A couple of weeks have gone by since The Interview, and … they’ve been sometimes busy, sometimes relaxing, sometimes fun, in one instance gutwrenchingly horrible, and very occasionally productive.
After the initial OhMyGodOhMyGod of the job offer, and some shenaniganry involving getting the contract printed so that I could sign it, I had a couple of weeks to fill before actually starting the job.
The plan was to go to Lon-Don to make some wardrobe changes; While the new job doesn’t have a dress code, I decided that my backpacker attire could do with a bit of a spruce-up, as it were. Or at least a change from the same six t-shirts I’ve been wearing for the past year.
That bit of the plan went fine.
Stayed at the Barmy Badger again; Even got my old room for most of it, though I had to move to the top floor when I extended my stay for a few days. (I got lucky, there had been a cancellation. Otherwise I would have had to find somewhere else to go)
There was a snoring issue, in that the guy in the lower bunk, directly under me for the first night (I moved to the other lower bunk once someone left), was the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard.
Even when I was as far away as it’s possible to get in that room, with no direct path between me and him, he was still so loud that I used the rain-noise app on my phone and some earbuds to drown him out in order to get to sleep.
Not a lot had changed at the Badger; One of the long-term folks (a French guy who’d been there almost three years) had moved, and a new one (a USAian art history student who’d studied in Paris and was lining up a Masters with one of the big art auction houses) had come in.
There were entertaining times at the Badger, most memorable a discussion of how to define when you’ve visited a city/country, and when you’ve just passed through it.
The standard used by one of the longtermers was that he had to spend the night. Didn’t have to sleep, but he needed to have a place where sleep could happen if he wanted to; Somewhere to stay overnight.
Airports didn’t count, even airport hotels, because even if you leave air-side, it’s still a bloody transit area to and from a place, and not the place itself. Dubai International is very nice if you like the Moria-with-Terrazzo look, but DXB is not Dubai, LHR is not London, and WRE is definitely not Whangarei.
We couldn’t decide whether Scotland, England, and Wales counted as individual countries, though the feeling was that they probably should.
Took a few trips, but I’ve got a week’s worth of work-type clothing that isn’t;
- Patched with inexpert stitching done in a hostel kitchen
- A Gen Con t-shirt
- Emblazoned with a geek-related print of some kind
- From 2006
Also managed to take a day to go and visit Chris in Essex, and to play some boardgames.
It was a fun visit.
The second bit was to go and visit Oxford, on the grounds that it’s roughly as far by train from Aylesbury as London is, but in the other direction, and I’ve not been there yet, so tourism could happen.
Sadly, it turns out that I should have booked earlier. The hostels were either booked or dire, and the hotels monstrously expensive, awful, or miles out.
Such is life – It’s only an hour and a bit from Aylesbury to Oxford, so there’s an easy day trip there.
Or a weekend away, once I get myself sorted here.
With Oxford off the table, and after receiving some unpleasant personal news I’m not going to discuss, I decided to go to Aylesbury early, get some of the work paperwork sorted, and try to relax into the town.
Naturally, the first thing I did upon arrival was to buy a couple of books.
I maintain that I only had to buy them because I’d left my portable battery charger in the bags I stashed at the hotel, and you can’t expect me to have lunch without something to read or listen to.
Something that came up over the course of the interview process is that UK employers actually want to see qualifications; As in, the certificate. Nobody else ever cared.
This is a bit of a problem, because said certificates aren’t with me. They’re in a storage unit on the other side of the world, probably in this box;
As a complicating factor, I’d also forgotten the number of the storage unit.
On the positive side, the University has an online Graduate Database, and I’m listed there, so hopefully that’ll do.
I’m taking a diversion from my Song Title As Post Name theme; This one’s a lyric which seemed appropriate.