Hello all, well it is Sunday and I am finally going to update you on my new work life. It looks like we are doing more touristy things than actually working. My first week I spent at 1CP (it sounds like an acronym from Star Track but it is actully 1 Churchill Place which is the address of Barclays headquarters) I met a lot of key people I will be working with and I am getting brought up to speed about how things are done in the UK. Is is very different here in the banking world.
When people want to pay their bills they actually bring them to the bank and we process them here. We also do all of our own check processing at each branch so there is much more work expected from our tellers then in the United States, it is very interesting.

I spent this last week meeting with some of my new support staff as well as attending a couple of meetings on customer service. It has become pretty clear that even though I am around the world banking is banking and except for a few differences we all deal with the same issues.

The big difference here is the press which is pretty interesting. They can pretty much report what they want with out any proof of what they are saying so anytime there are rumors out there they can report it as if it were fact. It feels really strange and you really have to take everything you read and hear with a grain of salt as it might not be true.

I have my first direct report meeting with my Area Directors next week. I have met 3 of them and they all seem very nice. My Area Performance manager is awesome, he has been holding things together until I was able to arrive so for the past 2 to 3 months he has been doing dual roles and doing a great job. I still don't have e-mail, lap top or a blackberry but those should be here next week. I guess I should be careful not to want that too soon as I know I will be inundated with e-mail once I get hooked up.

We are trying to get hooked up for our permanent residence in Guildford, hope to have that nailed down next week as well so Phil can then fly home and get things ready to be shipped.

Weather is starting to get cold, I am bundling in coat, scarves and gloves daily now. We miss everyone and our nice warm weather but we are making the most of this adventure.