My Asian hourglass seems to be slowly running out, more perhaps my Soju shotglass:-! I'm scheduled to finish the current project in mid August and go home for a few weeks and then start a new permanent job in the UK with Oracle. I will still be working on projects and because the group I will work for is pretty much global could end up in some funny corner of the globe again. But I will miss Asia a lot, it is so different and certain things do get under your skin, the food, culture, sights and smells, just the whole atmosphere.

I will NOT miss the Korean corporate lifestyle though, my theory of the country being better off if they could dump the whole 36+ year old management structure in the sea stills stands, even stronger. The handling of juniors by seniors to me borderlines on abuse. It's strange that Koreans will protest in the streets and burn flags and effigies for distant issues like G8 summits, trade agreements, etc. but when they step back into the office the boss is boss and to be revered. It's a bit of a false form of Confucianism that has been adapted to keep the bosses ensconced in comfort while their workers slave away, me thinks. The problem I have in addition to this is that it stifles initiative as workers are only concerned with keeping a cranky boss off their backs, it has to affect the Korean economy at some stage. Nowhere have I seen people hate their jobs and bosses more than I have seen it in Korea too. Deadlines are cast in concrete, one's sleeping pattern is variable so if you don't make the deadline just sleep less seems to be the general approach. My issue with that is that the human body is designed so that it needs rest to recuperate and if you overdo it the actual productive time on the job gets reduced dramatically, I have seen this in action too much. I have never had guys falling asleep on me while I talk to them like here or complain about being just totally exhausted. Lunchtimes, which fortunately are taken religiously, see sleeping bodies slumped over their desks everywhere. Us lazy expats have been fortunate, we get to go home at 7pm, even on Fridays, and boy, you gotta be on the job at 8.30 sharp or said boss will have your derior! I do really have huge sympathy with the regular Korean workers and most of them are very charming and sweet but just wish they would protect their interests as militantly as the Korean street protesters seeing as their government is seemingly incapable of doing so.

I had a trip to the Uk recently for the job interview, spent four nights in London and then five nights in Hong Kong having my Korean visa renewed. London is London, unique, English but yet extremely cosmopolitan, regal, charming mix of ancient and new, amazing tourist destination as there's so much to see, etc. Yet it also is the homebase for the world's English diaspora of which I am a member. My grandfather on my dad's side was born in Scotland in 1863! So it has a homecoming atmosphere to me.

The first time I flew into London was about six years ago on a few weeks work assignment. It was my first trip out of Africa as well so I watched with amazement as the in-plane moving map crept over all these names on the map that I had only read about before. Isn't one's first overseas trip always memorable? The fact that it happened to me later in life perhaps made it even more so. When we came in to land the little English style houses flashed by underneath the plane as if they were coming of a production line conveyor belt, ching, ching ching, same house after same house, all joined together and built with red bricks and red roof tiles and little red chimneys, like the production line in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all produced by little duplicate Oompa Loompas! One thing London does seem to be reasonably successful at is to mix it's old and modern architecture quite nicely except for a few abortions. Lot's of new homes are built in the old style but with modern interiors. Korea has this amazing ancient architectural building style with the quaint roof structures for their palaces yet none of their modern buildings reflect this, it's all bali bali (quick quick) produced modern concrete, tiling and fake marble. I have a theory that the original Korean apartment block was designed by an architect and then he died and the same blueprint is being used for all their apartments ever since, very repetitive and dull, yet the interioirs are sparkling and modern on the new blocks. The standard question of 'Do you have a Korean reference?' that gets asked every time we expats want to introduce a new computer something (why have us then if it all has to be Korean anyway:-) must have been asked here too, 'Who else has built this like that?'.

My first night in London was spent in a small hotel right on the northern side of Hyde park, a Best Western. The building was old and charming, including the lounge and staircases but the room was tiny, poky and disappointing so I moved to a Holiday Inn Express in Docklands the next day. I did enjoy strolling through Hyde Park and the nearby shopping areas. The Holiday Inn is quite new and modern with nice rooms, familiar like a MacDonalds Bigmac, standard stuff. I wanted to be in the Docklands area as it's one of the areas that has always fascinated me and I wanted to check it out as a possible area to stay in. Anything near water and boats gets me going and Docklands is a re-development of the old London docks area. Huge old warehouse and factory buildings have been converted into apartments and office blocks and a raft of new buildings have sprung up to complement them. On the whole I found it very charming and retro yet with a nice lively vibe. There's a Docklands Light Railway that runs on suspended tracks and stations are dotted all over Docklands so its nice for sightseeing. I went and had a look at the poor old burnt out Cutty Sark tea clipper that had caught fire just before I arrived in Greenwich, sad sight. I also made a point of having most of my meals in old style London pubs, they are quintessential English and offer good value for money. I'm not a big bangers and mash type but had nice roast beef and veggies, fish and chips and good lamb, etc. I did do a train trip out to Brighton on a miserable rainy day to have a look, suffice it to say that beaches are not England's strong point, not after South African, Mozambique and Indonesian ones. Their inter city trains are nice though. There also ain't nothing like the London subway, cranky, creaky, slow, crowded, old, etc yet it's a huge part of the fascination that's London, like a set of old cholesterol damaged arteries feeding it all day with it's lifeblood. It's the original subway too. I love the way the tunnels meander left and right and up and down like some huge blind mole had tunneled them without thinking too much of where he was going. Then there's the ringing 'Mind the gap!' audio message.

The first night I had a nice big ol steak in a steakhouse and a charming English couple plonked down next to me after having watched a musical show and we were chatting away like old acquaintances after a while, very homely on me foirst night. The offices I went to for the interview were near Liverpool Street station in a nice office area of the city. I explored around a lot, rode the Thames river boats a bit and did tons of walking.

Hong Kong was cool, a familiar face, one of the places I will miss a lot. I like the mix of Chinese Asian and the elements of colonial English that still remain. I watched England play Brazil in a soccer friendly at 3am in a pub and also South Africa play England in a rugby game, also late at night, many Poms were in attendance too!

So for now I am winding down slowly, D-47 at the moment. I miss home and family, would rather have gone home instead of to London but business is business, me supposes.