Thames

Today was the first day at my new job. I had to travel to the Staines office to meet the team and collect my IT equipment. They had asked that I come in for 10am which meant it was not crazy early to get out the house and I was able to eat breakfast before I left. However, by the time I arrived at Clapham Junction trains were showing delays and I began to get very anxious about making it in time. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been an issue for anybody but me but I did not like it at all. Still, I made it in time and sat in reception waiting for my new boss to come out and meet me. 

The first couple of hours were getting and setting up my IT.  The office seems very new - I learned later that it was refurbished just before COVID sent everybody home and so it has not been used much. There are a lot of hot desks and little phone booth style rooms for taking calls. I sat at a hot desk installing all the computer updates and trying to follow the right sequence to make sure all the security stuff worked. Only one minor glitch sent me back to the help desk.  

I was only home briefly - enough to drop off my new IT equipment - before heading into town with PY to meet Lisa and Stephen and some friends at El Pirata in Mayfair. I am glad my first day was quite easy as it meant we were not rushing. We were the first to arrive and sat at the bar with a glass of wine waiting for the others. Danielle and her husband were next and also seated at the bar to wait for everybody else but, as we had never met them before, we didn’t know who they were so we were sitting on adjacent seats for about 10 minutes not knowing we would be spending the evening together. 

It was a lovely evening with delicious food and good company. Afterwards, we walked back to Green Park station where we left the others and walked to Waterloo. I always love the lights over the river at night and, once again, took the opportunity to snap a photo near Embankment.