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?
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