The flight left Birmingham 1.5 hours late, normally this would be a nightmare but the endless supply of free Bacardi and Coke and endless after eights made it all worth while! The flight was good, having sunk a few glasses of wine tiredness hit, the next thing i know i am being woken by the captain "Please prepare for landing, welcome to Dubai". 7 hours of my life disappeared just like that.
The business class lounge in Dubai is amazing, other than the free food and drink you can have a hair cut, shower or even have your shoes polished, i didn't have time for any of that though due to the delay so i contacted a few loved ones and was on my merry way.
I must have had about 5 seats to myself from Dubai to Manila and it soon became obvious the hosts and hostesses wanted me to feel very "comfortable" topping my wine glass up whenever it got anywhere near the bottom of the glass.
Again the flight seemed to fly by, suddenly i was on the other side of the world, and suddenly i was 8 hours ahead of home.
My car had not turned up to pick me up which was a nightmare but after a couple of phone calls a guy with "Ledgerwood-Barr" appeared from nowhere, its about 30 minutes from the Airport in Manila to Alabang the modern Suburb that our office lies. I was so tired but excited to explore my new surroundings, i should have probably gone straight to bed but i didn't... something i would later regret.
The hardest part about being out here is going to be the time difference. We work UK hours (GMT) and the fact that we are GMT+8 here means that generally work begins at 4pm and ends approx 1/2am. Its quite tough to get my head round this. Especially when people at work say good morning when actually its nearly tea time!
The weather here is very hot and also humid. 30 Degrees at night time - as a ginger this is going to be quite tough as i begin to see places and go on trips at the weekend. The opportunities are going to be endless. Flights to Hong Kong are £50 and its only a little further to Bangkok although i don't think this is such a great idea with liabilities such as Kyle Francis rocking up over the next few weeks.
Unlike India the Philippines is very much a 24 hour country with bars and clubs open around the clock. MCDS is just around the corner and Starbucks are very common in this area, traffic is pretty crazy with there being a countdown at any traffic light. As you can imagine with the lights on green counting down to red everyone speeds up to try and make it through.. whoever thought that that was a good idea is just mad!
So the job, a new site, a new centre, new people and a clean slate - we are still at the recruitment and training stages at the moment so not much to talk about, there is definitely a lot of excitement around the place and people just want to get going.
The office is brand new, new PC's new phones everything. These people are very lucky but with all of this investment comes pressure to make this work.
Attached is a picture of the rooftop pool here at the Parque Espana, there is also a rooftop bar beside it which i am yet to sample... I'm sure this won't take long.
I miss everyone back home, especially the people who already know will be missed even more so. This adventure is going to fly by and i am sure the stories will begin flowing very soon.
JLB
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