14 days and counting

When I think of London, I conjure feelings of happiness. Many people go to London with dreams of wealth and never-ending opportunity, only to have their dreams shattered by the reality of living in a strange place; working with strange people and doing strange jobs.

When I arrived in London, just over 4 years ago, it was a place filled with opportunity. Within the first couple of weeks, I awoke to the fact that I missed the IT boom and jobs were not as freely available as it seemed. 4 weeks passed in which my days consisted of: Get up to have breakfast with wife; Go to the Internet Café and spend a couple of hours looking for jobs, sending CV’s and arranging interviews; Go to the gym to blow off some steam; Go shop at the local Market (Fulham’s North End Road) to prepare supper; Go back to the Internet Café to see if I had any responses to my CV’s; Go home and prepare supper. Another day another couple of quid spent with no income. I reached dire straits and finally got an interview at Tate Britain for a Corporate Fundraising Administrator position. The pay was not bad and the people were really accommodating. Not withstanding the fact that my art knowledge was limited to having heard of Picasso and a few others, I got the job. What does a Corporate Fundraising Administrator do?

My days consisted of updating the CRM (Customer Relations Management) system; scouring the newspapers for potential sponsors; producing presentations for future events requiring sponsorship. It was great fun and I worked with great people. I even got to see a few exhibitions (Matisse and Picasso; Lucian Freud and others) and work with some of the wealthiest people in London.

Next job would be at IMS Health – Database administrator for the Sales and Services Department. Though the job was not too challenging, I got the opportunity to explore and develop new skills. Again I met some wonderful people and made some great friends. From Database administrator I moved to Systems Administrator for the Customer Services Call Logging system (QMS). This was a great challenge and I got the opportunity to learn quite a bit, especially in the roll out of new products. My team grew, from Linda (the manager) and me, to Derek (TSP – Timesheet) and Shazia (GoldMine, QMS). From Systems Administrator I moved to Business Analyst for the Sales Department. This was a very dynamic role and it put all my skills to good use. I got the opportunity to work at all levels in the Sales cycle. It was great and probably the best job I had in London. I worked within a great team, each with their own area of expertise and learnt how to be interdependent.

We left London on the 26th of August 2005.

Now, almost a year has passed and life moved on at a hectic pace. Life in South Africa has been good and if I had to choose between going back to London and staying here, I would stay.

We left London on a high. Good jobs, good friends, good times. Now we’re going back on holiday; too say our final farewell to a time in our lives that we will never forget.