A Trip To Folkestone And The First Day At The New Job

Saturday Jim and I headed down to Lympne to see the parental units. It was good to see them, even if Mum and Beth have to spend a lot of time with their horses. Saturday night and the family went out to a friends for dinner and Jim and I headed out to Kalala for some nostalgic reminiscing about what we used to do when we were dating. After a lovely dinner we headed up to Skuba to see if Folkestone's only gay bar was still fun.

Alas, it would appear the heterosexualisation of the bar has progressed to a level now beyond rescue and Skuba has lost it's unique selling point and seems rather sad. It happens to lots of small town gay bars. First the gays arrive. Then straight women begin to come as they feel safe. Next the straight men follow seeing easy pickings. The final stage is the straight couples who now feel safe about coming. There was probably a 10% gay population, if you count the staff. And really as a normal bar, Skuba doesn't compete well... it's gayness was what saved it from mediocrity.

But Henry and Sarah were there! Which was great and it reminded me that, once I'm settled in my new job, I should spend a weekend visiting much missed friends.

Today was my first day at Plan B. I was very nervous but the trip there, despite being twice as long, was more relaxing than my old commute. And when I turned up I found there was two other new starters and we immediately formed a "New Starters Support Group" and stuck close together. These groups never last, but they are good for seeing you through the training period. Plan B is a good place to work, people seem friendly, but quiet which is all good to me. Of course it's early days and I'm still in the new job excitement phase so my opinion might change.

I found it hard having to keep my mouth closed when I saw people doing things I thought were wrong. 6 years in my industry has made me somewhat opinionated on good customer service but as the new boy it's not my place to question others way of dealing with customers even if I think it's rude and abrupt.

The head of the department took the three of us out for a coffee at the end of the day just to say hi and I felt that he was an extremely positive and easy to deal with sort of guy. Not pompous, not stupid, and absolutely devoted to the good works Plan B do in London. It's a not for profit organisation so it sits much better with me than the previous commercial companies I've worked for.

The trip home was a hour long but absolutely lovely. No stress unlike the old commute home. Fingers crossed that continues. I've had a good first day.