'Hello, world.' A little bit about me.

Yep, a totally cheesy title for a first post but whatever.

This will hopefully be the first of many blog posts in which I cover content spanning web development, running a business, freelancing, and just general musings. I'm sure with time, this blog will evolve, and the topics covered might expand, or even shrink. That said here's a little bit more about me, my hobbies, my past lives professionally and what I'm doing these days.

Hi there, my name's Fershad. I'm a web developer living and working in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan's home for me now, but before moving here in 2012, I grew up in Australia. Of course, if you've looked around my website you'd know all this, and a bit more, already.

I'm of Indian descent and grew up an extremely multi-cultural part of Sydney. This allowed me to appreciate the uniqueness of individuals and cultures, something that I believe has fueled my desire to learn, travel, and grow as I've got older. Growing up, I played a lot of soccer, squash, and some cricket. Out of the three, I'd say squash gave me the biggest buzz. Though nothing can beat the sense of team that both soccer and cricket provide (beers after cricket on a Saturday were a plus too). After moving to Taiwan, I started playing Touch Football, which ironically is a sport extremely popular in Australia. Since going to my first social session, I've fallen in love with the game to the point where I was able to represent Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) at the most recent FIT World Cup. Touch is fast-paced, skillful and so very, very fun to play. I've made some lifelong friendships both here in Taiwan, and around the World, just by playing, refereeing or coaching the sport I love.

Away from my hobbies, my professional life has been diverse. I've had jobs as a paralegal, IT analyst for a large Australian bank, and most recently a marketing role with a software company here in Taiwan. Each role has taught me a different skillset, parts of which I've been able to transition to the next role and others which I've taken with me learnings for the future.

So that's a little about my past, now onto the present day. I've been building websites on and off for the past couple of years. It's something I've found both challenging and fulfilling. That's why as of July this year I decided the time was right to take the plunge and do it fulltime. Obviously, I want things to work out and be successful. I also want to learn more about myself, what it takes to run a business, as well as have time to pursue some of my other passions like cycling and learning Chinese.

Hopefully, that works out. Thanks for getting through this first post. To know when future posts are published give me a follow on one of my social media channels - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.