Off To London!!!

Had my informal interview/appointment with Cornwall College today. This was the appt to discuss the new HR position opening and for me to get a feel for what the position entailed. The appt consisted of the recruiter from Concorde Recruitment who'd I'd interviewed with before and the Payroll Manager (not sure of exact title). We gabbed in an on campus coffee shop for over an hour while I got a sense of what the upcoming position would entail and they got a feel for me. Unfortunately, this is a payroll position. Although I loved doing payroll at home, I was getting bored and was working towards an HR designation. Currently, the payroll department is in disarray and short staffed. They pay approx 2500 employees (a huge jump from 1400 at Jacques!) and it sounds as if the dept is just in an uproar right now. The Manager is very straight forward and to the point, so wasn't shy in telling it like it is. I get the feeling I would have to learn fast and get the complete baptism by fire introduction. That sounds very daunting and I'm really not interested in a payroll position, but the challenge is appealing and would be a great experience to learn UK payroll. My gut is telling me to take the position if it is offered to me. It's my foot in the door at the second largest employer in Cornwall and closes for Xmas holidays - that's a sweet deal. Another beautiful thing about the UK is that 4 weeks vacation seems to be the required minimum! Excellent! Plus, bank and stat holidays. Not too shabby. At the end of the interview they asked if I would be interested in working in a full time temp capacity as a trial basis until they see how I work out and I see if I want to stay. I said sure. It's something they are trying to clear with the director at the moment, so I should hear from them in a few days. Not getting my hopes up though.

Yesterday, Concorde called me again about another position available at the College! Unfortunately, the position is in St. Austell, an hour away. It was for a Training Coordinator position which sounds interesting. I had to say no - too far to commute. Apparently, the ladies I interviewed with a few weeks back for the Client Services position, passed my CV on to another dept at the college. The job posting was closed and they called asking me to apply. This must be a sign I'm meant to work there! haha.

Keith finished up at lunch time, so he, Simon, and I jumped on the 2:40pm train to London. Arrived around 7:30pm. Took us quite awhile to find the hotel as I only had the directions, not the map. We couldn't find some of the street names, so we had to improvise and eventually found our way. It's such a bizarre feeling to be in a city you have absolutely no bearings in with no idea where you are. We stayed at the Central Park Hotel near Hyde Park. The hotel was pretty good, not a palace, but it was clean and roomy for a hotel in the UK. We took a walk and grabbed some grub at a noodle bar. After dinner we checked out the sights around the area, and I drug Keith in and out of several souvenir shops. He loved it!

Printer Issues

Keith spent the morning in Falmouth doing wet dinghy drills (part of water survival training) with work. Once finished, he was done for the day.

I spent the morning talking to HP online to get my printer working. A few weeks ago I bought a printer cartridge - which was a process to find as the part numbers here are different. I finally found the proper part number and browsed several online shops for purchase. Last night, I finally ran out of ink and had to replace my Canadian cartridge with the new one I bought. Sounds simple right? Yeah, not quite. Popped the cartridge in and received an error that it was not compatible with this printer. I was impressed. Not taking that as a final answer, I contacted HP via online chat and after a long time (this was a new guy I believe) the problem was fixed. The regional settings of my printer had to be changed. However, then I needed to buy a color cartridge as both cartridges have to be the same (can't use a Canadian cart and a UK cart at the same time). Grabbed one while we were out and now she works like a charm! Until I go back to Canada and have to change it back!

We spent the afternoon running errands and finally getting my ID done for the base. I spent the evening getting pumped about going to London tomorrow!

Gardening

Another amazing day. It was 20 degrees for most of the day and was even 18 degrees at 8:30pm! Keith and I spent the evening outside. I bought a Japanese Maple over the weekend and transplanted it this evening. As you can see I'm quite the gardener! Yeah right! I got Keith to take the pictures so that when the poor shrub dies in a week, atleast I'll have a picture of it. I have somewhat of a green thumb for indoor plants but don't have much experience with outdoor varieties, so we'll see how this works out! And check out my stylish pink gloves - they match my pink flip flops I had on but you can't see. Haha.

Jets!

You'd swear there was an airshow today over Helston. There were 6 jets - 2 Falcons and 4 Hawks that were flying all afternoon preparing for an upcoming airshow. It was amazing! And because we are so close to the air field, they can fly really low over the town and it's incredible to watch.

I tried to take a few pictures from the backyard but it doesn't give you the full feeling of how low they were. That first one is the tree in our backyard and the second is the clothes line to give you an idea. Click on the pictures to get the full view. I'm such a little kid too, when I hear them I'm running through the house tripping over things to get outside to see them! Can't imagine what it's like to fly one of those.

Beautiful afternoon, about 20-22 degrees. Went for a cruise to St. Keverne just to see what was in that direction. Small little village that I basically drove into and turned around. Went into Falmouth to do some shopping. Finally bought a second cell phone so Keith and I no longer have to share one. Yep, you heard me right...Keith has a cell phone! Never thought I'd see the day. But in the UK cell phones (they call them mobiles) are like an extra limb and mostly everyone uses them as their main line.

Not Much

Pretty quiet day with a bit of cleaning, shopping in Pool, and rest and relaxation. And a whole lot of gabbing on the phone. Finally got in touch with Michelle and Dawn. The time difference is making it hard to contact some of my girls - Michelle is 5 hours behind in Ontario and Dawn is 7 hours behind in Calgary! Both of them are going home this summer. Michelle in July for the first time in 3 years (maybe 4) and Dawn in August for the first time in 2 years and I'm missing them! Dammit!

Two Months Today

Oh my God, we've been here 2 months today! Wow, does time fly! Before we know it we'll be saying OMG, two months until we leave. Headed into Falmouth for a few hours of touring the shops. While in Falmouth we grabbed a pasty and I had one of the most bizarre ones I've heard of yet. It was a pasty filled with fish, chips and mushy peas with a splash of vinegar! Haha. I don't know which is more disturbing, the fact that someone invented this or that I bought one and ate it! It actually wasn't that bad, a little dry, but not as bad as it may sound.

Next we headed into Long Rock which is just before Penzance to go to Morrison's. It's another grocery store, but better than Tesco (I think). My first time there was last week so I wanted to take Keith to check it out.

The evening was pretty quiet with relaxing in front of the TV as we were a little bagged from the previous nights alcohol consumption .

Tenant Moves In

Our tenant signed a new lease this morning and provided Trevor with new cheques. He even went to the bank and deposited it into our account for us! How wonderful is he! I'm hoping she moved in without any problems. Seems very strange there is someone else living in our home. I'm jealous! I asked Trevor what we owe him and all he asked for is a few pints at the Celtic Corner (pub by our condo) or in England, wherevere we meet first! We can't thank him enough for being so helpful and accommodating - and we didn't even ask for any of it, he just told us what needed to be done and said he'd do it for us. We're very lucky!

Kyle and Paulette moved to Greenwood today. We're anxiously awaiting the details on the move, their new home, and new jobs. We would have liked them to move a little closer in this direction!

Spent the morning completing the job application I picked up in Penzance. It was very detailed and somewhat painful, but it's done. I headed back to Penzance in the afternoon to drop it off. Keith went golfing with Simon at a course here in Helston for the afternoon. Simon, Kevin, Andy, and Holly came over for a BBQ. Andy is also on course with Keith and Holly is his girlfriend who is an Air Traffic Controller. This was my first time meeting them. Keith BBQ'd up a feast and we over indulged on the good food and lots of drinks. Great night.