knocking, I gladly went back there. And so 2 years in the office in MK, followed by 1 year in China watching all the modules being built.
In the meantime we'd moved from the hovel in East Northamptonshire to a rented hovel in MK. I own that hovel now (well, the bank does, but it's my name on the title docket), but in the meantime, sunk just under two years of evenings and weekends trying to modernise the dilapidated East Northamptonshire hovel, before deciding (when it was ready) to let it instead of sell it, and ending up with a rather unreliable tenant. The whole exercise turned savings into debts - with 20/20 hindsight it would've been cheaper for me to sell the place at a fire-sale price in 2010 and keep the savings invested. However, once the old house was excised from my balance sheet and with a little help from family, honour was restored and we're back in the process of trying to minimise our mandatory working lives by the fastest means possible.
So where have I been. Mostly UK, bit of time in Qatar, bit of time in India, year in China - would quite like more years in China but seems unlikely unless and until I retrain or the price of oil goes back up. So back on a plane we go...
Tech-wise, I tend not to play much in the way of games, and haven't really been keeping up with "the latest" of anything really, so will probably stay mostly in the general chat area rather than polluting the other pages with my ignorance.
Other than that, what did I miss?
I was trying to think back to when we last really spoke, and apart from a small volley of messages when I started my brief flirtation of working with a vendor, I don't think I've really posted since I was in Saudi all those years ago.
So... came back from Saudi at the beginning of 2010. My wife and #1 son returned from China to the UK at about the same time. We got back to our little old house in darkest East Northamptonshire and discovered to nobody's surprise that we hated the place. But I had a bit of time off between returning and resuming my job in the UK, and discovered that I quite like not working.
So I've changed jobs. Twice. One that was a great deal of fun, with a friend as my direct senior and a role that forced me to learn SQL, VB, C# and other bits and pieces in order to nurse a cumbersome piece of software my industry relies on through that project. Unfortunately the overall boss was a micro-manager, and I can't stand to work for those, so when offered the chance to work from home for the same money, off I went. That was probably about the last time I posted on AOA, just after joining the control systems vendor. But... very bad office politics, plus no paid overtime and not enough staff in my particular role meant I found myself working 70 hour weeks (paid for about half that) and losing sleep for no benefit. Plus said company took the view that they owned their staff - people were expected to drop everything, even while on vacation, whenever they called. So when my original employer in MK, who'd since been bought out another company, came knocking, I gladly went back there. And so 2 years in the office in MK, followed by 1 year in China watching all the modules being built.
In the meantime we'd moved from the hovel in East Northamptonshire to a rented hovel in MK. I own that hovel now (well, the bank does, but it's my name on the title docket), but in the meantime, sunk just under two years of evenings and weekends trying to modernise the dilapidated East Northamptonshire hovel, before deciding (when it was ready) to let it instead of sell it, and ending up with a rather unreliable tenant. The whole exercise turned savings into debts - with 20/20 hindsight it would've been cheaper for me to sell the place at a fire-sale price in 2010 and keep the savings invested. However, once the old house was excised from my balance sheet and with a little help from family, honour was restored and we're back in the process of trying to minimise our mandatory working lives by the fastest means possible.
So where have I been. Mostly UK, bit of time in Qatar, bit of time in India, year in China - would quite like more years in China but seems unlikely unless and until I retrain or the price of oil goes back up. So back on a plane we go...
Tech-wise, I tend not to play much in the way of games, and haven't really been keeping up with "the latest" of anything really, so will probably stay mostly in the general chat area rather than polluting the other pages with my ignorance.
Other than that, what did I miss?
