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A few weeks ago we both started new jobs. This was a bigger deal for Toby, who hadn’t worked for 4 months and so hadn’t gotten out of bed before 8am for about the same amount of time. His official title is Management Information Analyst, some geeky IT-related thing at Scottish Gas. The office is down at Leith which means a bit of a commute (30 minutes in the morning, up to 60 at night). I’m sure if anyone is interested Toby will tell them more. I started as a temp with Scottish Widows, not a punk rock band but a pensions/investments sort of company. I know what you’re thinking, that sounds like it’s right up my alley. The pros and cons of this job are as follows.

Pros

It’s really close to home and the gym (20 and 10 minute walk respectively).
It actually has its own gym, which costs ¼ what I pay at Virgin Active, so I’m switching over at the end of this month.
I am working with actual people, in an actual team, which means I’m getting the chance to know people and (hopefully) making some friends in the process.
I’m getting paid more money.
I only have to work 7 hours a day (this actually negates the point above – I end up with the same amount in pocket as I did when I was working 7.5 hours a day).
There’s a shop just down the road that sells yummy soup.
If it’s raining or I don’t feel like leaving the building, we have our own cafeteria and coffee shop in-house (this is also a con, when the mid-afternoon sugar slump hits).
It’s a 6 month gig so it will basically keep me going until we leave Edinburgh, if I want it to.

Cons

It is an incredibly boring job. You know those financial advisors who come to your house and tell you where to invest your money? Well after they come to your house, they print up a little report and it gets sent to you with a bunch of application forms and shiny brochures. Well, I’m the person who looks at the report and puts the page numbers on it and so forth. It feeds my editing beast, kind of. Some of these advisors write like they haven’t even gone to high school, but there’s a limit to what I can change especially when I don’t understand a lot of what’s in there.
There isn’t a whole lot to do right now. In fact I’ve written this entry, the Paris entry, and more than half of my novel during working hours. Last week 3 of us got sent home at 12 (unpaid of course) because there wasn’t enough work. I don’t know if it’s going to pick up before Christmas or not, but as they haven’t fired any of us I’m assuming they think it will.
We don’t have access to the internet or email, or even Solitaire. This makes the not-having-enough-to-do thing even worse. There is an internet point in the lobby, like you have in malls or airports, but apparently it’s really slow and there’s some lady who always sits there for her entire lunch break, spilling crumbs into the keyboard.
I am totally not interested in finance. Not even a little bit. Being my parents’ daughter, I had to find a way to feel comfortable with the fact that I’m working for a company whose sole reason for existence is to make people more money. I decided that it was nice that these advisors were helping people like widows to sort out their finances so that they would have less to worry about at least. That worked until my parents sent me a book of Australian poetry for my birthday, which included a verse about financial advisors who eat widows for breakfast (or something like that). So now I’m trying to not think about the fact that not only am I not interested in the business, but I don’t even think it’s that important, in the grand scheme of things. It is making me appreciate my previous jobs even more.

There is no fridge, no microwave, and no kettle. I assume this is their way of making us eat the cheap mass-produced food in the cafeteria, but I don't like it. At all. There is a drinks machine - hot and cold water free, everything else costs 20p. I have had to buy myself one of those insulated lunch bags so I can take my lunch to work and it won't go warm and slimy (mum I think that's why I never liked school lunches, as long as I can refrigerate it, it's ok).

The most exciting thing that’s happened recently would be the purchase of Toby’s motorbike. Because the commute out to Leith every day was resulting in such long days (up at 6 to go to the gym, home after 6) Toby decided he needed some transport and what else would Toby want but a motorbike. The day we went to Paris, he went to Glasgow to look at bikes. Of course I was very supportive and completely understood why he would go to Glasgow to look at motorbikes when he needed to be on a 3pm bus to the airport (ha). But still it was very exciting when I got a phone call later in the day and he told me he’d put a deposit on a BMW bike. Last Saturday we were up bright and early to go and pick it up. It wasn’t even in Glasgow but was in Paisley, so that required two trains and a bit of walking, in the rain of course, because it’s always raining in Glasgow. They’d nicely put the bike inside out of the rain, so while they sorted out the paperwork we walked up to the post office to pay for the tax (rego) which of course can only be done at a post office, not all of which do tax, not all of which are open on Saturdays. Toby had done a lot of research and made a lot of phone calls to find nearby post offices, but in the end the guys in the shop directed us to one in the Paisley plaza. Even though Paisley itself hadn’t been very inspiring (exactly how you’d imagine a fairly industrial suburb of Glasgow), the plaza itself was quite pleasant and there was even a farmer’s market going on. I found this very exciting as we have yet to find anything similar in Edinburgh. We sorted out the tax and ate weird Scottish meat pies (the filling was kind of like a rissole – delicious but odd) and then went back to the bike shop to get kitted out in our new bike gear. I am now the proud owner of my very own motorbike helmet and jacket. We had very cleverly worn thermals under our clothes which I think was absolutely vital. The rain had stopped but it was still windy (it’s always windy here) and generally very Scottish, weather-wise. The trip home was brilliant, if a little chilly and longer than it had to be due to getting lost. It feels great to finally have our own transport. We are planning lots of little trips out of Edinburgh to see more of the coast and countryside, which we haven’t really done so far. The rest of the weekend was taken up with other bike-related things, like riding out to Toby’s work to test different routes, and buying a sat nav system so we’re not relying on Google Map print outs sticky-taped to the tank (which is how we’d gotten home from Glasgow). Edinburgh is certainly a fun city on a motorbike, what with all the hill starts and cobbled streets. We have seen parts of it that we would never have seen before and looking forward to a lot more exploring now we’re more mobile.
So now that the birthday in Paris is over and we are working hard it’s time to look forward to Christmas, which we’re spending in Edinburgh with my sisters. We’ve booked three nights in Berlin over New Year’s and are starting to think about a jaunt to Prague in January or February, as it is a city high on our list of must sees. Probably not the most pleasant time of year to visit Eastern Europe, but that’s ok. I’m also going to go and visit Ali in Dublin in a few weeks’ time – I am really excited about the thought of seeing an actual family member, even if the weather in Dublin doesn’t sound like it’s any better than what we have here right now. Edinburgh is really cold at the moment; I’ve been told it’s due to the lack of cloud. It’s slightly warmer today which I’m assuming is due to the arrival of rain. Luckily Toby has figured out how to put our heating on a timer, so it turns on in the morning and at night before we get home. It really is very cold, like what you’d get on a snowfield back home. Trying not to be too miserable about it though; it’s far too early in the season to be moaning about the weather. Now that there’s a motorbike in the picture we are also going to think about exploring some of Europe on it next year when the weather warms up, before heading home. What a strange thought.

Toby in his new motorbike gear. Can't decide if he looks like a ninja or an executioner. Either way, he's warm.

On the bike, on the way to Loch Lomond. Neither of us were crazy about the idea of a yellow motorbike, but the big plus is that it's highly visible...people look in their rear view mirrors and get out of our way. Which is what you want them to do on the highway.

This is Loch Lomond, the biggest loch in Britain. This photo does not do it justice, in any way. Trust me when I say I have never seen anything quite like this.

Today we got our first glimpse of Highland Cows, which basically look like shetland ponies, only...more cow-y.