Divorcing, weekend out in London & career reflections amongst other things

The Divorce & the moving arrangements...

This last week I confronted an issue that had I been dreading for a long time- divorcing my housemate! No, we’re not married, but that’s probably how you would describe the process of dividing up assets that we bought together without have any concrete agreement as to who had the rights to any of the items. What annoys me the most is that he initiated the buying of what has turned out to be mostly unnecessary items which he then subsequently replaced with others (often his mother’s), rendering the originals even more useless!! He even had the cheek to purchase house items without my consent and then present me with a bill at then end- in the spirit of getting along I always agreed, but in the end it adds up and has ultimately been costly. Anyhow, without further whinnying, I had been thinking around this problem for quite a while and I came to the conclusion that he was going to likely try and take me for a ride by keeping quiet in the hope of keeping all the stuff (as I clearly was not going to take them with me to Stanford). I virtually don’t speak to my housemate now, but I had a clear negotiating strategy in order to get an upper hand, so after an exchange of e-mails, in which I proved myself right that he indeed he was planning to do one over me, he finally gave in to my threat- "I'm sticking with my plan to withhold some rent unless you come to a rational figure for the physical stuff you are keeping, for once- I'm going to be firm with my rules."
Yes, the housemate partnership was never really a compromise on living styles, only his way or no way, so I’m glad I made it clear to him that he was not going to get his way right to the very end. People reading this may get a view of me being a harsh person, I’m really not- it’s just that my housemate for the last two years has not only been terribly dishonest and untrustworthy but also terribly selfish and uncompromising, most of, he needs to learn to respect people he has fundamental differences with rather than try and impose his own will. I really hope I don't get such a housemate at Stanford- I filled out the accomodation forms with great care!
Another aspect I had been looking at was how to move my stuff to California- I’m am surprised at how easy it is. The price is around £360 to move 60kg with only 24 hours notice required! And surprisingly, it’s cheaper by air not sea as I assumed (only marginally though).

Reflections on the Aerospace career- The exclusive scoop!
Over the last month I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve done in the last 2 and half years my organisation. The short answer, without being too modest, is rather well… In two years I have done diverse roles from developing an analytical visualisation flight test data analysis tool using a $50 open source development tool, learnt how to critically test and evaluate aerospace systems from one of the three test pilot schools in the world and helped to innovate and enhance the military and civil aircraft certification process. I’m now running around grabbing our slick marketing test pilot school merchandise like its gold dust, call me sad, but nothing tops those memory sticks! On the topic of things to have on the mantelpiece and frame- Timing could not have been better, as I finally received the independent annual supplement "Everything Aerospace", through the post on Saturday- in which I was featured in a double page spread article- "Plane Speaking"- Mbwana Alliy, 23, from Tanzania, studied electronics and communication engineering at Bristol University. He now works as a technical consultant with QinetiQ."
The article itself is pretty accurate to what I said during the phone interview on my way back from TESCO shopping, and some of my friends who have seen it have said it describes me pretty well. What I love most about the article is how it drifts into the Expedition/charity work I did for the Britain Tanzania Society last year- it certainly portrays me as a socially responsible technologist with Africa firmly on my agenda. The article ends with my plans to drift into more business matters (no surprise!). QinetiQ has been great, I will certainly miss the people, flexible working hours and the "jollies", and to some extent, the location- being smack in the Wiltshire countryside is lovely in the summer - where else can you play tennis with fast jets whooshing above your head? I’m leaving a relatively low paying job for my skills and a culture which does not yet value or reward its employees as well as it could. Hopefully, the MBA and future employment will change all that for me, and ultimately I’m hoping post the initial public offering (IPO), QinetiQ will become an enviable technology and security company that rewards its staff.

London Weekend- Those diverse friends!
So the mad touring continues, finally hitting the London scene over the long bank holiday weekend. The focus was on seeing people on a one to one basis long enough to really properly catch up rather than trying to form a large group of incompatible friends (it’s the price you pay for diverse friends!). Weekend went off to a bad start when met up withMyles, my eccentric journalistic friend. He turned up to lunch still ill from a previous heavy night- he did not touch his £15 main course and promptly returned home to bed to continue to nurse his hangover for a couple more hours- I proceeded to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon drinking pimms on the King’s road in a beer garden with my ex-Bristol uni friend who is studying in phD in electronics at UCL which was great to catch up on uni stuff.
Then I met up with 2 mates from my school, Marlborough, one working for Bloomberg, the other a mid-sized accountancy firm- these two were always the potential "business" stars going back to Marlborough days and there was certainly a hint of "How the hell do you deserve an MBA without having not worked in the city or without an economics degree?", but in the end they were certainly pleased for my success- as I would soon possibly be joining them in the world of high-flying business. John, the now Bloomberg employee, even agreed to show me round the Bloomberg offices sometime which should be interesting.
I re-met with Myles who filled me in about his trip to Syria and his first journalistic freelance work- typical Myles, he does not agree with the idea of blogs, despite their growing prominence for freelance journalists- he can be stubborn. Later, Tom joined us, who now works for war-child in the non-profit sector. It was a welcome change of career conversation as together us three went around exploring Camden town area of London on the Sunday from beer garden to beer garden and eventually to a tapas bar. I invited them both to the forthcoming lecture next week at School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) by the Tanzania & Uganda World bank country director arranged by the Britain Tanzania Society- which I’m hoping will entice them to join the society as it really needs some younger blood. At one point I met briefly with Alex, the now "entrepreneurial musician", with his jazz group having kicking off very well, he has at played numerous venues around London. I offered to help up set up his website and he obliged even offering to pay me (yippee more money to pay off debts!), as before long his bootstrapping would have to end- he hasn’t even thought up a name for his music business yet. He reckons he may have found a potential niche in London for semi-professional/professional jazz group to play at venues as well as exploring a host of other possible options such as acting as an amateur recording studio- this is a competent engineer who has decided to turn his back on career in industry for a passion he really believes in- huge respect! Anyhow, I have to hear his group play, because I’m betting they are very good. One day, maybe in a few summers time, I have visions of his group touring around the east coast of Africa, I can imagine the bars of Zanzibar really appreciating it (I would!).

Oddest Things- Smaller world than you think!
On Friday before I departed for my weekend, I noticed a guy on the Stanford MBA message board who had been organising a London BBQ/party who worked for Barclay's Capital, this was a guy I was waiting with for my first attempt at the GMAT with back in Septmber! The test centre turned out to have moved across the other side of London and I ended getting a shockingly embarrasing GMAT score- he then encouraged me to re-take the test and appy in round 2- the rest is history! I called him and he obviously remembered me. He's called Vernon, he then told me about this girl, Sandy, who was also joining us at GSB and was travelling to Tanzania this summer! I have contacted her already and I may meet up with her if I catch her at the end of her trip in Zanzibar. All in all there are 4 people I could possible meet before attending Stanford in September- who needs Admit weekend! I shall meet a few others at the London party ofcourse. What a small world.

Outlook
I got a response my organisation's commercial director, and have scheduled a call with him on Thursday. So I need to really have my facts straight about what funding terms I’m willing to accept.
Accommodation- I thought I missed out on off campus housing deadline on the 1st May, but it turned out they extended the deadline, phew! I'm still hoping for Schwab, I suspect following Admit weekend, some people may have considered to switch to other accomodation (I hope!). I also got to submit my financial aid tax returns and start on my visa stuff ASAP.
The pace is pickning up.