There is a whole new system that I am entering. The job is essentially the same anywhere you go it is all the things that surround it that differs. The way that the administrative apparatus keeps track and the way that safety is assured. There are all those obscure legal regulations that apply to a few and those that apply to everyone that are often taken for granted. The system on the news is creaking under the strain of all the services that it must provide yet it is constrained by the funding and the regulations that have only multiplied through time. In order for me to have a good start I must get through all the tests.

Before I left I knew I would have a day like this. A whole day spent in front of the screen reading extremely dry language with poor spelling in places trying to understand what is being said and then taking the test that is nothing like .pdf I just read in preparation for the quiz. The questions are almost laughable in their ease. Why then do I spend the time reading these pages? I do like to be ready for the quiz and I do find some of the info interesting and it soon will be applicable to me as an agent in this system. In Canada we don’t have this type of system where all employees are required to refresh certain knowledge. There is a move for some things to be refreshed and in some of these areas it is a welcome sign.

The weather outside is a dreary cloudy affair. There is a blustery wind that is blowing in from the south according to the weatherman but it’s hard for me to tell. I took a short excursion out of the house in order to get some breakfast. It’s a good thing that I did as checking through my email I discovered an urgent matter for me to attend to. I needed to send out a signed form to the building manager where I will be staying. Where would I find a place to print, scan, and email the form back again? I remembered a shop specialising in computer services and went in. The matter was quickly resolved and I was kinda happy that this important matter was resolved. It would have sucked to show up there without any keys for me to pick up. I would have been stuck until the next morning sleeping rough curled up around my suitcase shivering in the cold.

The news has been my constant companion throughout the day. The news cycle has been talking about the UN decision regarding Assange and his unlawful detainment inside the Ecuadorian embassy. I remember when he first went into it and made a speech regarding his position. I was there with the throngs enjoying the novelty of the occasion and on this day it was his next appearance outside lauding the decision as a victory that is hollow as he remains inside cowering from the serious allegations against him in Sweden. His fear is extradition to the US where the revelations that he made about the government have already seen one person jailed indefinitely for the information that was revealed. The other major topic under discussion has been the precarious position that exists between the UK and the rest of Europe. There is a negotiation going on that will weigh in heavily on a referendum that may determine the future of the Union. The news is so different from what exists in North America.

I am grateful for technology as it allowed us to see each other and hear each others voices. We talked through your lunch break as you sat in your office and I sat in mine. The connection has been good to us only sometimes had your face become pixellated due to excessive motion or a squeeze on bandwidth. It made missing you a bit easier, it has only been a few days. In time it will get a bit easier but now with the way things are all that time on my hands enters my mind.