I arrived in February with fifteen years behind me and, on the platform that matters in this city, nothing whatsoever. No history, no comments, nobody who can say they know me. In the city I came from that would have taken a week to repair. Here it apparently takes a year, and I have watched several people decide I was a risk purely because there was no archive to read.
Forty six, north of the river, dominant. I understand the caution completely. A place where reputation travels between platforms is a place where a person with no reputation looks like somebody who lost one somewhere.
So I am doing the slow version. Writing things. Being visible without being pushy about it. Answering questions I would rather not answer, because it is reasonable that people ask them. What I am not going to do is invent a history or drop the names of people I barely know, which I have now seen attempted twice this year and which was obvious on both occasions.
What I want is an ongoing dynamic, weekly, service led, with somebody who has patience for a man who is new here and not remotely new to this.
Not looking for a tour guide, though I will happily be shown things. Not looking to be tested for six months by somebody with no intention of ever meeting. And not looking for anybody whose interest is mostly that an accent sounds like a holiday.