If Thursday was enrolment day for ministers in the new Northern Executive, then yesterday was the first day of lessons with many of them out on fact-finding missions.
Ms Bairbre de Brun's first public engagement as Minister of Health was a visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital in her adopted home of west Belfast. There could be no better sign of the times than the fact that her arrival was preceded by press releases both in English and as Gaeilge.
Ms de Brun met members of staff and management of the hospital where she was shown a model of the proposed £65 million new main hospital building.
She said she was "daunted but very, very excited" about the decisions she would have to make as minister and paid tribute to all those working in the health service.
However much she wanted to stay on health issues though, Ms de Brun could not escape harder questions. When it was put to her that the IRA had in its time provided many patients for the hospital, her response was classic Sinn Fein.
"A lot of people throughout this community have suffered very greatly and none of us want to see that happen again and see this hospital have to deal with that trauma again," she said.
In the past Ms de Brun has been accused of having a "dalek-like delivery" but, when talking with young patients, Ms de Brun displayed a warmth which, if it stays on show for the future, could do more than any amount of sound-bites to cement confidence in the new executive.
Also on his first official engagement, Mr Mark Durkan, the SDLP Minister of Finance and Personnel, visited departmental offices in his home city of Derry. Mr Durkan said his department was of central importance as it covered a wide range of services and "it will be my objective to secure maximum value for money in my allocation of budgets".
The Minister of Further and Higher Education, the SDLP'S Mr Sean Farren, spent the morning at the Armagh campus of Queen's University opening two new centres for studying religion in Irish history.
Ireland's "rich and diverse religious heritage" had shaped Irish history and now "it has a role to play in shaping our future," Mr Farren said.
Sir Reg Empey, the Minister of Development and Enterprise, Trade and Investment, had his first meeting with the North's business leaders. After the meeting, Sir Reg said there was "a need to move away from the grant-based culture and replace it with genuine profit-producing businesses."