Well, this is it… Handed over the apartment back to the owner, collected the bond and closed the door behind me. On the way to the airport soon to close another chapter in my life and on to a new adventure. Singapore, you’ve been a great place to be while it lasted. I can highly recommend The Marbella as a place to live to anybody looking for luxury and tranquility. I’ll miss you for a while, but soon you’ll be forgotten.

Farewell!

After my visit to London, I also dropped by in The Netherlands to surprise my mother. She hadn’t seen me in a long time  and every time we plan for her to come and visit again, I move somewhere else. She was pleasantly surprised (mainly because of the good planning of my sister) and I had some nice days in Leiden, Zwijndrecht and Noordwijk. I finally got the chance to get feel some cold wind when we visited the beach. But apart form that, The Netherlands also experienced some nice post-summer sunny days with temperatures just below 20°C.

After I decided on my new job in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, I thought I’d treat myself to a few winter days in Europe. I always wanted to fly the new Airbus A380 in business class and there wouldn’t have been a better occasion and reason to do so, then now. And as soon as I start my new job, it would be months before I would have had a chance to do so. So last week, I flew to London.

The Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800 is an amazing and huge plane. On the way to London I had a window seat right in the front on the top-deck. Check-in was a breeze, the lounge on Changi Airport is magnificent and luxurious. The plane carries more than 500 passengers, but because of the double decks and separate entrances, as well as large gate areas, boarding was quick and efficient. Business and economy class passengers were always separated. The flight was surprisingly smooth and quiet, which you don’t really expect from such a monstrous airliner. The 13 hour flight was long, especially because it was a day-flight but you were still urged to sleep. The flat bed didn’t help, as some people “worked” the first few hours and tried to sleep the last, while other did the other way around. I ended up in London with hardly any sleep at all, but saw several good movies on the amazing in-flight entertainment centre. The seats are almost as wide as a couch, the screen as big as a wide-screen television and the space almost as big as a hotel room. I don;t have to mention that the Singapore Airlines service was absolutely amazing. I would almost say it was worth every single dollar and you wouldn’t want to fly long distance any other way than this.

Had a great time in London as well with good company. Saw “Billy Elliot the Musical” in the Victoria Palace Theatre on West End. I stayed at the Queens Way and Bayswater area in London where I used to live. My services apartment didn’t exist anymore, but the area mostly remained the same. It’s probably one of the best neighborhoods in London. We strolled through Hyde Park and Portobello Road antiques market. Found some cute little bistros and restaurants, watched a movie and walked through the city centre and along the Thames river. The weather was surprisingly warm; The original objective to soak up some cold winter weather, didn’t really come through. But I had a great time.

Yes, this morning nobody knew yet, now I can officially announce I will be moving to Kuala Lumpur in the next weeks.

I still don’t have many details, but the package seems very attractive. Looking at a November 2nd start-date and living quarters right smack in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. More details will follow while I fill in the blanks over the next few days. But the new location of this blog will finally move to more exciting places. Singapore has been a fine stop-over, but I am in many ways glad I am leaving.

As most of you probably know, I am moving before the end of the month! The problem however is, nobody seems to know exactly where I am moving to.

Same here, I am keeping several options open. But it’s difficult trying to arrange for movers to come and pack you stuff, without knowing the destination where to send it all to. But my lease in Singapore runs out at the end of the month and frankly speaking, for the amount of money I spend in rent here every month, I can stay in a REALLY nice hotel anywhere in the world. So, I put in my notice and I have also already made arrangement for most of the utilities and services to be disconnected. Within all this uncertainty, one thing is for sure, I am closing the door of The Marbella permanently before the 1st of November.

So, I decided that in the meantime, I am sending all my belongings to Kuala Lumpur and temporary store them with friends. Reason being that it’s very likely Kuala Lumpur will be my next home town and I don’t want to throw anything away prematurely. Depending on the package and contract from my new employer, I will either be moving into an apartment not too far away from these friends, or I will end up in a serviced apartment provided by the company. In any case, it’s good to have my stuff in Kuala Lumpur already.

In case I do move back to Europe, which is also still an option, I can always still get rid of my stuff. So, keep following this site for future updates. While everybody waits, I am planning a surprise!