People who moved to Singapore initially without family

[lukeduke]

Hi,

After 8 months on gardening leave and just about to accept a new role in London a position has come up in Singapore which I am now leaning towards.

Initially however my wife & two kids would not be joining me....probably not for 6 months although I will be flying home every 4-6 weeks.

Has anyone else done this and share experiences. My official relocation package wouldn't happen until February. I would get a month of accommodation initially , flights back etc. Ideally would want to rent my own small place outside the city as i dont mind commuting. I have commuted from Sussex 3 hours a day for last 5 years

thanks in advance for any useful comments

[sundaymorningstaple]

Almost all of us who have worked in the offshore drilling/oil exploration industries have worked month on month off types of rotation jobs. I did it for almost 20 years. If you have flights home every 4~6 weeks, it's very do-able. I worked a 2 & 1 rotation for the last 8 years I worked offshore (2 months on/one month off). As long as the company is paying for your flights home and they are regular it's not so bad. In fact, with todays electronic media, it should be a skate in the park. (we didn't have cell phones, skype, etc, etc. in those days)

[ScoobyDoes]

My son was just short of 2yrs old when the family joined me in Singapore, and I had left probably 5yrs before that.

Skype with video, MSN and flights every few months in either direction and everything is fine but it is dependant on the dynamic of your family and we can't say if it will work for you or not, but it could.

It will only take a couple of trips back through Heathrow to get fed up and the 4wks turns to 6wks turns to 8wks then 10 so be careful of that too.

[lukeduke]

It will be from September 1st until February....that's it. I would be back every 4-6 weeks for family & work reasons and I would try to plan us all meeting in Dubai for October half term.