Settling into St Andrews University

Lloyd gave his first seminar on Monday morning at 11.00am. He had been a little concerned that jet-lag might impact on his ability to deliver the material, after hearing similar accounts of problems of this sort from colleagues back in Melbourne. However, in the event, everything went fine.

Between this class and a seminar Lloyd was attending at 4.30pm, we were introduced to the administrative assistant for Arché, who showed him to his room in the Arché building. Accessing this building necessitates a series of button-pushes, and is a little difficult to execute accurately on the first attempt. Lloyd was provided with a temporary network password on Monday, but yesterday, he received his University of St Andrews staff card, email address, library access and permanent network access. The network access allows Lloyd to print from his room to an extremely fast laser printer.

We both have spent quite a bit of time at HR as well. Before leaving Melbourne we received documents about salary payments that seemed to not match the contract. Eventually yesterday the cause of the discrepancy was resolved and (with a bit of luck) Lloyd should get paid next week before I leave to head south.

One of the hardest things seems to have been to get a milkman to deliver milk as I had arranged before leaving Australia. The problem is definitely exacerbated by the house being accessed via a narrow alley. There is a gate at the end of the alley with the name of the house 'Cobwebs' written on it.

Milk was due to come for the first time on Monday morning. I looked in the alley and outside on the pavement at the other end of the alley, but there was no sign of it. I rang the dairy and the person with whom I had been in email contact answered. She was very apologetic and offered to deliver it on Tuesday - even though the delivery days are Monday and Thursday. I explained about the alley to her. Tuesday morning, I started the milk search again. I eventually tracked our two pints up on the top of a set of steps next door. I rang the dairy to let them know that the milk had gone to the wrong place and that the milkman needed to put it inside our gate. We even went out and bought a small metal milk carrier and put it, with the empty milk bottle from Tuesday's delivery, on the bottom one of the steps leading up to our front door. Today is Thursday and there was no milk again!! My telephone conversation this morning made it quite clear that if the milk is not here and in the correct place on Monday morning, I will be cancelling the order. We'll see what happens.