LIke I said......
Well things at my new job are winding up slowly. I have a task to do and a bit of analysis that I can do if I feel the need to, so a perfect time to update my LJ then!
My new office is pretty sweet, but then I did think that about my previous workplace too initially. It’s only after time that you really begin to notice a place’s failings. Having said that tho most of the things that annoyed me with my old office were not so much building specific. Things like the canteen being rubbish and the lab never having the tools you wanted. Plus, of course, the lack of attractive ladies to look at. Well these things have sort of been addressed at my new place. The canteen seems to be excellent, with a nice view over London on the top floor (only 8th floor) with a roof terrace area (it’ll be too cold to use it now, but was nice last week). We don’t have a lab here, so no lack of tools to be angry about. The ladies count is quite good too, result!
Plus today I got my first ever annual pass! Zones 1-3. You don’t know how pathetically happy that makes me, but after travel costs galore for almost three years it’s nice to not really have to worry about it and have the freedom of the city (well almost). I got a loan from work for it, but a 50% rebate should be coming my way soon. Still paying £1000 exactly at Euston this morning felt strange all the same. The zone 3 was a bit of luxury, as it means I can get the train to work from Crystal Palace if I need/want to, plus it should cover most places I have to go to for work (which I could charge to expenses, but it’s easier this way).
Went out with the new starters on Friday, which was a slightly surreal but fun night. The Canary Wharf area in general is a fairly weird place. Built for purpose, soulless, clean and still very ‘new’ looking. The main stretch of bars lies all along one side of the dock between Westferry and Canary Wharf itself. The weather was nice so we were all outside, where it is was eerily dark. You could look up and see the whole island of offices alight on the other side of the dark, very sci-fi movieish. Maybe it’s just the novelty but I think I actually quite like the place. It is completely fake and soulless, but the people who use it don’t appear to try and pretend that it isn’t. Still, give me the Wenlock Arms anyday.
The rest of the grads seem to be good ppl. I am getting a feeling similar to when I started uni, meetings loads of ppl and going out with ppl I hardly know. Of course it is not on the same scale and I don’t have to live them, therefore it is not as intense. But I can’t help feeling that I will end up not really getting along with most of them by the end, just becuz the same thing happened over time while I was at uni. I have kept my core mates from uni and there are those I would still hang out with if they lived in London, but the majority of ppl are now a distant memory. I hope I am wrong, but I am already getting hints that I am not. One thing is for sure, most of them make me feel quite old indeed, and I keep feeling this need to let them know who the boss man is :)
The commute is the main thing tho. It is taking me about 45 mins door to door. This is a relatively long compared to if I worked in central London, but I’m not really bothered. I don’t have to wait half an hour for a train like I used to sometimes. It’s easy to get here and by aiming to get in for 8.45am things on the tube are not that busy. Plus I quite like using the DLR as it is outdoors for most of the journey. Some ppl here are coming in from mad distances, doing the opposite of what I did. It is worth noting tho that on a good day I would travel to my old job in 1h 10mins, a good 6/7 times further than from Euston to here. Best of all tho is that it is easy to meet up with ppl after work now, I saw Jon twice last week and Aman once.