should I be linking to or inserting the various songs I reference in blog post titles? serious question – I name them that way because it amuses me, but I wonder whether either of the readers of this thing have ever wondered, “What’s that a reference to?”

this one seemed appropriate as an update title, and I have no idea whether it’s more or less obscure than a reference to what I’ve been listening to, on and​ off, for most of this week. that said, De La Soul’s ‘Ring Ring Ring’ & ‘Me, Myself, and I’ still hold up as classic tracks, at least to my ears. As does Bran Van 3000’s ‘Drinking In LA’.

It’s now three weeks in at ESRI UK.
Going fairly well, I think, though last Friday falls into the category of “I should have been able to do that better, though I didn’t know how to”, which caused a certain degree of The Stressing.
As did the whole finding a place to live thing.

That last one is sorted.
After worrying about references (and thank you to those folks who said they’d say nice things, or at least allowed me to believe that they would) and the myriad of problems which seem to come up when you don’t really have an official record of … anything … in a country, the first place I looked at was nice, Wendy the live-in-llandllord seemed to like me, the cats didn’t appear to hate me any more than cats routinely hate anyone, and after a bit of chatting back & forth she offered me the room.
And I said yes.

I’d messaged a number of places on spareroom.co.uk†, and because the idea of comparison-shopping for places to live makes me want to live in a tent in a rowboat on the canal, I’d decided that whoever was first willing to take me as a tenant in a place I liked the look of would be the winner.
As a side note, a few people contacted me on spareroom (there’s a rather impressive messaging system there, so that you’re simultaneously searching for a room while advertising yourself as a tenant, so contact can flow in either direction) almost as soon as I signed up;

• One was in Hemel Hempstead, 20-odd miles away. I could use public transport, but if I’m going to live in suburbia, there’s closer suburbia to live in.
• The other was near Edgcott, 13 miles away, but out in the countryside.
  Sadly, not on any useful public transport routes, and they were quite clear in their listing that you’d need transport, so I had to say no.
  I did ask whether I could contact them when I do have transportation‡, because it looked awesome, and living in the countryside sounds nice, so it’s possible that I already have my next place to live lined up.

I move on Wednesday, after work, though I’ll see about wandering off early so that I don’t have to contend with commuter crush on the train. To the extent that there is any commuter crush on the Aylesbury to Aylesbury Vale Parkway route.
The train trip is from the second to last station on the line to the last one. Takes about four minutes.
It’s cheaper by bus, I’m told, but the bus does stop every 100m or so, which sounds wildly annoying.
There’s also a cycleway option, at somewhere between 3 & 5 miles – Google Maps wants to route around a particular section of the A41, but there’s no indication as to why, so I’ll have to look into that.

† One of these people, who mentioned only looking for male flatmates because it made it easier when wandering out of the shower wearing a towel, did message me back to say that he sometimes wanders around naked post shower while making a cup of coffee, and that he probably should have mentioned it, but that he’d like flatmates who are OK with that.
Might just be me, but that feels like the sort of thing you’d mention earlier?

‡ I don’t really want to own a car.
They’re convenient when you need them, but also can be a right pain in the arse the rest of the time, because parking is almost always an issue.
Scooters are an option, and it turns out that the whole field of plug-in electric scooters has come a long way, so for an option that is enormously cheap to run, … ?

So, as of the middle of next week, I’ll be living in, or next to, Berryfields, which is a development served by the Aylesbury Vale Parkway station. I’d put in a Google Maps link or something, but there’s a complication there; The roads are present, but the imagery hasn’t caught up, so it’s still all just fields around there.
The train station opened nine years ago and it’s not on the pictures, so I have no idea how old that imagery is.

The job seems to be going well.
I’m still learning where to set that line between ‘stuff I need to do’ and ‘stuff everyone else needs done’, and Friday was a classic example of the difference between theory & actuality.
I’d decided to set aside the afternoon for training and admin. My supervisor had told me that I should feel fine doing that, and agreed with it when I told him. And then, three minutes later, had to put something else as a higher priority, because of course that’s what happens.

I thought about posting a succession of ‘Today’s Clothing’ images, but it’s one small step from there to Fashion Blogging, and I think we’d all agree that I have no business being in that sector of the internet.

So, week one.

There have been a lot of meetings to be told about things, and I’m hoping that some of it stuck.

I have a project to work on which is useful but not urgent, and has some well-defined steps to go through in the “will this work?” department.

And, I’m tired.
It’s been the first full week of work in at least two years.

Also, I went to a meetup of the Aylesbury SF & Fantasy group last night, which took place in a pub, as almost everything here seems to. T’was fun, and I’ll be going along to the next one.
Probably won’t be going to the Easter convention in Birmingham – The timing coincides with the end of my stay here in The Flats,  as they’re known, so I can’t be sure that I can make it.

Could write more, but this took me long enough. Goodnight!

I just thought of something.

I’m going to steer clear of taking about work in too much detail, as I’m not sure where the lines are, exactly, but there is a work related thing; When going through the drawers at my desk, there was a bunch of stuff left by the previous occupant.

Old business cards, box for a nifty wireless mouse, training manuals, microwave porridge, a teapot …

Who abandons a teapot? In England, of all places? I’m sure it’s some sort of offense to abandon a teapot in Her Magesty’s Realm, …

in the category of more practical things, I shall find out whether this reckless endangerer of tea-making equipment is still working at ESRI, and might want their stuff, or whether I can just Biff or Distribute the lot of it.

First day of the new job.

Here I am, dressed for work, and apparently cosplaying as a tree.
Note please the calm posture, indicative of someone who is not nervous at all.

How to sum up day one?

Induction maybe pneumonia? Induction Ooooo, laptop Tour hello hello hello hello Info Session ar num num Meeting smile politely, listen for your name Meeting what’s that acronym Introduction wow there’s a lot to learn Meeting/Sit Down

It was a good day, and an interesting day, and even a fun day.
It was also a lot of day.