In which La Reine Misere resurfaces :)
I just realised that it's been a full working week since I got out of the old job, and I've not got round to updating. Bad me!
So, a quick run down of what's been occurring, in order of appearance:
The escape from the old job
My leaving do went decently well. I arrived rather later than planned, drank rather less than expected, received chocolates and flowers and managed not to be too rude in my acceptance 'speech' and spent a lot of the time answering the question 'So, how does it feel to be leaving' with the old Oscar-winner/sportsman answer of 'It hasn't really sunk in yet'.
The late arrival was due to my not being scheduled an office day for my last day (I can only assume the rota was a 'mare, as Jenny didn't get one either) and, as I'd been too ill too go in on the Thursday, I ended up sneaking in for three hours on Saturday afternoon to deal with tidy-up and handover. Funnily enough, it appears that it 'sunk in' after I'd closed my e-mail for the last time, left my IT kit in my locker and the key in an envelope for my line manager and closed the door behind me for the last time. At least, that's the bit where I briefly found myself in tears. I guess I'd got so used to focussing on the reasons for leaving that I forgot that I would likely miss the good points and the sense of security.
But I've certainly been keeping myself busy. I'm almost at the point where I have the flat properly clean (at least by my definition), I've done lots of catching up with reading this week and have done more cooking than usual, includng pancakes on Tuesday night and a rather nice spinach and chickpea soup the other day (no prizes for guessing which one A ate despite being in recovery from food poisoning and which one was of no interest whatsoever even when he was well!).
I also got out of the house to do social/cultural stuff rather more in the last week.
At the weekend, A and I went to the late showing of Warm Bodies at the cinema. It's harmless enough fluff, with Young Adult novel written all over it (with a parallel to a much more well known literary classic whch only became obvious to me about two thirds of the way through, after the action returned to the heroine's house). At least zombies make a change from vampires and werewolves. ;)
On Tuesday, nezumi_sama and i went to our local theatre to see the Ballet Boyz, which was an interesting experience. I've never seen any ballet before, unless you count tiny snippets on TV, so I showed up with not much idea of what to expect. The first half was in a traditional ballet style, although without much in the way of costume or anything like an obvious 'story'. I began with a near-uncontrollable fit of the giggles, as the opening hand movements put me in mind of the 'Mr Flibble' episode of Red Dwarf, so I had a sudden picture of ten half-naked Arnold Rimmers! Once i got past that, I spent most of the first act being amazed at what the human body can do, and how elegant it all was. The second half was rather more 'modern dance', and had more agressive music (Bauhaus or Rammstein would have fitted in fine, I thought) and more obvious lighting effects. I liked both halves, in different ways, and the whole thing managed to make me want to go and see a 'real' ballet, which was presumably at least part of the point...
Today was A's day off, so we made use of the afternoon to go to the Wellcome Collection to see the current exhibition, Death: A Self Portrait, which is closing next weekend. It's basically a load of art works based around death, so it was very much my cup of tea. I particularly liked the danse macabre/Totentanz stuff, and the metamorphic postcards (although, inevitably, the best ones are not in the image gallery or the exhibition tie-in book). I may go again on my own before it's over, just to write down the names of the creators of my favourites.
We also had a wander around various electronics places around Tottenham Court Road, as I needed to buy a new laptop/netbook thingy for some freelance work I'm about to start. So, yeah, the main news of the week is that I may possibly have a new job of sorts. One of the RPG companies A writes for has a few chapters of a book which need translating, and French speaking people who understand gaming (and will work for the rates the company pays) are rather thinner on the ground than are freelance writers. It turns out that there are a bunch of books backed up behind that one, including some from lines where they have yet even to tramslate the Core Book. It's very much a case of seeing how it goes, but I can't help remembering that the third 'whatever shows up' job I was in within six months of quitting teaching pretty much turned into a second career. Not that this will stop me spamming agencies with my CV for Board/Panel/Committee Secretary jobs, of course. But it will be good to have something semi-concrete to tell the parents about when I finally speak to them and let them know that i've quit the most recent job.
I probably won't be posting again for a bit, as it won't be all that long before we head to Paris to celebrate yet another birthday...
So, a quick run down of what's been occurring, in order of appearance:
The escape from the old job
My leaving do went decently well. I arrived rather later than planned, drank rather less than expected, received chocolates and flowers and managed not to be too rude in my acceptance 'speech' and spent a lot of the time answering the question 'So, how does it feel to be leaving' with the old Oscar-winner/sportsman answer of 'It hasn't really sunk in yet'.
The late arrival was due to my not being scheduled an office day for my last day (I can only assume the rota was a 'mare, as Jenny didn't get one either) and, as I'd been too ill too go in on the Thursday, I ended up sneaking in for three hours on Saturday afternoon to deal with tidy-up and handover. Funnily enough, it appears that it 'sunk in' after I'd closed my e-mail for the last time, left my IT kit in my locker and the key in an envelope for my line manager and closed the door behind me for the last time. At least, that's the bit where I briefly found myself in tears. I guess I'd got so used to focussing on the reasons for leaving that I forgot that I would likely miss the good points and the sense of security.
But I've certainly been keeping myself busy. I'm almost at the point where I have the flat properly clean (at least by my definition), I've done lots of catching up with reading this week and have done more cooking than usual, includng pancakes on Tuesday night and a rather nice spinach and chickpea soup the other day (no prizes for guessing which one A ate despite being in recovery from food poisoning and which one was of no interest whatsoever even when he was well!).
I also got out of the house to do social/cultural stuff rather more in the last week.
At the weekend, A and I went to the late showing of Warm Bodies at the cinema. It's harmless enough fluff, with Young Adult novel written all over it (with a parallel to a much more well known literary classic whch only became obvious to me about two thirds of the way through, after the action returned to the heroine's house). At least zombies make a change from vampires and werewolves. ;)
On Tuesday, nezumi_sama and i went to our local theatre to see the Ballet Boyz, which was an interesting experience. I've never seen any ballet before, unless you count tiny snippets on TV, so I showed up with not much idea of what to expect. The first half was in a traditional ballet style, although without much in the way of costume or anything like an obvious 'story'. I began with a near-uncontrollable fit of the giggles, as the opening hand movements put me in mind of the 'Mr Flibble' episode of Red Dwarf, so I had a sudden picture of ten half-naked Arnold Rimmers! Once i got past that, I spent most of the first act being amazed at what the human body can do, and how elegant it all was. The second half was rather more 'modern dance', and had more agressive music (Bauhaus or Rammstein would have fitted in fine, I thought) and more obvious lighting effects. I liked both halves, in different ways, and the whole thing managed to make me want to go and see a 'real' ballet, which was presumably at least part of the point...
Today was A's day off, so we made use of the afternoon to go to the Wellcome Collection to see the current exhibition, Death: A Self Portrait, which is closing next weekend. It's basically a load of art works based around death, so it was very much my cup of tea. I particularly liked the danse macabre/Totentanz stuff, and the metamorphic postcards (although, inevitably, the best ones are not in the image gallery or the exhibition tie-in book). I may go again on my own before it's over, just to write down the names of the creators of my favourites.
We also had a wander around various electronics places around Tottenham Court Road, as I needed to buy a new laptop/netbook thingy for some freelance work I'm about to start. So, yeah, the main news of the week is that I may possibly have a new job of sorts. One of the RPG companies A writes for has a few chapters of a book which need translating, and French speaking people who understand gaming (and will work for the rates the company pays) are rather thinner on the ground than are freelance writers. It turns out that there are a bunch of books backed up behind that one, including some from lines where they have yet even to tramslate the Core Book. It's very much a case of seeing how it goes, but I can't help remembering that the third 'whatever shows up' job I was in within six months of quitting teaching pretty much turned into a second career. Not that this will stop me spamming agencies with my CV for Board/Panel/Committee Secretary jobs, of course. But it will be good to have something semi-concrete to tell the parents about when I finally speak to them and let them know that i've quit the most recent job.
I probably won't be posting again for a bit, as it won't be all that long before we head to Paris to celebrate yet another birthday...