My One Day of Work
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2008
1
15
17
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Oxford,
England,
United Kingdom
Sunday, September 7, 2008
It was conveniently located near our place and would be a 30 minute walk and I didn't have to take the bus at all. I was to work 9 - 5 and was up and ready rather early as I didn't at the time know how long it would take to get there. I allowed myself 45 minutes based on the distance and how long it takes to walk to other places around us. When I first stepped foot in there were two girls on the phone that we getting torn into and they were trying to stay calm but you could tell they were not having a fun time. I went and did my orientation and then came back and played around on the system entering in basic things that needed to get done. During this time the manager went for lunch and I was left with the two other girls working. They were talking amongst themselves and were saying how much they hated this place and they really needed to get out of here. Every time the phone rang they were cursing and swearing at it too. I suddenly didn't know what I had got myself into.
When the manager returned she had to run to one of the other offices and took me along to help her out over there as there wasn't much to do here with my limited knowledge. This was the most exciting part of my day as I finally got to go for a drive with someone threw the city other than on a bus. So I jumped in the "driver" side which was now the passenger and we headed off. I can't believe how many times she had to pull over and stop to allow oncoming traffic to get by as every street was a constant give and take back and forth action going on. Anytime there were parked cars there was only enough room for one lane so everybody just went back and forth taking turns driving threw. Seems like a stupid system to me but that's just the norm here. Speeding is not even a problem out here at all as you never get the chance to go anywhere fast because of the layout. I was watching the speedometer and she never once made it above 20mph. The speed limit in city is 30mph. You have to pull over or slow down for pedestrian crossings way to often to get anywhere fast. There are also an overwhelming number of lights and they don't seem to have a rhyme or reason to them as you never get a "string of green". We did however hit a section of the Ring Road that didn't have a posted speed limit and people defiantly took advantage of it as they were suddenly flying by. Guess it's worth mentioning there is a street here called Ring Road and it makes a ¾ loop around the city... seems a little too familiar. Never thought I would find a street that was not only named the same as Regina but also designed the exact same. Kind of funny that they are both called "Ring" and neither actually makes a full circle.
I was asking lots of questions about the traffic rules and laws and what things meant and learned a lot about what it would be like to drive here and all the new lines and signs meant. I also learned that almost all the cars here are manual drive. Don't call it standard or you will get a weird look as I found out. I also learned that there are actually two types of licenses out here for driving. If you take your driver's test in an automatic car, than you are only allowed to drive automatic cars. If you take your driver's test in a manual drive however you can drive both manuals and automatics.
I also learned that there is city tax on your car. They certainly love taxes out here. Essentially you have to pay a monthly city tax to drive legally and they give you this reflective thing that goes in your windshield in a special sleeve that is built into all the windshields here. You then also need to plate and insure your car on your own. The tricky thing here is they are very strict on paying the tax on your car. They don't mess around at all with it either. They have cameras setup all over the city and highways that actually scans all the cars that go by and look for the sticker in your windshield. It then quickly verifies that it is legit, active, and paid for. If not it will snap your picture and you get a big old ticket. Basically speed radar cameras only because nobody speeds they ticket you for not paying the tax on your car instead. It gets worse too, since people out here are generally not all that friendly citizens will actually call in cars that don't have tax papers in their car. The place I was working for is the one that fronts those calls and puts out a report on it. And you would think it would be rare but it's not they get dozens of calls a day from citizens reporting cars not legal to drive. The procedure for one of these reports is pretty nuts and wouldn't be a lot of fun to deal with. There's a guy they call "The Boot Guy" and wouldn't even tell me his name due to numerous threats on his life. When one of these reports is received he goes out at night and puts boots on the cars (big metal clamp on your tire). You then have 24 hours to come in to City Council and prove that you have tax papers. If successful they will remove the boot and you're good to go. If you don't in 24 hours they return and tow your car to impound and you have to pay £200 to get it back plus they won't give it back till you go purchase tax papers and bring them in to prove you did go get them. Good stuff, lesson here... pay your taxes.
We also got talking about a bunch of new terms they have out here like they call sidewalks - pavement. She was so confused when I mentioned something saying sidewalks. She just looked at me funny and confused. So I did the handicap point at the sidewalk and say "those things" and she laughed and said there called pavement. She then went on to explain the sides of the roads are called gulley's and the "eavesdrops" are called gutters. We also chatted about the different pronunciations of towns and how we are always saying them wrong. I had already mentioned Bicester or "Bista" has its pronounced and she said she was surprised I got that one right. I laughed and said not at first we didn't and then went over a bunch of other places we had already been corrected on.
It was a really good chat and very fun to talk to someone who found me as funny as I find these Brits and all there crazy terms. We were back and forth all the differences and me asking all sorts of what would probably seem like stupid questions to most but it was a good learning experience and who better than somebody who works for the City Of Oxford and grew up here.
When we got back to the office it was more mayhem and apparently by 5:00 when I was to go home they had 89 drops calls meaning the call volume was so high that people were hanging up. The girls hadn't got any work done and been answering phones all day. I started to think this over more and made the decision that this was not a job I wanted to get stuck in. It would very high stress and endless heaps of work. I also didn't really feel like being the punching bag for people mad about not having their garbage picked up. So Tuesday morning I called in and said I wouldn't be returning making the decision to keep looking for work as I could find something better. A decision I would regret later as Champion has been unable to find me any work since then.
So I'm still a bum with no job but it has actually been slightly useful as we still had a lot of loose ends to tie up and me being home during the day has allowed me to make all the phone calls and trips downtown and other places to get things wrapped up. But I do need to find something soon as most of the loose ends are now tied up and I'm getting broke.
