As steviedeluxe said, Cafe Madrid near Plaza de Oriente is a good place to start. Nice little bar and friendly crowd. Didn't know they did this until I went in with some friends for a drink and they started setting up. The woman asked if we would like to learn English to which I replied (in Spanish) no thank you. Why not, she asked, it's good for finding work. That was a confidence booster for my (what I thought was bad) Spanish. Strange thing though, before she asked us if we wanted to learn English she asked us all if we could not smoke because the English don't smoke........I chose to smoke even more than usual......what a little rebel without a clue I am!

Apparently my co worker who started with me, is also from uk, needs an NIE number (or similar, i think on the form it said tarjeta de residencia)....

apparently we have arranged for an appointment in March... is that when we get the number, or when we pay (i think 10€) [someone from work is going to go to police office to pay soon and they arranged the appointment, for like march]

my co worker needs it more, as they have come with family inc. a baby so they require it for insurance.

Also thanks for the website and the other tips...what else do i need..... ... car hire purchase???? (if i want to be really adventurous))

Officially you cant start work without an NIE number. You certainly can't get paid without one! (unless it's black money)

we are contracted on basis that we are uk workers working temporarily in Spain so as long as its less than six months it ok (longer and we will have to get into Spanish tax system etc) actually the plan of the company itself is to make us return to UK and give us full time contracts in the UK

They want us to stay full time, but they did this contract basis initially to avoid time issues related to getting into the Spanish system but now we have do that anyway to get accident cover/health cover which the company wants us to have. (my current cover even does not cover it but it does cover for three months.. so i need coverr eventually but not yet)