Almost two weeks ago we arrived to Singapore. Will stay here for a couple of years.
I thought I would do a quick write up on our first 10 days.
School - Sweden vs Singapore (international school)
The thing we were most nervous about was our daughter, how would she manage in school? New language (she understands some english, but that is something different from being the full-time language without fallback), new friends, uniform (not that we were that nervous about that), new teacher, new school system etc etc.
She was so nervous the day before and did not sleep much during the night prior to school start, but as soon as we came to school and a couple of classmates took care of her it changed, since we arrived to school she loves it. It is an international school, ISS International School. People from all over the world. It is hard to even compare to the school in Sweden, everything is just so much more professional.....and both we as parents and our daughter loves it!
....and a few days ago she started to answer in English at home even though we spoke Swedish, they are picking up so fast in that age.
It is ridiculous expensive with apartment in Singapore. Whatever you chose it is just bloody expensive, but we knew this and had it in mind when we set up criteria for our viewings. We saw about 10 apartments before deciding. We are moving in on Saturday and are really looking forward to it. Maybe celebrate with a bottle of wine on the balcony. Finally a home and not a hotel without routines etc.
Completely without patriotism I must say that IKEA is a saviour. Just within a couple of hour we have all the basic stuff for a new apartment and can fill up with some more local and personal stuff along the road. IKEA has a fantastic concept and it seems like everyone (especially expats) just love IKEA. Surprisingly few know that it is a Swedish company though, which is kind of interesting.
Broadband was a breeze to order and it is fast. You can't order below 25mbps and the fastest for consumers are 1GBps, not bad. We'll see if the advertised speed is the same as the real speed.
Well, a few weeks ago I sold parts of my ownership in Silverbakk and are now just a member of the board. I still will be heavily involved in the strategic work and direction of the company, but the operational work as CEO is handed over to Magnus. So what will I do here in Singapore. In a few weeks I'll let you know, right now everything is just a blur with all the administration and settling down in our new country (we have been here for 10 days now). Even though my next venture is set I see opportunities all over the place. Even though Asia is a boiling pot and has passed west in so many ways, they are also very behind in some areas. The transformation of old business models into new ones are just one example. The Verge had a great piece on the topic, so if you want to read up on that topic both posts are worth the read. It also features Hugh Mason the founder of JFDI in Singapore.
The Verge - Asian Startups Should Stay in Asia
Singapore has a wast amount of expats and people are moving in and out all the time. It seems like there is an eco-system for taking care of newcomers. We have been so well received by everyone, parents at school, people in our network that live in Singapore, random people that we meet etc. Everyone are so friendly and helpful. Helpful in the genuine way, not just a facade. It has helped us a lot in the relocation to Singapore.
I have never experienced so much empathy, friendliness and people that really care as I have done since we moved here and that from, in many cases, complete strangers. It might be that everyone have been in the same position as we are now. However we are grateful for meeting all of these people.
It takes a while, but after a few days ou start to get a hang of the Singlish. It is kind of a formalized version of English with a heavy does of asian accent a with many words cut out of the sentence.
An example is the classic:
"Could you pass me the salt, please?" and the answer is simply "Can!" Kind of love it. Google Glass and Siri will have a hard time to penetrate Singapore and I am a bit scared about our daughters english in a few years, but most teachers are from England, New Zealand and Australia, so we should be fine.
So, here I sit on the rooftop of the hotel Forest By Wangz where we stay for the first two weeks. The sun shines and it is about 30C warm. Life is easy and I enjoy it to the fullest! Well, still a lot of things to do before we are completely up and running both private and business wise. But it is fun and I am very comfortable that great things will happen.
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