So there we have it, Monday morning was my third new start of my career so far. How did it go? Well in comparison to my previous two starts (which were almost exactly six months apart in 2004) the day progressed very well. In a way, it does not feel I have been away from the big corporate machinery for that long. I have been issued with my temporary pass and given a employee visitor badge to wear until I get my photo card sometime in the next few weeks. The organisation so far has been excellent and I even had my photograph taken within the first few hours, so should be issued with my photographic pass within a few weeks. What more can I say? Well I am really glad the weekend is here again, so I can take a load off before the adventure begins again on Monday morning. Talking of Monday morning, perhaps that is where I should begin. As I pulled out of my drive, in the morning, it was perhaps around twenty past seven. A relatively early start, all things considered (but no that 6am start I had to endure when I traveled into the capital!) I put on a CD (the same CD I had been listened to last week. I have a habit of setting the play mode to “Mix” and then just keep hitting skip until I find a track I want to listen to. I did that just once as I pulled out my cul-de-sac and the song that came on, was the very same song I had been listened to four years as my Dad dropped me off to work that morning in mid December. (For the record, Father & Son (Ronan Keating featuring Yusif Islam version). How strange the world can be. I hit the motorway within a few minutes and although there were plenty of cars on the road, the traffic was moving and I made good progress. I just get into the fast lane and cruise at a steady speed. After Junction 10 for the A329(M) it is a clear run. However in the opposite direction it was pretty much standstill. I was lucky (as I would be for the rest of the week!). Overall the day went well, I met my manager first thing (I was not scheduled to start until between 9am – 9.30am). I then had to have all my documents cleared by HR before being taken upstairs for a Health & Safety debriefing. Then, it was a twenty minute presentation on the local on site facilities. After this I was escorted to my new desk and met my team. Then it was off into town for my first team lunch! Although it took ages to get served, mainly due to the fact the restaurant was so busy, as the second stage of the Tour Of Britain was scheduled to stop in the town centre. After lunch it was the formal company induction, with a introduction from the CEO for the UK. Then there was a quick introduction to corporate compliance, which nearly had me drifting off to sleep at that stage but it finished soon enough and I then was free to go back to my desk and start work. Well kind of. When I got home, I checked my speedometer. It had done 96 miles, a few short of the magic 100 miles a day mark. Due bear in mind I did drive to the gym as well and put in a full session there. It was absolutely rammed as I got there at 6.30pm, the time I would normally be on my way out. However, I was determined to keep my regime. I know many people would have let me off, after all a started a new job can be quite bewildering and being able to get straight home would have been a comforting thought at the end of each day but I decided to keep going. As I pulling out of Newbury, I received a text from Pav. He must have been missing me, now I was not on MSN all day. His text made me laugh, “What’s Terry’s new e-mail address then? mynameisnotterry@vodafone.co.uk”. For some reason he was under the false pretense that I worked for the largest mobile network provider in the world (based on turnover). There must be some sort of conspiracy. I would like to put the record straight, I do not work for Vodafone. Although I do have a Vodafone contract mobile phone, that is my only connection with the company. Oh, and my cousin Praag works for them. On Wednesday, as I headed onto the M4, I decided to change to an old CD I had lying in my Case Logic case. I chose the CD with the Ultra album and put on the opening track. Thirty seconds into the song, the sun came up behind me. However I had left my sunglasses at home, having taken them out the night before. Never mind, the biggest coincidence was the title of the track (and album itself) The Sun Shines Brighter. I felt much better and put behind me the bad luck of Tuesday night and look forward to another great day, a fresh start. On Tuesday evening after work, due to a number of circumstances (some man made) all my three property viewings were cancelled. A complete waste of an evening. Never mind, no time to lament on the stupidity of others. Let us move on. After the weights session in the gym, I drove home but wanted to check my tire pressures before I got home. I went to my usual petrol station the Esso / Tesco Express but the machine was out of order, so I drove down the road to the ASDA. Here the machine was not working correctly, so I headed back down the road to Esso Turnpike but they had a fuel delivery so I had to drive all the way to the bottom of New Road to the Total garage. As usual with such small garages, the positioning of the air and water machine is an after thought, so I had to block in a car and the driver had to wait while I checked the pressure at all corners before driving back home. Just my luck that I have to go to four petrol stations before I can check my pressures. Hopefully the machine at my usual garage will be fixed on Sunday morning, before I head to the gym. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returned on television screens Stateside on Monday evening and if I had still been at my previous place of employment it would have been a case of connecting to Pav’s FTP and downloading the avi file. However, under the new regime, I can only access Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail in my lunch hour. Anyways, I was hoping to be able to download the episode from the FTP site when I got home on Tuesday. However the FTP has not come back to live since the move into Reading town centre. Never mind, I could get the torrent but I did not have time to do this until Wednesday evening. However, on Thursday I received a package. I was not expecting anything but should have recognised the handwriting. When I opened the package (in bubble wrap) I realised that it was from Pav. However, I had already spend an hour or so the previous night to download the episode on uTorrent. Well at least if I ever have to go net less for a while I know I will still be able to catch up on Cameron. Although, did she survive the car bomb? I will find out in a little while, as I have promised myself the episode as a treat to making it to Friday night.

Although I think I need to start a web site and my own internet campaign. My name is not Terry dot co dot uk! Pav and his web domains (he bombards me with several every day on MSN or via SMS. I must mention the Savage Chicken cartoon on Monday. In a strange twist of fate the cartoon mirrored my first day in my new job! On Tuesday, morning I spotted a the number plate of the car ahead of me. It had a number plate that ended in SFE. The initials of my new department and part of my job title. Just another case of fate playing on me or is it more significant than that? I was trying to work out the probability of these three letters appearing on a car at that time of day on that road but soon gave up.