Returned with a Visa...

I'm back in London with work visa in a new passport. Getting both of these seemed like big challenges a handful of weeks ago, but actually the passport took ~72 hours and the UK Ancestry Visa even less (though it did require me going to Vancouver). If only now I could actually get a job contract now. While I was away, International HR got involved and now instead of being a UK employee, I might be a Canadian employee with an expat deal (it's my choice but the expat deal is slightly in the lead). Which is all kind of funny because I'm currently a US employee. Any volunteers to do my taxes this year? Anyway, both job offers are on the table and we're working through issues - mostly boring stuff like if I'm a UK resident (therefore non-resident in Canada) employed by the Canadian branch of the company, how do I receive my ~6% company-match RRSP contribution because I can not contribute to RRSPs as a non-resident. Seems the company is more familiar with US ex-pats and I'm sure by the time this is all worked out they should have just given me a $20,000 bonus, told me to sign and saved all the HR expenses. Anyway, there are about 6 or so good dilemmas / issues like the RRSP issue that must be figured out before agreement is reached.

With that said, I'm very busy working. In fact, flew in at 6AM and was at the office by 8AM. The $600K proposal I presented in Philadelphia at the start of the North America travels and then completed somewhere between Winnipeg, Calgary and San Francisco (literally) is full steam ahead and I'm off to Northern Ireland on Monday to kick off the work. So needless to say the 3 days this week in advance of this kick off have been intense. All this while having hour long meetings with HR interspersed. I can deal with work, I can deal with HR, dealing with both might kill me. I'm very thankful I kept my flat as dealing with hotels and unsettledness at home could have put me over the edge! (and yes mother, I know unsettledness isn't a word, but my english ain't always so good)

Had some good days this week catching up with some old friends and just getting settled. A fun evening at the Earl's Court beer festival where a few beers were sampled (about the only time drinking half pints is acceptable). Had some big plans Friday night (not really), but ended up not getting out of the office till 10PM. Now I know that sounds bad, but to be fair, I slept in till noon and 10PM is and still kind of feels like 2PM (Winnipeg time that is). And the hours after everyone left were incredibly productive and I know have less than 20 emails in my inbox!!

It's Saturday afternoon right now and I've had a relaxing morning followed by a wander around Brixton shopping. Brixton is a strange neighbourhood if I may say. I'm midway between Clapham and Brixton with both having a lot of energy, but Brixton being the more ethnically interesting (largely black with a lot of African and Carribean flavour). It almost feels like a black Chinatown or Thailand with a web of indoor and outdoor fair type booths all covered in tarps carrying everything from coat hangers to pigs heads intermixed with shops and dollar stores etc. etc. (it looks quite quiet in these photos, which it certainly wasn't this morning, so clearly I've stolen these photos as I'm too lazy to carry my camera, but here's the source)...




And Brixton is pretty neat. So far this morning I've learned Sharon Osbourne and David Bowie are from Brixton. And the Eddie Grant song Electric Avenue is based on the Brixton night life. And I found the Brixton Acadaemy which is quite a famous venue for live music (about 7 minutes from my flat). If you really want to know more about this history of Brixton... (P.S. I live a few flats off of Acre Lane).



My big purchases were a white wicker basket with lid for dirty clothes, a brown bean bag cube chair / foot rest and a stainless garbage can for the bathroom. Wild and crazy I now. That with some hangers ran me £40 ($80) on the nose at Woolworths. I'd give

I'm being a tad unsocial at the moment... not sure if I'll even call anyone tonight or just enjoy some more downtime. The last many weeks have involved visiting so many people which is really great, but absolutely no down time. Between unpacking and repacking, the last visit in Winnipeg didn't even leave time to visit the grandparents. What a bad grandson I am! Maybe Sam / Justin / Rob / Gabe want to have a beer and game of pool at the Elbo Room - wait, wrong city...

Okay, I'm going to go play with my Thailand photos (maybe they'll still get posted some day) and I'll give another update after Ireland - I hear there are 8 women for every guy, so maybe there will be some interesting stories, or maybe I'll schedule myself to do all the fieldwork? ;)