SCT

Or Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go!

Well I had my first day of work today and it is good to be working again I must say.

It was a "trial" day where either party could terminate the agreement immediately if anyone was unhappy, but it all worked out fine so that is good.

I am working for a company called SCT which is based at the Southampton Docks about six miles from where I am currently staying. The only problem is no bus services go near the area, so it is a bus from here to the entrance of the docks and then about a 2km walk into the office itself. To say it is not the nicest walk would be an understatement - trucks are whizzing past constantly!!

Also, I think it is going to take a while to get back into a routine, these 7:00am starts will be hard!

More about the work later.

De Hoge Veluwe

Or the long ride....

Well I arrived in Holland okay. Accompanying me on my flight was about 20 blokes celebrating a bucks party. They were drunk before they boarded the plane (the flight was at 7:50am) and made the flight quite interesting!

I spent the rest of the day catching up with family which was nice. It had been two years since my last visit so we had a lot to catch up on.

Today we went for a nice bike ride in a national park (one of two in Holland). The park, called De Hoge Veluwe, is in the east of the country near Apeldoorn.

Once you pay to get into the park you choose a bike and begin riding. The bikes are colour coded, with the white ones being free. Other colours denote special bikes (such as tandems) but we did not see many of them. The white bikes are fairly basic, but they did the job.

The park is set on a site that was hunting grounds for the wealthy Kroller-Muller family in the early 1900s and has since been given to the state for safe keeping. Since taking control they are trying to return the park to its original state (which seems to involve a lot of sand dunes) so a lot of the trees in various areas have been chopped down to facilitate this (it makes for interesting transitions between the various park areas as well).

We stopped in the centre of the park for a coffee and a quick look in one of the museums. Whilst there I went to the toilet which I had to pay to use. Is it just me or is paying for the toilet but providing bikes for free just a little strange?

After riding a little longer we stopped to have some lunch. Jitta had packed a heap of lovely food along with a couple of bottles of wine which was all fantastic. After riding a little further we arrived at the hunting lodge that the Kroller-Muller family built to stay in while using the park. It was a depressing building complete with a tower that seemed perfect for throwing someone off!

We were now about halfway around but the wine had kicked in and all we felt like doing was sitting and having a nap. But the sun was finally shining and a light breeze had started so that spurted us on.

We made it back to the beginning and returned the bikes before jumping in the car to head back to Capelle aan den Ijssel. Once back there we headed to Wims brother's place for dinner and a few drinks.



My nans siblings - Gonda, Rut and Gerda



Lunch in the park



The Kroller-Muller house



More house



Their private lake



Me, Nolan, Luuk, Wim and Jitta



Don't push me in!

The Interviews

Or Happy Birthday Nan!

Today was a busy day. First off I had to get to Gatwick airport for a job interview at midday before returning back to Southampton before catching a bus to Heathrow for a flight to Holland for Easter.

So first off I was off to Gatwick for a job interview with BCP. They wanted a .NET programmer to help out with a project they were working on. The job sounded pretty good.

After changing trains at Clapham Junction (London's busiest station apparently) I got to Gatwick an hour early so I decided to sit back and have a cup of coffee (a cup of chino to be precise). I then had to catch the courtesy bus to take me to the BCP car park which is where their IT centre was located.

To say it was out of the way would be an understatement. It would be quite difficult to get to without a car and once there if you forgot your lunch you would have to starve. Apart from that the job sounded okay.

On the bus on the way back to the airport train station I got a call from another recruitment agent about a job in Southampton. This was working for Community Network Services (CNS) who provide IT services for the Southampton port. Rather then do an interview they wanted me to do a days work (where I guess I would be assessed) and if they were happy with me at the end I would get the job. I said I would be happy to do that and was told the "test day" would be next Wednesday (the 30th of March).

While I was talking on the phone the train arrived so I jumped on. Little did I realise that this train would split at the next station with the first half going to Southampton and the back half going to Eastbourne. Needless to say I was in the wrong half (even though the display on the train said it was going to Soton). I managed to get off in time but could not get on the first half in time. So I headed back to Clapham via Gatwick to catch another train back to Southampton. All in all it only added 20 minutes to the trip.

I got back around 4:30 and signed the required forms for my "test day" and then packed my bags. Because my flight to Holland was leaving early tomorrow I decided to stay the night at the Jurys Inn near the airport.

Tomorrow Holland!!

Salisbury

Or lets move down the hill....

Well after the bad news from yesterday we figured it would be a good idea to get out of the house for the day. It also helped that the weather was fantastic and we were due to top 20 degrees today.

About twenty miles from Southampton is a place called Salisbury. It is an old market town and apparently one of the few planned medieval cities. We stopped for lunch at a pub before starting our walk. Today we were going to walk up to Old Sarum and then back down the hill to the Cathedral. Old Sarum was where Salisbury was originally based (about 2 miles from where it is now) but a fight between the king and the Bishop of Salisbury and problems with the water supply caused the city to be moved down the hill about 800 years ago.

So the walk took us out of Salisbury proper and through the country side before we had to climb the hill to get to the old city. The change in weather meant that there were heaps of people out and about which was a nice change (and the fact that I was not freezing). For the most part of the walk to Old Sarum we were beside the river Avon (apparently not the same one that goes through Stratford). Jules ooed and aahhhed at all the baby ducks and birds and all the little animals, she seems more clucky towards these then human babies!

Anyway Old Sarum itself was pretty much a ruin. We got to see where the cathedral was and got a general feel for the place but we did not have enough time to go into the fort to see what it was like in there. So we walked back down to Salisbury to see the Cathedral.

Not sure if any of you have seen it but it is pretty amazing. Building started in 1220 (when the New Sarum or Salisbury was first founded) and finished about forty year later. It is currently undergoing restoration which started in 1986 and it is expected to last another 15 years! There was a concert inside which meant we could not go in, but we were content to just walk around and soak up the atmosphere. All around it was this lovely green grass which was full of people playing and reading and relaxing. It was a nice site.

Following this we decided it was time for a drink, so we headed to a pub, grabbed a quick drink and then drove home.



Salisbury town and the river Avon



More town and river



A funky tree house!



More river



The obligatory shot of me.



Old Sarum Fort



Where the old Cathedral use to be (in Old Sarum)



Down the Hill!



A funky hedge



The (new) Cathedral



And again....



The attached cloister



More Cathedral

An interesting week

Or the bloody job.

It has been an interesting week to say the least. On Monday I caught the train over to Brighton to try and find somewhere to live. It appeared that finding a one bedroom furnished place would be more difficult then I thought though. After looking through two absolute dumps of places I finally found somewhere. It was a lovely one bedroom apartment in a converted mansion on the sea! The owner was off to France for six months on a contract and was happy to leave everything there (plates, cups etc..) so it would not cost me anything to get set up. I left a £100 holding deposit and left happy!

Early the next morning I got a call from the contract agent (Rachel at Greythorn). In typical government fashion OPRA had miscalculated their budget and did not have the funds to take me on this fiscal year. This was not too much of a problem though because the new fiscal year starts early next month. Rachel suggested I start applying for other jobs and leave this one as a backup in case nothing come up. So I started applying for jobs again.

Then on Wednesday morning I got another call from Rachel to say that they had somehow found some funds from another project and was I still interested in starting. Having already found a place to live in Brighton and no other offers on the table I said yes to Rachel and that was that. They did ask to move my start date from Monday the 21st to Wednesday the 23rd of March which was okay with me but it meant that I had to sign a new contract (which was not a problem).

So I stopped applying for jobs again. Then late Friday afternoon (about 5pm) I get another call from Rachel. It appears that a ban had been placed on hiring contractors and that they could not take me on. So in the one week I lost a job, got it back and then lost it again. Needless to say I was pretty pissed off (Rachel was not taking it well either). So here I am, back to the drawing board (£100 poor because I will lose my holding deposit).

Time to start the job hunt again....



Brighton sea front (with one of the piers)



Brighton sea front with the burnt out pier



Street scene one



Street scene two

Socc, er.... Football

Or my god what a pathetic effort.

You may have heard of a football team called Manchester United? Well they were coming to little old Southampton for a quarter final FA cup match. With Southampton likely to be relegated from the premier league and Man U unable to win another trophy it was expected to be a pretty good match (both teams putting all on the line). And we got tickets!!

Well strictly speaking we did not get tickets, but an ex-work colleague of Jules got us tickets so we were pretty chuffed.

The game was starting at 5:15, so we left the house about 4:30 to walk over. The stadium holds about 32000 people and it was a sellout match so the streets were packed with a heap of people walking to the match.

Because we got our tickets late we were not sitting together, but that was okay with all the noise and chanting and songs and swearing and yelling at the ref there was no way we could have talked to each other anyway.

Being a quasi Southampton local and an Australian I felt it was my duty to go for the underdog team (which was Southampton). But I was to be disappointed with the game being pretty much over within the first two minutes when Keane (thanks Kurt) from Man U scored the first goal. Southampton played poorly and Man U outclassed them in every respect.

The Man U supporters were confined to one part of the stadium and "protected" by a shitload of police. They chanted for the entire match (I think they put more effort in then the Southampton players).

The final score was 4-0, but it was still an awesome experience!



Walking to the match



Crowd shot one



Crowd shot two



Warm up



He shoots...


He scores!

The Job

Or finally some money...

Well finally I have done it! I got a job. Yesterday I went for an interview in Brighton for a job with the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA). They are the government agency that looks after peoples superannuation (or pensions as they are called here).

It seems I went alright in the interview cause I got a call today and was offered the job. Needless to say I accepted it pretty much straight away. It is a six month contract and starts on the 21st of March.

For those who are interested the work will be SQL Server based initially (creating DTSs, stored procs, running queries and so forth) and then web development work on a risk management system (which will take input from 100000 pension companies).

It also means I have to move over to Brighton (which is not bad). It is a sea side town in the South West of England and it is a pretty funky town! It has about 200000 people and only 50 mins from London on the train. So over the next week or so I have to find somewhere to live and the like.

One of the requirements for contractors here is they need to set up a limited company (for tax purposes) so I did that today. I am now the managing director of Solixar limited! So now I need to open up bank accounts and the like (which is apparently quite fun here in the UK).

For those who are interested I started looking (and applying for work) on the 14th of Feb and I got offered the job yesterday (the 8th of March) so all up it took about three and a bit weeks. During that time I got heaps of calls and went for two interviews (the other was a phone interview for a telco in Yorkshire). I guess that is something to keep in mind for those who are thinking of moving over here.

No photos today!

The Northern Tour

Or eight hours of driving...

Well after a few weeks of looking and any number of phone calls Jules got offered two jobs (and I am still looking...)! She had the choice of a contract with TNT in Leicestershire and the other one in Staffordshire for the Staffordshire county council. Not sure which one to take we decided to take a bit of a drive to check out both Leicester and Stafford (and their surrounding areas).

So we headed north along the motorway to Leicester (the closer of the two to Southampton). Man was the weather bad. The snow was extremely thick and I am surprised there were not a lot more accidents on the road! We went fine though and before we headed to Leicester we had to stop at a pub for lunch.

The plan was to drive around the centre of Leicester first and then park and walk around. To say it is not a nice place would be an understatement. It is pretty dire actually and Jules would not actually be working in Leicester but at the TNT head office about an hours drive away in Atherstone. So that was one strike against TNT.

After our walk we headed towards Stafford, via Atherstone and a little known place called Tamworth (alas instead of country music they had an indoor skiing place).

Once we reached Stafford we parked, walked around and headed to Cafe Nero for a coffee. It was decision time for Jules. Stafford or Leicestershire. Stafford eventually won out for a number of reasons (the town was a lot nicer and it was nice and close to Birmingham - England's second largest city). So she phoned the recruitment agents to let them know her decision and we headed back home via Pizza Express for dinner!




Snow!



The pub lunch.