'Look Right, then Left'
Exactly two weeks ago today, I was finding myself boarding a flight to the UK for the first time,where everything is backwards because they drive on the left hand side and the steering wheel is on the right.
My first week in the UK was all over the place. My Monday morning began with me taking the bus, walking to work and just hoping that the pictures of the map I took on my phone would get me to work (thankfully, they did). Introductions were made but the all over the place stuff started the next day when I took the train to Manchester to attend the Chartered Institute of Housing conference. To say I felt a bit nervous about making my way around a conference full of housing professionals is an understatement. On the Tuesday and Wednesday I attended the conference, I sat in a number of sessions jotting down notes hoping I’d finally understand what the heck ‘the procurement process in the housing sector’ meant.
Fast forward to Thursday, I found myself sitting in between of John and Neil, on one of ‘Bulky Bob’s’ trucks with my safety shoes and gloves on. Here we drove around Liverpool picking up furniture from people’s houses to later take it back so that it can either be recycled or sold at ‘ Bulky Bob’s Furniture World’ to low-income families.
Friday was hands down my favourite day of the week, and not only because it was the beginning of the weekend. I found myself laughing all day on an FRC truck, but this time with Charlie and Steve who gave me the best tour of Liverpool for FREE! We drove past Penny Lane, The Albert Dock, and the rivalries of the city: Everton & Liverpool FC stadiums. Even though it rained, it didn’t bring my mood down with the sarcasm constantly flying around between the three of us.
Though my ‘tour’ was fun, the motive for the driving was what made that Friday so special. We were delivering furniture and household appliances to families in need. Here I got to see the smile on people’s faces as they received their things and heard the happiness in their voices when they would tell me how happy and relieved they were when they got the call saying they would be getting these things. We were only the ones delivering the furniture but that itself was still making a huge impact on these families. It’s in times like these when you realize that the smallest things in life do matter.
Fast forward once again a week later. I have just finished my second week with FRC Group and the welcoming environment here is the kind of environment I want to find myself in, in the future. The group of people who work there are grounded on the core values of the business and have a passion for making a difference. It may have only been two weeks since I’ve started but I can see myself being a lot more confident and I’m happy to be finally settled in Liverpool. I now know the basics of procurement, how to get to Primark and to Liverpool Lime Street, which I will be making my way to in a few hours to hop on a train and explore London for the first time.
