After getting back from Ireland, and taking a quick look at our travel funds, we decided that we needed to get some work….so, off we went to Adecco Employment Agency and we put our names on the list. Didn’t take too long, maybe a week, for a couple of Team Leader positions to arrive for both of us, at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).
The RPA is an incredible place…that’s the first thing you notice when you start working there….we were both team leaders on the twilight shift…initially we worked only from 5pm till 9pm, however, it soon turned into a full time job for each of us, starting at 1pm, ending at 9pm.
To be honest, the hours were fine and allowed us to save heaps of cash as we didn’t need to offer any excuses to go out to overpriced restaurants in the local area!
The major thing that happened whilst we worked at the RPA was a scandal involving the national tabloid newspapers. The headline read NAKED CIVIL SERVANTS!!! There were news camera crews out the front, local and national newspaper stories every day for weeks, Internet stories, etc etc. The story centred around some people ‘apparently’ running around work naked, people ‘apparently’ vomiting into cups, blah blah blah….etc etc….the truth is that there was a fancy dress party and one guy took some pictures on the work digital camera and they emailed the pictures around the office. Stupid, but not sackable….you’d think! The story grew legs and was embellished at every turn and eventually someone got sacked…..well, we think! Such is the communication channels at the RPA that the story was basically hushed up, never to be talked about again and the guy just didn’t come back to work….all very odd, but management is not a strong point at the RPA.
Overall though, The RPA served its purpose, we saved money (English pounds), it kept us occupied from May till September when we jetted off to Europe, and we met some decent people, so all in all, very good.
The RPA is an incredible place…that’s the first thing you notice when you start working there….we were both team leaders on the twilight shift…initially we worked only from 5pm till 9pm, however, it soon turned into a full time job for each of us, starting at 1pm, ending at 9pm.
To be honest, the hours were fine and allowed us to save heaps of cash as we didn’t need to offer any excuses to go out to overpriced restaurants in the local area!
The major thing that happened whilst we worked at the RPA was a scandal involving the national tabloid newspapers. The headline read NAKED CIVIL SERVANTS!!! There were news camera crews out the front, local and national newspaper stories every day for weeks, Internet stories, etc etc. The story centred around some people ‘apparently’ running around work naked, people ‘apparently’ vomiting into cups, blah blah blah….etc etc….the truth is that there was a fancy dress party and one guy took some pictures on the work digital camera and they emailed the pictures around the office. Stupid, but not sackable….you’d think! The story grew legs and was embellished at every turn and eventually someone got sacked…..well, we think! Such is the communication channels at the RPA that the story was basically hushed up, never to be talked about again and the guy just didn’t come back to work….all very odd, but management is not a strong point at the RPA.
Overall though, The RPA served its purpose, we saved money (English pounds), it kept us occupied from May till September when we jetted off to Europe, and we met some decent people, so all in all, very good.
We also looked around Newcastle on various days. 
Newcastle is a great city and doesn't get the wraps that places like Edinburgh gets.
Sure, Edinburgh is a beautiful city with loads to do, but Newcastle also has some brilliant buildings, great places to walk, plenty of decent (if expensive) restaurants and a good lifestyle and best of all, a wonderful quayside with some fascinating architecture and bridges.
We really like wandering around Newcastle and we believe it's a very underrated city that deserves more attention, but we'll enjoy it while it still has only a few tourists.
