A week of ups and downs, but mostly downs (Dec 8-11)

(I should preface this by clarifying that I figured out over the Dec 12-14 weekend that some of my perhaps hyper-emotional reactions to the happenings of the week were undoubtedly due to a certain time of the month for women when hormones tend to produce hyper-emotional reactions.  With everything else going on, I had lost track of time and was unaware of what was happening until the evidence was at hand.)

My first full week at my new job was less than ideal.  My position has been needed for months, and now that I'm on board, it feels like everybody needs something and like I'm being pulled in a million directions.  Everyone is really nice, but the work stress is piling up quickly.

I discovered that the location of my temporary apartment is terrible for the commute to Runcorn.  Under normal conditions, the commute should be ~30 miles and 35 minutes.  During Rush Hour, it takes over an hour due to traffic and road construction.  Add in the time it takes to walk to the parking garage, pay for the parking and exit the structure, and it's up to an hour and a half.  It doesn't really matter when I leave either.  I tried leaving at 6:45 am one day, and it still took forever.  Starting out your day wishing you had a flash of whiskey in your purse to take a nip by the time you get to the plant is not a good start to a work day.

The best part of Monday (8 Dec) was trying Booth's market, which is walking distance from my temporary apartment.  It's an upscale food market with regular groceries but also wine, craft beer, prepared foods, etc.  I was happy to find a ready-to-cook meal of bacon loin encrusted with panko crumbs, mustard and other yummy goodness.  Yes, I said bacon loin.  It was basically a really thick slice of that meaty, salted pork cut the English call bacon.  Oh my goodness, it was SO delicious.  That combined with some quickly cooked green beans and broccolini, and I had a meal in 30 minutes.  Booth's is one of the best parts about the temporary apartment.  Being able to pop in after work and then walk back to my apartment with the groceries is wonderful.

Tuesday (9 Dec) I had a really unpleasant day.  I started the day by trying (unsuccessfully) to open a bank account.  Being an American with no National Insurance number, no credit history in the country, renting a property and no telephone number doesn't make things easy.  At least we figured out exactly what documentation would be acceptable to be allowed to open an account, and I was able to make an appointment for Thursday afternoon.  At the plant, when I finally got to sit down with my Human Resources Manager to cover payroll and benefits stuff, everything was confusing and all messed up.  They hadn't been able to set up my payroll, so they estimated everything for December in order to try to ensure I got paid, and they estimated a tax withholding of 52%, which had me struggling to maintain some semblance of composure.  I then got handed a large packet of health insurance stuff, which really set me off, because it had all of this information about monthly costs and out-of-pocket expenses that I was not expecting.  So Tuesday night was my first meltdown of the week.  Fortunately, the meltdown did not start until my drive home, so at least I was able to lose it in private.

Wednesday (10 Dec) was a less stressful day.  My HR Manager gave me the "UK Health Care for Dummies" explanation of my different health care options, which made me feel better.  I can stay 100% under the National Health System plan and do nothing else, and that is all covered by the taxes.  Because of my income level, I will have to pay for my prescriptions, but she said that would normally be £8.  Also, the NHS does not cover vision or dental, so that will all be out of pocket.  I also have the option to accept a private health care plan (SimplyHealth) which is only available to employees of a certain job band or higher, and that is paid for entirely by the company, but it is considered a taxable benefit of £701/year.  That is an alternative to the NHS if I don't like the wait times.  So for major emergencies, I'd use the NHS, but if I needed say a hip replacement (anything considered a non-urgent treatment), I might choose to go through SimplyHealth private insurance in order to have that done faster.  The last option is the health cash plan, which is offered to all employees regardless of job band.  That's the one that has a monthly payroll deduction, and it reimburses you for out-of-pocket medical expenses, including vision and dental.  So if I want any kind of vision or dental "coverage", I'd need to sign up for the health cash plan.  What I need to figure out is if I'll save money with the cash plan (or maybe just have an easier time budgeting) versus just paying for vision and dental costs out of pocket.

The best thing about the health plan options is that there is no annual enrollment period and I don't have to wait to have a "qualifying life event" to sign up for them.  I can try just the NHS for starters and add the other plans on whenever I want to.  I figure I will go ahead and take the SimplyHealth private care option no matter what, because that doesn't cost me anything out of pocket.  I can decide later on whether or not the cash plan with a monthly cost makes sense for me or not.

The big success for Thursday (11 Dec) was finally being able to open up a bank account.  I think a rectal exam would have been easier than what I had to go through to get a basic bank account with a £500 line of credit.  I mean, it got personal.  But in the end, I got the account, and I cannot fault the banker who helped me.  He was super-nice, friendly and great about explaining everything.  In the end, I had to kick myself, because he said if I had just opened up an account with HSBC America before moving over, there would have been no problem whatsoever in transferring my account.  Well, I wish I'd know that *before* I came over!

I made a shopping stop at Tesco before driving back up to Salford.  Shopping continues to be a learning experience.  This time, I needed to pick up some supplies to make coffee in the apartment.  "Half-and-Half" as we know it in the US doesn't appear to exist here.  Instead, I had to choose from a dizzying array of creams -- single cream, double cream, whipped cream, clotted cream, etc.  I finally settled on single cream as being the closest approximation to what I typically would use for coffee in the US, but it is much thicker and creamier than Half-and-Half.  It also has to be used up within 3 days of opening.

My Quays apartment doesn't have a coffee maker, just a kettle.  So I decided to go with instant coffee, since I haven't figured out about buying a coffee maker yet.  Fortunately, I found a 24 serving tin of Starbucks Via coffee.  I've actually been so happy with it, I might not buy a coffee maker at all.  Maybe I'll just abide with an electric kettle and instant.  At 220 volts, those electric kettles boil water faster than you can prep the mug, and the water is so hot, you have to wait a few minutes before you can add the cream and take a sip.

RE: the electricity.  At first, I was finding the switches on all of the plugs annoying.  Not only do you need to ensure something is plugged in, you need to ensure the socket is switched on.  However, thinking about it, I realize that with 220-240 volts, having a live, empty socket is a real hazard.  The on/off switches make a lot more sense when you think about the safety aspect that way.

(Which plug is on, and which one is off?  At least the ones at our plant have a red color bar on them to let you know when they are hot.)

Thursday night I made my first attempt at doing some laundry.  It's a combination washer/dryer, and the controls were as comprehensible to me as hieroglyphics.

I finally figured out the washer part on my own, but I needed to call the lady at the front desk to come up to help me with the dryer part.  The dryer took FOREVER, too.  Maybe I just haven't figured it out right yet, but I had to do multiple drying cycles to finally get everything dry.

The laundry machine was an exercise in frustration for me.  At least Mona seemed to enjoy it.  Kitty TV.

Thursday night ended with my getting an unhelpful email from Deloitte about my tax situation which precipitated another meltdown.  When I worked in Mexico, Deloitte was wonderful, but in this case, they have been worse than worthless.  They provided me with bad information and then told me that I should have know the information they sent me was incorrect.  When I asked some questions, I was told they needed to get permission from my company before they could respond to me.  I ended Thursday night having to do my own estimated tax and payroll calculations to try to make sure my December paycheck was going to be somewhat close to accurate as opposed to the 52% withholding they had set up.  Then I finished off an open bottle of wine, because I was upset.  I went to bed miserable, frustrated and angry.