Friday (with a nod to Joe Jackson)

Hello gentle reader,



Despite my best efforts to try to stop and reflect at the end of each day, time is passing in a blur of activity and excitement such that my ramblings here are more intermittent than I would hope, so forgive me if the entries are not as frequent as I would like them to be at this stage. That being said, I owe some thoughts about Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

First thing to say is that each of the days have been more than worthwhile as I have got to meet a number of the key people in the University, from the Vice Chancellor down, each of whom has been invariably personable, welcoming and clearly committed to the University. It's reassuring to find such a positive vibe and it is helping me to settle in as I come to grips with the SRFs, CMTs, RPGs and other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) that are NTU's.

The only blip on the horizon at this stage is my frustration at trying to find a more permanent place to rest my head. I had lined up with Martin Co, one of the real estate agents that keeps bankers hours, to inspect a property in The Ropewalk yesterday (couldn't do it on Saturday or Sunday, of course) at 10.00am ("We don't get out of bed before 9.00am", quipped James, the young lad with whom I'd made the arrangement) and promptly arrived to wait, and wait, and wander from Ropewalk Court down to Derby Road and back, in case I had misunderstood the agreed meeting place - nothing, zippo, nada!

After half and hour of fruitless waiting and wandering, I walked back to our Park Row office and rang Martin Co, to be told that they had rung the office number I'd given them as a security check and, as there was no answer, they didn't turn up (they hadn't bothered to tell me they would do that, and I had no record of them doing so, but needs must). After some toing and froing as they frantically looked for somebody at their end to be available, we agreed to try again, this time at 11.00am. Again, I stood outside Ropewalk Court in vain - these people don't really seem interested in letting!

My luck was on the change though, it seemed, because while I was standing there, a lady from another letting agent had arrived to show a different flat and her viewer hadn't showed. We chatted and I established that Denise and her colleague are the principals of at your service a relocation services company they've been operating since 1997. Serendipity or no, Denise now is charged with finding me a place to rent or buy and I'm hoping to hear good (or at least better) news this afternoon when she calls me.

In the meantime, Sue and Barry have been keeping a friendly eye on me. I visited last night for "bangers and mash", laundry detail, and another delightful evening of conversation, washed down with a medicinal glass of red wine.

Another day of briefing and learning awaits .....