London; Jungle; Mountain Views
Saturday 18 June 2005
Hello everyone,
“Uh oh” ... yes ... it’s that time of year when something interesting actually starts happening and I begin sending mass e-mails. It’s always pretty tricky sending these. Apart from the fact that most people probably don’t read mass-mails, there are some of you I haven’t seen since university, some I haven’t seen since Indonesia 2-years ago, some I saw at Easter Snowboarding, and some I only saw last week. So, I’m sorry for the impersonal nature of this and if I end off repeating something you already know: indulge me. :)
So to recap: since returning from Honduras last September I have been working in London as a contract web/internet/software developer. I have been living in Putney — South West, Zone 2 — and commuting to my various contracts: Windsor, Acton and Islington. All in all it was good experience, but I found the commute a real bore! Windsor was bearable, as I could comfortably sit on the overland train and read the paper, but the other two contracts involved getting on the jam packed tube and crossing the city — 1 hour each way (on a day without delays), I’m sure some of you can identify. There’s nothing worse than a bout of hay fever on a hot and completely full tube that has stalled between stations for some unknown reason. Ok, there are a lot of things that are worse, but it’s still pretty rubbish!
Anyway, since Honduras was so cool last year, I’m going back to Base Camp as one of the camp managers. With about 900 students and staff it looks like it’s going to be a hectic 10-weeks, but I’m really looking forward to it. Especially as several people from last year, three of my friends from Indonesia, and my Indonesian Jungle Trainer Dedy, are going to be out there. I fly out from Heathrow on Monday morning at 7:25am, via Madrid and Costa Rica. As of sending this email I don’t even know if I’m being met at the airport or if I have to make my own way to Cofradia. Though if it is the latter, I have no idea where this year’s office is... so it’s going to be an interesting trip.
I was initially planning on returning from Honduras and working in London for a few months before heading out to Canada to pursue photography and snowboarding. However, about 6-weeks ago I received a call from a large internet company based in Mountain View, near San Francisco in the states. You may have heard of it: Google Inc. :) So after a pretty intense interview process (that I can’t discuss) and a trip out to the States I accepted an offer from them on Thursday night, and it is only now I can start telling people about it.
It’s pretty crazy and has not yet properly sunk in, but sometime in October I’ll starting work out there as a User Interface Engineer. I’ll probably base myself in San Francisco and get the bus to work.
Well, I’m hoping that I will get access to the internet occasionally throughout the summer so I will no doubt be boring you with more essays of my escapades in the jungle. If one person reads them it’s worth it, and for the rest of you :P
