The week that was.....

Hi! Bev here. I haven’t had Internet contact for almost a week now. I have been so busy with my new job, doing some overtime and trying to impress, so hopefully they can give me an extended contract. I haven’t worked out if I should use the internet at work for my personal use yet, I’m unsure how anal they are.

Anyway, last Friday (6th) we were jumping for joy that I had got a job. It was a bit of a sticky position in that the interview for this job was very early Friday morning 8.30am , but I had to get up at 6am to find the place. But I also was offered an interview for work at Cadbury in the IT department, but that was at 4.30pm, and if I got the bank one I had to make the decision asap as they required me to start on Monday!

The interview was in Canary Wharf, where the Speights pub has just landed by ship. WOW! What a place! It’s the financial hub of London, which looks like Auckland’s Viaduct, but with massive high rises of banks, and with big TVs outside showing financial news, and scrolling stock market stuff on the side of the buildings! I was blown away at the corporate-ness of the place. Everyone wanders around dressed in smart business clothes. Anyway, the interview went ok, and I had the advantage that I could start on Monday (the interview room had a nice view of London!) I got the call back just before I had to leave for my second interview, and accepted it……Whew! The weight came off my shoulders.

We were really stoked to see Corey last weekend. After knowing him for many years, who’d of thought we’d be having a beer together in the Northern hemisphere. Before we saw Corey, we went to check out some shops down the famous Oxford Street. We saw some extremes of prices, £160 for a jumper to £5 for a fancy handbag. And some cool gadgets like a James Bond like underwater propeller....how about £8000 for a full sized terminator? We also got to watch the reactions of the English and Aussies at a street pub during their quarter final....I wish I had my camera at the time!

Hockey: I had my 1st look into a club on Wednesday night, took me ages to find the place by foot (this has taught me to not take owning a vehicle for granted!) I had my 1st game yesterday. It’s a very different structure here, and I still don’t understand it after many explanations. We had a team made up of half British, 1 Aussie, 1 Saffa (South African), 1 Dutch, 1 French and me. We won the game and looked liked we had played together for the last 5 years. We went down to the club house for dinner and beers before watching the English vs France semi final….where I got hassled heaps for being an AB’s supporter!

Work: My title is an IT hardware engineer (sounds like a cool name, but the job is easier than it sounds). Working on a trade floor is a weird experience. Its one of those places you see on the movies but never thought you’d ever be at. The floor is massive and open and littered with 4-6 computer screens at each desk, with big digital clocks hanging from the ceiling of time zones of major city times on them. You quite often see traders treat their job like a game, and also hear people yelling out to each other in many different languages. It’s also quite a daunting thought about making mistakes when I’m working on managing and executive directors computers. But most of them seem down to earth…..mind you I haven’t made a mistake yet! Security is huge, inside and outside, even in the mall at Canary Wharf.

The canteen is the coolest place! The breakfast selection is huge, and Lunch selection is even bigger. They have heaps of sections, like a food court, and you can grab something from any section you like and pay for it at the end. They have a pizza and pasta section, a deli sandwich bar, bbq grill, stir fry, roast carvery, baked potato, soup, fruit, and massive salad bar. They also have a theme section, where it’s curry Thursdays and fish n chip Fridays and the other weekdays are other continental themes. Each section there is a huge choice of toppings, fillings of the freshest meats, breads, veges, and fruit of the highest quality! I just can’t explain how cool it is, it is so awesome that the canteen alone is an incentive to keep working there! On my 1st day I had a bbq chicken breast burger, and the quality was as good as the burger we had at GBK the night before! Paying for it was a weird experience. We had to load £ onto our security card, and it gets taken off that.

I had to laugh at something funny the other day. Most people’s work places have a regular lunch or food guy come in each week, e.g. At Anne and Wayne’s work place in Hamilton, they have a sushi guy bring sushi on a Wednesday. But where I work, they have a shoe shiner come in each week! It is a good market for him, as I saw him shine at least a dozen shoes for a good $10NZD a pop!

Last week I kept getting calls from agents who had found my CV online and wanted to get me an interview, so it’s a nice feeling that I can still pick up work else where when this job ends….I hope it doesn’t, I love the food aspect of it too much.

After this last week, I have realised how much I should be thankful for the experiences of working for Concord. I am thankful for being dropped into the deep end and working long and funny hours (as much as I hated it at the time), as it has made me more flexible and given me heaps of experience and knowledge to put on my CV and it’s helped me impress at work…..Cheers Concord!

The funniest event happened on the tube on Thursday night coming home from work. The tubes are known for minimal eye contact and lack of being sociable. This tube I hopped on was the opposite. There was an English supporter dressed in white, face painted and he wore the English flag as his cape, cricket pads, gloves, and had a rugby ball. He was getting hassled by some kiwi guys, and he was giving it back as he was hopping off the tube. Everyone on that carriage was cracking up at the silliness of it. After he had hopped off, a French guy decided to have a go at the kiwis. This was a crack up too, but by the time we got to the next stop, it got personal….the French vs ABs calls started coming out. As the French guy got out, the last call one of the kiwis made was “So what! The only thing you French guys are good at is beach war fare!”. The carriage went silent….

Today we are just laxing out and again doing all our chores, and again, we are still gypsies. Hopefully we will have heard by tomorrow as to whether all our stinky references have been checked and approved so that we can move into this house we have put in for - we aren't holding our breath - as I am sure they will find another of roll of red tape to dispense as soon as we jump this hurdle! Grrrrrrrrrr!