What’s been bugging me and making me smile lately? Let’s find out… (did that read as cheesy as it sounded when I read it out-loud? Yeah).
Rave: Time. I have so much more time in my life at the moment. When I worked in Basingstoke it would take at absolute best 40 minutes to get home. But that was from sitting in the car in the carpark to parking my car in the garage. From my new office in Portsmouth (incidentally the same location as the Lakeside parkrun and also the D Day 10k I did back in June), from being in my office to standing in my flat it takes 25 minutes. It literally takes 15-20 minutes to drive there. THIS IS INCREDIBLE. For over five and a half years I have driven up and down the M27 and M3 and more times than not it will take me over and hour to get home. OK yes it is currently school holidays so the roads are quieter, but even still if it takes less than hour from door to door I will be over the moon. Alfie doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s dead asleep when I get in.
And, similar to my last job, the working hours are fairly relaxed. Obviously you make sure you do your core hours and necessary tasks over the week but you can come in earlier or later and then correspondingly leave earlier or later. It’s fantastic. I think offices like this are far more realistic to how people want to work (obviously I know not all workplaces can or should do this but for a lot of office-based work it makes a lot of sense). It gives a good level of morale.
Rave: And while we’re on the subject of my new job… I love it. I mean it’s early days of course, but it is so interesting and everyone is so friendly and nice. The majority of people who work at Wiggle have some level of interest in cycling or running. You hear people chatting about their latest rides and runs all over the place. And there are bikes and trainers everywhere as the brand and design teams check them out. I mean, it is SUPER cool. And not to mention the bikes hanging from the walls, one of the Brownlee brother’s GB tri-suit framed, bikes wheels as clock faces, pictures all over the place. I’m very happy. And my job itself is something I have a genuine interest in and can’t wait to get more stuck into a progress further. I won’t be posting a huge deal about it because I want to maintain a level of professionalism but I will share where I can the little tidbits tat I get excited over 🙂
Rave: OK, OK one more rave about my new job. Every Friday they have a mini food festival on the field outside the office. EVERY FRIDAY.
When I heard about this I had to swallow down a squeal (can’t let all the craziness out on the first week, of course). Sadly I’d already brought lunch with me but decided to venture downstairs and see what was on offer for future Friday lunches.
Well, they had Caribbean food, Mexican food, pizzas, some American-style BBQ… and cakes. Oh the cakes.
I stood there for too long and caved under the might cake pressure. I had to get myself a rocky road slab. And I say slab because it was HUMUNGOUS.
Rant: I had a car accident on my second day driving into work. It was my fault and it was very stupid. Luckily no one was injured. I was in a queue for some traffic lights and we’d stopped. I then saw the lights go green ahead and I went forward…straight into the still stationary car in front of me. Completely my fault for not checking the car RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Luckily the man I drove into was very nice and didn’t yell at me. He calmly asked for my details and told me (after I’d apologised about a zillion times) that in the great scheme of things, it wasn’t that big an accident. No one had died or been badly hurt.
So my little Fiat 500 is at the garage getting fixed and I have a little Citroen C1 and a £250 excess to cover. I’m trying not to think about how much my insurance will be when I renew it at the end of the year…*Sighs* you live and learn. Life was clearly going far too well for me currently!
Thankfully it was an error and luckily it was quite mild…in the middle of winter I would not have been amused. It was fairly cool to see a fire engine show up and a load of firemen ‘save the day’. Made for an interesting morning anyway!
The shock is really very small so not painful at all. Not like that HORRENDOUS Tough Mudder electric shock obstacle, dear God. It can also be used up to 1,000 times (the poor soul who gets 1,000 bites…). A great addition to your essential gear for BBQ’s, festivals and of course any trail races! You can buy it in lots of chemists and supermarkets or online.
My little Ford Fiesta got written off when I was 22 – I haven’t had a car of my own since (I’m currently borrowing Mum’s). Someone went into the back of the car behind us at a roundabout. Whiplash. Caved in back end. Long winded insurance claim.
I’m working from home this week – I love the flexibility, but I do miss being in an office. No-one is too bothered what times I work, as long as I cover the gap between Australia being offline and the USA being online! And I’m available for my every-other-week-oncall from 8am-4pm UK (such a cushy oncall!).
Still, with a commute that would be a 4 hour round trip while Waterloo Station is being re-organised, it is so nice that no-one gives a stuff where my bottom is actually placed!
Glad the new job is going so well! I think it makes so much sense for companies to allow more flexibility and to trust the people who work for them. I am lucky as my head teacher is not bothered about the hours people do as long as they get their work done- obviously we need to be there while the kids are (and the contract is something like 30 mins before and 15 mins after in case of late pick ups etc) but if I need to I could leave work at 4pm. I know some people at other schools who need to ask if they want to leave earlier than 4.30, which I think is silly. For me if I leave before 4.45 the traffic will be OK and it’s around half an hour, whereas if I leave after 5 (and some days with meetings I have no choice) it’s more like 50 mins, and when I can take work home I would rather have a shorter commute, do work when I get home and then have a bit more free time.
The food festival is such a great idea!
Maria @ Maria runs recently posted…Heartwood Forest parkrun tourism- possibly the closest yet!
Glad the new job is going well – it sounds like a great place to work. Having some flexibility and control over my day would definitely make me happier at work – I still work in a profession which is very much 9 – whenever you are done! x
I’m pleased the new job is going well, it sounds like an awesome place to work. The Environment Agency was really flexible, we had to work two lots of core hours (10:00-12:00 and 14:00-15:00) and then an average of 37 hours a week across a 4 week period. Although we didn’t get overtime we did get extra flexi-days if we worked over 37 hours a week. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a mini food festival on a Friday.
My friend commutes by train from Lichfield Trent Valley to London Euston four days a week. It actually takes her less time to get to work than some of her colleagues who live on the outskirts of London. Madness!
I had a car accident on the way to work. A lorry didn’t see me and cut right across me at a roundabout. I had nowhere to go and ended up with a very dented car. I wouldn’t have minded but my car was only 3 months old at the time. Luckily, it was fixable and there were witnesses!
Emma recently posted…Rants and raves #18
Glad to hear you are enjoying your new job! I’ll have to get one of those bug things, I’ve had a number of horrendous bites this year, had to go on antibiotics for some of them too. Sorry about the car- hope it all gets sorted.
Lauren (@poweredbypb) recently posted…Training: Hanson’s Marathon Method