Jobs, schools and home

Today I went for 2 job interviews, re-visited my top pick for school and dropped in to a few real estate agents to check out the rental situation. The first interview was with Regent Inns who own the Walkabout Pubs along with others. It was for a full time position and they were not offering much money. They were very impressed. I know this as they told me so many times. They didn't even ask me any technical questions as they thought I probably knew too much. We finished up with them off to see how much money they could come up with. I heard back in the afternoon from the agency that they believed I was too overqualified and would not stick around if I got the job. With the money they were offering, they were right.

The second interview was at 1 and I arrived in town with time to spare. The only business shirts I had bought were striped and I had no tie to go with it. For the first interview I had just worn a mis-matched ensemble, but I was serious about the BDO interview, so I went into a shop and bought a solid color shirt, changed into it and then went for the interview.

The interview went well and the role sounds like a lot of fun. Good money, good location and good money. What more can I ask? Sounds too good to be true, so I probably will not get it.

After that I headed to the Docklands area and timed my trip to the Cubbit Junior School. Took my about 40 minutes to get from work to the school. In peak hour would probably take me a little longer. At the school I was met by the Head Mistress who gave me a much better welcome than the last visit. After telling me that her school had been in rated in the top 1% of London schools, she asked me to come back tomorrow so that she can give me a proper tour and said that there was a 99.9% chance I will get a place. Excellent news.

I then walked down to the Mudchute Farm who handle the after school care. My initial impression was not great, but once I spoke to one of the carers, I was very impressed. The farm includes 31 acres of farm land including many animals. The after hours centre also have their own field for activities that is used exclusively by them. At 8 pound a day, I thought this was an excellent centre.

I then visited the real estates in the area enquiring about places to lay my head. Funny how a suit can get you a better deal here. I went into one place enquiring about a place I had seen on the web and the guy said it was not my sort of place. Apparently it was in a pretty rough apartment block. He said he had one coming up but had not seen inside it. Then the owner of this un-seen apartment walked in. She was very nice and told me about the area and the school as she had attended it herself.

Tomorrow I will go back to the school for the royal tour and am booked in with 4 real estate agents to see their properties. I will not say yes to a property until I have secured employment but it feels good knowing that the school at least is now sorted out.