I had my farewell dinner in a Wok Buffet with colleagues a few weeks ago as well.    My manager definitely wants to have another farewell dinner before I leave.  I’ve definitely moved on and glad about my decision.

Last week, I visited my sister’s family and Mom in Canada and had a nice time bonding with my niece and nephews.    It also snowed while I was there!

Last Saturday, we signed up for a mini storage space nearby.   This is for MrC’s motorbike and stuff that we can’t bring or sell yet.

We’ve started putting stuff in boxes and this time, we registered them in a spreadsheet one by one!  So far we have now 6 boxes (3 for storage and 3 for shipping) and more to come.   I got in contact with my old company’s shipping department and they gave me a nicely priced shipping offer.   We’re definitely using them.

The house cooling is definitely set to the end of November.

• Phase 0 Preparation (details of these will be discussed in succeeding posts)

This has already started now. We need to research the best kind of visa we will use for our long stay. Also, we just found out that we could not officially sublet our apartment. According to our landlord we should “not let them know” if we planned to do it because it is officially not allowed. We’re starting to let our friends and colleagues know about our plans to see if anyone also want to sublet our apartment.

• Phase 1 (sometime in April or May)

Scouting visit to the Philippines. This will be around 2-3 weeks.
Here we will try to see if my husband can work remotely there for his clients. He needs a place, where he can have at least a spacious desk to work on with a computer and a good broadband connection so he can call his colleagues here via VOIP. Then, we would also look for possible places where we can stay.
Also, we arrange to open peso bank accounts. We will also meet and network with my old colleagues and referrals from my family members.
We now decide afterwards if we will continue with the long stay in August.

• Phase 2 (After the trip)

At this time, we are totally convinced that the prospects are good and we are comfortable with the idea of living there then we would most probably end the lease of our apartment and start planning to get our stuff to storage or directly to the Philippines. We start our paperwork for our long stay in the Philippines.

• Phase 3 (after 3 months)

The plan is for me to have a sabbatical for around 6 months then later explore my personal business opportunities. I will Assist my hubby in opening a company, calling government offices, networking with people, finding our first hired free-lance programmer.
My Dutch husband then learns the culture and business environment, possibly the language, making sure the communication with client/partners in NL is effective. Start the outsourcing company with 1 free-lance programmer. Meet and network with people in Philippines.
At this phase we would see if the oursourcing business is viable and growing. If the results are positive (more work coming from NL), we would be expanding the company by hiring an additional programmer.

At six months, if everything work out as planned, long-term residence is considered along with finding a new house and office space.

Again, in summary, we see that we would definitely need some help on the following:

1. An office/desk space for my husband that has high-speed internet connection (asap)
2. A place to live temporarily while we are looking for our own place
3. Assistance in the form of leads, advise, contact referrals in the government or businesses that would help us in the building and growing of the business.
4. Advise or referrals in finding our own temporary residence for the first six months (such as a 1/2 bedroom apartment with available highspeed internet, good running water and near a business district).