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The Sir William Siemens Square in Frimley (formerly Frimley Square) – that’s the place where my employer took up residence for his UK headquarter back in 2007. The typical Siemens policy “far outside where it’s cheap” was taken into account once more – with all advantages and disadvantages. Despite perfect country idyll and therefore plenty of space, there is a legal parking rate of the car parks directly besides the office that aren’t allowed to raise. This regulation that should strengthen the public transportation would make sense – would there be any public transportation. :) So more parking space is rented offside (not legaly prohibited) and people are getting transfered to the office by private buses. So every poor fellow who isn’t important enough and/or forgot to book his space (what has to be done daily and isn’t possible for more than one day per booking) has 30 minutes more apart from his/her family – the time to actually book it in the intranet not included. As terrific as complicated – the system could almost be German. Altogether: I need to discuss my admittance every day again, because my German numberplate isn’t recognized by the camera. And the intercom-bell obviously is – as usual in England – on the right side of the car. ;) And that’s how my job started…
However, once on the office area, everything feels good. Even very good. A nice welcome, quick but good briefing, team introduction, interesing airport project and in addition nice conveniences like modern offices with a nice plaza in between, Starbucks, free tea, free gym and a modern restaurant in Jamie Oliver style. Good preconditions for spending 8 month.
My personal objective was to move as close as possible to the City of London. The promised company-sided relocation service turned out to be just financial support. The searching of accomendations I needed to do alone. And also because of that reason it took me a while. After 14 days in the Casa hotel I needed a change and this change I found in the form of a colleague-recommendation. A nice and pleasant international shared flat with Elisa (GER), Zue (Malaysia), Christopher (GER) and Pavol (Slovakia) – and just 300 metres distance to the office. Ideal to buy some time to take a closer look to London’s apartment market in a more relaxed way. And after a while (quite A while of more or less more than a month) I finally found the perfect flat in Richmond…
