Review Of The Year

2003 has without doubt been the most eventful year of my life. It's not every year you change your job, country and marital status all at the same time.

It all started last Christmas, when I began making enquiries of people in Bermuda in an attempt to find out what the IT job market here was like. Although Mandy and I had no plans for an imminent move at that stage, we were thinking we would marry in 2004 and focus on moving to Bermuda after that. As such, it seemed sensible for me to start finding out what skills I'd need to be able to work here and then spend this year acquiring them in London.

And so, for the first three months of the year, I did. I started teaching myself Visual Basic, the main software development language used here, whilst keeping an eye and ear open for any suitable jobs. Unfortunately, it became apparent that there weren't many IT jobs here I was qualified to do, and I began to despair about what I'd need to do to make myself employable. But then in March, out of the blue, I came across a fund management company advertising for a developer to work in their office in Bermuda in a position I felt I was emminently qualified to do. I applied for the role, excited but with no expectation of getting the post. Three weeks later, while in Nashville for my friend Jonathan's wedding, I was made an offer.

The offer accelerated all our plans. Suddenly it seemed the perfect time to begin the rest of my life. Two weeks later, while on a trip to New York for another friend's wedding, I proposed to Mandy by the ice rink in Central Park.

From that point on, this year has been a blur.

April and May were spent preparing for the move and saying goodbye to our friends in London. With great relief I handed in my notice to the company I worked for, an investment bank in which life had become progressively more unpleasant as a result of round after round of cost-cutting. I spent the last three weeks of May working for my new company's London office as Mandy began to make wedding plans. At the beginning of June we left our old house in north London and boarded the British Airways flight for Bermuda.

The next four months were spent settling into our new life here. Luckily, Mandy's family owned a second house they were renting out, giving us a place of our own to move into almost immediately and saving us one of the biggest headaches for anyone moving here: finding affordable accommodation. Mandy's parents spent several weeks refurbishing the house before we moved in, which certainly made moving here a little easier. The only downside was that it wasn't complete by the time we arrived, meaning we had to live with my inlaws for the first couple of weeks. But that wasn't too bad at all.

My new job has worked out extremely well too. I got on well with the other two guys in the IT department right from the start, and Friday nights out in Hamilton for drinks and dinner soon became a regular occurrence. Working for a small company has proved a welcome change, too, having a much cosier, more familiar atmosphere than the large corporate behemoths I've worked for until now. I also adpated to the change from programming in Java to .Net well - as I expected, a lot of my previous experience has remained useful despite the change of language.

It was after we arrived in Bermuda that we were really able to start thinking about our wedding, scheduled for the end of September. Both Mandy and I found the preparation to be stressful, but instructive, an experience which taught us a lot about the people involved. Agreeing on the various aspects of the day wasn't too difficult for us, although the devil often truly was in the details. But we didn't let anything sour the day itself, which turned out to be perfect in every way, far exceeding my own expectations. It was also great to have some of my friends from overseas here too, to be able to show them around my new home and spend time together reminiscing in the days before the wedding.

Even hurricane Fabian couldn't do anything to spoil the wedding, despite coming only three weeks before the big day. I certainly wasn't expecting to experience such a major hurricane (the worst here for half a century) so soon after moving to the Island. But despite my nervousness about whether the roof would stay on, and the effort required to mop up the water coming through the windows at the height of the storm, not to mention all the clearing up afterwards, it was an exhilarating experience.

It also provided me with a nice hook with which to kick off this blog, which I'd started only a week earlier. My photos of the storm have attracted over 50,000 hits since being posted, an average of almost 500 per day, and are the first site listed on a Google search for 'hurricane fabian'.

This site began as a way to keep friends and family back home in touch with my new life, but after a couple of months I decided that it could be much more than that - a blog of more general interest about what it's like to live as a foreigner in Bermuda. Finding things to write about most days is hard at times, but in the four months it's been running my hits have ballooned to over 1000 per week, so I'd like to think I'm doing something right.

I'd like to thank everyone who has supported this site in 2003 - those who have commented, those who have given me ideas for posts (both intentionally and otherwise), and those lurkers who just read. Limey wouldn't be as successful without you.

Happy New Year to you all, and all the best for 2004.

Comments

[Mandy on 31.12.03 at 08:14]

What a great post!! but then I suppose I am a bit biased! How on earth are we going to top 2004?

I couldn't agree more with your account other than one little detail. Planning a wedding was a bloody pain in the ass at times. All I need say is, to RSVP or not to RSVP, that was the question. (Of course needless to say, the bride got her way!)

So it seems that even after all the daily moans and rants, that life here ain't all that bad, eh? ;-)

[Eric on 31.12.03 at 10:14]

It is very interesting to read this since this is so very similar to my own experience here. I will probably write a very similar post to my own blog later as a matter of fact.

I was engaged in November of '02 and was living in Boston. Katie and I had talked about moving to Bermuda so that she could get a teaching job. I knew that it would be hard for me to find work, so the instant we agreed that it would occur I started looking into it. I was looking for opportunities and it was clear that once I was married it would be much easier. We were resolved to get married on paper first and then move, but then an opportunity came up and we made the move in May of '03.

We had planned on getting married in May of '04, but due to the stress of the move, the new jobs, and planning the wedding - we decided on postponing the wedding until October '04.
Although I think we both agree that in order to get around any work permit issues we might get married on paper and then have the ceremony as planned.

Everyone I met here warned me that I would get "island fever" here, but after what is approaching eight months here I still don't feel it. I went back to the States (NC) for Thanksgiving to see my mom's side of the family and was largely disgusted by the experience - so perhaps that is why I don't mind it here so much. I don't miss the soccer mom in the SUV and on her cell phone experience on the crowded roads there.

I had been in at least 4 hurricanes in the past in the States, but none of them were so severe as Fabian. It was a very interesting experience - we were very fortunate to have no damage at all to our apartment. As a result, I tried to help people around us as much as I could.

I have both enjoyed the laid back and slow atmosphere of Bermuda, and also (coming from Boston) have been driven nuts by it. I went from a business world when everything was done as fast as possible with no flaws, to being done here... eventually and it was questionable if it would even get done or how well it would be done.
I think I am fairly used to it now, but it still drives me nuts to walk through Hamilton's sidewalks - I swear Bermuda has the slowest population of any country in the world.

I still don't have my car driver's license, but I very much enjoy my Vespa and that has probably had a large influence on why I'm not in a terrible hurry to get the license for the car. That said, Katie is very much interested in me getting it before the wedding so that I can help taxi our guests around.

I suppose the similarities in my experience to your own are much more spread out in terms of time - so I can only guess how that must have flown by.
Hopefully the year '04 will let you catch your breath :)

I only recently started reading your blog, but I have enjoyed it - thanks and keep up the good work.

[Jessica on 31.12.03 at 10:19]

Congrats on a productive year! Here's hoping that 2004 is as exciting!!

[Diane on 31.12.03 at 14:37]

Watched Tom Hanks in Cast away last night and thought how appropriate the last line was. "For sure the sun will rise tomorrow and you never know what the tide will bring in" It certainly washed a whole load of treasure into your life-but was it fate and destiny or coincidence or chance?

[graeme outerbridge on 31.12.03 at 18:37]

FORGET about it being the end of another year-Time is a fiction invented by man --the party is already over in Hong Kong! Bring on the next day for the wolf to bite through.It was a thrill to watch Hurricane Fabian walking around middle road in Southampton--no flying cows but plenty of branches---think the East end got it worse--Remember were really just slightly into the 21st century--compare the start of the 20th with the changes by 2000---you know change is comming faster and the next shift has not happened even with clowns wasting their lives flying planes into tall buildings--I think I'll get up early and walk Horseshoe Bay.Nice touch with all the new love stories--The Wolf wants those hearts to beat together for the duration---Keep it happy!!! but always keep your sword by your side--Life is a battle worth winning! The Wolf ^..^

[Fraz on 31.12.03 at 20:40]

Happy new year guys, and if you're looking for greater change in '04, maybe Phil Jr? ;-)