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Published: September 23rd 2008
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Day 84
We left the excitement of London for Birmingham. Birmingham is approximently 1.5hrs from London and the second biggest city in England, once considered the workhorse of the world, it has a distinctly industrial appearance but since been somewhat transformed by architectual wonders such as the Bullring and the Mailbox, and it has more channels than Venice! With backpacks stuffed to the brim and overnight bags over our shoulders we literally stumbled to the train station and arrived in Birmingham a couple hours later. After checking in to Central Backpackers we set out to orientate ourselves and most importantly searching the net to find somewhere to live. We organised some viewings for the next day and chilled out at our very cool backpackers playing Nintendo Wii and watching movies, whilst enjoying the luxuries of cheese on toast for dinner with funds beginning to run low.
Day 85
With viewings organised for late morning we set out to find our new work places to avoid any hassles on our first day. One bus to Carly’s was easy as long as we didn’t stay there long enough to make judgement on my potential clientele at Balsall Heath Health Care centre.
Next stop was Sandwell Hospital at West Bromich, a train and tram later and we still needed to get a bus so we cut our trip short to get back for our first viewing. After four viewings with a weird guy who had an uncanny resemblance to Lurch from the Adams family, we rushed to our next viewing and fell in love with a small apartment viewed privately. We were stoked to have sorted out our accommodation and organised to move in the following day(or so we thought)....
Day 86
Our first Saturday and we had our compulsory Reed Training Day( to take us through the standard OH & S policies, Reed Requirements and Interview). After an action packed day we were excited at the prospect of moving into our own place and finally unpacking our backpacks, we headed back to the Hostel to pack up only for our potential landlord to inform us she was having difficulty with her rental agency and we couldn’t move in… shattered.
Day 87
Day one of work… we were both up bright and early to ensure we weren’t late for our first day. Carly’s morning involved a cruisy one-on-one computer training,
then to Balsall Health with a full list of patients, no notes or handover, no orientation and barely time for lunch (those of you who know me well no I don’t do well without food!). But fortunately I bluffed my way through (and continue too).
Most of Carly's patients are Indian or Pakistani, middle aged, overweight, English is there second language if they are able to speak English at all but all share the same complaint "too much pain" generally all over their body!
Meanwhile Jez over at West Bromich, had a formal orientation and a day of watching the other physio’s. His weekly timetable consisted of 2.5 days in the Hydro Pool… talk about bludge!
We made it back to the backpackers, exhausted from our first day back in the working world, but with our apartment lady failing to answer our phone calls it was time to bite the bullet and get back on the house hunt or risk being stuck at the backpackers for ever!
Day 88
It didn’t take long before we were back in the working mode, generously one of the physio's offered to take us in whilst we were house hunting as she had
a spare room! So we moved into Vicky’s the following night and was treated to an amazing roast chicken dinner and a real soft bed. Enjoying the best undisturbed sleep in weeks!
We finally found a place that we could move in immediately, for a short term lease, without UK references, that was relatively easy for us both to get to our respective workplaces, within budget and close to public transport, so we arranged to move in Friday.
Despite our Estate agent arranging to pick us up, he rang us explaining his car had broken down… here we go again we thought, but we got a taxi and he met us there to sign the papers and finally move in with a single throw rug on the bed, two coffee cups complimentary of Reed and a couple dirty backpacks.
We concluded our week back in the working world with an amazing Lupe Fiasco concert at the Carling Academy.
The rest of the weekend was spent furnishing our spacious one bedroom apartment with the cheapest bare essentials which included a TV (Even this took two goes as the first one we bought home didn’t work and we had to take
it back and exchange it for another), plastic plates, and a single pot and pan. Carly struggled to operate the washing machine with one load getting washed at least twice and wandering around our new neighbourhood of the Mailbox, the canels, Brindley Place and the Bullring.
Before we knew it the weekend was over and it was back to work!
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