End of the first stretch

I’ve been thinking about what an interesting ‘book end’ Nepal has been for me. 10 years ago Di and I came over here – we had been married less than a year, I had just finished my Masters (sort of) and I had never been out of Australia. We spent the year overseas – most of it in the USA, with travel in Nepal/ Hong Kong, USA, Canada, Turkey and a lot of Western Europe.

After returning home we settled in Brisbane, I got a real job (debatable?), and we spent the next 9 years there – with various travels in between, for fun and work. I spent an unforgettable 8 1/2 years with my last employer, learning a lot about technology development, international business, the transit industry, managing teams, software development and a bunch of other things. Di and I have grown to love Brisbane – especially our friends there, and ended up going halves in a house with two of them. That in itself is quite a new phase in our life!

Now we find ourselves in Nepal again. I’m ready for a change of direction in my career (an interesting combination of factors influencing that one). We’ve been married 10 years. 5 months away from home to step back and take a look at life seems like a good idea. I’m also enjoying the chance to get some hands on experience with ‘international development’ – including all of the cultural, technical and professional challenges that includes – and there are many!

(The above was taken on the day when all ‘Machines’ were blessed for the coming year.)

Anyway where am I heading with all this? Who knows!? I’ve been cruising the jobs sites a bit looking at what I think I will be doing when I get home. Ideally it will be something in the area of either International Development or Renewable Energies – or possibly even both. I’m so busy here that I’m not taking a huge amount of time to reflect on what the future holds. I think that might come in the weeks after we get home when I’m unemployed and longing for the mountains of Nepal and Di is back at work bringing home the bacon (what’s the vegetarian equivalent of bacon?). As I said before we came here, I’ve scheduled in my early-mid-life crisis for late January 2011. Don’t worry – that will probably involve lots of Mountain Biking and sitting at Coffee Shops rather than buying a Lamborghini.

Anyway – we’re off to Langtang for 10 days of trekking. Bye all!