2 Weeks Away

Around mid June, my boss peaked her head in the trading room and said to me "Hey do you have a second? Let's take a walk". As I got up and followed her, I thought what did I do? Did I mess up on a trade? I had worked for her for 3 years. This is the fist time we "took a walk". She said the manager in Woking, UK, was going to be on a maternity leave for a year and she asked me if I would take an assignment there. Think about it and get back to me. I didn't have much information at the time besides I could live in London, which was great because Woking was so quiet. The commute was around 50 minutes.

I never expected an assignment there, because it was never brought up before, and we just had a new Trading Room manager to replace the other manager, who came to TR almost a year before. So, it was me, the senior trader, and a newbie that just started full time a few weeks before the London assignment came up. That means they need to bring somebody new in. Anyway, long story short, I accepted the assignment. I'm excited because this is a great opportunity, my bosses believe in me, that's really huge because it took a while to get comfortable in Trading Room. The first year was confusing, the second year was much better and the third year my confidence grew. I love my job. In every job, people say "you have to wash the dishes" sometimes, that's true with mine, but I spent very little time doing the dishes. I enjoy the interaction with the traders, learn a lot from them, build relationships, happy for them when they win my trades, happy for myself when I get good pricing. None of the money goes into my bank account obviously, but you get the satisfaction from executing something great. In summary, let's just say the light bulbs came on gradually during 3 years stint in TR.

There are a lot of progress since the last post. Chloe, my Lakeland terrier who's coming with me to London, is going to be transported by Air Animal. I was relieved because the other pet transport company that my co-worker used when he moved to London, had a bad review. I dealt with the owner of the company. I don't know if he handles all clients or since I'm a corporate client, so he has all UPS accounts. Anyway, I'm happy because he's organized, knows his stuff, answers my questions, quick in getting back and we keep in touch every few days. This coming Monday, he will overnight the UK paperwork to Chloe's vet. On Tuesday, I will take Chloe to the vet, so she can be approved for health certificate. I will then ship the signed paperwork to USDA in Florida. Also, on Tuesday, Air Animal will ship Chloe's crate to my house.

The past week I was pretty stressed out. A friend's friend was looking for a place to live. We met last Monday and decided that she should come over to my townhouse to take a look at the place to see if this suited her. I scrambled to clean and store my stuff away, just in case she decided to move in, she would have an empty bedroom closet, pantry, kitchen cupboards and clean fridge. I also scrambled to get my car priced by a couple of dealers. If she moved in, it would be fair to take up half of the garage for my car. The day she was supposed to come and see my place, she was no show, didn't reply my text and email. I thought this was a bad sign anyway. I can't deal with somebody is not reliable. I know she was busy but blowing me off like that is not acceptable. The next morning I already decided that this wasn't going to work out anyway. A couple of hours later, she texted me and said she had busy looking for a place and changed her mind about my place because her dogs were chewers. That's great. I changed my mind also.

Now, back to the car situation, since I'm going to keep the townhouse to myself, I can leave the car in the garage and ask Mike, my old coworker and neighbor, to start the car every couple of weeks or something. But in the meantime, another UPSer that I know from the gym, is looking for a car for her daughter. Her budget is a thousand dollars less than I want to sell my car for, but she would discuss it with her daughter and schedule a test drive on Sunday if she's interested. Last night, I started doing the math. Yes, I would save $750 in car insurance and registration if I sell the car. I would cost me $200 if I rent a car with insurance every time I'm back in the US, I may be back 2-3 times in 16 months. Plus, when I'm back in Jan 2015, I would need to buy a new car. A used Honda with low mileage that a year or two old is at least $12,000 more than what I get from my car now. Yes, it's a new car and my Honda is a 10 years old but it's Honda and the machine is still very smooth. I want to drive it until it breaks. Now I changed my mind. I want to keep the car, drop my umbrella policy and reduce the insurance coverage a little bit to save some cash. The car situation is solved. Wheww! I had been thinking about to sell or not to sell for a couple of months.

The housing situation in London is making progress also. I booked a service apartment in Marylebone for a month. I booked a Business class ticket to London. Yeah, you read it right, business class. I would be a kid in a candy store when I get to my seat. I have had more than twenty 20 hour flights from the US to Indonesia in Economy class in the past 18 years. This is the first time I'm in Business Class. Oh back to housing, my plan is to spend two days with an agent to look for a flat and pick a place. Hopefully I can move in to the new place before one month serviced apartment is up. I got a prelim list of potential flats on Friday. They were good price and location. My monthly budget is 3,700 pounds. Housing is probably around 2,300 including utilities and taxes. I would find out more about this next week.