My New Job: The Important Stuff

I know what you’ve been thinking all week – what temperature is James’ new office?

Well, you will be pleased to know that it is very comfortable, albeit bordering on slightly chilly around 11:30am.

It’s a very nice modern office in Moorgate, our floor has a multitude of small companies, mostly, if not all, start-ups, including ourselves.  I work for Lovespace.  You can look into them yourselves if you are interested.  It is a pretty damn useful service, if you ask me, and exciting to work for a company with so much growth potential.

But enough about the serious stuff.  Lets talk cake.  Wednesday is cake day – this week’s highlight was a very nice cherry Victoria sponge cake.  A veritable Henry VIII style platter to feast on.

For Mondays we get a continental breakfast – none of this Brexit bacon bullshit.  And Fridays we get beer.  Albeit I don’t think we are allowed to drink it until after our company round-up Skype call at 5pm.  But free beer is free beer, even with a time limit.

Working hours are 9-6pm.  Longer than I’m used to, especially compared to my recent spell of unemployment, though weirdly I’ve found myself surprisingly energetic and focused in the evenings.

Tubes aren’t too bad.  I’ve only stood up the whole way (45 minutes) once.  I haven’t decided on my strategy yet.  The semi-fast tube that goes straight to Moorgate I will never get a seat on.  The non semi-fast ones I will get a seat on, but they also mean changing at Baker Street.  Where it is not easy to even get on a tube at 08:30am.  Yes, I was late on my first day.

I might actually consider moving nearby.  I’ll see how the commute goes, but if I can live say 40 minutes walk away, that would be ideal.  I’m in no rush to move house, the ballache that it can be.

Everyone I have met has been so welcoming – I don’t recall working for a company where I have been made to feel so welcome.  Some really interesting characters, and a focus on comradeship/community – half the company went to Paris last weekend, albeit many of them competing in a marathon.  They haven’t dared ask me to join their next marathon.

It is casual dress, as seems to be increasingly common in London.  I haven’t yet got out my purple trousers or anything – though I wouldn’t especially stand out, given that there is a Ricardo Villalobos lookalike that prances around in leopard print trousers, from one of the other companies.  I am so envious of his trousers.  I haven’t yet worked out whether to befriend him or to make him my office enemy.

I have just sent the whole company my top 5 Ricardo Villalobos tracks.  Yep.  Apparently they were interested.  I was careful in what I chose!  Though worryingly they do seem to have a penchant for karaoke.

Yes there are more attractive women in the office than there were in the Bracknell office.  Or the whole of Bracknell.  It is London, after all.  Though for my first day I was treat to the glorious image of a the top half of a guy’s arse hanging out of his trousers in the glass-fronted meeting area in front of my desk.  Thanks for that.

Importantly, there is a ping pong table.  And a two-hole putting range.

Outside the office, there is a cricket pitch.  Although the lady on reception insisted that it was a rugby pitch, it is clearly a cricket pitch.  Maybe it was rugby during the winter.  I have not yet worked out how to get there though – it might be private land as I have not seen anyone on it.

A short walk away there is a street food market, selling foods from all kinds of countries that nobody that voted Brexit has ever heard of.  Well, nobody in Bridlington has ever heard of anyway.

Of course, myself being a passionate, cosmopolitan remainer, I went for the burger van.  And a damn fine chicken burger it was – cajun chicken breast, thick bacon, proper bread roll – about the size of my head.  And the wedges were amazing.  Were I not overweight and skint, I would be there every day.

When I worked in Bracknell I had a sandwich van, a Morrison’s, a gastro pub with awful food, and an awful Harvester pub with appropriate food.

This is quite the contrast.  And not just in terms of food.

So far, so very, very good.