23-04-2008. Wednesday.

23-04-2008. Wednesday.
9.30am London time.
Well. Basically its morning right now. And well my phone SIM card is finally activated for 5pence/min. And I’m left with 9 pounds in my SIM card.
Alright so yesterday, 22/04/08 Tuesday, I woke up at around 8am and went downstairs. Mrs Mary prepared for me a Continental Breakfast, I have no idea why in the world it was called that. But there was the breakfast. Fruits and Fibre Cereal with milk, 6 half slices of toasted bread, orange juice, yoghurt, a giant jelly, Nutella Spread, Jam spread and Margarine. I had the cereals, 2 slices of bread spreaded with Nutella and Jam, and I was full.
After thanking Mrs Mary for the meal, I realized that I wasn’t the only one staying at The Manor Hotel. Mrs Mary’s family’s there as well. There’s a blonde lady who looks like she’s in her 40s, and a young blonde girl who looks around my age. Well I’m guessing the blonde lady is Mrs Mary’s daughter and the girl would probably be her granddaughter. Well those are just guesses. But I guess its comforting to know that I’m not the only one other than Mrs Mary.
After breakfast I went back up my room and turned off the TV. Thank god there was regular American shows, Fraiser, The O.C and Smallville. So basically I spent most my morning watching tv and typing out my last post.
Not really in the mood to go to Derby city today, so I’d figured I’d just laze around in my room till lunch time.
When it got close to lunch time, I suited up into my 3 layers of sweaters and went down the lane and walked around looking for a place to get lunch.
There was a Chinese take-away just down the lane and it was really expensive. One dish costs around 4.50 pounds. But I got to a fish and chip take away place and bought fish and chips for 3 pounds. I asked for ketchup, which costs 80 pence for a small packet. Then I started making my way back.
Back at The Manor Hotel, I had my lunch in my room and only managed to finish half of the fish and 1/3 of the fries. It wasn’t really that nice though. I wondered was it because I didn’t have the appetite or because it wasn’t that tasty. So I kept the remainder inside the microwave oven for later.
At around 3.00pm Mrs Mary knocked and came in telling me that there was a call for me. It was someone from Rolls Royce whom I really can’t remember the name. She told me to come down for a Drugs and Alcohol test at 4.30pm.
So after getting directions from Mrs Mary, I took bus 60 down to a place called Merrill Way. It wasn’t really far because it was a few stops before Derby City. So I got off and asked around for directions to Rolls Royce. It was a really long walk. I reached there at around 4.15. And the Rolls Royce area was really really huge. There are so many buildings there. It was crazy big. I was perspiring by the time I got into the building, the Research and Development Center. It wasn’t a really nice feeling cause I was perspiring inside but it was quite cold outside. So yea. Well I went to the reception and told them that I came for a drugs and alcohol test. And the officer there led me to an area where there were interview rooms and sat down on a chair outside the room.
At around 4.35pm an white haired man who looked like he was in his early 50s walked in and told me to wait outside while he went into one of the interview rooms and set up his equipment. Awhile later he told me to get into the room.
Well the test wasn’t what I was expected. I thought they would need to draw some of my blood out for testing. But turns out that for the drug test, all I needed was to swab a cotton bud in my mouth and it would be placed into a small vial and then some of the liquid will be dripped onto a piece of test paper and inserted into a small hand held device. 12 minutes later, the result was out and I was negative for any drugs. For the alcohol test all I had to do was blow into a breathalyzer, kinda like those that traffic police use to test for drink driving. My reading was zero for any trace of alcohol. So basically I passed both the test.
Erica Tyson, the person I’ve been in contact through email with in Singapore met me outside the interview room. It was the first time I’ve met her and she was not what I expected. I was picturing some prim and well dressed lady. But she was a bespectacled, slightly rotund lady who looked like she was in her early early 40s? I can’t be sure. But she was a nice lady. She introduced her self and sat me down in a nearby seat. She handed to me a few documents and a few books on Jet engines. I was told that I would be attending a course on Jet Engine’s next Monday onwards for a week. Then after that I’d be posted to the Combustion Site to start work. She handed me a cheque from Rolls Royce for 1,500 Pounds. It was to cover my travel expenses. But I was only able to bank in the cheque once I moved into my permanent accommodation for the next 4 months and opened a bank account using that address.
Doing the math, I spent around S$3900 when I first came, on my train fare, air fare, and bringing around changing 545pounds here. And 1500 pounds would mean around S$4050. So well I’ve only got S$150 extra. But it was comforting to know that at least I got everything that I spent back.
Erica Tyson sent me back to The Manor Hotel in her car. It was a really small stick-shift car. And she didn’t need to turn on the aircon. Just wind down the window and it gets cold enough.
I got back to my room and mircowaved the remaining fish and chips. I finished up the remaining half of the fish and left 1/3 of the fries.
So I’ve only spent 3 pounds today!
By the time it was already close to 8.00pm and I took a bath and went to sleep. This time I woke up at 5am the next morning.