Tuesday 5-7 UK Day 1

I woke, got ready for the office, headed to the Pret store for breakfast, some drink and fruit, then headed to the office. As I got inside, I was escorted to the 4th floor then let out. It was 7:30AM and nobody was there, I roamed around and started yelling anyone here. I finally found someone, Steve, he indicated that I was very early and nobody shows up for an hour or so. I took me on a brief tour, kitchen area and to the conference room for my stay that day. Around 8ish more people rolled in, then was meet by Jason and he showed my around a bit. Later I got introduce to the ops tea, Roy, Helen, Mellissa and Nic, and Chris from GWP US arrived too. We were on the conference line all day working with the Ops, Mutual Fund team all day, a few minor issues, issues were identified and resolved in a timely manner. I was happy that I could contribute a little too. The Ops team was a little behind due to an issues that needed 20 message resubmitted, so I was pretty hectic during their cut-off times, only one eroded message that didn’t make it. Had a late lunch, again headed to the local convenience store, EAT and PRET. All in all a very successfully day. Left the office a bit late after talking to my onsite teams, so I returned to the hotel and took a trip to the Buckingham palace, it was a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel. You had to go through this park, and it was really nice out. Lots of picnickers, rugby, soccer, aerobic classes, lots of people enjoying the weather and having fun. I had to walk loops around the house and crossed many major roads but finally got in front of the palace, retro guards were in place and some doing some walking drills, changing of the guards happens at 11:30 AM. Then I found the real guars with automatic guards, well suited for some action. Walked back, hit some shops and dinner, then back to the hotel for an early night. It was a long day.


Walking the roads in UK was a bit different as the driving is on the opposite side as US, but each intersection, it was clearly marked on the road, look left, cars approaching from the right. This was extremely helpful to maneuverer the walking traffic and not getting hit by an oncoming car. This town and country is growing on me after a down day yesterday – not bad at all