1 Year On Away From Home

Wow it's been 1 Year to the day since I was last in England, I was so close to making it the whole year in the Asian block but I fell short by just a few days.

Life: A lot has happen over the year, and a heck of a lot has happened in the past six months. But I have spent my time with amazing people who have taken me too visit fantastic places and have been truly wonderful and kind to me. Especially Rita who was just simply great and very supportive!

Work: I've been lucky enough to worked with some amazing design offices in Taipei from DEMinc 橙果設計, Process to AmTran 瑞軒科技, which is where I am working now.

It's been a real eye opener to how things are done out here and I had a steep learning curve which is still getting steeper!

Traveling: I've managed to visit Lanyu (Taiwan, but still an island in it's own right) Thailand (Bangkok), Macau and now America (California).

Rita also took me all over Taiwan, which gave me one of the best insights and cultural experience I think anybody could ever get and I was extremely privileged and honored to of had such a wonderful experience.

Languages: I wish I could speak more Chinese, but then I have not made enough effort to improve, I did find it tricky but I really want to improve now.

Music: I suppose my end of the year away from home song is going to be Steinski - Let's get it on

Plaza & Malls

Today was quite cold in Irvine or at least I felt a little bit cold, I did drive down to the beach to have a look but I felt I should go on Sunday instead. My housemate Frank who I’m currently staying with said I should check out the South Coast Plaza as it quite good for sightseeing and do a spot of shopping.

Not the South Cost Plaza but the Spectrum centre, close to Irvine, similar thought.

As I needed a new pair of trainers I thought I would head over there. The one thing I have realized about California and especially Irvin is that everything revolves around Malls.

This is where everybody hangs out!

You do generally have these vast open spaces between everything and then you reach a Mall which is like the town centre where people congregate and then you drive on again and your back to gated community and office blocks. For me this is totally under and very culturally different as you have to drive everywhere to do anything.

Cribs

I am staying at the company flat near Culver Drive in my little gated community which is a bit odd for me, but the place is perfectly comfortable and much nicer than the hotel I was at in the beginning.

Front of the house.

This is my new ride, it’s a Honda and it’s huge, which does make it a big tricky to drive, In fact I parked next to a Range Rover the other day and my car is longer and taller. I think if I ever got lost I could sleep in the boot without having to put down the back seats.

My ride.

It also has some cool accessories like electric sliding doors and LCD screen which, show a camera image of the back when you’re reversing which is pretty useful.

My street.

I am very great full to have satellite navigation too as it’s quite easy to get lost as you need to drive everywhere to do the most basic of things, like getting milk from you local petrol station as it’s so far away from where you home is.