You say potato, I say patahto

We have two hundred or so people here and clearly at least half of them are up to speed on my Yorkshire dialect skills - no one said “hi” - it was Eh up Anna all the way. They were ready at lunchtime to teach me more (today’s lesson “si’thi”) and there was a lot of interest in similar and different food (have I ever had a pie sandwich and do I want to join in on “chippie Friday”).

Here’s a photo of the Yorkshire pudding wrap from the other day. It was pretty good! I was keen for a snooze afterwards due to the sheer  size of the thing, but it was delicious.

There are so many parallels with Newcastle and many of the guys in the lunchroom had stories and opinions about the cessation of steel making, the change in mining operations and the different employment options nowadays. They are a lot chattier than the workshop crew at home, but I’ve spent a lot of time on the shop floor so perhaps that makes it different to my finance role at home. 

They have been so very friendly and welcoming here. The cleaner paid for my coffee when the eftpos card reader didn’t work (“you can’t go without a hot drink luv”) and I have a real name tag on the clock in wall (although the first version said Anna “Starlett” which I would have been quite ok with).  They are completely comfortable giving me a hard time about the pink laces in my shoes and it feels like I’m an accepted part of the business already. 

I’m very tired though, probably due to the mix of jet lag and sheer fatigue from the pace. I’m learning SO much all the time and my brain is a little overwhelmed. That being said, snoozers are losers so I explored Leeds a bit and found a great little restaurant which I have now eaten at twice.