Paddy in HK

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As this post goes live I will be sitting on a plane for eleven hours on route to Hong Kong. I've been there before for work with a previous employer (a bank). On that trip, I spent five 12 hour work days going from the hotel to the office and back to the hotel and I saw nothing but I managed to wangle staying on for the weekend and loved it. The harbour view is magnificent and there's a great vibe to the city with a interesting cosmopolitan mix of expats and obviously the Asian food is great.

I'm going out on spec and have absolutely nothing lined up right now but I'm going to do my damnedest to find work and have been in contact with a few recruitment agencies. I booked the trip a few months ago and the outlook was relatively positive. There is a bit of a surplus of people with my skill set on the job market right now so I was advised to be available, on the ground so to speak, for face to face interviews. Asia hasn't been hit as hard by the financial meltdown as the US and Europe. Things have taken a turn for the worse in the last few months however so I'm keeping my expectations in check.

I going to stay for a minimum of four weeks and if I'm lucky enough to get either a perm or contract position this will be the new home base. Jaezuz - what am going to call the blog now? - Paddy in HK? The missus is waiting back in Buenos Aires for the nod to pack her bags and follow me over. It's not easy being apart for so long but the trip wouldn't have been financially viable if we had travelled together as I've been couch surfing with friends and family this last three weeks. Thankfully Skype with web cam means we can stay in touch practically daily.

Since travel is a passion for us both we decided that making a base in Asia would give us ample opportunity to hop, skip and jump to the far flung corners of this continent and quench our nomadic thirst for exploration. We looked at a few options in Asia but decided on Hong Kong based on feedback of quality of life and reports on availability of work opportunities.

I've done a lot of soul searching recently on what I want to do (when I grow up!) and have to be honest that I'm not very highly motivated to get back into banking. The carrot on the stick was always the year end bonus but even that now seems likely to be drastically reduced or eliminated altogether. Apart from my recent full time job as a beer swilling, steak eating gaucho bum, I haven't been able to come up with an alternative career options however so I'm going to give it one more shot ('shit or burst!' - as say back home).

If it works out, all well and good and if it doesn't, I'll be heading back to Argentina in a months time with my tail between my legs. Life is like a box of chocolates but the selection seems to be mostly dark n' bitter flavour at the moment.

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