Settling in (for a whole couple of weeks) – 24th September 2006
What a month it has been since our last Blog update! As you know, I had job interviews with Morley College in London, RSAMD in Glasgow and at the University of Hull in Kingston upon Hull. As it turns out, it is the University of Hull that desperately needed my towering expertise (and staggering humility) and thus did I begin my new life as a full time employee on September 11. I should give a quick narrative of the events to give you an idea of how Hull was evidently ‘meant to be’.
I had my interview for the Hull job on the 30th of August, having had interviews in London and Glasgow the previous week. I travelled up to Hull on the Tuesday night before the interview, and had a good rest at the hotel organised by the University. I arrived at the university at 10 o’clock on Wednesday, confident and alert. I gave a presentation, complete with slideshow, at 10:20 on ‘The role of music-technology and popular music in the University of Hull and in Hull’s urban regeneration’. My lexicon of higher education buzz words came in particularly helpful for this. The presentation was attended by the Director of Studies for Music, the Head of the Drama and Music department and a couple of lecturers from within the department. The presentation and question and answer session seemed to go down a treat.
After a presentation by my competitor for the post, Peter, the lecturer who has set up the new Jazz and Popular Music course, gave us a tour of their facilities. Since the new studios aren’t likely to be finished until Christmas, this meant looking at a corridor and an empty room, although there is already a composition suite and a couple of labs of computers ready for teaching. A buffet lunch was provided in the Recital Room, and I took the opportunity to get to know the backgrounds and interests of the lecturers present.
My interview was at 2:30pm, and was a panel of 6, including the aforementioned Director of Studies - Music, the Lecturer in Jazz and Popular Music, the Lecturer in charge of the department’s ‘Reach Out’ activities, the Head of the Drama and Music Department, the Director of Commercialisation at the University, and the Dean of Arts. They formed a formidable collection of men in suits. The session lasted about half an hour, after which I returned to the hotel to collect my luggage, and got on a train back to London.
At this point I hadn’t yet heard back from RSAMD about the job in Glasgow. I was a bit worried because Hull seemed to want to move fairly quickly once they had made their selection. This feeling was confirmed when they rang me, before I had managed to get on the train back to London, to ask whether I wanted the job. Not knowing what RSAMD were going to do, I asked to be given the night to ‘discuss the move with my wife’ before giving them an answer the following day. I then rang the head of HR at RSAMD from the train back to London, and she returned my call to say that they had selected someone else for the position, but that I had given a fine presentation and thankyou very much. So, Hull it is!
The next day, and back at work, I rang to confirm with Hull that I would be happy to accept the job and that yes, I could start on the 11th of September. After a busy morning talking to their HR department, Work Permits UK and the Immigration office, we managed to ascertain that I could start my job on the working holiday visa, and go home to get a new visa once my work permit had come through. This was by no means an easy exercise, as the advice given to employers here is somewhat different from the advice given to potential employees, and not nearly as vague.
While I was wrangling with the home office, and pretending to be selling PA systems, Maria was telling everyone at her work about my new job. As it happened, one of Maria’s Cow-orkers was originally from Hull and has a sister that lives in Hull. His sister’s plasterer happened to have a flat for rent across the road from his sister, but which we would have to decide on that weekend since he already had an application in on it. Since I had to work on Saturday, Maria jumped on a train up to Hull, took a look at the unit and took some photos for me, gave the landlord a security deposit, and said we’d move in on the 7th.
We had already booked some holiday time around this time, as we had originally intended on going up to Scotland for a break. We were therefore able to use this time to move up some bare essentials, and make a trip to Ikea to get a bed and a wardrobe since the flat is basically unfurnished. So by the 11th I was basically settled in and Maria returned to London on the 13th to do the last month of her contract.
Maria has been the incredible mover of things the past couple of weeks. This weekend she managed to get her bike, my keyboard (which is the width of a piano) including stand, and our rugs, from London to Hull on the train. We had originally planned to share the weekend travel, me coming down to London as much as her coming up to Hull, but for various reasons it has worked out that she has done all the travelling, and an incredible job she has done.
To add to the potential ‘rightness’ of this move, Maria has secured an interview for a job within the local museum sector on Thursday, and is currently out doing her research on the local museums and their collections. I have joked that the job, which pays slightly more than mine, would help soothe the irritation she has of needing a ‘Dependency Visa’ to accompany my work permit. Kind of joked, anyway.
So you can see that everything seems to be falling into place here, and Hull is one of the loveliest places I have ever been, with warm, friendly local people and plenty of nearby cafes and lots of performing arts and galleries and museums and suchlike. Once Maria finishes work in London, things will settle down into a lovely, productive routine here in Hull, and we are really looking forward to making our home here for at least the next 2 years. One thing will delay that slightly however. By the grace of God and the unknown and unknowable foibles of the great British bureaucracy, in order to work in my new job under my work permit, we must first return home to get a visa to come back again.
Maria and I are coming home for a 3 week visit from the 11th of October to the 30th. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing our tales of daring-do, and boring you all witless with endless photos, and catching up on all the local gossip and events since our departure so many months ago. So let us know your availability for catching up, as we have lots of people to squeeze into 3 short weeks!
Fletch’s tip for new travellers
When moving to a new town and not owning any furniture, immediately make friends with someone who is renovating their house. They will attempt to foist every bit of spare furniture they have on you (‘well, you know you just can’t do without a purpose built scrabble table these days…’) and may even offer to help carry it into your flat. Such friends may be difficult to find in the south of England, but here in the north, the only seeming requirement for lasting friendship is that you aren’t a chav.
