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Oh Yeah it’s Been Nine Years (and a Month)

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Today it has been nine years (and a month) of my working at Thomson Reuters. On one hand it does feel like I’ve been here for a long time. On the other hand it’s still challenging to grasp that it’s been eight years. One of the things I’ve learned that’s good about a large company is it changes as well as your role changes so even though it’s been eight years I’m not doing the same thing I was doing when I started in September 2008.

Thomson Reuters for me by the numbers was something I was thinking about in my head the other day. In the eight years that I’ve been lots of things have changed for me. I have managed five different groups. Six if you count the one I had for about a week or so however I don’t. I’ve had six different positions. I’ve gone through four different managers. Funny enough I switched between three of them within a three-month period that started with a voicemail when I was returning from my honeymoon. I have worked out of three different offices as well as working from home however if you really counted out I’ve gone from Office 1, to Office 2, to Office 3, back to Office 2.

On a personal side I have lived in three different apartments. I have dated, got engaged, got married. Oh and I also have two kids within those nine years. In context my life is vastly different than it was on September 8, 2008. On a personal and professional level far better off than where I was. In anti-climactic fashion I realized about a year and a half after it happened that I have been at Reuters longer than any other company.

Note apparently I had a bunch of posts that I wrote last year that were actually submitted as drafts and never public.  This post was one of them.  I updated the metrics on work and the years working at TR however not much else changed in the post.  I missed posting on my anniversary so i am posting on the anniversary and a month.

Drinking Americano

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I started drinking more Americano’s in the morning on the weekends. I usually drink French press since it’s significantly cheaper and tastes pretty good. With our upcoming move I’m not sure (almost positive it can’t) if the Nespresso machine will work so it is on the list of what has to go.

The delicious challenge I have is that I have a bunch of pods remaining I need to drink before we move in December.  I will either drink a single Lungo shot on its own or make an Americano using the single shot pods.  I am running low on the Lungo shots so it will be Americano’s for a while. The delicious challenge was accepted.

The less delicious challenge to finish the decaf will happen later.

You Need A Passport, And You, Every Gets a Passport!

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I am sticking with the title even though I am not sure if the Operah joke goes over well in this context.

The thing about living overseas is you need a passport. M hadn’t renewed her US passport until the summer. It expired sometime last year. We were pleasantly surprised to get the passport back pretty quick versus how long the State Department said it could take.

My passport is good through 2019 however I’m renewing it early. For one thing I look vaguely like the photo on my passport nowadays. It’s almost funny to see how much more weight I had back then. I also think it’s a good idea to renew it now since renewing it while I’m overseas I feel will be more challenging. Since we want to make a trip before we move I sent my request off and paid the expedite fee. Even though MC had hers come back pretty fast there’s no guarantee. I did not want take that chance.

T has a passport however since she got it when she was not yet one it’s expiring the summer. We will likely have to renew it before we go. I think there’s a rule that you’re not supposed to travel if your passport will expire within six months. I’m curious about that however in any event will renew T before we leave.

A and I went one morning this summer to get hers done. I was surprised at how complicated that was for me to go by myself without M. Apparently the governments concerned about people getting passports and taking their kids without telling the other spouse. I needed to provide a notarized letter and proof of ID from MC saying she knows that I’m getting a passport for A. I get the reasons why you have to do this however I was slightly amused, and slightly annoyed that I had to do that. A didn’t really care. She was fascinated with the post office.

Once T is taking care of we will be all set. Next up is the visas. Thankfully work is taking care of those.

Start With Why

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A few years ago a guy I work with sent me a TED talk video of Simon Sinek.  After  watching one of his videos I immediately watched the second one. Both were very fascinating. It inspired me to want to read his book start with why. The reviews however basically said if you watched the TED talk then you really don’t need to read the book. At the time I didn’t.

Over the summer someone at work challenged me to come up with my personal brand. I floundered for a while not knowing what to do since I am terrible at self-promoting or so I thin I asked the same coworker for thoughts on where to star on doing an exercise like that. He suggested going back to start with why He also pointed out that there is or was a course that Simon Sinek offered that helped people come up with their personal why.

What my coworker said made a lot of sense I ended up buying the book even though the reviews suggested I might not need i I’m three quarters of the way through and it’s been pretty interesting It is an easy read however very insightful information.I started reading the book in August I noticed that the course my coworker mentioned was being turned into a book that was published in September.  Once I am done with Start With Why  I hope to get that book and read it next.

Wait, The Money is Different Sizes in England?

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One of things that turns out to be way more complicated than you would think when planning to move to another country is banking. Before agreeing to go to England we did a lot of research on what it would take. One of the big challenges everyone flagged was getting a bank account. Apparently the Catch-22 is you need to be there to get a bank account in most circumstances. To be there you need money to live. That’s hard without a bank account. Most banks want a local address before you can open an account however most places you want to rent from want a bank account. See the challenge here?

Other things that I’m trying to be smart about is keeping our US presence while were gone.

Then of course there’s the whole thing of English money might not fit in my wallet since it’s different sizes. It’s never a good sign when the company that makes the wall that I own “Bellroy” has a specific line of wallet they market to the UK. That makes me feel like what I own now isn’t going to really work. I might get lucky and maybe everything will be NFC payment. It might be better than the US but that’s wishful thinking.

What of Our Stuff Gets to See England?

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For a few months we were not sure if this move was can actually happen. The waiting turned into now let’s hurry up and getting stuff done. One of the big things is figuring out how we are getting all of our stuff across the Atlantic. MC’s been doing a lot of purging as we are decluttering the apartment. That obviously will only go so far. Once we decide what we do want to take with us we need to find movers in the US and the UK as well as shipping container options.

This is one of the areas that still unknown to us. I need to find a company that I want to work with that is reasonably priced. I know it takes several weeks for stuff to move so we need to get a better understanding of our timeline before we sign any firm commitments. I foresee some more research in my near future on this topic.

The purging of stuff has been easy and difficult both at the same time. There are some things that were just not sure if we want to part with. Or one of us is not sure. Then there’s stuff that we both looked at go yeah that’s being donated somewhere. Then there’s things that we probably shouldn’t move but we kind of want to.

The kids beds for example a really nice and my mom got them for us. On the other hand it’s the perfect opportunity to upgrade the girls to bunkbeds that they want. Other furniture in the girls room is in decent condition and it probably will last so working to take it with us. Our dressers on the other hand are from IKEA. They are in great shape however I believe they were the ones that were recalled for safety hazards so I don’t think they’re going to make the cut on what we take with us. Our Tempur-Pedic bed, yes it’s coming with us. Man I like that bed.

Items like our coffee table I have waffled a lot about. It’s a fantastic table that I got when I was single. It’s got a hydraulic under it that lifts it to turn it into a dining room table. The challenge with it is its glass so the kids and scratched it a little. It also has sharp glass edges at the corners that I’ve cut myself on. Since T was born we have wrapped it in childproof patting. For that reason I thought we should probably not take it with us. After some back-and-forth we agreed that we will see us we can use it as a dining room table at least initially. It’s always good as a backup in case we have company as well. We do not plan on taking our dining room table even know it’s been an MC’s family while. The problem is since it’s been in her family while it’s pretty old. It barely made the move into our current apartment so shipping it halfway across the world isn’t going to really happen.

Our bar, yes it’s coming with us. I don’t know why I need to even talk about it. I did read somewhere that you can’t ship alcohol so at some point I will need to have a bunch of friends over and drink everything that we have. Refilling that with liquor in England feels like it’s going to be expensive.

My computer table. I awesome, awesome computer table. I wanted to go with us. MC made it clear in the past she just wanted to go. Final ruling is still unknown.

I thought a lot of the electronics could just get an adapter and work however one of my friends at the office said I need to be careful and check. My TV that is in perfect condition even though it’s four years old is TBD on if he can come with us. My computers should be fine with an adapter. Apparently our vacuum cannot come and likely our appliances too. I probably have about $300 in power strips that will also need to be given away since no be useless when we get there.

Now that I’m thinking about what stays and what goes not really sure about our couch. MC and I have actually had a conversation about it however I can’t remember what we said we were going to do. On one hand the couch a nemesis of mine. When it’s hot out and I sit on it some of the leather top layer has been known to come off on my clothing when I stand up. You would think I would have learned by now. You would think, but I haven’t. I personally do not want that couch to ruin clothing on two continents so I have the check if were taking it. The big easy chair that goes along with it is in better condition so we might take it however I don’t want the color of the chair to dictate what color the new couch is.

As I’m writing this I realize I need to make a list of big-ticket items that stay versus go.

Next Up Selling Our Apartment / Finding a New Place

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From starting the discussion to signing employment contracts with my company took about one half months. For now we have about 3 1/2 months until I am tentatively scheduled to start in London. For the past few weeks my wife and I have been working to clean up our apartment and de-clutter. We finally did that enough that we posted it with a realtor so we can begin the process of selling it. A few people have mentioned that I should just rent it out while were gone. Even if I thought that was a good idea ( I’m not sure that I do) my building does not allow that. The co-op we live in requires owner occupancy. From what we’ve gathered there is pretty low inventory and a generally high demand in our neighborhood for a two bedroom apartment of our size. Fingers crossed things go smoothly.

If selling an apartment in New York wasn’t enough at the same time we are trying to find a house to live in for when we get to London. Well not yet at that finding a house part of the journey. Were trying to find a few neighborhoods that meet our criteria to start looking for a house. Thankfully I work with a lot of really awesome folks in London already. Several have provided advice about where to live. Much of that advice has been in sync with each other. Funny enough some of that advice has been in contradiction with other advice. It’s funny trying to weed out my families priorities versus what others find important. All the information has been extremely helpful though because we’re learning where we don’t want to look and where we do want to look.

As of writing this post the realtor has just put up the links to our apartment. They look pretty fantastic if you ask me even though I am biased. The next step is to have people view the apartment and hopefully get some offers.

While the selling goes on in New York my wife and I need to plan a scouting trip to London to figure out what neighborhood we want to live in. Online research will only get us so far.