Life in London
It’s been three and a half weeks since I moved out of Plymouth, and two and a half since I started work at Mendeley, so I thought I’d post an update.
Work’s been interesting; as well as web development (which is my primary role, but not really something I want to do forever), I’ve been learning the server and network setup so that I can do some sysadmin work too (and stand in for our sysadmin when he’s on holiday, like he is this week). As part of that, it’s also possible I’ll end up writing Java for the datamining team; again, not something I necessarily want to do long-term, but improving my Java would be useful, I think, if only so that i can add it to the list of languages I’m comfortable coding in.
I’ve been reading a hell of a lot; it’s 35 minutes each way on the Tube to work, so I’ve had a lot of time with not much else to do. I’m half-way through my fourth book since moving; first was The Gathering Storm, the latest book in the Wheel of Time series. I was expecting it to be fairly mediocre, as the original author (Robert Jordan) died and a new author (Brandon Sanderson) was brought in to finish the series. However, it’s actually bloody good; probably better than a few of the previous books (towards the end, the series was starting to drag, in my opinion). So, based on that, I’ve been reading Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, which is again rather good. It has an original take on magic, plus some very clever plot twists. Also, Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road is awesome. I could live there.
At the moment I’m living near Grange Hill tube station, which means it’s a direct train to work with only a couple of minutes walking, but it’s a little inconvenient to be so far out (especially in the evening, when it can sometimes be nearly 8pm before I get home). This place is only temporary, though, so (hopefully!) next month I’ll be moving to Hackney, which will be within cycling distance of work (and walking distance, at a push — it’s only four miles), though not so great for public transport.
Hopefully at some point I’ll get around to going along to the local LUG and Python/Ruby groups, etc., but mostly so far I’ve been too lazy. I did go to a goth night with Loupie a couple of weekends ago, which was fun (it’s not often that I go out somewhere that actually plays decent music…).