Reed in Asia - Asian diary - Asia17 All good things must come to an end

Reed in Asia

All good things must come to an end

Well settled in then and quite happy with our new home in Singapore and married life, the next three years passed quite quickly. Our first child, Douglas Alexander, was born at Changi hospital in Singapore one year later, so life changed again a little having a child to take care of for the first time. Many other things happened over the next three years, but I am keeping those for a future book that I have planned.

Overall, Singapore and the Far East (Orient) in general made a lasting impression on me and I found that I missed it very much on my return to UK, but I didn't have a choice at the time, serving in the RAF I just had to go where they sent me for the next few years until I was eventually demobilised in Germany in September 1980. When I left the RAF I was employed initially as a senior field service engineer by GEC computers in UK and my service responsibilities covered an area from the midlands up to Scotland, I was on call 24 hours per day and because of the area that I had to cover, I spent a lot of the time just driving. I eventually decided that I was not being paid anywhere near enough money for the work that I was doing and so I found another job and then another and so on. I changed jobs three more times over the next three years until I eventually found a job that was very interesting, intellectually stimulating and allowed me to make independent assessments and decisions, also the salary was a lot more in-line with the work and responsibilities required from this position, so I joined GQ Defence Co., Ltd. in Godalming, Surrey.

The company manufactured anti-aircraft defence simulators (domes) for the military and had customers in many countries worldwide. I spent the first three months with GQ learning about their systems and gaining hands-on experience in the domes at their HQ in Godalming and taking care of the domes at some UK military sites. Then one day I was called in to the Operation Manager's office and I was given my first major role for the company. GQ had just won a contract to supply the Royal Thai Air Force with a new simulator (dome) at Don Muang Air Base near Bangkok, Thailand and I was given this contract to take care of.

'So back to the Far East for the first time in 9 years'

"Thailand here I come!"

Legless first time in Thailand