Wake me up when it’s over!

They say that the most stressful things in life are divorce, changing jobs and moving house.   Never ones to do things by half, it would appear we’re attempting two of those three at the same time.  I shall leave you to guess which two.  Depending on how these two go, we may end up with a full house anyway!!

It has been a badly veiled secret that I have not been in love with my job for some time, and without overtly stating it here, it will have been obvious to everyone and anyone that I’ve been assessing my options!  Having been at this whole assessing lark since late November I have established the following truths –

1.  Most recruitment agents are absolute teapot du chocolat style wastages of air. (For balance I have come across a couple who are also outstanding, professional, knowledgable and very well-connected, and I thank them!!)

2.  Searching for a new job is a full-time job.

3.  I am sick to death of talking about myself endlessly in a bid to convince someone to give me lots of money.

However, after all this effort, some fool has agreed to pay me money to turn up at their offices, and their offer is more attractive to me than my current one, which to be honest didn’t take a lot.  So last  week I resigned.  It felt goooooood.

I have been sworn to secrecy until work can come up with a plan of how to communicate this to the troops, and have some sort of plan in place for the future.  Having had to bite my tongue all last week, and keep up the (very thin) charade of giving a toss, I’m bored now, and should some work related folks stumble across this here blog then so be it.

Having badly broken my promise of not doing work stuff in this blog, I won’t go into details of who I’ll be working for.  Firstly, no-one really cares, but also selfishly, I have some other irons in the fire over the next week or so which may result in me having a choice, so I don’t want to jump any guns until the plump lady has cleared her throat for a rendition of  “You can shove your job up your arse!”

Last Friday saw the last few folks affected by the recent redundancies that started my job hunt, leave the business, and I am really chuffed that they have nearly all found alternate/better employment.  There are a couple still looking, and it can only be a matter of time as they are excellent at what they do!

So, amidst all the rigmarole of trying to find employment elsewhere, Louise and I have come to the conclusion that we need to move house.  I would dearly love to do just that, and pick our house up and put it where we want to move to, but alas, that is not possible.  We need to be only a mile or so down the road, nearer to schools and parents for lots of logistical reasons, so it looks like we will have to endure the horrors of moving house.

We have been valued (again, as we’ve tried this before), and today has been a solid twelve hours of cleansing, clearing and preening the house ready for the photos to be taken tomorrow.  This must be like being Peter Andre, and having OK round snapping your house.  The only difference is that he uses someone else’s house that has been professionally cleaned!! Plus of course I have a better physique!

I am now of course on first name terms with the high vis guy at the local tip who tells everyone which container to shove stuff, and Louise hasn’t stopped today. Even now I can hear the distant hum of the Dyson, as she removes evidence of the house ever being lived in.

So there we go, that is how we have come to undertake two of the most stressful things in life at the same time.  We have a track record in this regard, as many years ago, it all came to a head (literally) as Rebecca was born three days before we moved, so that was a calm relaxed time too!

Having moaned, I must say that me not changing my job would have been stressful in a different way, so I’m not complaining about that bit.  I will complain lots about every aspect of moving house as I hate it with a passion.  However, it is a necessary evil, and in the end it will simplify and de-stress our day-to-day lives if we can get somewhere suitable within walking distance of school, and as close as possible to our parents, so that we can look after them, as required in years to come, and in the meantime they can help with the kids and the dog!  Seems like a fair trade to me.

It seems not eighteen months since you last had to endure me working my notice, and I apologise that you must go through that again so soon.  On the bright side, I need only work one month of notice this time rather than three, so that should give us all a decent chance of getting through it with our mental health intact.  Let us hope that we need never speak of such things again for quite some time once this is done.

So having already today, painted, visited the tip, been to Tesco, taken Emily to take some more photos for her coursework, made the tea (a fine Sunday roast even if I say so myself), arranged a babysitter for Oli tomorrow so he doesn’t eat the estate agent, tidied a bit and written this, I still have stuff to do so I must leave you.

Till the next time…..