Today, I will start from the end of the day, and go retrospectively towards the beginning. :-)
In the evening, there was a colossal, monumental, enormous traffic jam. I mean, it was really bad this evening, even compared to the other days. Instead of getting in the bus on my usual station, I walked a bit, and actually was able to overtake approx. 8 buses stuck in the traffic. (Then I thought I've had enough of that, overtaking a huge traffic jam is not the most beautiful walk in the world, However, I think that if I'd walked, I'd have been at home earlier than by bus. (But it's 6 miles, and I am lazy.)) Anyway, when I finally chose a bus, I went to the upper deck - a mistake, because I got sick there. :-( I hate buses.
Before that, I had a very funny day in the office.
I explained to my boss that today (28 October) is our Czech national day, an anniversary of establishment of Czechoslovakia. (Czechoslovakia is the state that we consider our predecessor state and in fact the first free Czech (and Slovak) state in about 300 years. So it's still pretty important, at least in theory.) I also explained to him that no one in Czech Republic celebrates 11 November (Armistice day) in any way, and 90% people do not even know why the day is important. This is because at the time the peace accords were signed, we were no longer interested in the war, we had our state, we were finally on our own and not part of Austria-Hungaria, and we had a lot of other things to do.
(Sorry my Czech friends to explain you the obvious!)
We also had a very interesting discussion about certain acts which by law have to take place before certain other acts. Well, so I asked my boss whether there is a way to 'repair' this problem, especially in the most unfortunate situation that these acts are carried out in wrong order.
No, you cannot repair that, the first thing must be effective at the time the second thing happen, was the reply.
Then I asked, and how about signing the appropriate agreement later, but just writing a date which is earlier? People in the Czech Republic do this all the time! Every time they miss the deadline, they just sign an agreement and backdate! (Disclaimer: I never do this, and I strongly disagree with any such practices... however, people in my country do that, and that's that.)
At first, my boss did not understand. Not at all; he just repeated that no, there is no way to repair this, the time limit is just gone, and the whole thing is invalid, because the agreement is signed late and that's that.
I asked whether the authorities would accept an agreement that is signed before the relevant act but filed later.
Yes, that would be accepted.
So I explained once again that there is a little cheat: the agreement is signed after, but made look like it was signed before the relevant date, because instead of the date you signed, you put another, earlier date.
But that's fraudulent behaviour, replied my boss, after he finally understood the (apparently horrendous) concept.
Yes, indeed. Well, I tried to explain to him that Czech people (and I dare to say that Eastern people in general) do not really see this as a fraud: as long as you are only cheating the authorities, it does not even count, it's not a real cheat!
No, this is not how it works in the UK, as my boss explained to me. We as a company never do such things, ever. We never even think about that. Because it's dishonest, fraudulent, and very bad.
Yes it is, I agreed, but people nevertheless do it, because they find it very practical. That's the East: people just do things like this, and they do not consider them bad or whatever, because that's how life goes, you've just sort of established what everyone wished anyway, so where's the point.
No, we ever do this in the UK. It's fraudulent behaviour, and we must not engage in any such activities.
I personally like this very much, this 100% pure and honest attitude, and in fact the constant cheating is one of the (main) reasons I've left my country, but this 'cultural difference' (as my boss put it) it just so funny! And, well, I think that the mere fact that it took me, like, 5 min to explain the whole concept to him, shows that these UK people are really honest, and straight lot.
In connection with the above described, I tried to explain to my boss the meaning of the Czech saying 'vlk se nažral a koza zůstala celá', which roughly translates as 'the wolf is fed while the goat is alive and well'. In the Czech Republic, this applies to the official acts in particular: authorities usually want you to do silly things, so you give up in small details (wolf is fed), but you try to keep the main points in exactly your way (the goad is ok).
My boss laughed very much.
During the day (and actually also yesterday) I noticed that my brain started to act funny. Usually, I speak good English, fluent, with no delays, gaps or funny difficulties. Well, now my brain started to cause trouble, and sometimes takes up to 1 sec to supply my mouth with an appropriate word. Which is annoying! I don't know why this is happening, but I don't like it. Brain, can you just stop it, and start speaking normally, as usual? Please?
During the morning, I went to HSBC, and now I have a UK bank account! There was a very nice lady who explained me things (I had to set, like, million of passwords and security questions, 60% of which I've forgotten already), and I got a small token which looks like toy calculator to get into my internet banking. But hey, I do have an account now!
Yaaaay! I am like a real British person now, I have NIN, a bank account, a real address, a monthly bus ticket, everything.
Before that, I've missed three buses in the morning, and had to wait for 10 min. Good start of the day!
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Buses on Sunday are obviously twice as funny as buses on Monday to Saturday.
I went for a short walk in the city, just to have a look around, see some shops etc. On my way back, I waited for ca 20 min, on a totally deserted station near very ugly train station, and during this time (at least according to the timetable), ca 5 buses in my direction were supposed to come. Guess what: there were zero buses in my direction, but there were 5 buses in other direction, which were not supposed to come at all. Then, a final bad thing happened: when one bus in my direction appeared (at last!), and I wanted to show my interest in actually taking the bus by extending hand (exactly as everyone does, and as it is supposed to be done), the bus just ignored me, and did not stop! O_o
I was cold and hungry, and this did not make me a big friend of First bus...
But enough complaints.
The milk has 'wrong colours' here. In the Czech Republic, the milk bottles and boxes are like this:
red: full fat (3.5%)
green: skimmed (~ 0.5%; rare these days)
blue: semi-skimmed (~ 1.5%)
Here in the UK, it's like this:
red: skimmed
green: semi-skimmed
blue: full fat
orange: appears to be more than green but less than blue
Similarly, the still water and the sparkling water seem to be wrongly coloured (but I don't buy these, so I do not care very much).
And the the trash bins also have wrong colours. In the Czech Republic, it's like this:
yellow: plastic
green, white: glass (coloured, white)
blue: paper
black with orange lid: tetrapak
grey/silver: cans (metal)
brown: plant/veg stuff
black: all the rest
Here, they have far less bins than us. They also have black for 'nothing of the above', and it seems that blue is for paper (but I have never seen a blue bin, my landlady claims that this one's been stolen from her). Apart from this: brown is for all packaging (cans, plastic, glass), and there's obviously nothing for tetrapak (which is hardly ever sold here, they sell orange juice in plastic containers similar to the milk containers, would you believe it...) and plant/veg stuff (but maybe they do not need it, with their fancy houses and gardens, which can for sure accommodate a nice compost?).
I add this colour confusion to the list of confusing things, just after 'everything on the streets is on the wrong side, all the time, and all cars are driving in the wrong direction, and the buses stop on wrong side of the street, etc. etc.'
It is obviously nearly impossible to buy decent green tea here. In the shops, in the section marked 'tea', you have approx. one million kinds and brands of black tea, from English Breakfast Super Strong to a no-name box which contains 1000 teabags and costs ca £1.30. But green tea? If any at all, you have a choice between exactly one brand. Which of course only makes lemon flavour green tea - very artificial (IG Farben) lemon flavour, to be precise. O_o
There are cats in the neighborhood. Just today, I opened the front door, and there it was, sitting on the brown bin, a big brown cat. Peering at me, obviously wondering who the hell I was, and then even meowing at me (in a way, 'hooman where is my milk, gimme now'). I must ask the landlady whether I was supposed to feed some cats or what, because the cat was there already yesterday, and it's all funny.
Yesterday, I have also seen a black-and-white cat with a moustache! The cat looked exactly as the internet-wide famous cats that look like Hitler.
And btw, I hate changes of time. From now on, we no longer have BST, now we have GMT here. Well, while I am not an anti-EU person, I would love to abolish this one stupid EU-thing. Down with changes of time!
I went for a short walk in the city, just to have a look around, see some shops etc. On my way back, I waited for ca 20 min, on a totally deserted station near very ugly train station, and during this time (at least according to the timetable), ca 5 buses in my direction were supposed to come. Guess what: there were zero buses in my direction, but there were 5 buses in other direction, which were not supposed to come at all. Then, a final bad thing happened: when one bus in my direction appeared (at last!), and I wanted to show my interest in actually taking the bus by extending hand (exactly as everyone does, and as it is supposed to be done), the bus just ignored me, and did not stop! O_o
I was cold and hungry, and this did not make me a big friend of First bus...
But enough complaints.
The milk has 'wrong colours' here. In the Czech Republic, the milk bottles and boxes are like this:
red: full fat (3.5%)
green: skimmed (~ 0.5%; rare these days)
blue: semi-skimmed (~ 1.5%)
Here in the UK, it's like this:
red: skimmed
green: semi-skimmed
blue: full fat
orange: appears to be more than green but less than blue
Similarly, the still water and the sparkling water seem to be wrongly coloured (but I don't buy these, so I do not care very much).
And the the trash bins also have wrong colours. In the Czech Republic, it's like this:
yellow: plastic
green, white: glass (coloured, white)
blue: paper
black with orange lid: tetrapak
grey/silver: cans (metal)
brown: plant/veg stuff
black: all the rest
Here, they have far less bins than us. They also have black for 'nothing of the above', and it seems that blue is for paper (but I have never seen a blue bin, my landlady claims that this one's been stolen from her). Apart from this: brown is for all packaging (cans, plastic, glass), and there's obviously nothing for tetrapak (which is hardly ever sold here, they sell orange juice in plastic containers similar to the milk containers, would you believe it...) and plant/veg stuff (but maybe they do not need it, with their fancy houses and gardens, which can for sure accommodate a nice compost?).
I add this colour confusion to the list of confusing things, just after 'everything on the streets is on the wrong side, all the time, and all cars are driving in the wrong direction, and the buses stop on wrong side of the street, etc. etc.'
It is obviously nearly impossible to buy decent green tea here. In the shops, in the section marked 'tea', you have approx. one million kinds and brands of black tea, from English Breakfast Super Strong to a no-name box which contains 1000 teabags and costs ca £1.30. But green tea? If any at all, you have a choice between exactly one brand. Which of course only makes lemon flavour green tea - very artificial (IG Farben) lemon flavour, to be precise. O_o
There are cats in the neighborhood. Just today, I opened the front door, and there it was, sitting on the brown bin, a big brown cat. Peering at me, obviously wondering who the hell I was, and then even meowing at me (in a way, 'hooman where is my milk, gimme now'). I must ask the landlady whether I was supposed to feed some cats or what, because the cat was there already yesterday, and it's all funny.
Yesterday, I have also seen a black-and-white cat with a moustache! The cat looked exactly as the internet-wide famous cats that look like Hitler.
And btw, I hate changes of time. From now on, we no longer have BST, now we have GMT here. Well, while I am not an anti-EU person, I would love to abolish this one stupid EU-thing. Down with changes of time!
Saturday, 24 October 2015
This is going to be a public complaint about Barclays.
As mentioned previously, I have now my NIN. I also have my passport and two nice letters from my company, proving that (1) I work there, (2) I live where I live. I thought this would be sufficient to establish and prove all the necessary information, and would finally allow me to have a bank account in the UK.
(Yes, I still do not have it. My company is furious, because they want to pay me for my work but paying people cash is difficult. I also had to send the first rent from my Czech account. My landlady was very surprised, and at first did not even know what information I needed, what IBAN was, what BIC/SWIFT was good for. Well, we all learn, now she knows...)
I therefore went to Barclays . It was a bad choice.
I entered the branch where there were, like, 150 people inside, chaotically moving around and waiting in various lines. Usually, there is a guy who tells people what to do and where to go to get what they want, but this guy was nowhere. So I chose one line randomly and waited.
After considerable time, I was able to speak to someone. The lady told me that it was necessary to fill in some application on some iPads downstairs. She asked me about my ID and my proof of address. I showed her my passport, she approved. I showed her my letter, she again approved. I asked explicitly whether the proof of address would be a problem, because after all it was not a utilities bill, but something else. She assured me that it would be fine, that my docs would be sufficient.
So I went downstairs to find the iPads. There were four of them - but only three of them were operational, the fourth one was just frozen, showing a blank screen with tiny 'error' appearing in upper left corner. The other three were occupied by some desperate people (obviously foreigners) who did not know exactly what to do with them, what information was required etc. There was supposed to be someone supporting people having difficulties with the iPads, but no, there was no one. Consequence: I had to wait ca 15 min before one of the iPads became available.
Once I acquired an iPad and activated the application, it almost immediately (step 3/1000) displayed an error message and assured me that staff were on their way to fix it. After another 10 min, no one appeared. In the meantime, one of the two people occupying the other two operational iPads finally figured it out and finished their application, so I could use their iPad instead.
So I filled in the form, which was very long and detailed and therefore a pain in the ** itself. But fine, I did that, expecting that all the ordeal would result in me having an account. After filling, like, one million boxes, I was given reference no. and assured by the machine that someone would come very soon to verify my details and finish the application with me.
So I sat down and waited. I was lucky enough to have a book with me, because it took another 30 min before someone started paying attention to me again. During that time, I was observing the members of staff. Some of them were running around desperately, because there were really many customers, everyone wanted something, everyone had questions, many people had bored kids with them, etc. etc., and obviously the staff could not lose a single second. In contrast, some of them were obviously absolutely incompetent, walking around for no reason, leaving clients for 20 min alone, taking unbelievable amount of time for most trivial actions like printing few papers, etc.
After ca 30 min, a lady from the info booth asked me something like 'and what are you waiting for'? (Politeness at its best!) I explained that I just applied for an account over there, and I was waiting for someone to come. Her first reaction - in a rather patronizing tone - was 'and do you have a proof of address'? So I explained her that yes, I did have proof of address. She wanted to see it. Fine, I showed her. She looked me like I was crazy, and I told her that this has been approved by someone upstairs. She innocently asked, 'and who told you this'? Well, how should I know? One of the ladies at the counter! They do not have names written on their forehead!
The info lady did not like this, so she asked another member of staff about my papers. And this second lady disapproved my documents very categorically, explaining me (again in patronizing tone) that there are specific requirements on the papers and that my papers did not have it, period.
(The only accepted docs are either UK-specific papers such as driving licence or mortgage statement (which you have when you live here since ever, and which I obviously do not have after 3 weeks in the UK), utilities bills or council tenancy agreement (I have neither because I only have a private tenancy agreement (bills incl.) which is not accepted by the bank), or NIN letter (but again my NIN letter is not accepted because it came to the company, not my current address (which I obviously did not have at that time)). Isn't it nice?)
Summarized, 1.5 hr lost, with no bank account at the end, all due to the absolute incompetence of the bank staff. Well, I am not going to recommend this bank to anybody, never.
I tried to file a complaint through the bank website, asking them to remove my data from their systems (they obviously do have all my data, and I no longer want to open an account there, and at this moment I hate them so much that I just want them to remove me from their databases). I wonder what's gonna happen next...
I find all this unacceptable. I have a job here. I make money (not huge money, but not little money either). I want to give my money to the bank so that the bank can do their banky things with it and make far more money. And instead of treating me nicely and politely and actually taking my money, they bother me, insult me, embarrass me, make me feel like stupid little kiddo, and finally tell me that I am not good enough for them because I do not have a utilities bill.
Like, seriously?
As mentioned previously, I have now my NIN. I also have my passport and two nice letters from my company, proving that (1) I work there, (2) I live where I live. I thought this would be sufficient to establish and prove all the necessary information, and would finally allow me to have a bank account in the UK.
(Yes, I still do not have it. My company is furious, because they want to pay me for my work but paying people cash is difficult. I also had to send the first rent from my Czech account. My landlady was very surprised, and at first did not even know what information I needed, what IBAN was, what BIC/SWIFT was good for. Well, we all learn, now she knows...)
I therefore went to Barclays . It was a bad choice.
I entered the branch where there were, like, 150 people inside, chaotically moving around and waiting in various lines. Usually, there is a guy who tells people what to do and where to go to get what they want, but this guy was nowhere. So I chose one line randomly and waited.
After considerable time, I was able to speak to someone. The lady told me that it was necessary to fill in some application on some iPads downstairs. She asked me about my ID and my proof of address. I showed her my passport, she approved. I showed her my letter, she again approved. I asked explicitly whether the proof of address would be a problem, because after all it was not a utilities bill, but something else. She assured me that it would be fine, that my docs would be sufficient.
So I went downstairs to find the iPads. There were four of them - but only three of them were operational, the fourth one was just frozen, showing a blank screen with tiny 'error' appearing in upper left corner. The other three were occupied by some desperate people (obviously foreigners) who did not know exactly what to do with them, what information was required etc. There was supposed to be someone supporting people having difficulties with the iPads, but no, there was no one. Consequence: I had to wait ca 15 min before one of the iPads became available.
Once I acquired an iPad and activated the application, it almost immediately (step 3/1000) displayed an error message and assured me that staff were on their way to fix it. After another 10 min, no one appeared. In the meantime, one of the two people occupying the other two operational iPads finally figured it out and finished their application, so I could use their iPad instead.
So I filled in the form, which was very long and detailed and therefore a pain in the ** itself. But fine, I did that, expecting that all the ordeal would result in me having an account. After filling, like, one million boxes, I was given reference no. and assured by the machine that someone would come very soon to verify my details and finish the application with me.
So I sat down and waited. I was lucky enough to have a book with me, because it took another 30 min before someone started paying attention to me again. During that time, I was observing the members of staff. Some of them were running around desperately, because there were really many customers, everyone wanted something, everyone had questions, many people had bored kids with them, etc. etc., and obviously the staff could not lose a single second. In contrast, some of them were obviously absolutely incompetent, walking around for no reason, leaving clients for 20 min alone, taking unbelievable amount of time for most trivial actions like printing few papers, etc.
After ca 30 min, a lady from the info booth asked me something like 'and what are you waiting for'? (Politeness at its best!) I explained that I just applied for an account over there, and I was waiting for someone to come. Her first reaction - in a rather patronizing tone - was 'and do you have a proof of address'? So I explained her that yes, I did have proof of address. She wanted to see it. Fine, I showed her. She looked me like I was crazy, and I told her that this has been approved by someone upstairs. She innocently asked, 'and who told you this'? Well, how should I know? One of the ladies at the counter! They do not have names written on their forehead!
The info lady did not like this, so she asked another member of staff about my papers. And this second lady disapproved my documents very categorically, explaining me (again in patronizing tone) that there are specific requirements on the papers and that my papers did not have it, period.
(The only accepted docs are either UK-specific papers such as driving licence or mortgage statement (which you have when you live here since ever, and which I obviously do not have after 3 weeks in the UK), utilities bills or council tenancy agreement (I have neither because I only have a private tenancy agreement (bills incl.) which is not accepted by the bank), or NIN letter (but again my NIN letter is not accepted because it came to the company, not my current address (which I obviously did not have at that time)). Isn't it nice?)
Summarized, 1.5 hr lost, with no bank account at the end, all due to the absolute incompetence of the bank staff. Well, I am not going to recommend this bank to anybody, never.
I tried to file a complaint through the bank website, asking them to remove my data from their systems (they obviously do have all my data, and I no longer want to open an account there, and at this moment I hate them so much that I just want them to remove me from their databases). I wonder what's gonna happen next...
I find all this unacceptable. I have a job here. I make money (not huge money, but not little money either). I want to give my money to the bank so that the bank can do their banky things with it and make far more money. And instead of treating me nicely and politely and actually taking my money, they bother me, insult me, embarrass me, make me feel like stupid little kiddo, and finally tell me that I am not good enough for them because I do not have a utilities bill.
Like, seriously?
Friday, 23 October 2015
As expected, I have a lot to do in my new office, already after 2 weeks. (I don't mind, it's better than just sitting there, but... Well, uh-huh...) It also takes me almost an hour to get home from the office in the afternoon/evening, because around Salford Central, there is always a magnificent, monumental traffic jam. (It's supposed to be only 6 miles, and it takes almost 1 hr! O_o) Therefore the frequency of my posts is lower now, and probably this will continue for some time.
But, ok, to give at least some 'useful' info: brief summary of new things!
I have received my NIN today! This means that I exist, or at least that UK authorities sort of recognize my existence. But of course, the letter says that getting NIN does not entitle me to work in the UK, or be here, or whatever. It's just a number. and that's that. Funny. But it's fine as long as I have one.
I have received my smart card. The Smart Card! It's not operational yet, I am waiting for PIN (our admins expect that to arrive Monday or Tuesday), but still. My first card! Yaaaay!
My entry on The List has been changed, so that my address is the one in Manchester. Now I am very officially here!
My situation in the office is getting a bit better. Now I recognize maybe 1/3 of all the faces (success!), And I do not forget my access card all the time, only ca 30% of cases, which definitely is an improvement.
My stuff arrived today. The driver of the van came with funny stories about serious trouble in Calais (8 hrs waiting!), and some people trying to get into the van (even cutting the tarpaulin!). But fortunately everything's OK now, my boxes are here, which means that all my clothes are here (yay, I missed you so much, my dear little things). The boxes are now occupying 3/4 of my room, and I just hope that my landlady is not going to be pissed off too much... I may try to corrupt her with some Czech beer when she returns from her weekend trip. :-)
As I still haven't come to terms with ale (and English beer in general), I am celebrating the second week as well as arrival of my stuff with a rump steak (British breed, aged 21 days, incredibly good) a bottle of Tsing Tao. Who would've guessed...
Btw: one of my bosses is brewing his own beer. He's promised me one bottle, but so far nothing appeared. I think he's just afraid, because we Czech people are known for a) having good beer, b) knowing the stuff, c) fiercely criticizing everything that does not quite match the 'standard' which is very high for us. :-) I may be mistaken though.
There is also a quick list of interesting things I wanted to share.
Local men are obviously not afraid of wearing pink. Today, there was some breast cancer thing in our office, and everyone was asked to wear something pink. Girls have no problem with this, and obviously guys have no problem either. Good! In Czech Republic, men would absolutely refuse to participate in something like this, because in their opinion, wearing anything pink would make them look 100% gay. Men in Czech Republic are very afraid of being seen as gay. (I personally have no idea why.) Local men obviously do not care, because many guys from our office wore something pink (or at least pinkish). And I have seen at least two guys who have put a pink nail polish on theit little fingers! A Czech man would never, ever wear a nail polish, let alone pink one.
In our office, there's a kitchen, and almost every day someone brings some sweets there. Birthday, return from holiday, engagement, whatever it is, people just eat sweets all the time. And they of course complain a lot how bad this is for their slender fingure... :-)
Everyone drinks coffee or tea... with milk! In the office, milk is obviously delivered to our door, every day. Then, someone (usually the reception people) transfers it into the fridge, and there it is, everyone is pouring it into his/her tea. English people are very... English.
'Wrong' is obviously a very bad word. I was told today never to say that someone is wrong, especially not to that person, even if that person is so mistaken that being mistaken more is just not possible. Saying 'you are wrong' is a big no-no obviously. I was told that instead of telling people 'nasty things which would offend them very much' (?!), it is necessary to do it nicely and politely: 'Have you considered also this?' or 'Could you clarify that?' or 'I don't understand, can you explain a bit more?' would work here much better than saying 'This is wrong!' or 'That is not true.' (In this context, I guess that using the words 'bullshit' or 'crap' is also not possible.) Well... This is going to be difficult for me.
In the biggest Tesco market I've seen here so far, there is a 'Polish' food section. O_o There's also a good selection of beer, luckily also other stuff than ale. However, 'normal' beer (10°) is nowhere, all they have is lager (so 12°). Too bad, but at least they have Pilsener Urquell, Budweiser (the real one), Staropramen, and then a weird brand called Vratislav. (Never actually heard of it, but will try one day to see what it is; maybe this is some UK-specific brand? According to The Internet, it's made by Staropramen, but this is mentioned nowhere on the bottle.)
And a funny story to conclude. Today, I was not particularly impressed by the bus service. I entered a specific bus operated by First (the worst bus company ever, according to many; well...). I did so because it was the first bus to arrive to the station close to a hypermarket I wanted to visit. Well, just few seconds after arrival of this bus, two buses of another line (operated by Stagecoach and also calling at my station) arrived. I have already entered the First bus, so I obviously did not go to the other ones (why should I do that after all?). Then, the other two buses departed, while we stayed in the station. Well, nothing to worry about, this happens quite often here (the first bus to arrive gets most of the people waiting there on the station, and it takes a lot of time for them to enter the bus, so the second bus leaves first, only to become the first bus on the next station and to actually take all the load and depart later than the other one from that next station, and so on; it just keeps switching). But: my f. bus just did not do nothing. The two Stagecoach buses were gone, and the First bus was still just standing there. Then, the driver switched off the engine, left the bus - and lit a cigarette! What! O_o Outrageous, we've spent some 10 min there, waiting for the guy to finish his cigarette! Like, seriously? Ok, maybe there was some timetable issue, the guy might've been too early... but he could've said something to all the people in the bus, instead to just going, without a word, to smoke!
Well, as mentioned already: I am less than impressed.
But, ok, to give at least some 'useful' info: brief summary of new things!
I have received my NIN today! This means that I exist, or at least that UK authorities sort of recognize my existence. But of course, the letter says that getting NIN does not entitle me to work in the UK, or be here, or whatever. It's just a number. and that's that. Funny. But it's fine as long as I have one.
I have received my smart card. The Smart Card! It's not operational yet, I am waiting for PIN (our admins expect that to arrive Monday or Tuesday), but still. My first card! Yaaaay!
My entry on The List has been changed, so that my address is the one in Manchester. Now I am very officially here!
My situation in the office is getting a bit better. Now I recognize maybe 1/3 of all the faces (success!), And I do not forget my access card all the time, only ca 30% of cases, which definitely is an improvement.
My stuff arrived today. The driver of the van came with funny stories about serious trouble in Calais (8 hrs waiting!), and some people trying to get into the van (even cutting the tarpaulin!). But fortunately everything's OK now, my boxes are here, which means that all my clothes are here (yay, I missed you so much, my dear little things). The boxes are now occupying 3/4 of my room, and I just hope that my landlady is not going to be pissed off too much... I may try to corrupt her with some Czech beer when she returns from her weekend trip. :-)
As I still haven't come to terms with ale (and English beer in general), I am celebrating the second week as well as arrival of my stuff with a rump steak (British breed, aged 21 days, incredibly good) a bottle of Tsing Tao. Who would've guessed...
Btw: one of my bosses is brewing his own beer. He's promised me one bottle, but so far nothing appeared. I think he's just afraid, because we Czech people are known for a) having good beer, b) knowing the stuff, c) fiercely criticizing everything that does not quite match the 'standard' which is very high for us. :-) I may be mistaken though.
There is also a quick list of interesting things I wanted to share.
Local men are obviously not afraid of wearing pink. Today, there was some breast cancer thing in our office, and everyone was asked to wear something pink. Girls have no problem with this, and obviously guys have no problem either. Good! In Czech Republic, men would absolutely refuse to participate in something like this, because in their opinion, wearing anything pink would make them look 100% gay. Men in Czech Republic are very afraid of being seen as gay. (I personally have no idea why.) Local men obviously do not care, because many guys from our office wore something pink (or at least pinkish). And I have seen at least two guys who have put a pink nail polish on theit little fingers! A Czech man would never, ever wear a nail polish, let alone pink one.
In our office, there's a kitchen, and almost every day someone brings some sweets there. Birthday, return from holiday, engagement, whatever it is, people just eat sweets all the time. And they of course complain a lot how bad this is for their slender fingure... :-)
Everyone drinks coffee or tea... with milk! In the office, milk is obviously delivered to our door, every day. Then, someone (usually the reception people) transfers it into the fridge, and there it is, everyone is pouring it into his/her tea. English people are very... English.
'Wrong' is obviously a very bad word. I was told today never to say that someone is wrong, especially not to that person, even if that person is so mistaken that being mistaken more is just not possible. Saying 'you are wrong' is a big no-no obviously. I was told that instead of telling people 'nasty things which would offend them very much' (?!), it is necessary to do it nicely and politely: 'Have you considered also this?' or 'Could you clarify that?' or 'I don't understand, can you explain a bit more?' would work here much better than saying 'This is wrong!' or 'That is not true.' (In this context, I guess that using the words 'bullshit' or 'crap' is also not possible.) Well... This is going to be difficult for me.
In the biggest Tesco market I've seen here so far, there is a 'Polish' food section. O_o There's also a good selection of beer, luckily also other stuff than ale. However, 'normal' beer (10°) is nowhere, all they have is lager (so 12°). Too bad, but at least they have Pilsener Urquell, Budweiser (the real one), Staropramen, and then a weird brand called Vratislav. (Never actually heard of it, but will try one day to see what it is; maybe this is some UK-specific brand? According to The Internet, it's made by Staropramen, but this is mentioned nowhere on the bottle.)
And a funny story to conclude. Today, I was not particularly impressed by the bus service. I entered a specific bus operated by First (the worst bus company ever, according to many; well...). I did so because it was the first bus to arrive to the station close to a hypermarket I wanted to visit. Well, just few seconds after arrival of this bus, two buses of another line (operated by Stagecoach and also calling at my station) arrived. I have already entered the First bus, so I obviously did not go to the other ones (why should I do that after all?). Then, the other two buses departed, while we stayed in the station. Well, nothing to worry about, this happens quite often here (the first bus to arrive gets most of the people waiting there on the station, and it takes a lot of time for them to enter the bus, so the second bus leaves first, only to become the first bus on the next station and to actually take all the load and depart later than the other one from that next station, and so on; it just keeps switching). But: my f. bus just did not do nothing. The two Stagecoach buses were gone, and the First bus was still just standing there. Then, the driver switched off the engine, left the bus - and lit a cigarette! What! O_o Outrageous, we've spent some 10 min there, waiting for the guy to finish his cigarette! Like, seriously? Ok, maybe there was some timetable issue, the guy might've been too early... but he could've said something to all the people in the bus, instead to just going, without a word, to smoke!
Well, as mentioned already: I am less than impressed.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
I wanted to share another portion of interesting things I've met on my way. See below.
I like the fact that English people smile and act politely. In buses (when everyone is pissed off because s/he is stuck in a traffic), on the streets, in shops, people are just nice, they don't look like permanently angry people (like Czech people do).
I actually don't think that this has anything to do with communism, or being West rather than East. No, the situation here is also not easy (esp. for ordinary people), the rents are sky-high, for young people it is impossible to get their own place to live, the politicians are as bad as everywhere (in particular, half the people seem to think that Cameron is a real racist and fascist), things are expensive, the public transport is chaos... but still people are not aggressive and they are not making others feel their frustration (like they do in the Czech Republic, and possibly elsewhere).
Manchester lacks metro, or good tram system, or something that would provide the 'axis' of the city. In cities where there is a metro (or trams with similar function), it is much easier to be oriented, to know where you are and where you want to be (and also how to get there). You just think in the metro/tram network framework, and that's it, and even in places where there's no metro, you still know where you are.
Of course there's no such thing here in Manchester. Here, we have trams which go 'nowhere' (from the 1000 places they should go, they go to basically three). And we have a network of buses which are i) total chaos, ii) total anarchy. No wonder that there are so many traffic jams! I guess people just do not want to use the chaotic, complex bus system, so they go by car... which causes the buses to be even more chaotic because of the traffic jams... which makes people go by their own car even more... and so on... and so on.
I have discovered few new words. One of them is 'ish'. While my friend the linguist claims 'ish' to be a suffix only, I disagree. 'Ish' is usually preceded by a space/pause in speech, and sometimes there's a phrase 'well... ish'. I think this makes it separate word! :-)
(I have asked my landlady, and she thinks that 'ish' is a word too. And she's native, so she should know!)
(For those who do not know: 'ish' is something which makes the previous statement a bit ore vague, and bit less definite. It started as suffix meaning 'soft of' (e.g. pinkish is not exactly pink, it's just sort of pink), but it evolved. A lot.)
Another word I've discovered just today is 'quid'. That means 'pound' (yes, Queen Elizabeth money). But it's funny to hear such a word from someone like your boss. I'd expect this to be slang, but obviously it's just a normal, perfectly acceptable word. (Try to google its origins.)
Third funny thing is the right adjective from 'Manchester'. It's 'Mancunian'. And now I know how to pronounce it! :-)
Last thing: Mancunians obviously call 'trousers' 'pants'. I did not know that, I thought that this was the case only in the US, but obviously the locals think differently!
English men are very interesting when it comes to their dressing habits. Many of them wear suits, obviously only because they have to. There's a guy in the office next to mine who always wears funny stuff and only changes in the office (and very reluctantly...). Everyone loves the 'dress down Friday' here, and all companies seem to be doing it. You can also meet people in suit trousers and shirt, wearing a fleece sweatshirt! Real fashionistas, with pink shirt and brown shoes, and they are wearing fleece hoodies or bright red goretex/windstopper jackets. :-)
Like, seriously?
I like the fact that English people smile and act politely. In buses (when everyone is pissed off because s/he is stuck in a traffic), on the streets, in shops, people are just nice, they don't look like permanently angry people (like Czech people do).
I actually don't think that this has anything to do with communism, or being West rather than East. No, the situation here is also not easy (esp. for ordinary people), the rents are sky-high, for young people it is impossible to get their own place to live, the politicians are as bad as everywhere (in particular, half the people seem to think that Cameron is a real racist and fascist), things are expensive, the public transport is chaos... but still people are not aggressive and they are not making others feel their frustration (like they do in the Czech Republic, and possibly elsewhere).
Manchester lacks metro, or good tram system, or something that would provide the 'axis' of the city. In cities where there is a metro (or trams with similar function), it is much easier to be oriented, to know where you are and where you want to be (and also how to get there). You just think in the metro/tram network framework, and that's it, and even in places where there's no metro, you still know where you are.
Of course there's no such thing here in Manchester. Here, we have trams which go 'nowhere' (from the 1000 places they should go, they go to basically three). And we have a network of buses which are i) total chaos, ii) total anarchy. No wonder that there are so many traffic jams! I guess people just do not want to use the chaotic, complex bus system, so they go by car... which causes the buses to be even more chaotic because of the traffic jams... which makes people go by their own car even more... and so on... and so on.
I have discovered few new words. One of them is 'ish'. While my friend the linguist claims 'ish' to be a suffix only, I disagree. 'Ish' is usually preceded by a space/pause in speech, and sometimes there's a phrase 'well... ish'. I think this makes it separate word! :-)
(I have asked my landlady, and she thinks that 'ish' is a word too. And she's native, so she should know!)
(For those who do not know: 'ish' is something which makes the previous statement a bit ore vague, and bit less definite. It started as suffix meaning 'soft of' (e.g. pinkish is not exactly pink, it's just sort of pink), but it evolved. A lot.)
Another word I've discovered just today is 'quid'. That means 'pound' (yes, Queen Elizabeth money). But it's funny to hear such a word from someone like your boss. I'd expect this to be slang, but obviously it's just a normal, perfectly acceptable word. (Try to google its origins.)
Third funny thing is the right adjective from 'Manchester'. It's 'Mancunian'. And now I know how to pronounce it! :-)
Last thing: Mancunians obviously call 'trousers' 'pants'. I did not know that, I thought that this was the case only in the US, but obviously the locals think differently!
English men are very interesting when it comes to their dressing habits. Many of them wear suits, obviously only because they have to. There's a guy in the office next to mine who always wears funny stuff and only changes in the office (and very reluctantly...). Everyone loves the 'dress down Friday' here, and all companies seem to be doing it. You can also meet people in suit trousers and shirt, wearing a fleece sweatshirt! Real fashionistas, with pink shirt and brown shoes, and they are wearing fleece hoodies or bright red goretex/windstopper jackets. :-)
Like, seriously?
Second week in the office, third week in Manchester. and I am slowly getting used to the fact that this is forever (...for at least few years, and that is for me as much forever as possible).
Today, while working on my stuff today, I had the feeling that I actually belong to the office for the first time. Aw yiss!
I am now collecting my first experience with a) English houses, b) living in a shared house. So, what are the pros and cons of a tiny English house?
+ it is a house, and it's yours
+ you have two floors, so you can have a (relatively) big kitchen and living room downstairs, and all the other stuff upstairs
+ same for bathroom, you can have a big one, or even more than one (which is useful)
+ you can rent/let some rooms to help you pay bills
- there's a complex system of trash cans, you have at least two of them (sometimes three, each with different colour, and a timetable for each one)
- it can be rather cold there (you do not want to waste, so you only turn on the heating, let's say, 20 min before people return home in the evening or 20 min before they get up in the morning, and then only for 1 hr - meaning that the rest of the time, it's cold there!)
- it's usually either affordable and far from everywhere, or totally expensive
+/- the main windows are to the street, so you can see everything, but everything can see you
I will for sure think about other stuff later, don't worry.
What else do I find funny and/or interesting?
* There's a tiny concrete backyard, where you can have plants in pots, and do many things such as grill parties. It is all decorated by a bunch of cables. When I asked about that - it's landline! Phones! O_o Seriously, phones like this, on poles?
* There's even tinier concrete 'garden' in front of the house. The door is equipped with everything, there's a doorknocker and this little hole for mail.
* I can hear the neighbors' kid running up and down the stairs.
* The backyard has its own door, and in this door, there's a tiny trapdoor for cats. Really! It is there! (However, I examined it just now, and it appears to be one way only. Very interesting!)
Well, (probably) more interesting things to follow in few daus! Stay tuned! :-)
Today, while working on my stuff today, I had the feeling that I actually belong to the office for the first time. Aw yiss!
I am now collecting my first experience with a) English houses, b) living in a shared house. So, what are the pros and cons of a tiny English house?
+ it is a house, and it's yours
+ you have two floors, so you can have a (relatively) big kitchen and living room downstairs, and all the other stuff upstairs
+ same for bathroom, you can have a big one, or even more than one (which is useful)
+ you can rent/let some rooms to help you pay bills
- there's a complex system of trash cans, you have at least two of them (sometimes three, each with different colour, and a timetable for each one)
- it can be rather cold there (you do not want to waste, so you only turn on the heating, let's say, 20 min before people return home in the evening or 20 min before they get up in the morning, and then only for 1 hr - meaning that the rest of the time, it's cold there!)
- it's usually either affordable and far from everywhere, or totally expensive
+/- the main windows are to the street, so you can see everything, but everything can see you
I will for sure think about other stuff later, don't worry.
What else do I find funny and/or interesting?
* There's a tiny concrete backyard, where you can have plants in pots, and do many things such as grill parties. It is all decorated by a bunch of cables. When I asked about that - it's landline! Phones! O_o Seriously, phones like this, on poles?
* There's even tinier concrete 'garden' in front of the house. The door is equipped with everything, there's a doorknocker and this little hole for mail.
* I can hear the neighbors' kid running up and down the stairs.
* The backyard has its own door, and in this door, there's a tiny trapdoor for cats. Really! It is there! (However, I examined it just now, and it appears to be one way only. Very interesting!)
Well, (probably) more interesting things to follow in few daus! Stay tuned! :-)
Monday, 19 October 2015
Since last Saturday (and my last post), I went through many adventures. :-)
One of them was moving to my new place. The house is located about 20 min by bus from the city centre, which is not that bad, but local people are already making funny faces when they hear that. On Sunday, my big moving day, I knew exactly which bus to take, and where this bus usually departs from... and all my knowledge was totally useless!
I came to the bus stop, and found a funny paper sellotaped to the booth, saying that due to reconstruction, the station was not operational, please use the next station which is on Oxford Street. Fine, well. Such notice generally triggers two possible questions: where exactly is Oxford Street? And, more importantly: where exactly on Oxford Street (which is very long) the station is supposed to be?
I was lucky, there was a guy in high viz clothes, shouting at people ('What are you waiting for here? There's no bus from this station today! My throat hurts so much from having to tell people all the time!') to go away, who was also able to tell me what to do. Basically, he initially wanted to explain to me how to get to the next station, then had a long look on all the stuff I was carrying, and then decided to tell me that there was a free shuttle bus to that next station. So I followed his advice...
...wrongly, of course. I left the shuttle bus approx. 1 station before I should've, so I had to carry all my stuff through the streets anyway. Then, I did not know where exactly my bus was supposed to stop (and it was a bigger crossroads...). So I decided to just stand on one corner and watch the buses, see where they go, and chase them when it comes - and in the worst case miss one bus and then jump into the next one. I was lucky, there was a nice driver who's seen me with all the stuff, waited for me to board the bus, and then waited for me to find the £1 for the ticket! I think I must've looked ridiculous and very foreign, because he was waving at me when I left the bus. (On the right station! Success!)
Then, I got to know better the girlfriend of my landlady. She is very nice!
Of course, I am Czech, and so I have to have beer with everything, including things like moving. So I got some Budweiser (the real one! I checked, and it was 'brewed and bottled in České Budějovice') in one of the shops in the city centre, and brought the beer here. We drank it together with my landlady, to celebrate that I've moved in. :-)
Next adventure was morning, and getting to work.
I got up, had coffee (marvelous coffee my landlady makes), and went for a bus. Of course one bus left just before I got to the station (no comment), and the next one took long time to come - that was not the worst. I was stupid enough to go upstairs, to the upper deck. It was cold and humid, the windows were all wet, and the bus is basically only a bit better than a ship sailing past Tierra del Fuego. Result? Motion sickness, of course. I was very glad I was able to get off the f. bus! Never again, ever!
Third adventure was actually getting back. Yesterday, when I came here with all my stuff, all the notices only informed about the station on Piccadilly Gdns being closed on Sunday. You'd expect everything to be sorted on Sunday, then, and a normal operation from Monday, right? Because if there were any issues expected for the whole next week, they'd tell you straight away, right? They would not put the notice for Sunday only, right?
No. This is not how Manchester and its TfGM works. No no, you've been too naive! Of course that today, when I came there to that station, I found that the station is moved somewhere again... I did not have map to find where exactly to go... and I was short of time already! But fine, I went for, like, 15 minutes walk to find the next station (also because I had to cross two totally traffic-jammed streets and one huge construction site which is impossible to go through) - exactly the thing I want to do on Monday evening, when the only thing I want is to be at home already.
Well, this enhances my zen attitude to things.
One of them was moving to my new place. The house is located about 20 min by bus from the city centre, which is not that bad, but local people are already making funny faces when they hear that. On Sunday, my big moving day, I knew exactly which bus to take, and where this bus usually departs from... and all my knowledge was totally useless!
I came to the bus stop, and found a funny paper sellotaped to the booth, saying that due to reconstruction, the station was not operational, please use the next station which is on Oxford Street. Fine, well. Such notice generally triggers two possible questions: where exactly is Oxford Street? And, more importantly: where exactly on Oxford Street (which is very long) the station is supposed to be?
I was lucky, there was a guy in high viz clothes, shouting at people ('What are you waiting for here? There's no bus from this station today! My throat hurts so much from having to tell people all the time!') to go away, who was also able to tell me what to do. Basically, he initially wanted to explain to me how to get to the next station, then had a long look on all the stuff I was carrying, and then decided to tell me that there was a free shuttle bus to that next station. So I followed his advice...
...wrongly, of course. I left the shuttle bus approx. 1 station before I should've, so I had to carry all my stuff through the streets anyway. Then, I did not know where exactly my bus was supposed to stop (and it was a bigger crossroads...). So I decided to just stand on one corner and watch the buses, see where they go, and chase them when it comes - and in the worst case miss one bus and then jump into the next one. I was lucky, there was a nice driver who's seen me with all the stuff, waited for me to board the bus, and then waited for me to find the £1 for the ticket! I think I must've looked ridiculous and very foreign, because he was waving at me when I left the bus. (On the right station! Success!)
Then, I got to know better the girlfriend of my landlady. She is very nice!
Of course, I am Czech, and so I have to have beer with everything, including things like moving. So I got some Budweiser (the real one! I checked, and it was 'brewed and bottled in České Budějovice') in one of the shops in the city centre, and brought the beer here. We drank it together with my landlady, to celebrate that I've moved in. :-)
Next adventure was morning, and getting to work.
I got up, had coffee (marvelous coffee my landlady makes), and went for a bus. Of course one bus left just before I got to the station (no comment), and the next one took long time to come - that was not the worst. I was stupid enough to go upstairs, to the upper deck. It was cold and humid, the windows were all wet, and the bus is basically only a bit better than a ship sailing past Tierra del Fuego. Result? Motion sickness, of course. I was very glad I was able to get off the f. bus! Never again, ever!
Third adventure was actually getting back. Yesterday, when I came here with all my stuff, all the notices only informed about the station on Piccadilly Gdns being closed on Sunday. You'd expect everything to be sorted on Sunday, then, and a normal operation from Monday, right? Because if there were any issues expected for the whole next week, they'd tell you straight away, right? They would not put the notice for Sunday only, right?
No. This is not how Manchester and its TfGM works. No no, you've been too naive! Of course that today, when I came there to that station, I found that the station is moved somewhere again... I did not have map to find where exactly to go... and I was short of time already! But fine, I went for, like, 15 minutes walk to find the next station (also because I had to cross two totally traffic-jammed streets and one huge construction site which is impossible to go through) - exactly the thing I want to do on Monday evening, when the only thing I want is to be at home already.
Well, this enhances my zen attitude to things.
Saturday, 17 October 2015
Brief summary of what happened yesterday and today (only interesting stuff mentioned).
Yesterday, we had an IT training (which, for various reasons, I did not like very much).
Apart from this, we went for lunch together with people from the office ('welcome lunch' - and although the British people apparently say that 'there is no such thing as free lunch', this one was free!).
I got answers to some of my office-related questions, with no one telling me that s/he had no time for silly/useless/detailed questions on how the company operates. Yay!
I pinned a picture of one of Prague trams on my message board. One colleague immediately saw it, and was very curious about it!
I discovered one British beer I sort of liked; it was local and bio and organic, and unfortunately I forgot the name... What a pity, really.
I had Japanese beer in the evening, which was not bad.
Yesterday, we had an IT training (which, for various reasons, I did not like very much).
Apart from this, we went for lunch together with people from the office ('welcome lunch' - and although the British people apparently say that 'there is no such thing as free lunch', this one was free!).
I got answers to some of my office-related questions, with no one telling me that s/he had no time for silly/useless/detailed questions on how the company operates. Yay!
I pinned a picture of one of Prague trams on my message board. One colleague immediately saw it, and was very curious about it!
I discovered one British beer I sort of liked; it was local and bio and organic, and unfortunately I forgot the name... What a pity, really.
I had Japanese beer in the evening, which was not bad.
I also opened some of the materials I need to study for my UK qualification, and I discovered that this would indeed be very, very funny.
Today, I took huge risk and tried to buy another English beer. And guess what: duuuh! I was not even able to finish the 0.5 l bottle! The label said 'golden ale' and 'contains barley'. I would like to know whether one of these is the one key phrase to avoid...
(I guess barley is not the problem. Maybe the 'ale' thing...? Any time we had something called 'ale' back in Czech Republic, it was ok, but this country is weird when it comes to beer, so maybe...?)
I also got my bus card today. It cost me £63 for 28 days, and it's only valid in buses, not trams! Unbelievable...
Tomorrow, I am moving to a new place. I sort of miss commuting, really; it does not have to be long, but at least 20 min is necessary to be able to read things in the bus. In the past week, I could walk to the office, which made me nervous - I felt like I had no time for reading, going through legislation, thinking and doing stuff I usually do in tram/metro!
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
In the previous post, I am very pessimistic. To show also a brighter side of life, I would like to share few more funny facts (impressions) about this country.
They sell bottled beer in Tesco and shops like that. They hardly ever sell local brands, which is weird. It is also hard to find 0.5 l bottles. Either the bottles are 'too small' for 0.5 l (so maybe 0.3 l? I did not check), or they are 660 ml. I have seen only very few 'normal-sized' bottles: all of them German or Czech stuff.
There are many, many, many betting shops here in Manchester. Are people so much into this here? Wow.
It appears that people sleep late on Saturdays and Sundays - at 10 am the streets are still nearly empty. On weekdays, the streets are empty at 7 am, and at 8 am, the trams arrive at Piccadilly Gardens, and suddenly it appears that the whole city is in the streets.
You can have two hot meals a day for less than ca £5, if you select the right boxes with ready-made meals from the right shelf. Incredible, isn't it.
I have found on the internet that the Queen does not have a passport, but that all other members of the Royal Family do have a passport. However, I still don't know whether the Queen has NIN.
For the non-English speaking and/or not legally qualified readers: did you know that there's a difference between company and firm? I mean, a real, legal difference. Means also that my company is in fact not a company, it's a firm, but hey, I will continue referring to them as the company or something like that. Saying firm would feel like working for CIA. :-)
In our company, we have some internal guidelines on conduct etc. One of the things that I am forbidden to do is making vexatious or frivolous allegations. Nice! Extra points for everyone who is not native English speaker and who knows what this means anyway.
(Our internal guidelines also use words like dishonesty, immoral and indecent, and so on.)
It is true that British people eat sandwiches! During lunchtime, there are so many people buying them in our local Tesco that the fridge stays open (no one bothers to close it). People then go and eat outside, on the benches in the nearby garden.
I am currently testing the sandwiches. They are not bad; the worst are of course those which have 'low 'calories' or 'healthy living' mentioned on their box. :-)
They sell bottled beer in Tesco and shops like that. They hardly ever sell local brands, which is weird. It is also hard to find 0.5 l bottles. Either the bottles are 'too small' for 0.5 l (so maybe 0.3 l? I did not check), or they are 660 ml. I have seen only very few 'normal-sized' bottles: all of them German or Czech stuff.
There are many, many, many betting shops here in Manchester. Are people so much into this here? Wow.
It appears that people sleep late on Saturdays and Sundays - at 10 am the streets are still nearly empty. On weekdays, the streets are empty at 7 am, and at 8 am, the trams arrive at Piccadilly Gardens, and suddenly it appears that the whole city is in the streets.
You can have two hot meals a day for less than ca £5, if you select the right boxes with ready-made meals from the right shelf. Incredible, isn't it.
I have found on the internet that the Queen does not have a passport, but that all other members of the Royal Family do have a passport. However, I still don't know whether the Queen has NIN.
For the non-English speaking and/or not legally qualified readers: did you know that there's a difference between company and firm? I mean, a real, legal difference. Means also that my company is in fact not a company, it's a firm, but hey, I will continue referring to them as the company or something like that. Saying firm would feel like working for CIA. :-)
In our company, we have some internal guidelines on conduct etc. One of the things that I am forbidden to do is making vexatious or frivolous allegations. Nice! Extra points for everyone who is not native English speaker and who knows what this means anyway.
(Our internal guidelines also use words like dishonesty, immoral and indecent, and so on.)
It is true that British people eat sandwiches! During lunchtime, there are so many people buying them in our local Tesco that the fridge stays open (no one bothers to close it). People then go and eat outside, on the benches in the nearby garden.
I am currently testing the sandwiches. They are not bad; the worst are of course those which have 'low 'calories' or 'healthy living' mentioned on their box. :-)
Maybe you wondered why there was no post yesterday, or maybe you were relieved that there was a break in my silly talk. Anyway, there's reason to that. Yesterday, I was in the office for the second day, and guess what: during the day I developed a terrible cold, with headache, sore throat, and fever. Nice, isn't it.
Well, good that in this country, they sell Nurofen and stuff like that in grocery shop... For, like, £3. :-) So I went across the street to local Tesco yesterday, forgot to take my passport with me, saw a notice saying that these medicines were age-restricted and that people buying this could be required to prove their age, wondered whether a Czech driving licence would do, finally did not have to show my ID, and went straight to bed.
As you can see, I could as well title this post 'misery continues', or something similar, because this is really incredible. At this moment, I need to be super-smart and super-alert and show everyone how good (smart, quick, incredibly capable) I am, and instead of that, I feel cold, I shiver, and I cannot focus on nothing. :( What is this...
OK, more complaints to follow.
I still need to pass some exams to be able to do my job in the UK. A nasty surprise is that you cannot take any books to these UK exams. Wait, what? Nooooo! (And a tiny voice in my head immediately starts: why have I opted for this? I've had enough exam stress for the whole life!)
To help people like me, who are not qualified (yet), my company provides some (obviously very good) in-house training, but... I came late! It all started in September, and today I received email with lesson 14, which means that there are 13 lessons before this one (yes, I started to panic). Then I opened my lesson 14, and found it to be full of things I just don't understand, concepts I've never heard of before, and things I have no idea about (yes, my panic grows and propagates).
I also sort of cannot get used to my new office. I recognize faces of less than 1/3 of people, and this causes me quite some stress. (I have no idea about names of these people, I do not recognize them when I meet them in the lift, I have no idea who they are and what to talk with them about.) In the office, there are maybe 10x more people than my previous office. More people are talking, making phone calls, and walking around, and I have difficulties getting used to that noise and disruptions. I have only a vague idea of how to make coffee and where to find stuff. I must take my access card with me when I go to WC, but I just forget in 50% cases. And so on, and so on.
Every hour or so, I discover something I do not know, or something I have very little experience with. I feel ashamed, sad and depressed. In fact it's all exactly like all this prejudice about people from eastern Europe who do not know yogurt and do not have hot water at home - you just have to replace yogurt and hot water with job-related experience, and here you are.
And, as a final misery of today, I've left my access card on my desk in the office.
Well, good that in this country, they sell Nurofen and stuff like that in grocery shop... For, like, £3. :-) So I went across the street to local Tesco yesterday, forgot to take my passport with me, saw a notice saying that these medicines were age-restricted and that people buying this could be required to prove their age, wondered whether a Czech driving licence would do, finally did not have to show my ID, and went straight to bed.
As you can see, I could as well title this post 'misery continues', or something similar, because this is really incredible. At this moment, I need to be super-smart and super-alert and show everyone how good (smart, quick, incredibly capable) I am, and instead of that, I feel cold, I shiver, and I cannot focus on nothing. :( What is this...
OK, more complaints to follow.
I still need to pass some exams to be able to do my job in the UK. A nasty surprise is that you cannot take any books to these UK exams. Wait, what? Nooooo! (And a tiny voice in my head immediately starts: why have I opted for this? I've had enough exam stress for the whole life!)
To help people like me, who are not qualified (yet), my company provides some (obviously very good) in-house training, but... I came late! It all started in September, and today I received email with lesson 14, which means that there are 13 lessons before this one (yes, I started to panic). Then I opened my lesson 14, and found it to be full of things I just don't understand, concepts I've never heard of before, and things I have no idea about (yes, my panic grows and propagates).
I also sort of cannot get used to my new office. I recognize faces of less than 1/3 of people, and this causes me quite some stress. (I have no idea about names of these people, I do not recognize them when I meet them in the lift, I have no idea who they are and what to talk with them about.) In the office, there are maybe 10x more people than my previous office. More people are talking, making phone calls, and walking around, and I have difficulties getting used to that noise and disruptions. I have only a vague idea of how to make coffee and where to find stuff. I must take my access card with me when I go to WC, but I just forget in 50% cases. And so on, and so on.
Every hour or so, I discover something I do not know, or something I have very little experience with. I feel ashamed, sad and depressed. In fact it's all exactly like all this prejudice about people from eastern Europe who do not know yogurt and do not have hot water at home - you just have to replace yogurt and hot water with job-related experience, and here you are.
And, as a final misery of today, I've left my access card on my desk in the office.
Monday, 12 October 2015
I did not come here for fun only, but also to work... and today was my first day in my new job!
I did not sleep well during the night (as the best thing to do before joining a new company is to sleep ca 5 hrs., my brain knows this very well!). It did not help that just before I went to bed, one of the possible flatmates's sent me an sms that they would rather take in someone else than us; then I sort of freaked out, one week to go, starting new job tomorrow, still no place to stay, and not even close... Very well, night was funny.
I was sure that it would be like this: I'd have this funny feeling in my stomach, and I'd do all the things that people do when they are new somewhere, don't quite know how to act, and do not want to show all this. And of course everyone would tell me their names, and I'd forget them immediately, and everyone would tell me things about the company and how things work there, and I'd forget most of that as well (and the rest I just wouldn't understand because of the local accent), and it'd all be very interesting.
I was not far from truth. If anything, the truth was even better than imagined. :-)
First, I entered the building; the guys at the reception desk remember me already (one of them remembered me from August! And congratulated me on getting the job when I came to the office on the 5th!), and they were sort of cheering because I got my own access badge and did not have to sign the papers.
The building has multiple lifts. The trick is, you have to select the destination before entering the lifts (which have sort of AI which drives the lifts in the most efficient = the slowest possible way). If you enter the lift without selecting the destination, nothing happens.
Now, my first day. I have operated these (and similar) lifts before, never had any problem. The company in in n-th floor. Today, I accidentally selected (n-1)-th floor, just for the fun of it. So I ended in this (n-1)-the floor, where there is nothing. I wanted to simply press n-th inside the lift, but no, of course. I had to get out there in (n-1)-th, and then select n-th from the outside, and then re-enter and go up. O_o
Ok, ok, fine, finally I ended where I needed to be. I entered my office (my office!), I saw that the guy who they've told me would be my boss was there already (there was a light in hos office, and I am even better than Sherlock Holmes, so I deduced the necessary), and I went to see him. Of course I got a file to work on immediately. Good! My first file here!
Then, I had to go through a lot of HR stuff.
Explanations on how the company works, who's the boss of whom, who' my boss, etc. etc.
Rules of conduct. ('Do not do your krav maga here in the office.')
IT rules. (I probably won't be allowed to install my own sw on a company pc. Pity; at least I was able to make the IT guy install something else than MSIE on my pc. I am never ever going to use MSIE ever. Nope. Never. This just cannot be. Fortunately I am not the only one who feels this way.)
Dress code. (Casual Friday! I will be allowed to wear my Dr Martens shoes into the office, and no one would be able to say anything!)
Holidays.
Sickness. (I am still astonished by the way these people handle sickness. If you are sick for less than 7 consecutive days (incl. weekends), you can just sign your own certificate of absence/sickness, without the need to see a GP or anyone, and without the need for a real medical certificate. Like, seriously? In the Czech Republic, there would be so much cheating about this! So much!)
Other absences. (There seems to be a system in place where people enter their absences so that at least someone knows where they are. Amazing!)
Training.
Brand awareness. (Ask me one day what this means; you'd laugh.)
What to do when the fire alarm goes off. (Answer: if it's the day in the week when they do tests, do nothing. You'd be able to tell that it's serious if people in high visibility clothes kick you out of your office, otherwise you just 'keep calm and carry on'.)
Where the first aid kit is, and where to record all the sicknesses, injuries etc.
Etc., etc. It was all very interesting, and it was a lot of stuff, so after 3 hrs of this, I had the feeling that my brain would just explode. If you never hear from me again, you know the reason.
During my intro HR session, I also got 'map of the office' - a sketch with everyone's name and position. I used this later when I did a little tour of the office, to identify all the people present. Of course I keep forgetting the names. I think that this is quite usual.
It's a bit depressing, though. In my old office, I knew 'everything'. I knew at least something about the clients, the internal procedures, the people, the expectations from our bosses, etc. etc. When I got into the office in the morning, I knew how the day would look like, whom would I be dealing with, what kind of work - or trouble - could appear. Then I came here, and all's so new for me. I have no idea about things. I don't know no one. I don't know how to do the work, what to work on, how to navigate through the IT systems, whom to ask questions. I don't even know which questions to ask at this moment - so low is my level of knowledge!
Anyway, I am optimistic, this will work out fine. People are willing to help, and in short time I'd get into that. I am sure.
Then, just before I left, I saw this from my office window (and could actually smell the smoke!). It looked impressive, but also very dangerous, loads of smoke everywhere in the city. Well, guys, does this happen here on daily basis? If so -> I've made up my mind, and I am leaving tomorrow!
Last but not least, good news. At this moment, my housing situation is much more optimistic than yesterday. I went to see one room in a house 30 min by bus from the city centre, in a cute neighborhood full of very British cute little houses. And - it seems that the landlady is actually willing to have us there! The deal at this moment is that I am moving in on Sunday. Yaaay! I just hope that she is not a murdered or something. :-)
(And guess what. On my way back, I probably boarded the most expensive bus ever, it was £3.10 to get back to the city. But I was freezing, tired, and desperately wanted to go home, so I paid. Well, never again. I am getting a bus card during next week.)
I did not sleep well during the night (as the best thing to do before joining a new company is to sleep ca 5 hrs., my brain knows this very well!). It did not help that just before I went to bed, one of the possible flatmates's sent me an sms that they would rather take in someone else than us; then I sort of freaked out, one week to go, starting new job tomorrow, still no place to stay, and not even close... Very well, night was funny.
I was sure that it would be like this: I'd have this funny feeling in my stomach, and I'd do all the things that people do when they are new somewhere, don't quite know how to act, and do not want to show all this. And of course everyone would tell me their names, and I'd forget them immediately, and everyone would tell me things about the company and how things work there, and I'd forget most of that as well (and the rest I just wouldn't understand because of the local accent), and it'd all be very interesting.
I was not far from truth. If anything, the truth was even better than imagined. :-)
First, I entered the building; the guys at the reception desk remember me already (one of them remembered me from August! And congratulated me on getting the job when I came to the office on the 5th!), and they were sort of cheering because I got my own access badge and did not have to sign the papers.
The building has multiple lifts. The trick is, you have to select the destination before entering the lifts (which have sort of AI which drives the lifts in the most efficient = the slowest possible way). If you enter the lift without selecting the destination, nothing happens.
Now, my first day. I have operated these (and similar) lifts before, never had any problem. The company in in n-th floor. Today, I accidentally selected (n-1)-th floor, just for the fun of it. So I ended in this (n-1)-the floor, where there is nothing. I wanted to simply press n-th inside the lift, but no, of course. I had to get out there in (n-1)-th, and then select n-th from the outside, and then re-enter and go up. O_o
Ok, ok, fine, finally I ended where I needed to be. I entered my office (my office!), I saw that the guy who they've told me would be my boss was there already (there was a light in hos office, and I am even better than Sherlock Holmes, so I deduced the necessary), and I went to see him. Of course I got a file to work on immediately. Good! My first file here!
Then, I had to go through a lot of HR stuff.
Explanations on how the company works, who's the boss of whom, who' my boss, etc. etc.
Rules of conduct. ('Do not do your krav maga here in the office.')
IT rules. (I probably won't be allowed to install my own sw on a company pc. Pity; at least I was able to make the IT guy install something else than MSIE on my pc. I am never ever going to use MSIE ever. Nope. Never. This just cannot be. Fortunately I am not the only one who feels this way.)
Dress code. (Casual Friday! I will be allowed to wear my Dr Martens shoes into the office, and no one would be able to say anything!)
Holidays.
Sickness. (I am still astonished by the way these people handle sickness. If you are sick for less than 7 consecutive days (incl. weekends), you can just sign your own certificate of absence/sickness, without the need to see a GP or anyone, and without the need for a real medical certificate. Like, seriously? In the Czech Republic, there would be so much cheating about this! So much!)
Other absences. (There seems to be a system in place where people enter their absences so that at least someone knows where they are. Amazing!)
Training.
Brand awareness. (Ask me one day what this means; you'd laugh.)
What to do when the fire alarm goes off. (Answer: if it's the day in the week when they do tests, do nothing. You'd be able to tell that it's serious if people in high visibility clothes kick you out of your office, otherwise you just 'keep calm and carry on'.)
Where the first aid kit is, and where to record all the sicknesses, injuries etc.
Etc., etc. It was all very interesting, and it was a lot of stuff, so after 3 hrs of this, I had the feeling that my brain would just explode. If you never hear from me again, you know the reason.
During my intro HR session, I also got 'map of the office' - a sketch with everyone's name and position. I used this later when I did a little tour of the office, to identify all the people present. Of course I keep forgetting the names. I think that this is quite usual.
It's a bit depressing, though. In my old office, I knew 'everything'. I knew at least something about the clients, the internal procedures, the people, the expectations from our bosses, etc. etc. When I got into the office in the morning, I knew how the day would look like, whom would I be dealing with, what kind of work - or trouble - could appear. Then I came here, and all's so new for me. I have no idea about things. I don't know no one. I don't know how to do the work, what to work on, how to navigate through the IT systems, whom to ask questions. I don't even know which questions to ask at this moment - so low is my level of knowledge!
Anyway, I am optimistic, this will work out fine. People are willing to help, and in short time I'd get into that. I am sure.
Then, just before I left, I saw this from my office window (and could actually smell the smoke!). It looked impressive, but also very dangerous, loads of smoke everywhere in the city. Well, guys, does this happen here on daily basis? If so -> I've made up my mind, and I am leaving tomorrow!
Last but not least, good news. At this moment, my housing situation is much more optimistic than yesterday. I went to see one room in a house 30 min by bus from the city centre, in a cute neighborhood full of very British cute little houses. And - it seems that the landlady is actually willing to have us there! The deal at this moment is that I am moving in on Sunday. Yaaay! I just hope that she is not a murdered or something. :-)
(And guess what. On my way back, I probably boarded the most expensive bus ever, it was £3.10 to get back to the city. But I was freezing, tired, and desperately wanted to go home, so I paid. Well, never again. I am getting a bus card during next week.)
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Today, I have just a short entry again.
I went for a walk this morning, just to have a look around. I have become sort of a collector, I collect streets of Manchester that I know. I think that I might now be close to 20 known streets. Success!
Accidentally, I went to 'gay village', part of Manchester where there are many bars and restaurants (and possibly other facilities) for gay people. I like that place - it seems that there's joy and life (and joy of life) everywhere.
Well, everywhere but one place. In Sackville Park (nice garden with trees, benches, and Beacon of Hope (with free condoms hanging around the statue!)), there is memorial of Alan Turing. It looks like a bronze guy in suit and tie, sitting on a bench and holding an apple. There is a summary of Turing's life (and death), and I just cannot help it but I feel so sorry for him. He was a genius and a hero, but he was not at all treated like that. This really makes me sad.
(...And I also wonder a bit about the timing. The Queen has acceded to the throne around 1952/1953, about the same time Turing was found guilty on 'gross indecency', accepted hormonal treatment, and finally died. Turing was granted a posthumous pardon by the Queen in 2013. Which is nice - but it appears a bit too late. Could the Queen pardon him earlier? If not, why it was not possible at that time? Can the Queen grant pardons as she wishes, or does she have to follow some rules? Did the Queen change her opinion on homosexuality and all that happened after all these years? Did the Queen at that time have a chance to even be aware that such an injustice was unfolding? I will have to find out more on this.)
In the afternoon, I went to see one (shared) flat. We'd occupy a bedroom with no windows (means no sunlight, but also no noise from the street, and as the flatmates say: 'this is the warmest room in the house'...) which has its own bathroom. It's a bit further from the city centre (20 min walk) but it seems quite ok, in a good neighborhood. And the flatmates were really nice people! They'll let me know about their decision on Monday; hopeful of positive outcome.
I went for a walk this morning, just to have a look around. I have become sort of a collector, I collect streets of Manchester that I know. I think that I might now be close to 20 known streets. Success!
Accidentally, I went to 'gay village', part of Manchester where there are many bars and restaurants (and possibly other facilities) for gay people. I like that place - it seems that there's joy and life (and joy of life) everywhere.
Well, everywhere but one place. In Sackville Park (nice garden with trees, benches, and Beacon of Hope (with free condoms hanging around the statue!)), there is memorial of Alan Turing. It looks like a bronze guy in suit and tie, sitting on a bench and holding an apple. There is a summary of Turing's life (and death), and I just cannot help it but I feel so sorry for him. He was a genius and a hero, but he was not at all treated like that. This really makes me sad.
(...And I also wonder a bit about the timing. The Queen has acceded to the throne around 1952/1953, about the same time Turing was found guilty on 'gross indecency', accepted hormonal treatment, and finally died. Turing was granted a posthumous pardon by the Queen in 2013. Which is nice - but it appears a bit too late. Could the Queen pardon him earlier? If not, why it was not possible at that time? Can the Queen grant pardons as she wishes, or does she have to follow some rules? Did the Queen change her opinion on homosexuality and all that happened after all these years? Did the Queen at that time have a chance to even be aware that such an injustice was unfolding? I will have to find out more on this.)
In the afternoon, I went to see one (shared) flat. We'd occupy a bedroom with no windows (means no sunlight, but also no noise from the street, and as the flatmates say: 'this is the warmest room in the house'...) which has its own bathroom. It's a bit further from the city centre (20 min walk) but it seems quite ok, in a good neighborhood. And the flatmates were really nice people! They'll let me know about their decision on Monday; hopeful of positive outcome.
Friday, 9 October 2015
I am going to be brief today. Not so many things have happened.
First, I went for a walk along the canals. This time not to south-west, but to north-east. Well, it's very nice and very posh there. I like these canals more and more; I would like to live close to these; I am totally sure I won't be able to live there until I become a partner in a company such as the one I will be soon working for, with salary of approx 5 times the avg salary. :(
Second, I wanted to find where to buy pantyhose. Well... In Prague, I'd know exactly where to go. Here, I went to one shop which looked like something between pharmacy and place where they sell toothbrushes, detergents, and expensive perfumes. I was quite surprised to see all the packs of Nurofen (and similar stuff) right there on the shelves, accessible to everyone. In Czech Republic, you have to show your ID card to buy anything that contains amphetamines (incl. of course Nurofen), and you are looked at like you were a drug addict - and it is never, ever displayed like this, because everyone just assumes that you would make meth from these drugs. Well, obviously, here in the UK, there is no such problem. No one is making meth from Nurofen. There is a small warning that they won't sell you more than two packs at a time, but the packages are still freely accessible.
Third, I went to see one flat (with two flatmates). I liked it, sort of, but there could be a problem with noise. I hate noise, really, esp. during the night, but this flat is in 2nd floor just above a street where there are buses and trams. I know that one can get used to many things, but... Second pb. is that instead of a proper wall, there's a sliding door between the room we'd be occupying and the living room, and I am not sure that would be sufficient. Third, I am not so sure the current tenants liked me that much. Well, we'll see.
Fourth, I went for a beer - on Friday night! Very British thing to do, indeed. :) We first went to a very noisy place, with a DJ and lot of loud music. I did not like that very much! Then we went to another bar, with less noise, but here, there was rugby all around. (Yes, there's rugby world cup going on now. Some matches are taking place here in Mcr, so people are a bit crazy.) There were also some British girls, dressed in very... revealing... dresses, (Frankly, they looked like prostitutes.) I thing they must've been terribly cold (and I am surprised that they were let in by the guards at the entrance), but now, I am not British. Maybe these girls were tougher than expected.
(Interesting: there is a couple of big guys at the entrance of every pub, bar, or similar facility. Not sure whether this is only on Friday night, or every night, but it seems a bit odd. I'd be afraid to enter a pub like this, with guards at the entrance - I would not feel welcome there. However, a friend explained to me. Apparently this is not the purpose of these guys - quite on the contrary. they are there for everyone's safety, to kick out drunken people, and to discourage the boys harassing the girls. Interesting.)
Anyway, I have tried two beers that looked like local stuff. I liked neither. There was no bitter taste, no taste of hops, too little gas. I am a beer-lover; what am I going to do in this country, I don't know.
First, I went for a walk along the canals. This time not to south-west, but to north-east. Well, it's very nice and very posh there. I like these canals more and more; I would like to live close to these; I am totally sure I won't be able to live there until I become a partner in a company such as the one I will be soon working for, with salary of approx 5 times the avg salary. :(
Second, I wanted to find where to buy pantyhose. Well... In Prague, I'd know exactly where to go. Here, I went to one shop which looked like something between pharmacy and place where they sell toothbrushes, detergents, and expensive perfumes. I was quite surprised to see all the packs of Nurofen (and similar stuff) right there on the shelves, accessible to everyone. In Czech Republic, you have to show your ID card to buy anything that contains amphetamines (incl. of course Nurofen), and you are looked at like you were a drug addict - and it is never, ever displayed like this, because everyone just assumes that you would make meth from these drugs. Well, obviously, here in the UK, there is no such problem. No one is making meth from Nurofen. There is a small warning that they won't sell you more than two packs at a time, but the packages are still freely accessible.
Third, I went to see one flat (with two flatmates). I liked it, sort of, but there could be a problem with noise. I hate noise, really, esp. during the night, but this flat is in 2nd floor just above a street where there are buses and trams. I know that one can get used to many things, but... Second pb. is that instead of a proper wall, there's a sliding door between the room we'd be occupying and the living room, and I am not sure that would be sufficient. Third, I am not so sure the current tenants liked me that much. Well, we'll see.
Fourth, I went for a beer - on Friday night! Very British thing to do, indeed. :) We first went to a very noisy place, with a DJ and lot of loud music. I did not like that very much! Then we went to another bar, with less noise, but here, there was rugby all around. (Yes, there's rugby world cup going on now. Some matches are taking place here in Mcr, so people are a bit crazy.) There were also some British girls, dressed in very... revealing... dresses, (Frankly, they looked like prostitutes.) I thing they must've been terribly cold (and I am surprised that they were let in by the guards at the entrance), but now, I am not British. Maybe these girls were tougher than expected.
(Interesting: there is a couple of big guys at the entrance of every pub, bar, or similar facility. Not sure whether this is only on Friday night, or every night, but it seems a bit odd. I'd be afraid to enter a pub like this, with guards at the entrance - I would not feel welcome there. However, a friend explained to me. Apparently this is not the purpose of these guys - quite on the contrary. they are there for everyone's safety, to kick out drunken people, and to discourage the boys harassing the girls. Interesting.)
Anyway, I have tried two beers that looked like local stuff. I liked neither. There was no bitter taste, no taste of hops, too little gas. I am a beer-lover; what am I going to do in this country, I don't know.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
It seems that something positive happened about my flat... finally.
We (me and my husband) have re-defined our flat-search strategy. After all the trouble with (non-existent) flats to rent, someone recommended an ad webpage spareroom.co.uk to us. (This website is exactly what it says it is: a place where people find flatmates.) I spend maybe 8 hrs searching for ads and responding, I responded to about 1000 ads, and I got exactly two responses: one negative and one positive. The positive one is a flat with two bedrooms and two bathrooms near the city center, with two occupants in one of the rooms - a couple. Available on Oct 18, so exactly the date I need.
Perfect match? We'll see tomorrow when I go to have a look there.
Honestly, I am panicking little bit less now, and breathing little bit more. Yes, nothing is sure at this moment, and maybe it'll be a disaster tomorrow, but it's at least something. Cross your fingers for me if you can.
Apart from this, I finally allowed myself to do some funny things (probably consequence of the relief...). I decided to have a very British meal today: something you can only put into microwave oven and that's that! I selected 'slow cooked beef ragu and fettucine pasta', 'with real grana padano', 'truly irresistible'. I bought it (£3.5, can you imagine?), brought it home, figured out how to operate the microwave oven (not so easy! We have never had one at home, so I have close to no experience), followed the instructions, and finally enjoyed my meal.
Finally it was not bad at all. There was real meat! (I am not sure this is very healthy though. I am probably not going to do this every day.)
I also found a shop where they sell bottled beer which is of UK origin. (Finally!) In the weeks to follow, I will no doubt have all of them, one at a time. :-)
I also went for a walk around the city. I know already maybe 10 streets - I consider this a success - so I wanted to go somewhere I've never been before. Well, and I like water, so I identified the closest water I could find, and went there. I did not expect much, just something dirty and possibly also inaccessible. Well, I was surprised.
First, I entered 'gay village'. This appears to be a place full of gay bars etc., with rainbow flags everywhere. Good!
Then, I went under a small bridge and discovered a very nice pathway just along the canal. It appeared to end in ca 200 m, but I've decided to go to have a look anyway. It did not end, it just disappeared under another bridge, and a house. When I came to that point, I realized why it looked as an end: because there is lock. Which of course makes a 2 m difference between 'before the lock' and 'after the lock'.
OK, I went under the building (carefully; I am a bit paranoid and do not want to be killed in some stupid way such as being thrown into not very clean water by a psycho) and then further down the canal - and the further I went, the more fancy the place became! Bars, restaurants, nice buildings. It all ended with this - and it really looks like that in reality. The right bridge and the central one are for Metrolink (this is how they call trams here, funny Manchester people). And there are houseboats and fishermen, and fancy houses, and nice places.
I did not want to go back the same way, so I went along river Irwell instead. There are many, many posh places around this river, and a beautiful suspension bridge. (I like suspension bridges. A lot.) And I have finally understood why everyone wants to live in Salford (which is not exactly Manchester, but very close to it, posh, with rents usually higher than in the city centre).
One last remark. I have bought milk today, in a funny plastic container. (Wink for all present or past pre-exam students: guess what, there is a closure for a bottle provided! I immediately recognized it.) We usually wrap milk in tetrapak in the Czech Republic, because the milk is then edible for longer time. Well, whatever, one of the things I'd have to give up is milk in tetrapak. The British people measure in very interesting units, and so I got 1 pint of milk, which equals 568 ml. Isn't it time to leave thissilly funny imperial system and use normal units instead?
We (me and my husband) have re-defined our flat-search strategy. After all the trouble with (non-existent) flats to rent, someone recommended an ad webpage spareroom.co.uk to us. (This website is exactly what it says it is: a place where people find flatmates.) I spend maybe 8 hrs searching for ads and responding, I responded to about 1000 ads, and I got exactly two responses: one negative and one positive. The positive one is a flat with two bedrooms and two bathrooms near the city center, with two occupants in one of the rooms - a couple. Available on Oct 18, so exactly the date I need.
Perfect match? We'll see tomorrow when I go to have a look there.
Honestly, I am panicking little bit less now, and breathing little bit more. Yes, nothing is sure at this moment, and maybe it'll be a disaster tomorrow, but it's at least something. Cross your fingers for me if you can.
Apart from this, I finally allowed myself to do some funny things (probably consequence of the relief...). I decided to have a very British meal today: something you can only put into microwave oven and that's that! I selected 'slow cooked beef ragu and fettucine pasta', 'with real grana padano', 'truly irresistible'. I bought it (£3.5, can you imagine?), brought it home, figured out how to operate the microwave oven (not so easy! We have never had one at home, so I have close to no experience), followed the instructions, and finally enjoyed my meal.
Finally it was not bad at all. There was real meat! (I am not sure this is very healthy though. I am probably not going to do this every day.)
I also found a shop where they sell bottled beer which is of UK origin. (Finally!) In the weeks to follow, I will no doubt have all of them, one at a time. :-)
I also went for a walk around the city. I know already maybe 10 streets - I consider this a success - so I wanted to go somewhere I've never been before. Well, and I like water, so I identified the closest water I could find, and went there. I did not expect much, just something dirty and possibly also inaccessible. Well, I was surprised.
First, I entered 'gay village'. This appears to be a place full of gay bars etc., with rainbow flags everywhere. Good!
Then, I went under a small bridge and discovered a very nice pathway just along the canal. It appeared to end in ca 200 m, but I've decided to go to have a look anyway. It did not end, it just disappeared under another bridge, and a house. When I came to that point, I realized why it looked as an end: because there is lock. Which of course makes a 2 m difference between 'before the lock' and 'after the lock'.
OK, I went under the building (carefully; I am a bit paranoid and do not want to be killed in some stupid way such as being thrown into not very clean water by a psycho) and then further down the canal - and the further I went, the more fancy the place became! Bars, restaurants, nice buildings. It all ended with this - and it really looks like that in reality. The right bridge and the central one are for Metrolink (this is how they call trams here, funny Manchester people). And there are houseboats and fishermen, and fancy houses, and nice places.
I did not want to go back the same way, so I went along river Irwell instead. There are many, many posh places around this river, and a beautiful suspension bridge. (I like suspension bridges. A lot.) And I have finally understood why everyone wants to live in Salford (which is not exactly Manchester, but very close to it, posh, with rents usually higher than in the city centre).
One last remark. I have bought milk today, in a funny plastic container. (Wink for all present or past pre-exam students: guess what, there is a closure for a bottle provided! I immediately recognized it.) We usually wrap milk in tetrapak in the Czech Republic, because the milk is then edible for longer time. Well, whatever, one of the things I'd have to give up is milk in tetrapak. The British people measure in very interesting units, and so I got 1 pint of milk, which equals 568 ml. Isn't it time to leave this
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
I wanted to make this a separate post for practical reasons - so that the posts are not too long. :)
This is about my first impressions of Manchester, the UK, English people and stuff.
Everything appears to be on the wrong side. I think it's because of this driving on the left. Ok, cars are on the left, fine - but then trams are also on the wrong side of the street (and trams are silent killers, they approach you unnoticed and suddenly they are right in front of you, ready to kill you!), and people, if they want to avoid contact with you on the street, go to the wrong side as well!
Before I came here, everyone insisted, 'yes, you'll get used to this rather quickly, this would be fine'. No, it is not fine. I look on wrong side when crossing the streets, I miss approaching trams (nah, they go the other direction, except they don't), and when trying to step aside, I still do it the 'European way'. I wonder all the time about the buses being entered in a funny way. Etc., etc.
It seems to me that there's CCTV everywhere. 'For your own safety' it says, but I don't like it. I am not as ready as people here to give up my privacy.
As mentioned already, I understand only about half of what people tell me. Which is very funny; sometimes I must look like a stupid person, because someone starts talking at me, and the only reaction they get is either 'eeuh' or 'yes'.
In Manchester, the trams are yellow, and they make noises when turning. In Prague, we have this special tram which lubricates the track so that the trams make less noises; awesome idea. In Manchester, they could use five such trams, but they are nowhere to be seen. The noise is terrible.
Apart from making squeaking noises, the trams are very high, with the door approx. 1.20 m above the ground. However (and this is not that stupid!), they are effectively low-floor because the platforms are also about 1.20 m high - and of course have ramps, so you can enter with a pushchair or wheelchair without a problem.
Someone keeps messing with the directions in this city. I usually think that I am heading somewhere, but then I find that actually I go somewhere else; I can be mistaken by as much as 180 degrees. O_o How this is possible, I have no idea. (I suspect that some demon is just turning the streets as I walk, I have no better explanation.)
I think this is getting little bit better over time, today it happened just maybe twice, but still I find this disturbing.
People do not care very much about the red light when they want to cross the street. I like this.
I would really like to know what 'fair enough' means. From how people use it, it seems to me that it can mean anything from agreement to disagreement to surprise, or it can be used to express that they don't quite know what to say, or that whatever you say, they find it funny, or that you are being too naive, or that you are talking stuff that makes no sense... Well, it seems to me that this can mean almost anything in the world.
Some things are better here in the UK, and some are better in the Czech Republic. As mentioned already, I am not at all satisfied with banks, and with real estate agents. I have no idea why I should wait 30 minutes for getting an appointment to set a bank account - it should the the bank trying to get my money, not me begging to be able to give them! I also have no idea why I should pay some £300 to a real estate person who did exactly nothing to help me to find a place to stay. Every time I call these people about a property, they are like 'no, that is no longer available, bye', and that's that. Hey, guys, how about offering something? Trying to find something for me? Or, at least, being willing to call me back? Well, this is a joke.
On the other hand, I liked my NIN appointment very much. The guy at the interview showed really a professional attitude (he even asked me how to pronounce my funny surname, and then got my name right); most authorities in Czech Republic are not even close to this. I also liked very much the recruitment people who helped me to find job here, again, I know no Czech HR/recruitment agency which would be at least half this good.
People on the streets appear to be very friendly and helpful. Every time I look lost here (which is basically all the time), someone is ready to help and/or tell me how to find stuff. Also, if someone steps in your way, he apologizes; if someone does something not very nice, he apologizes as well. People are willing to let you enter places first. If you drop something, someone is usually willing to help you. And so on, and so on. Incredible! Everyone seems so polite here.
What I find funny and strange is that our local Tesco sells no local beers. They have Pilsner Urquell (the golden standard!) in the fridge, Heineken (I guess they have to), some German beers (incl. Franziskaner Weissbier, not bad), some Japanese stuff (far from home!), two Italian brands (?!) and French (Alsatian) stuff (?!?!), but nothing local.
So the good news is that I can drink Pilsner here. The bad news is that I did not travel across the Channel to do so.
This is about my first impressions of Manchester, the UK, English people and stuff.
Everything appears to be on the wrong side. I think it's because of this driving on the left. Ok, cars are on the left, fine - but then trams are also on the wrong side of the street (and trams are silent killers, they approach you unnoticed and suddenly they are right in front of you, ready to kill you!), and people, if they want to avoid contact with you on the street, go to the wrong side as well!
Before I came here, everyone insisted, 'yes, you'll get used to this rather quickly, this would be fine'. No, it is not fine. I look on wrong side when crossing the streets, I miss approaching trams (nah, they go the other direction, except they don't), and when trying to step aside, I still do it the 'European way'. I wonder all the time about the buses being entered in a funny way. Etc., etc.
It seems to me that there's CCTV everywhere. 'For your own safety' it says, but I don't like it. I am not as ready as people here to give up my privacy.
As mentioned already, I understand only about half of what people tell me. Which is very funny; sometimes I must look like a stupid person, because someone starts talking at me, and the only reaction they get is either 'eeuh' or 'yes'.
In Manchester, the trams are yellow, and they make noises when turning. In Prague, we have this special tram which lubricates the track so that the trams make less noises; awesome idea. In Manchester, they could use five such trams, but they are nowhere to be seen. The noise is terrible.
Apart from making squeaking noises, the trams are very high, with the door approx. 1.20 m above the ground. However (and this is not that stupid!), they are effectively low-floor because the platforms are also about 1.20 m high - and of course have ramps, so you can enter with a pushchair or wheelchair without a problem.
For those further interested in the trams: they have doors on both sides. Sometimes two cars are connected and sometimes not. The cars are somehow too long for the streets, so the trams can bend (they have the articulated part in the middle). I think that to increase or decrease speed, the drivers use left hand, but I am not sure about this. And at some places, the trams have a single track only for both directions. They make quite funny noises when you step in their way - it's not the usual bell / ringing, but a funny noise.
Someone keeps messing with the directions in this city. I usually think that I am heading somewhere, but then I find that actually I go somewhere else; I can be mistaken by as much as 180 degrees. O_o How this is possible, I have no idea. (I suspect that some demon is just turning the streets as I walk, I have no better explanation.)
I think this is getting little bit better over time, today it happened just maybe twice, but still I find this disturbing.
People do not care very much about the red light when they want to cross the street. I like this.
I would really like to know what 'fair enough' means. From how people use it, it seems to me that it can mean anything from agreement to disagreement to surprise, or it can be used to express that they don't quite know what to say, or that whatever you say, they find it funny, or that you are being too naive, or that you are talking stuff that makes no sense... Well, it seems to me that this can mean almost anything in the world.
Some things are better here in the UK, and some are better in the Czech Republic. As mentioned already, I am not at all satisfied with banks, and with real estate agents. I have no idea why I should wait 30 minutes for getting an appointment to set a bank account - it should the the bank trying to get my money, not me begging to be able to give them! I also have no idea why I should pay some £300 to a real estate person who did exactly nothing to help me to find a place to stay. Every time I call these people about a property, they are like 'no, that is no longer available, bye', and that's that. Hey, guys, how about offering something? Trying to find something for me? Or, at least, being willing to call me back? Well, this is a joke.
On the other hand, I liked my NIN appointment very much. The guy at the interview showed really a professional attitude (he even asked me how to pronounce my funny surname, and then got my name right); most authorities in Czech Republic are not even close to this. I also liked very much the recruitment people who helped me to find job here, again, I know no Czech HR/recruitment agency which would be at least half this good.
People on the streets appear to be very friendly and helpful. Every time I look lost here (which is basically all the time), someone is ready to help and/or tell me how to find stuff. Also, if someone steps in your way, he apologizes; if someone does something not very nice, he apologizes as well. People are willing to let you enter places first. If you drop something, someone is usually willing to help you. And so on, and so on. Incredible! Everyone seems so polite here.
What I find funny and strange is that our local Tesco sells no local beers. They have Pilsner Urquell (the golden standard!) in the fridge, Heineken (I guess they have to), some German beers (incl. Franziskaner Weissbier, not bad), some Japanese stuff (far from home!), two Italian brands (?!) and French (Alsatian) stuff (?!?!), but nothing local.
So the good news is that I can drink Pilsner here. The bad news is that I did not travel across the Channel to do so.
It was raining the whole night, and half of the day! Finally!
Apart from this, not many good news. One real estate agent promised me viewing of property to rent at 10.30 - 'I will confirm this, first thing tomorrow morning' - of course he never called back. I considered calling him and making him a bit uneasy, but then gave up - I had to go for my NIN interview, and I did not want to miss that.
Apart from this one viewing which actually did not happen, I had no further success. I wrote many emails, I tried to find many things and schedule some viewings etc., but no success at all. Funny how many real estate people took my phone no. and promised me to call back once something suitable appears... well, guess what. Suitable places do appear on the internet, and I receive zero phone calls.
Apart from this one viewing which actually did not happen, I had no further success. I wrote many emails, I tried to find many things and schedule some viewings etc., but no success at all. Funny how many real estate people took my phone no. and promised me to call back once something suitable appears... well, guess what. Suitable places do appear on the internet, and I receive zero phone calls.
Well, whatever. My NIN interview was a more funny experience. When I called for the NIN application on Monday, the guy on the other end of the line told me, 'you have to go to this-and-this jobcentre, it's close to where you stay now!' Well, close, I don't know, 30 min by bus is close? But maybe the guy was from London, where people generally think that whatever is less than 1 hr by metro is close...?
Anyway. I did some googling and finally found the bus numbers, and the right platform (it seems to me that there are maybe 100 platforms on Piccadilly Gardens, but in reality, it's probably less). I was unable to find the price in advance though - I guess it has something to do with the bus operator anarchy here, it seems that every bus (or almost) is operated by someone else, with different prices, different buses and different everything.
When I arrived to the right station (identification of which was not easy at all, you'd need an x-ray eyes of Superman to see the name plates of the station properly), I had no idea where to go. I knew the street and the house no. but this was not sufficient at all - have I mentioned that the houses in this city tend to have no numbers written on them? Well, an ordinary street has a number visible on maybe every 10th house, and this was not an ordinary street. Meaning that the house numbers were just not there.
Well, after some asking, some searching, and some quite quick walking (I was not exactly late, but I was not too early...), I finally found the jobcentre and was sent to the 2nd floor. (And that reminded me of home! For those of you who has ever seen the ÚP Praha 5 office, this looked somehow similar.)
Everyone is obliged to report at reception desk upon arrival. Well, reception desk is a desk which differs in no way from the other desks in the room, but there's a sellotaped printed paper (A4) identifying the desk as reception desk... Well, ok.
I was told to sit and wait for someone to call my name. I have a very bad experience with this, my funny surname causes trouble wherever I go, and if someone tries to pronounce it, I misunderstand 90% of time. (And then I look like, who, me? Imagine the surprised face, and me pointing to myself.) However, I was lucky this time, I understood!
The person with whom I had the interview was very nice to me. In terms of how a person is treated by authorities, I see a huge difference between the Czech Republic and the UK. The guy was smiling all the time, explaining everything to me, trying to make himself understood, asking his questions in a very polite way, not hurrying, not pressing, not trying to get rid of me asap. Very nice experience, and there was even a funny moment when he asked me when exactly have I arrived to the UK, and I answered that on Monday, and he was like, and you are here for your NIN application already, wow! So I described my Monday to-do list on which NIN application was second item (right after getting a UK phone no.), and he was laughing very much.
If I am lucky, my NIN will arrive to my office address in few weeks. Yay, mission almost accomplished.
After completing the NIN application, signing all the papers and getting back my passport, I went to my temporary home. I've decided to walk back, just to have some 'sport' today. In this way, I had a chance to have a look around the jobcentre: it is a very Middle-East-looking place, with shisha smell everywhere, kebab shops, clothes shops selling these shiny glittering garments, and with a shop selling 'islamic books, islamic food, islamic gifts, islamic clothes'. (How do special islamic gifts look like? Maybe I should've had a look!)
Finally, there was such a traffic jam in the city centre that I probably came earlier to Piccadilly Gardens than the bus I did not take. Well, one small victory today.
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Hello everyone. I have decided to start this blog so that you don't have to ask me how is it going, how's life, etc. You will find all the info here, on this neat website. :-)
I arrived only yesterday; after some delay in Brussels (a guy sitting next to me said 'this is Brussels airlines, this is normal'), I finally landed on Manchester Airport, went through a passport check, and entered the UK. I had a funny day indeed, whatever I touched was not working, first the automated passport check booth did not want to let me out, then the train ticket vending machine was insisting that there are no fares available between the airport and the city centre. (Like, really?)
Surprisingly, there was no rain the whole day.
Not surprisingly at all, I understand only about a half of what the people are telling me. The accent here is very funny, and terrible, and not understandable at all. My English usually is sufficient for all purposes (even for understanding jokes, as one very kind person pointed out today), so this is awkward for me not to be able to understand the people. I am not used to this! Well, I will just keep asking the people what they just said, and hope that after sixth 'excuse me', they would start speaking little more understandable, and in the meantime try to adjust to this.
For yesteday, I had a checklist of what to do (get a SIM card, make a call for NIN application, set a bank account, start looking for a permanent (or quasi-permanent) place to stay, get an adaptor for my laptop, etc.). My experience and successes are summarized below.
Getting a UK SIM card was relatively easy. I asked someone to tell me where to get one, and I was sent to a wrong shop (I cannot get a contract etc. because of non-existing credit check, and the shop was not selling pre-paid/pay-as-you-go cards). Luckily, there was an EE shop just next door, so I was sent there and sold a SIM card by a friendly guy who insisted that EE is the best provider worldwide and that I can make calls even in remote places.
(I asked him about Orkney Islands, and he showed me map; there was coverage. However, there was no coverage in certain parts of Scotland ('but that's on hills, and you never gonna go there') and Wales ('that's deep valleys, very remote places, you never gonna go there').)
Anyway, success, I have a UK phone no. now. I don't understand very well how to recharge my pre-paid card (I got a special card for that, to sweep (where? how?)), but I am postponing this problems to the time when I actually need the money.
Application for a NIN was also not that bad. I braced myself and made the call; I answered many questions about my birthday, nationality, and work; I understood nearly everything the guy on the other end of line was asking and telling me. (Yay!) I got an appointment for interview; I did not understand properly the place I was supposed to go, but luckily the guy gave me a postal code, so I could google that place. Neat! We'll see tomorrow whether I get this settled all right.
(Funny is that I have to go somewhere by bus. The buses here seem like one big chaos to me now, so I hope that tomorrow I won't get lost...)
Europe-to-UK adaptor was not easy at all. I already have one adaptor, but this is not quite compatible with my laptop plug, which requires grounding (I need standard G or F (aka Schuko)), I went to several shops which sell appliances and DIY stuff, and the assistants were looking at me like I were either crazy, or a complete idiot. (These people - who sell electro stuff and should know! - did not even understand what grounded meant! I tried to explain: ground, earth, appliances that have plug with two pins and a hole for another pin which is ground, not power, etc. etc., but I only received blank stares. Well, srsly?)
Anyway, I have finally brought the cord with me to the shop, and asked them for an adaptor for this. They told me they'd never seen something like that, and that they did not even know it existed, but they were finally able to sell another cord to me, with the right UK plug. So now I am able to charge my laptop and do things! Yay!
Getting a bank account is not going to be easy either. My company kindly provided me with proof of employment, and proof of address (...I can use the office address for any correspondence), but the banks here obviously are not happy with this. Well, I find this absurd, especially in a country where there is no concept of permanent address (and no ID card!), but ok, fine, if this is the law, we have to obey.
(I find it absurd though; the office address is going to be the place where I will for sure get my mail, and it will be actually possible to find me there - much more than some quasi-permanent flat I would probably find and from where I would move in few weeks/months. But ok, the law is not always very logical, is it.)
Regarding this, I was quite angry at HSBC this morning: these people first have a look on your passport & proof of address, then they tell you that you have to wait 15 minutes to be able to set an interview (an interview to set a bank account? Srsly? Why this cannot be done immediately, on the spot?), and only then, when you've wasted, like, 30 minutes waiting for them, they tell you they cannot set an account for you with just an office address. They could've told me earlier... I am not very happy with their services so far.
At this moment I am afraid that renting a flat is going to be difficult. I have made, like, million phone calls today, and I have written about the same number of emails and inquiries, but it seems very pessimistic. Everything is either too expensive, or too far from everywhere (incl. any transport to 'civilization'). If it's neither, then it's let far quicker than I can dial the number of the responsible person.
This is very funny; many people told me about many flats available in the city centre, for a reasonable price, but where exactly are these flats located, or where are they advertised, I don't know.
Also, it seems to me that these letting agencies people are not very active about the offers. You ask them about a property, they tell you it's no longer available, and that's that, no further offer, nothing. O_o
Understanding public transport at this moment seems impossible. There are trams. There are buses, but you cannot use the same ticket as with the trams, except for some terribly complicated monthly cards. There are trains which go... somewhere. There is a complex system of tickets which I don't get at all. There are several bus operators, and you either use the same or not every time, and who operates each line varies in time. O_o
All right, that's it for now. I feel a bit better after putting everything on 'paper' (blog).
I arrived only yesterday; after some delay in Brussels (a guy sitting next to me said 'this is Brussels airlines, this is normal'), I finally landed on Manchester Airport, went through a passport check, and entered the UK. I had a funny day indeed, whatever I touched was not working, first the automated passport check booth did not want to let me out, then the train ticket vending machine was insisting that there are no fares available between the airport and the city centre. (Like, really?)
Surprisingly, there was no rain the whole day.
Not surprisingly at all, I understand only about a half of what the people are telling me. The accent here is very funny, and terrible, and not understandable at all. My English usually is sufficient for all purposes (even for understanding jokes, as one very kind person pointed out today), so this is awkward for me not to be able to understand the people. I am not used to this! Well, I will just keep asking the people what they just said, and hope that after sixth 'excuse me', they would start speaking little more understandable, and in the meantime try to adjust to this.
For yesteday, I had a checklist of what to do (get a SIM card, make a call for NIN application, set a bank account, start looking for a permanent (or quasi-permanent) place to stay, get an adaptor for my laptop, etc.). My experience and successes are summarized below.
Getting a UK SIM card was relatively easy. I asked someone to tell me where to get one, and I was sent to a wrong shop (I cannot get a contract etc. because of non-existing credit check, and the shop was not selling pre-paid/pay-as-you-go cards). Luckily, there was an EE shop just next door, so I was sent there and sold a SIM card by a friendly guy who insisted that EE is the best provider worldwide and that I can make calls even in remote places.
(I asked him about Orkney Islands, and he showed me map; there was coverage. However, there was no coverage in certain parts of Scotland ('but that's on hills, and you never gonna go there') and Wales ('that's deep valleys, very remote places, you never gonna go there').)
Anyway, success, I have a UK phone no. now. I don't understand very well how to recharge my pre-paid card (I got a special card for that, to sweep (where? how?)), but I am postponing this problems to the time when I actually need the money.
Application for a NIN was also not that bad. I braced myself and made the call; I answered many questions about my birthday, nationality, and work; I understood nearly everything the guy on the other end of line was asking and telling me. (Yay!) I got an appointment for interview; I did not understand properly the place I was supposed to go, but luckily the guy gave me a postal code, so I could google that place. Neat! We'll see tomorrow whether I get this settled all right.
(Funny is that I have to go somewhere by bus. The buses here seem like one big chaos to me now, so I hope that tomorrow I won't get lost...)
Europe-to-UK adaptor was not easy at all. I already have one adaptor, but this is not quite compatible with my laptop plug, which requires grounding (I need standard G or F (aka Schuko)), I went to several shops which sell appliances and DIY stuff, and the assistants were looking at me like I were either crazy, or a complete idiot. (These people - who sell electro stuff and should know! - did not even understand what grounded meant! I tried to explain: ground, earth, appliances that have plug with two pins and a hole for another pin which is ground, not power, etc. etc., but I only received blank stares. Well, srsly?)
Anyway, I have finally brought the cord with me to the shop, and asked them for an adaptor for this. They told me they'd never seen something like that, and that they did not even know it existed, but they were finally able to sell another cord to me, with the right UK plug. So now I am able to charge my laptop and do things! Yay!
Getting a bank account is not going to be easy either. My company kindly provided me with proof of employment, and proof of address (...I can use the office address for any correspondence), but the banks here obviously are not happy with this. Well, I find this absurd, especially in a country where there is no concept of permanent address (and no ID card!), but ok, fine, if this is the law, we have to obey.
(I find it absurd though; the office address is going to be the place where I will for sure get my mail, and it will be actually possible to find me there - much more than some quasi-permanent flat I would probably find and from where I would move in few weeks/months. But ok, the law is not always very logical, is it.)
Regarding this, I was quite angry at HSBC this morning: these people first have a look on your passport & proof of address, then they tell you that you have to wait 15 minutes to be able to set an interview (an interview to set a bank account? Srsly? Why this cannot be done immediately, on the spot?), and only then, when you've wasted, like, 30 minutes waiting for them, they tell you they cannot set an account for you with just an office address. They could've told me earlier... I am not very happy with their services so far.
At this moment I am afraid that renting a flat is going to be difficult. I have made, like, million phone calls today, and I have written about the same number of emails and inquiries, but it seems very pessimistic. Everything is either too expensive, or too far from everywhere (incl. any transport to 'civilization'). If it's neither, then it's let far quicker than I can dial the number of the responsible person.
This is very funny; many people told me about many flats available in the city centre, for a reasonable price, but where exactly are these flats located, or where are they advertised, I don't know.
Also, it seems to me that these letting agencies people are not very active about the offers. You ask them about a property, they tell you it's no longer available, and that's that, no further offer, nothing. O_o
Understanding public transport at this moment seems impossible. There are trams. There are buses, but you cannot use the same ticket as with the trams, except for some terribly complicated monthly cards. There are trains which go... somewhere. There is a complex system of tickets which I don't get at all. There are several bus operators, and you either use the same or not every time, and who operates each line varies in time. O_o
All right, that's it for now. I feel a bit better after putting everything on 'paper' (blog).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)