March 21, 2008

A new beginning

Last week was my first week at GE.
I started off by arriving too early! I arrived at 8, normal starting time,or so I thought... Turns out all starters normally begin at 10! This was actually in the letter, so I felt a little silly...
The lady from HR who picked me up was dutch, like me. Though she has been in England a little longer than I have I suspect. She had a little difficulties speaking dutch, just like I have. Nothing major, but enough for us to switch to english when it came to going through the official stuff...
Later my, I believe resource manager, picked me up. Friendly chap. He also interviewed me at the time. He introduced me to the team I am working with now. The first person I met was James. James and I know eachother from a long time ago when I was still working on extension retraction for the A380. So it was nice to see a familiar face. Later on I spotted Nick, who also used to work for Airbus (IMA team).
All my new teammembers are all very nice and helpful. A real social bunch of chaps! I feel quite welcome with these guys! They are all very relaxet, social and they apply rules quite flexible, which I appreciate!

Ofcourse the first day there were some issues with getting a PC, and email, but next morning I was able to email again! Having said that, they use the latest version of outlook, and I have not yet been able to get my old address book imported. I may have to start emailing myself contact cards from home... Manually is not an option, because as always with Microscum, the printout of my address book, only shows the alias of the person, rather than the actual email address, so all my Airbus addresses are useless!!!

The week was also a bit rocky, because my "reliable" toyota, is in the garage. 2 weeks now!!!! They can't find the parts easily because it is an import... So that car is out the door once it is done...
Anyway, as a result I was forced to borrow Chris' Cinquecento, and drive Berit to and from work every day. Bless them!!!

I'm alreay looking for something better. I hope I can afford something in the 2500 GBP class. I was considering quite a range of different cars; Mercedes A-class, Nissan Almera, Peugeot 406, maybe Passat again, Audi A3, VW Bora. But no more japs! (other than the Nissan perhaps). These cars are all quite different from what I previously was looking for (a sports car), but then again, now I am commuting quite a bit, so sensibility asks for a 1.0 l diesel... hehehe. Ok, no speed or acceleration, but will do 100000000000000000000000000000 miles to the gallon!!!

March 14, 2008

Elvis has left the building!

D-day has arrived.
Today was my last day working for Airbus.
The past week was very hectic. I was working my ass off to sort out the last bits of work, and prepare data for hand over.
Then on tuesday afternoon, I was told I had to go to Toulouse to do some testing with the supplier.
So I was struggling sorting out my trip. Actually it was quite a horrible day when I went over. As always I had to get up before 5 to get the flight to TLS, then I was waiting for the supplier to arrive. He didn't listen to my instructions and was at the wrong gate after getting lost. It took quite a while and lots of misunderstandings before we found each other. Anyway, we could finally do some testing. We tested on 2 aircraft, but the schedule was soo busy, that we hardly had time for lunch, and didn't even have dinner! Both "meals" comprised a sandwich from the wall, stuffed down our throats in 5 minutes time.
All in all it took until midnight to perform all the testing we needed to do.
Luckily I was able to fly back on the Corvette. The corvette is a small business plane with about 8 seats. It flies from TLS to Bristol in the morning. Since I wanted to be back in Filton in the morning because of the shit load of work I still had to do, I was very happy I managed to get a spot on the Corvette. It turns out that usually it is only for executives, and Airbus UK people usually don't get to fly it.

Today was hectic as well. I had soo much to finish off and hand over, and all these people kept walking bye to say hi and goodbye etc (well, they had to have an excuse to get some cakes that I brought in, heheh...).
Of course there was the traditional goodbye speech, card, etc.
Its funny, it's like it hasn't sunk into me yet. I'm looking forward to starting my new job, But I am also sad to leave Airbus.
It's been my home for 7,5 years, and I will miss all my colleagues a lot:
The crazy talks with Mark G, always reminding me of "german helmets".
The adventures Andy and I have had in Belgium and in Toulouse: Going to obscure dodgy clubs in Brussels, chasing phantom turtlers in hotels, observing Messier's finest climbing onto landing gears in rather arousing positions...
The conversations I had with Mark B over a cup of coffee,
The chats with Martin H about cars and DIY (He mentored me in my first year at Airbus)
And all the others of course.

I will miss that place, and all its people. I wish them all the best, and I hope we will meet again!