A New Year, A New Placement.

Christmas, New Years and all that relaxing business seems so long ago! This week I’ve mostly been getting my head around the TfL world of Service Transition. I’ve started my new placement. A new building, a new team, and lots of new things to learn.

I got back to London last Monday evening after recovering from the brilliant New Years Eve party at Colgate Crescent and pretty much went straight to bed. Alas, two weeks of late nights and long lay-ins meant my body clock was having none of it. My radio alarm went off at 7am on Tuesday and to my horror the nasty beats of Skrillex were blaring out – don’t you just love a Zane Lowe breakfast show…

After recovering from the Skrillex wake-up, I started out on my new commute – and all of a sudden I was at work. That’s right, my new commute means I can get door to door in just 20 minutes…pretty rare in London I’d say! After introductions to the team and sorting out my desk (filling the draw with stationary and proudly display my coffee mug) I started a week of listening!.. That’s pretty much all I’ve done since I started; talking/listening to all of the different teams within the Service Management department, finding out what they do, how they work with the different teams in the rest of IM and asking lots of questions! The team that I’ll be working in is Service Transition – making sure new systems are ready to be supported by us once they ‘go live’ on the network. It looks like I’ll be taking over a portfolio of Suface Transport/Small Works projects as well as taking on the project quotations procedure to ensure we (STrans and the wider Shared Services dept) charge each project an appropriate amount for the service and support we provide. After one week, and with the first impressions firmed up, I think I’m going to like it at the Pier Walk office. From where I sit I can see the Dome/O2 (we’re right next door), the Olympic Stadium and the beginnings of the newCable Car across the Thames. Lovely.

Saatchi Gallery

Gardens outside the Saatchi

After a long week (albeit only four days!) the weekend called for a more relaxing pace. I didn’t have any plans so decided it was the perfect opportunity to delve back into my box of 50 London Walks. Since I moved down here in September I hadn’t made the time to explore south-west London at all. And, partly due to hearing about the Northern Line extension to Battersea in work I decided to head to see the iconic Battersea Power Station. I know, it’s a ruin and it’s fenced off and, ultimately, there isn’t much to see but Iwanted to see it before the surrounding area is full of trendy wine bars andshiny apartments and looks nothing like the Pink Floyd album cover. I thought while I was down that way I’d have a nosey around the Saatchi Gallery just off the Kings Road – it was great! And I wandered around the more residential parts (where the London 1%ers live) before heading through Battersea Park (via the pretty impressive Albert Bridge) and along the Thames Path to Vauxhall. Exhausting!

Albert Bridge

Iconic

Sunday I slept until noon. Damn it! Just enough time to sort out breakfast and tune in for the Manchester derby. A nervy last 30 minutes but we dragged ourselves over the finish line and into the 4^th round draw…only to draw bloody Liverpool at Anfield!! Other Sunday nothingness included watching two crap films, Adventureland and Broken Flowers, searching for decent books for my Kindle, reading Travel Blog articles about NZ and…ironing.

Unfortunately, plans of a trip to Bedford this weekend have fallen through (100+ end of year school reports to write…I don’t envy you Gemma!) but I’m sure I’ll sort something out what with Mr Brook being in town..

Random Peace Pagoda
in Battersea Park

Oh, I’ve also signed up to become an ICSA (Incident Customer Service Agent) so, during the Olympics, I could be working on a station near you! It takes about 4 and a half days training and a couple of practical test too… And speaking of tests, I hear we’ll be getting the results of the APM IC exam sometime next week – argh…

But, of course I’ll keep you updated with all that next week.

Until then,

Bren x

PS, Horrible Housemates Update: One of them is moving out!... Sadly, not the worst offender. I live in hope...