Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Day 3 : House hunt

Hey,

Today we went househunting with the Manpower representatives. They were supposed to pick us up at 10.15am coz at 10.30am we had an appointment at a real estate agency but they only picked us up at 10.30am so we missed the first appointment.

The flats (mostly 2 bedrooms) we saw were not bad but they ask a lot of money for it just because it is situated in Greenock. Online, I saw 3 and 4 bedroom flats for the same price in another town, called Paisley (which sounds much nicer I think) ;o)

There are 6 girls in my group and so Eva (other belgian girl), the 2 danish girls and me are thinking about sharing.
We found online a very nice house/villa for a very reasonable price (if you include the council tax and monthly costs and then split it by 4, it would be around 500 per person) There's a fifth bedroom in case someone else would like to share or when we have visitors, they'll have a place to sleep ;o) Take a look at the link here : http://www.s1rental.com/renting/search/200710011023636137.shtml I already called the agency to ask about the council tax. They'll call me back today and then we'll ask for an appointment to go look at it.

It is close to Paisley Gilmour Street Railway Station which is what we need to get to IBM. The train trip would take about 25min and we get £50 discount on the season ticket coz we work at IBM.

After the househunt, the Manpower ladies took us for lunch. It was actually really funny coz we were driving in the bus and I told Eva that there was a restaurant which had a banner "eat for free" so I joked about it and said that we would probably be eating there. 2 seconds later, the bus stopped and we had to get out to go eat there LOL

The food was very nice, I had a steak pie which is what we call in Belgium "stoofvlees" but you get the sandwich of a "worstenbroodje" on top of it. There were some mashed potatoes with spring onions and it was very nice.

After that, they dropped us at the mall and we went looking around. I found a Clarks store, where I found some very nice shoes but I haven't bought them coz there's no room in my suit case and when we move, we have to find our own transportation and all so if we go by bus, I'll have to carry my own suitcase...

Then we came back to the Campus and searched further online for some nice flats/houses. And now I'm going to buy some dinner...

Enjoy your evening and see you next time!

Cheer(i)o !!!

Kjell

Day 3 Scotland : Morning walk

Good morning everyone,

Start of day 3 : It's 9am and I just got back from a morning walk along the water.

Take a look at the pictures I made...

Greetz

Kjell

















Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Day 2 in Scotland

Hello Hello,

Look at these pictures. They've been taken from my room, though it was a bit misty...

This is looking out my window to the left

This is looking out my window to the right

This is looking out my window straight ahead

This is looking out my window straight down

Day 2 was nice, met some more people in my group : another belgian girl, 4 dutch people, 2 danish girls, 1 norwegian guy and 1 swedish guy, who's name also is Kjell :D

Opened a bank account, visited the IBM plant to fill in the last of papers.
Had the afternoon free so went through town.
Found some nice shops with very cheap prices and some of the shops are open 24/24 7/7

Tonight I had indian food for dinner : Chicken Makhani Curry with naan bread, basmati rice and chickpea curry. It was very nice and a lot for only £7.99 ;o)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow coz then we'll be looking at flats and houses. They'll pick us up at 10.15am and after visiting the houses, we'll all go for lunch.

Then in the afternoon we'll be free again so I'm thinking about making some pictures of the nice surroundings.

I'll let you know how it went...

Take care !

Kjell

Monday, September 28, 2009

Scotland

Hi everyone,

For those who don't know yet, I'm not in India.

I just arrived today in Greenock, Scotland.

I'll be working as "call adviser" for IBM and I'll be staying here for at least 18 months.

I'll try to keep you guys up-to-date more often...

Enjoy your day ! Take care !

Greetz

Kjell