Working on Thanksgiving Day :-(

My stuff from the US arrives tomorrow. I'll be home to receive it.
Work days are long here in England. They start later and stay later. It's dark when I leave in the morning and dark when I return at night. That will change soon. After today, I won't be giving a ride to another worker from the US, so that drop off point won't be part of my travels. It's been nice having someone to "debrief" with at the end of each day. She's getting additional driving training tomorrow and then will be in her own car.

My relocation details have worked out pretty smoothly. A new friend from Nigeria by way of NYC, had a horrendous day today - she got on the wrong train and then the bus missed her stop. She got to work 3 hours late! I felt so bad for her. She's also having problems with other arrangements that impact her access to housing at the moment. I was reminded how fortunate I was that everything has gone mostly as scheduled. I already have a place of my own. I had enough money to cover my initial housing expenses. I have my banking all worked out. My things are arriving tomorrow. I have been very fortunate. All I could do for my friend was listen and help her get to the bus station at the end of the day. She has to take a train trip to London tomorrow to get things straightened out.

US Social Workers, drool over this: we have lots of time off. Leave days are encouraged! If you are out sick here, you don't need a doctor's note until you have taken 7 days off. From day 1, we have at least 10 days "annual leave" time coming. I don't think sick days are taken out of that, but I could be wrong. The total amount of annual leave is around 6 weeks, I think. Our health care is "free" and prescriptions are 7.50 GBP, no matter what they are.

If we car pool, we get additional mileage for each person we take along. This encourages people to pool. For example, if you take one coworker in your car, you get double the mileage rate. If you take 3, you get triple the rate, and so on. How smart is that? Also, ECC pays 2/3 of the cost of a lease car that they provide to us, since our work requires that we drive.

In the other column, we pay for a license to have a television. It's around 125 GBP per year. If you rent a place, you pay a tax each month on your rent. On the other hand, broadband/digital tv/phone package is less than 30 GBP per month.

I have met some wonderful people in our office, on the Permanency 2 Team in Basildon. Very friendly, very helpful, lots of laughter. It's the most diverse workforce I could imagine. We have people from Nigeria, Sweden, West Indies, Australia, the US, and of course, Essex, all on our team! I spent time with our team manager today while she gave us an overview of the work. The court proceedings should prove interesting. There are 3 levels of court proceedings; Family Court in front of a Magistrate, County Court in front of a Judge, then the High Court, in front of a Judge who is also a Lord or Lady. Which court the case is heard in depends on the complexity of the case. I'll be in court in County Court to observe on Friday. I'll be looking for those traditional powdered wigs.

I have a few cases to start studying. I also have tons of training scheduled, including computer record-keeping training. Here, it's called SWIFT. Almost obsolete, it will be changing early in the new year. A new system will take its place. Sound familiar, US Social Workers?

It occurred to me on the way home from work that we Americans will be working on Thanksgiving Day. It's not a holiday here. I've decided we will have to take in pumpkin pie and turkey sandwiches and wish one another a Happy Thanksgiving, and share a little celebration with our English, Nigerian, West Indian and Australian friends. We'll be thinking of family and friends back home sitting down to a roasted turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and all the other goodies. We'll miss you all that day. Eat a drumstick for me!