Friday 16 September 2016

The First Fortnight



So today is the last day of my second week at QA Academy and a lot has happened. I was originally expecting to move into the Heart Apartments in Media City on my first day, before our 1pm start, but a few days before the move I was told that my apartment would not be ready in time, and I would need to spend the first few weeks of training living in the local Travelodge. Although I originally thought it would be terrible, I quickly came around to the idea once I realised I would be getting a free breakfast, and a £21 per day meal allowance to spend on dinner. Even though not having a fridge or a way to do laundry is a little annoying, I’m really enjoying my hotel life now and am in no rush for my apartment to be done.


The social aspect of the job is amazing; there hasn’t been an evening yet where there hasn’t been a group of people heading to the Dockyard for a cheeky after work pint. I experienced my first ‘Friday social time’ last week which was mad, but this week it isn’t on because the rest of the staff are all off to Barcelona for the weekend. But that does mean we get to finish at 1pm today so happy days. I’m driving down to Cambridge today to visit a friend from uni so being able to get away a few hours earlier than usual is perfect!


After the people who had experience in web development were moved upstairs to start training for a placement, George the new guy was moved to sit next to me. One morning he managed to fall off his bike (it is unclear whether he was moving or stationary at the time) which he made far more drama out of than was necessary, as you will see if you read his blog too. It did give me a chance to dust off my very advanced first aid skills, although it turns out putting a plaster on an elbow is not the easiest of tasks, and my efforts were ridiculed rather than appreciated unfortunately. It did however put my blister issues into perspective.


My training group are (probably) moving out to the Lowry next week since the offices will be full but I (probably) won’t be going with them. I’m not too sure but I think, after a five minute talk with Gareth, that I’m going to be joining the team heading to the Home Office in London in two weeks’ time, and until then I’ll be getting specialised training upstairs. However, like most things here, it wasn’t very clear exactly what will happen so I’m just staying here and seeing how it all turns out. It’ll be sad if I do leave them, however annoying they can be!

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