Hello again, Toby here. I know we haven't been particularly good about updates lately, but I think it's a good sign. I think it means we are getting more involved in our lives here and have less free time on our hands. Or that we are focusing more on being here and not on the fact that we are away from home. Or maybe I'm just looking for a good excuse. Either way, here's what's been happening.
First off, my job search. I've been looking for a job for the past 3 weeks (since we moved to Oxford). I signed up with 5 placement agencies who all seem to get the same listings, and who all want to know who else you signed up with and who's sending you where. One gave me a typing test and a data entry test. I hope you will all be as pleased as I was to learn that I can type 72 wpm and do data entry twice as well as the average person looking for a job through one of the agencies I talked to. Good for me. Who cares? (TS says - grammar, well that's another test…)
Normally a frightful prospect for me, I almost enjoyed interviewing here. When you've got nothing to lose and don't really care whether or not you get a particular job, confidence abounds. Given no pressure to find an immediate job or to take one that I didn't think I would enjoy (thanks Tom!), I went to interviews with a 'this is me, this is what I do, if we're a good fit great, if not so be it" attitude and it seemed to work. (I'm sure the 99% employment rate here in Oxford didn't hurt either.) I basically got 5 job offers from 5 interviews. (I really only got 4 offers, but the folks at the first job interview knew, as I did, that I would be bored there. If I had been interested, they would have loved to have hired me. So I'm taking the credit. That was British Gas, who has bought a division of Enron that was based here in Oxford. It was a scary prospect all around.)
After turning down a job that I really wanted (too little pay to afford the car I would have needed to get to the job), I interviewed at Akzo Nobel last Wednesday. Although they were planning to have 2nd interviews this week, when they heard on Thursday that I was offered another job, they asked me to come back in on Friday. According to the placement agency, I was 'by far the best candidate they'd seen'. So on Friday I went in and did some more interviewing (I surprised one of the financial directors by knowing an English singer/songwriter he knew!) and took 3 tests: a math test (recognising patterns), and English test (reasoning) and a personality test (haven't gotten the results of that one yet, will let you know whether or not I have a personality when I do). The English test was the most interesting because there were definitely some words used that I knew had certain meanings here that were different than they would have in the States. Like bungalow, for example. I got two of the questions wrong, and I'm sure the one with 'bungalow' was one of them. Oh well. Two and a half hours after I got there, I was offered the job. Seeing no reason not to start immediately, I reported in for duty yesterday.
I am now the Credit Control Manager at Akzo Nobel - Coatings in Abingdon (slightly south of Oxford, 16 miles from here). And on Friday we will go and pick up the new chilli red Toyota Yaris
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I will be leasing for the next 2 years. (Yup, better salary at this job - and 27 vacation days.) Basically, the credit department is mine, and there are 3 people whom I will be supervising (one extra temp at the moment). There are two employees and two temps there now, each of who know more about the place than I do. But they've all been very good at trying to explain things to me. (Although one of the temps eats three sandwiches a day and is skinny as a rail. He hasn't been able to explain that to me yet.) They are all young (the two permanent guys are 19 and 26) but knowledgeable and good workers. Alex (26) has been there for 2.5 years and basically runs the place. I would like to do a mind meld with him and just get the training over with. Monday was overwhelming and exhausted me. Today was much better as things are slowly starting to make sense and fall into place. One day at a time.
My boss, Sharon, is great. Very nice and patient and fairly new herself. They've apparently had trouble finding someone since last July or so, so she is mostly glad that I came back for a 2nd day. She knows how complicated things are there and is giving me time to get up to speed. I seem to be very lucky with bosses.
The people at the company are all nice, friendly people who seem to genuinely get along. They even have a social activities committee and do fun things once a month or so - pub nights, theater, dragon boat rides in the summer. It all makes for a nice work environment. It takes about an hour and a half to get there by bus (2 buses) so I am looking forward to getting the car.
Akzo Nobel is a big huge major multi-national company based in Holland. They have 3 large divisions and do many things. Pharmaceuticals - birth control, anti-depressants, animal vaccines and other things (they are working on the male birth control pill). Chemicals - too many things to fit here. Coatings (my division) - paint, finishes and stains for industrial applications (I deal with the car refinishing division). Check them out www.akzonobel.com. And they have an office in Waltham, MA. How convenient might that be in two years?
OK. That's enough about that. Here are some other highlights from the last week.
We had our first guests - Chris Smither and Peter Mulvey (who are here on tour) stopped by and had dinner with us on their way out of London and up towards Liverpool (that's Chris on the left and Peter on the right). They are in the middle of a long tour of Paris, Ireland and the U.K. We are going their show on Saturday in Farnham (about an hour from here), but it was nice just to hang with them and to relax for a couple of hours. We are still waiting for our first overnight guests. Any takers?????? |
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A week ago Sunday we had a lovely lunch (pheasant!) at Tom's cousin Margot's in north London. Despite the pouring rain which kept us inside, it was a great visit where we not only heard about family, but picked up some more tips on the British way of life. Who reads which Sunday paper. What to do when offered tea or coffee or some other drink (it's impolite to refuse). It really is the little things that make the difference. Plus we got to hang out with her two cats. (We're really missing our little Molly.)
This past Saturday we went to Lisa's birthday party just outside London. Lisa, as in Lisa and Lawrence who are good friends of Kevin's - Tom's brother in law. You remember. It was a fun party and good to meet more of the people we had heard of. There were at least 3 Lisa's there and 2 Richards so we had it pretty easy remembering names.
On Sunday we had our neighbor, Valerie, over for a cup of tea and biscuits. She's been at Dove House Close for many years and filled us in on everything. She even told us how to sign up with the milkman. Another good resource. She is planning a small get together in a couple of weeks so that we can meet some of the younger folks in the Close. It is really very nice of her.
We now have a regular routine of going food shopping at Sainsburys, our local supermarket, on Monday or Tuesday nights. It is getting easier and quicker. Both good. And generally they have most things we want - it's a pretty big store, like going to Star Market or Safeway.
We did get to see Gosford Park last week. Although we had heard from more than one person in the States that it was often hard to understand what they were saying, Tom and I had no troubles. Guess that's a good sign too. I still think some British expressions sound funny coming out of our mouths, but at least we know what folks are saying. And we tried the salted popcorn again. It was better this time. Still pretty salty, but not unbearable. There's hope.
Spring is in the air here. Flowers and trees are beginning to bloom everywhere and it is really pretty. There are pink and white trees all over, which someone told me were almond blossoms. Look a lot like cherry blossoms, I think. The next month or so should be amazing.
Tom's been busy at work as they have a proposal due early next week. They've finally put him to work for real! Tomorrow he is off to Bath (that's pronounced "Baaawth") for the day. No siteseeing though.
This week's list:Well, that's it for this version. More soon, we'll try to do better on keeping 'em coming.
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