Wrapping up a decade

Wow, how did this blog become so neglected? I'll make it a New Year Resolution to be a more frequent diarist, one of these years.

We're on the cusp of the noughties and, for the wife and I, the cusp of a complete life change. Half running headlong to embrace it, half dragging our heels, too full of nervous self-doubt to accept the inevitable, the coming years are going to be very different from what we know now. Our son is definitely only days away.

Aside from the anticipation of our new arrival, I can safely say this has been an eventful ten years!

This time a decade ago I'd yet to fly in a commercial plane and hadn't lived anywhere outside Yorkshire, England. Since then I've lived abroad for half of those years, visited twelve new countries (working in four of them) across four continents. My massive move to London in 2000 seems almost trivial now, of course it wasn't at the time.

In some ways, the biggest moment was the return to England after so long away. Seeing just a little piece of the rest of the world made me see my home country in a completely different light, we're not half as advanced as we like to think we are, but there were plenty of aspects of our society and home-comforts I was glad to re-embrace.

The key high points of the last decade must include taking the job (and the accompanying new life) in Bangkok: I can't imagine my life now had I followed my mothers wishes not to go! I later started my own company, watched it grow, watched it wobble, saw people living in poverty, saw people blasé in their massive wealth, lived through a coup, bought my first house and met and later married the girl (not all necessarily in that order).

On sadder notes, I remember the feeling of being in a Greek airport lounge for hours on end unable to depart, reeling from the unforgettable images of the World Trade Centre being flattened hours previously and a solemn anticipation of the implications this act would have for everyone everywhere. Also, the things I saw in the hospitals of Thailand in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami will stay with me forever.

I've definitely made my fair share of mistakes in these last ten years but I'm glad I went out and did it all. As long as I've learnt from the majority of those experiences, I'll be happy with that. Definitely no regrets.

What has been key throughout has been the countless excellent people I've been lucky to meet plus the fantastic individuals I've had the pleasure of working with and learning from. Thanks for having me.

It's the evening of the 31st of December and we're preparing to go out to party. Have a very happy new year.