The new job has one outstanding benefit which eclipses any other: it’s in Center City. Not only does this reduce the commute-stress by 1000SCUM, but it means that a plethora of excellent eateries and boozers are within walking distance from my desk. London friends may wonder why this is notable, but since moving here thus far all lunch options worth mentioning have required a friend with a car. In fairness this has led to many enjoyable lunches in the past; but being able to walk to an excellent sandwich/dosa/falaffel shop etc on my own feels very liberating.
Techwise I’m still out of my comfort zone, but as long as my line-manager manages to deal with my foibles until they are worked out, I’m quite happy. The company makes a product that I like and the entire ethos of the company is anti-printing so, as you may have guessed, I’m very happy about that.
Yesterday a friend from the previous job, Sudatta, arranged a do for a bunch of (ex-)workmates at her house. After my first week at the new job it was really wonderful to hang out with friends from the “old place”. It’s difficult to remember what it feels like to start a new job, and in general the whole thing sucks. It probably felt like that at the last place to begin with but after 3-4 years there the memory is of a warm, happy, family environment. Leaving wasn’t fun, and so it was really bloody great to see people again, especially with beer, wine and astonishing home-made Indian food. Thanks Sudatta (and family).
Objective-C development is proving to be as enjoyable as I’d hoped, even though I am still rusty as fuck. Even though it’s extremely low-level at core, the dev tools allow a level of control that, if used correctly, can get help rid of 99.9% of C-style problems while allowing some serious low-level action.
Apart from watching large chunks of The Martian Chronicles and other good stuff today, I also spent an hour or so talking to the family in England which is always lovely. On this occasion little Lily not only clapped her hands in time with “If you’re happy and you know it”, but she was also introduced to Leo.
Nighty night.