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.)