First day in a new job for 15 years, first day at work in 7 months
From today I'll be working for this guy. In time I'll be analysing genome sequencing data to try and discover what some of the causes of motor neurone disease (more properly known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) are. Like wot that black hole guy has.
But today was just my first day.
I was asked to be there at 10, so set off at 8.15am. The annual travelcard I'd bought last week didn't work (it will tomorrow though), but fortunately I'd brought a backup payg Oyster card, which had £9.50 on it. A bus, two tubes and two trains later it had 60p on it and I had to walk the last bit home. So £5.90 a day plus all other london travel free makes the travelcard pretty good value.
Especially compared with the £46 a day I worked out it cost me to commute in eXKalibuR last year!
Leytonstone is often considered far out by some friends, but the tube was packed when it arrived, so I'm going to be standing up all the way every day. Not fun, but having something to read made it go fairly quickly. I knew rush hour tubes were going to be the major drawback to working in London for the first time. Changed at Bank onto the Northern line to Elephant & Castle, walked through the market to the overland station, and waited half an hour for the delayed train. Got to Denmark Hill at 9.40.
Was immediately thrown into a departmental meeting where for an hour my boss and three others told me what they'd been doing, and what they were planning to do. Tried to make intelligent sounding comments and questions where I could. The guy I was mainly going to be working alongside, Steve, is leaving soon, but thankfully to a position within the same Institute so my fears of having to learn everything he knew in the first month shouldn't be quite so bad. Prof Shaw manages about 16 people, so it seems Brad has been delegated to help me settle in. Seems a really nice guy. In fact they all do.
Spent the next hour fiddling with my computer. A fairly decent machine, with Windows and Ubuntu dual boot. And one previous owner who left most of their data behind. I've never previously managed to find a linux web browser that can open pdf files without crashing and this was no different, so spent most of the day in Windows, downloading all the previous publications on ALS by the group (18 of them). I'll be mainly working in linux command line, so having to reboot whenever I want to use a web browser is not ideal! I might try and grab Steve's laptop when he goes, and just access the desktop under a shell terminal.
Lunch in the canteen at the Maudesley Hospital. Not great, but better than a lot of the places I went for interviews at. Obviously I'm spoilt by being used to a canteen that catered for 1500 people.
The machine that makes security passes was broken, which was a prerequisite for a library account, which is a prerequisite for an email address and any computer accounts, so no chance of doing anything productive today. Except meet with HR (contract is in the post), and tour round the building by the lab safety manager. Several of the doors have auto-closing things that'll scalp me unless I remember to duck every time.
Decided to leave at 5.15, well before anyone else, but promised this evening I'd start reading through the stack of papers I emailed to myself. As I couldn't print anything without computer accounts.
Got to the station and was about to get on the 5.24 train, when I noticed there was another 5.24 train on the next platform. They both drove off as I was rereading the timetable to work out which one I needed. Better than getting the wrong one, but half an hour wait ensued. Stayed on the train until City Thameslink and then walked to St Pauls. And then it really hit home that now every evening I can look out the window at the Thames. Every evening I can buy fresh fruit n veg from the Sainsbury's local, instead of my usual fortnightly drive to a supermarket. Every evening I can meet friends, go for a drink, go for a meal, pop in the Tate Modern...explore London. Despite the standing up, hemmed in, hot and bothered journey, I think I might get to like this city life.
But today was just my first day.
I was asked to be there at 10, so set off at 8.15am. The annual travelcard I'd bought last week didn't work (it will tomorrow though), but fortunately I'd brought a backup payg Oyster card, which had £9.50 on it. A bus, two tubes and two trains later it had 60p on it and I had to walk the last bit home. So £5.90 a day plus all other london travel free makes the travelcard pretty good value.
Especially compared with the £46 a day I worked out it cost me to commute in eXKalibuR last year!
Leytonstone is often considered far out by some friends, but the tube was packed when it arrived, so I'm going to be standing up all the way every day. Not fun, but having something to read made it go fairly quickly. I knew rush hour tubes were going to be the major drawback to working in London for the first time. Changed at Bank onto the Northern line to Elephant & Castle, walked through the market to the overland station, and waited half an hour for the delayed train. Got to Denmark Hill at 9.40.
Was immediately thrown into a departmental meeting where for an hour my boss and three others told me what they'd been doing, and what they were planning to do. Tried to make intelligent sounding comments and questions where I could. The guy I was mainly going to be working alongside, Steve, is leaving soon, but thankfully to a position within the same Institute so my fears of having to learn everything he knew in the first month shouldn't be quite so bad. Prof Shaw manages about 16 people, so it seems Brad has been delegated to help me settle in. Seems a really nice guy. In fact they all do.
Spent the next hour fiddling with my computer. A fairly decent machine, with Windows and Ubuntu dual boot. And one previous owner who left most of their data behind. I've never previously managed to find a linux web browser that can open pdf files without crashing and this was no different, so spent most of the day in Windows, downloading all the previous publications on ALS by the group (18 of them). I'll be mainly working in linux command line, so having to reboot whenever I want to use a web browser is not ideal! I might try and grab Steve's laptop when he goes, and just access the desktop under a shell terminal.
Lunch in the canteen at the Maudesley Hospital. Not great, but better than a lot of the places I went for interviews at. Obviously I'm spoilt by being used to a canteen that catered for 1500 people.
The machine that makes security passes was broken, which was a prerequisite for a library account, which is a prerequisite for an email address and any computer accounts, so no chance of doing anything productive today. Except meet with HR (contract is in the post), and tour round the building by the lab safety manager. Several of the doors have auto-closing things that'll scalp me unless I remember to duck every time.
Decided to leave at 5.15, well before anyone else, but promised this evening I'd start reading through the stack of papers I emailed to myself. As I couldn't print anything without computer accounts.
Got to the station and was about to get on the 5.24 train, when I noticed there was another 5.24 train on the next platform. They both drove off as I was rereading the timetable to work out which one I needed. Better than getting the wrong one, but half an hour wait ensued. Stayed on the train until City Thameslink and then walked to St Pauls. And then it really hit home that now every evening I can look out the window at the Thames. Every evening I can buy fresh fruit n veg from the Sainsbury's local, instead of my usual fortnightly drive to a supermarket. Every evening I can meet friends, go for a drink, go for a meal, pop in the Tate Modern...explore London. Despite the standing up, hemmed in, hot and bothered journey, I think I might get to like this city life.