When I finished up work last year our plan was for us all to move abroad
and either take a year out or move somewhere interesting for work and life for
a while.
Eventually after looking at a good few options we decided to take some
time off here on Réunion before I'd head off to work abroad, working on
rotation, while the others stayed here and enjoyed life! So seven months after I finished working Aurelie
finished (Aurelie got promoted at work and wanted to spend some time at her new
level before heading off on sabbatical) and we set off on our little adventure.
So now the time is upon us, tomorrow, after almost five months here on
Réunion, I'm off to London to spend a week on inductions and prep meetings
before heading off to Guinea in West Africa on a five week on (between being
onsite and travelling) / three week off series of rotations.
So I’m nearly good to go! Got all
my shots on Friday (two in each arm, they still ache), my tickets are ready to
be printed and I’m almost packed (one small issue is that I no longer have any
winter clothes, on hearing it’s 4°c in London Aurelie asked me if I had any
jumpers, I said sure, look. Her reply
was “they are not jumpers, they are long sleeved tee shirts, you’re going to
die).
It’s exciting, though being away from the family for so long is going to
be tough, our hope is that by being here full time between rotations will make
up for it (when working 9 to 5.30 we only got the kids for an hour or two a day
and at weekends anyway)
It’s interesting that the project I’m going to work on has highlighted
one of the differences between my lovely wife and me. While I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t
jump at the chance of going to a malarial jungle up a mountain in remotest
Africa, Aurelie can’t understand why any one would!
The best laid plans....
The only problem with all this is that I was supposed to fly out to
Guinea the first or second week of February, so I had planned to visit Ireland beforehand
to see family and make an unannounced stop at WARPCON (my favourite gaming
convention in the world) to play some games and to catch up with some of my
oldest friends. Alas it’s not to be and
for the second time in 22 years working in Africa means that I’ll miss the con L.
Still I’ll try to skype in to say hi!
I will be back in Ireland for a week or so late February so hope to
catch up with folks then.
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