Moving Back Down Under

In less than two weeks I'll be moving back home.

For those that don't know, home for me is Sydney, Australia.

I have spent 13 years in Charlotte, North Carolina, and 12 of those years working for Carolinas Healthcare System (CHS for short). I had the pleasure of knowing and working with a number of good people at CHS. I also learned a lot about enterprise application development, from system integration to network application security to software design and architecture to maintenance and troubleshooting. I suspect there are not many IT environments where I could have learned so much about so many things as I did there, and I hope to put the lessons I learned to good use going forward.

My last day at CHS was this past Tuesday, November 30. It was quite a busy day for me, working to complete some final tasks even while I was finishing my packing and saying goodbyes, and I didn't get around to everyone I wanted to see that day. I think my supervisor anticipated this, which is why he scheduled my going away lunch for Thursday. It worked out better that way as I was able to say goodbye to everyone in my team at the lunch without me feeling rushed to get back to the office.

On Friday I'm making a day trip to Raleigh to attend CFLunch and chat a bit with members of the fine ColdFusion developer community in that area. After communicating with him so many times via email, Instant Messaging, and Skype, I look forward to talking in person to Model-Glue's Fearless Leader! On the way back to Charlotte I'll make a stop to visit an ex-boss and mentor. I have a lot of respect for him because he understood the software development process ... and because he wasn't afraid to kick my arse when I needed it :-)

Next week I plan to make farewell appearances at a CharLUG Mini Meet and an Adobe Charlotte December meeting.

The rest of my time will be spent panicking, furiously packing what I can fit in my luggage, and trying to find ways to sell or otherwise dispose of my furniture, electronics (including a CRT HDTV & 2 PCs), and anything else I happen to have. If you think I may have anything of interest to you, please contact me!

PS. You may also contact me if you're in the Charlotte area and are interested in a farewell L4D2 Steam LAN party: I have gift copies for people who can bring their own rig!

PPS. I regret that I won't be able to attend the CharlotteJS Holiday Party. CharlotteJS is a great group and I learned a lot from the meetups I attended. Garrett is a young but passionate and dedicated developer, and with him at the helm of CharlotteJS it's bound to keep getting better and better!