Saturday 25 October 2008

Started so I'll finish

So, first week in the new job is over.

Of the three days I went to London, I was trapped for ages at Waterloo by train delays and cancellations on two of them. This does not bode well.

I hope it was just an unfortunate glitch, having two out of the three home-bound trains so comprehensively messed up. If not, commuting is going to be a lot more trying than I had originally planned for.

I have slightly amended my plans as to which days I will be in London, too. I will do Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the office, and Wednesdays and Fridays at home.

I am giving it a couple of weeks before I start to insist on having my 2 days a week at home, as I think it's important to get as many first meetings in as possible, and if I am hard to reach it will not create a good impression.

Once I have a better handle on what I am doing, I will be able to say "Sorry, that is one of the days I work at home" if people try to set up meetings. Otherwise I'll end up going into the office every day, and that will kill me.

London though. Blimey. Busy, isn't it? And people are so pushy! And I need to re-adjust my thinking to "London rates" for the cost of things like a lunchtime sandwich.

I have an Oyster card! I am so proud.

I decided to walk up the escalator at Waterloo on my way home on Thursday, as I was anxious not to miss my train again. Foolishly, I committed to walking before I looked up at see how long the escalator was.

It was a looooong way up, and I was too embarrassed to then sheepishly step sideways into the line of "Are you kidding, we're not climbing all that way" people on the right. I thought I would die when I stepped off at the top.

Didn't though, so a bonus there. Was a bit red and wheezy while I stood reading the Delayed notice for my bloody train though.

Other news: Had my first guitar lesson last night for about 5 weeks and it was bloody excellent. It's incredible how much muscle strength I have lost in my hands just in that short time. I didn't have the heart to play much while I had bronchitis as I felt so crap, and couldn't sing at all. My voice is still sounding flaky. Hopefully another week or so will sort it.

I need to spend a lot of time practicing my barre chords and stretches, as I really struggled with the progression on "Back in Black", which I used to do reasonably easily.

Did anyone manage to get AC/DC tickets? I didn't. Gah.

Off to see my gorgeous guitar teacher's band tonight with my bestest mate, so am looking forward to that very much. Yay. Live music.

5 comments:

Gone said...

JUst wanted to drop by and say thanks for the mention on your blog list :)
I tried to learn the guitar on the basis I always felt I was a rock star but discovered I was tone deaf to my eternal regret.

Anonymous said...

Just arrived in Cabo San Lucas after an eternity at Sea. Guess what the first Great Whute Shark i saw was called... Lucy! Oh the irony. Guy en Mexico

livesbythewoods said...

Mr Grocer, don't let that stop you. And you're very welcome.

Guy! Hello! And yes, I have emailed the dive leader and demanded a name change. Bastard shark with my name, indeed.

I see you tagged one. Brrrr. Love you. xxx

Jon said...

A colleague of mine has managed to bag some tickets...but they certainly were not like the budgie.

As for London transport and trains in general....give up all hope now and anything else is a bonus.

livesbythewoods said...

Jon, your friend is lucky.

And London transport is just hell before death, I have decided.