h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How's the job-hunting going? And what's the reason - is it the five million mile commute, or is it worse than that?

We missed you at the meet, hon.



B

Erm .. see message just posted on < blush > (sort of).

Basically my contract ends on 31 March, and although my boss is hoping to extend it on a monthly renewable basis, (1) that's not really good enough for supporting a family, (2) the person I'm maternity covering for probably wants to come back part-time, which will mean I'd be jobsharing my existing post and holding a new part-time post created for me, and (3) my boss is hoping to do this in the climate of a massive departmental review in which many jobs are about to be lost (including possibly her own).

So I'm on the jobhunting trail again. Sigh. And yes, I'll probably have another massive commute to wherever I end up.

I wish I could have come to the meet, as there were various people I wanted to catch up with/meet in person (you of course being top of the list ) but I really couldn't manage it. The wisdom of the decision was proved when I collapsed at work from what my GP officially termed "fatigue" later in the week.

And staying up until midnight after filling in application form is probably not a good way to counteract that. Ho hum.

How's it going? Nasty dreams you've been having, my dear.

B

Euw yes, that really wasn't a good start to last weekend. And I can't fathom at all what it was about.

Nice to see you, though . I've just posted in the Salon but basically I've been working too hard again - I just keep telling myself to focus on 24 March, because then the driving stops, and the long working days stop (I've been going in for 8 and stopping until 6), and the evenings spent doing even more work on voluntary stuff stop - all simultaneously. And for my week off we're hiring a skip and I'm throwing out Baggage and Clutter. This is actually my first real, permanent job (the one I had after graduation was simply an income so that I could live with DH, and not at all what I wanted to do with my life) and therefore quite liberating - I'm *not* now ever going to teach, so I can chuck out all my university notes, the Royal Ascot programmes belong to the past and have no use nor ornament in the present, brochures of places we thought about visiting in 1992 have been superseded by the internet, our cat died in 2000 so I think her medical notes can be disposed of ... that kind of thing. There's quite a backlog.

I am just a tincey bit concerned that I haven't got a start date yet - I handed in my notice on the basis of a job offer with full terms and conditions, so I don't think that was precipitate, except that the offer was conditional on references, medical and educational checks. I know the references will have been glowing, and the degree certificates have been sent off and received back, and I've never had a medical problem - but I did admit to smoking 15 fags a day (should have put 2-15 for proper accuracy and I'm kicking myself about that) and the firm has a contractual no-smoking policy. What *is* a contractual no-smoking policy? Presumably if I restrict myself to smoking at home and in my lunch hour (ie, what I've always done) I'm not in breach of it. And if the medical report is confidential and to be assessed by a medical person (ie not HR) then it's not relevant anyway. But that isn't stopping me (or, more to the point, DH) worrying about it.

Your new home sounds nice, if a bit draughty. And I am now v impatient and - I want kittens! In September, when OSH starts school, we're getting a pair (another lifelong ambition ticked off the list). Must do an internet search on catflaps.

Rambling. Got to look at graphs .

Oh, and still not got my emotional life sorted out. I've thought I had *so* many times now ... The more shagging, no nagging approach has done wonders at home though.