This, that, and the next.

I started my new job on Monday this week. I'd already been in to visit them twice, which I think worked really well; I came in knowing where essentials like the cafe and the toilets are, so negating the sense of new-ness. I knew where my office was, how to get to it, and I was even organised enough to leave myself some chocolate in my desk drawer. (The Chocolate Tree peppermint flavour - it is what After Eights dream of being. Delicious.)

Anyway. My last job was in Social Sciences, and my new job is in Proper Science (Biological variety). It's common knowledge that core-sciences have way more money to bandy about than, for instance, your average History department. I'm really noticing it; it's the little things. My computer is brand-new and very speedy. I have a lovely 19" widescreen monitor. As an admin, there are a whole host of ginormous advantages in working in a science dept:

• We have our own mini finance department. Instead of having to jump through eighteen hoops to send off an invoice for payment, I just pop it in an envelope and our mini-financiers take care of it for me.
• Taxi fares: I'm used to having to pay these out of pocket, and then having to claim expenses. Here, they have a contract. The only paper to change hands is a receipt.
• Accommodation: they're already set up with credit at pretty much anywhere we might want to put people. No hasty negotiations, no worry about getting the payment through before the guest arrives, and no worrying about how on earth to do late bookings.
• Websites etc: These are all well-built with excellent interfaces - updating is a dream. As opposed to having a website that has incestuous nesting tables, and no CSS - so that if you change a menu item, you have to change it on every single page on the site.
• Anything which might speed things up and make one's life easier.

Okay, maybe these things seem rather trivial, but when you're dealing with these every day, the amount of time saved is huge. Everything just runs smoothly, it's delightful. My new manager laughed at me when I did a happy dance about the finance stuff.

There are a bunch of other interesting things about the new place though:

• Bathrooms. These are on alternate floors; even numbers for the women, odd for the guys. I work on an odd floor, so have to trot up or down to go to the bathroom. Seemingly everyone developes excellent bladder control, since it's quite a hike to get to the bathrooms.
• My building is an old one with a new one wrapped round it. I enter through a lovely airy modern atrium, go through a door, and find myself in something straight out of the 60s. More accurately, something straight out of the 60s that's never been renovated. The stairwell is like something from Fallout 3/any post-apocalyptic scenario you wish to mention. Except with peppy "If you climb to this floor every day in a year you'll have climbed three Munros" notices. The first time I came here (two years ago for an interview) the servitor took me up in the lift, "because they break down all the time and you don't want to get stuck in there without a radio...there's no mobile reception." Needless to say, I've only used the stairs since I started, although apparently the lifts don't break down - with anyone in them - any more.
• Because I work in a building inside a building, it takes me about 4 minutes to get from the front door to my office. Literally - I timed myself leaving the building the other day.
• I work in an actual lab with actual experiments going on. We have "Containment Level 1" and "Biohazard" stickers all over the doors. The offices are round the outside, with big picture windows and gorgeous views. The inner walls and doors are all glass, so the lab tables in the centre are brightly lit.
• They test the fire alarm every week. For two and a half minutes each time. At first I thought it was annoying, but now I'm thinking that if the fire alarm goes off we're all going to wait 2 and a half minutes before doing anything, and if it takes us 4 minutes to exit the building, it's going to be 6 minutes of a blaze in a multistory building before anyone actually gets outside.
• I have to tweet. As part of my job. This is awesome.
• I also have to blog. As part of my job. This is also awesome.
• I am going to be part of the team arranging a crazy high-profile event with the BBC at this year's Festival. Eeeeeek. But also awesome. But eeeeeeek!

This is the last moan I'll have about the old job. On my last day, my old manager asked if I was going to be doing condensed hours at my new job, because if I was, I could work for them on my extra day off. Um, no. If I'm doing condensed hours, that means I'm still doing a 40 hour week, just over 4 days not 5. That means I don't want to do a 48 hour week instead of having a day off in the middle of the week (which is really for health reasons - invaluable for when I'm having a bad week). Then I was quizzed on where and whom I was going to work for. Previously I'd been told to approach New Job and ask to work for them part time so I could work for Old Job part time. I'd said this was not a good idea in a manner which should have made it obvious that I personally did not want to. I was then told that she would approach New Boss for me. (This against a background of refusing to let someone work part time for their old job - so okay to do to someone else, not okay to have done to you. Riiight.) Anyway, I refused to tell anyone where I was working after that. It's morally and ethically wrong for Old Boss to approach my new job (against my wishes) and tell them I'd work for them part time - not to mention illegal - but this seemed not to be a problem. I attribute this madness to massive mindbending quantities of stress, since it's not usual behaviour. So when I was given the old once-over about where I was going to work, I was naturally rather suspicious, and therefore reticent.
Anyway, it's all over with now - although I do think about my old colleagues often. It's a horrible stressful situation to be in regardless of whether you're the one being offered vast quantities of money to work 50 miles away (and therefore the one having to manage the whole thing), or whether you're the one having to work there until you find another job.

Oh yes, one last thing. I recently upgraded to the HTC Wildfire. I'm incredibly pleased with it; the battery life is two and a half to three days (when I'm playing with it non-stop), the touch-screen is sensitive enough but not too sensitive, and it's an Android phone (my first) as opposed to a Nokia, so I'm having fun getting lots of free and useful apps. If anyone has any to recommend (free or otherwise), please do so!