BHP

BHP is one of the biggest companies in the world. Their helpdesk is currently outsourced to IBM, and run by about 5 or 6 guys in India. It seems this is upsetting the high level staff that work in the London office.

Am I just being massaged?

The other week, my boss pulled me outside and discussed a few things with me. This came after a team meeting the day before, and a chat i'd had with HR before that. Essentially he told me he was working me towards managed services - more server side than desktop side. Great, I thought.

Ahhh unions

Last time, it didn't bother us so much - we weren't getting round so much. But today was the next in a series of strikes orchestrated by London Underground employees. If you're not aware, London Underground runs what is colloquially known as the Tube, moving more than 1 billion people a year. It's a vast network, with heaps of interconnecting lines, so you can almost _always_ find a way to get where you're going.

Anyway, this week, Rhiannon had to work in the city, meaning we can catch the Tube together, which is fun :) Until the union workers strike, throwing the entire transit system, and likely the city, into disarray

More work!

It is with great interest that I can report on the status of Rhiannon's job hunt - she has been offered a role that she starts on Monday with a recruitment firm in Watford. It's exactly the sort of role she wants, and is very excited about it.

So yay, we can do some more travel next summer.

bah, it's just money.

Once we got back from Paris, we sat down, worked out how much money we had, and a budget. Last night, we set a definitive date when we would have to pack up and run home with our tails between our legs.

That date was defined as October 31st. It's about the only point where we can afford to get back, and still have (some) money to try and settle back in Melbourne.

Back on the hunt...

The fact of being back in London means two things. One, we have very little money left. Two, we need jobs. Rhiannon's applying for Admin and HR/Recruitment based roles, as a bit of a change, and will still be doing casual supply teaching in the mean time.
I'm back on the same old band wagon.

Yay for server migration.

So yesterday, I got another day of work with a managed services company. The emailed job description was 8 hours from 1p-9p, and involved working in a team of 4 to deconstruct a set of 10 racks at an IBM data centre

It's only for a few weeks....

At least, that's one way of looking at it. You see, I've had a recruiter call to discuss a role with me. But it's a 24x7 rotating shift job.

At least the weather is Sunny...

Because, as previously mentioned, I still haven't had much luck in finding a job.

An NI number...

Is one of the essential things you need to work (legally) here in the UK. It's kind of a cross between our Medicare and Tax File numbers back at home, except, it's both.
NI stands for National Insurance...

To keep money...

One must have a bank account. Getting a bank account in the UK is notoriously difficult. There's also quite a number of differences, and gotchas, particularly with Australian bank cards, which I'll explain below.
You should also bear in mind the difficulties involved in communicating with banks when you're in a different time zone, and that you can't go into a branch to sort things out. Changing institutions is going to be very difficult, unless you're created a power of attorney (which we discussed, but did not do. Damnit.)

Job hunting...

Ain't all it's cracked up to be. I'm hammering off heaps of applications, and I've had a couple of agents come back here and there seeming interested, but so far, not-so good. Rhiannon has already started working, so we're not totally bereft of money so far - in fact, we calculated before we left that even if I didn't work, if she got 5 days a week (which is looking pretty likely) then we'd have enough to survive without touching our savings. I'm getting bored though.

So much so, that I applied for a temp, part time IT support role on Gumtree yesterday. It was an.... interesting.... experience.