Day 3: Slough meaning bad not Slough meaning good

Well, it had to happen -- time to go to the office and do some actual work.

The commute looks like this: Walk, ride, walk, ride, walk. Elapsed time: 50 minutes. Elapsed distance: About 2800 steps (thanks to my handy-dandy Concur pedometer!)

Let me say that Slough (rhymes with "allow") isn't exactly the loveliest part of England. If we were in Seattle we'd rather be in Rainier Beach at 3am than Slough at 5pm. If that makes no sense to you, think of some god-awful town and wish that you lived there instead of where you do. That's what I imagine the residents of Slough think about every day of their lives.

In fact, Slough's reputation is so bad that the locals tried to get the name of the town changed. The joke is that they wanted to call it "North, North Windsor", because Windsor is where the Queen lives and it's quite expensive to live in Windsor. But no dice. You can't take the Slough out of Slough, so the name stayed.

The office itself is quite cool though. Nice accommodations, plenty of space, and very friendly people. It's a real good bunch of folks here. I think Graham Knight has to be the funniest guy I've met, although Gareth Vincent and Barry Padgett are right up there. I really enjoy talking to everyone, and I could go on and on about how welcoming everyone is. I could name everyone individually and thank them, but it would take forever. I'll just give a big shout out to everyone in the UK office for being so welcoming - it's really appreciated and hasn't gone unnoticed. Thank you!

It's true what they say about no food in Slough though. I pretty much have to buy a sandwich at the local grocery store and carry it with me to work, otherwise I'm limited to a few small restaurants and a ten minute walk each way to get to them. Key piece of advice to walking in Slough -- don't make eye contact with the locals. Apparently doing so is like saying "I'd be absolutely delighted if you'd take my wallet". Okay, that's a little harsh -- in the daylight Slough is perfectly safe... as long as you're indoors.

I had plenty of work to do from the moment I sat down. Craig Dawson (RSE Primaries) had me helping out on a Cliqbook RFP and joining him for a discovery call with BCD Europe. Andrew Foster (Team Lead, Nationals Pre-Sales UK) and I had a chat about his plans for my month (basically, train train train the SSC's, and help out on demos whenever possible). Daffyd Llewellen (Manager, Majors RSE's) asked if I could give a few days of training to his two brand new RSE's, and Mark Law (Director, Business Development) tapped me for a demo on Thursday to AMEX in Italy. There's seriously SO MUCH work to do here, I'm not sure a month will cover it all.

Bringing my big, expensive camera to Slough is not the best idea, so here are some iPhone pics of the office:

The Slough Lounge.

The view of Slough from the office.

Okay, that's about it for tonight. Too tired to write any more. Great day though, I'm really going to enjoy working here. It's an honor, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity.