Mass UK Update

House: Over last weekend I moved out of my place downtown and into my new house. Pictures can be found here. I still have some unpacking/organizing to do, but I am mostly moved in. Everything from the US showed up in a box truck, and 2 movers got everything in the house. Well, almost everything. The box spring for my bed wouldn’t fit up the stairs. Apparently, if you have a queen or king sized bed here, the box spring is either 2 pieces or hinged so it can get up the stairs. So for the time being, my mattress is on the floor in the bedroom and the box spring is in the garage. Other than that, the move went very smoothly. Getting someone else to move you is by far the best way to go. There is still a lot of unpacking/organizing, but the hard parts are done for you. The only issue I had is that the movers had a thick “Geordie” accent (found in northeast England), and I only understood about every other word they said. I don’t think they understood me very well either.

Since I moved into my new house, I don’t have TV or internet. I called and will be getting this installed next Saturday. I am getting it from Virgin Media through cable rather than the more popular Sky satellite coverage. With Sky, their internet is DSL, and then I would have to get a phone line which I would never use.

Car: I bought a car. 1996 BMW 318i S. This is the 140hp 4 cylinder version, and unlike the 318ti in the US, this one doesn’t look like it has been hit from the rear. It has just over 100k on the odometer, but is in mint condition. It should get me about 35mpg on the highway. The nice thing about the BMWs compared to the rest of 4 cylinder engines out there is that it doesn’t have a timing belt, so that is one expensive service I get to avoid. Everything works, including the sun roof, which will probably be a rarely used option in the UK. I went a little over the budget of £1k, coming in at £1200, but that is still very cheap. I don’t have possession of it just yet, I went and worked it all out with the owner and will be picking it up this week. He is currently off rallying his Audi wagon in the Lake District, west of here. Fortunately, this car hasn’t been abused the way the Audi is getting it right now. Apparently he bought the car just for a European vacation and put 5k miles on it over the past few months, and now he is going to sell it. Good tires, interior, paint, mechanicals, etc. I am thrilled. Oh, I got it insured today as well, which was a lot cheaper than the 6 cylinder BMW brethren I had quoted before. I went with comprehensive and all that jazz since this is, after all, my learn-to-drive-on-the-left-hand-side car.

Work: Work has me swamped. Cummins has been doing quite a bit of layoffs (or redundancies as they are called here) due to the recent downturn in the market and I have got more work on my plate because of them. Since being here, they have promoted me twice, on top of the promotion I received to get me here in the first place. One of my new roles is Technical Program Leader for REPTOs (Rear Engine Power Takeoff, the gear train to drive a cement mixer on a truck or plow on a tractor). I have never worked on REPTOs before, so this is a big deal. It’s a joint project between Cummins UK and Cummins Brazil, so I am getting my name seen by a lot of chief engineers, especially since it’s on a popular product. None of this means more money, but it should in the long run. Plus, with people getting walked out, its not a good time to renegotiate. I was hoping to return to the US for a job as a TPL once I was done in Darlington, so I am really excited to get this experience so soon.

Travel: I haven’t travelled much recently. With all going on above, plus a lot of work on my Master’s, I haven’t been out much. It also been pretty cold and windy the past few days, and wouldn’t make for very good site seeing.