Sunday, January 20, 2008

... and eight

Ooh, first post of the year.

Life's been carrying on in a fairly stable way since I last wrote. We haven't yet exchanged contracts for our house, but that should happen in the next month, all being well.

If there's one thing I would say, it's that I'm pretty warn out. In its own way this is a really good thing. I get to work hard five days a week doing something that I enjoy, and I'm usually also able to see the fruits of my labour. I get job satisfaction from what I do at work, and therefore I don't mind feeling exhausted at the end of the week. If there's a particular downside, it's I seem to spend such an inordinate amount of time dealing with computers that I'm sometimes reluctant to use them much at home. However, I am finding the cataloguing features of both Delicious Library (for books, DVDs, games) and Yep (for my pdfs of various receipts, software serial numbers etc) valuable, in that they make my life a little more organised.

Organisation: that brings me back to some realisations I've reached over the last couple of months. I happened to be visiting Winchester on a day off in later November, and spotted someone who I used to work with - she was about to get onto the train I've disembarked from. Now, this woman worked in the admin office for the Hampshire CC building I used to work in, and was always a pleasant, positive force in the workplace. Nonetheless. when I saw her at the station, I had no desire to go over and say 'hello', and it was this that led me to realise just how much I'd hated working there. Here was a very helpful and genuine person whom I'd spoken to on many an occasion, but by association I couldn't bear to say hello. This failing was all mine, but it did help me to put my year of local authority work into some perspective. It wasn't the right environment for me, and the nature of the organisational structure meant that it was hard to do anything well, and more importantly I wasn't in a position to make any meaningful decisions at all. I've come to realise over time that not earning as much as you'd like is one thing, but not being able to gain any sense of satisfaction through what you do, or having the necessary support and tools to perform your job is quite another proposition. I'm lucky to have escaped that now.

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Part 2

Well, I return to writing this post, having been off work ill for a couple of weeks after injuring my head while at work. It's been an interesting period - never before have I had a head injury and never before have I seriously worried about the repercussions of an injury. Broken arms are one thing, but broken heads are quite another. You know, my brain is really quite important to me! I went to see a really good neurologist last week. He was really from the old school and I was reassured by his thoroughness and interest in the symptoms I've been experiencing. I'm going for an MRI this week too.

The whole house-buying process has dragged on. We're not there yet, but should be in situ at some point during March, God-willing. Ooh, and another Psyche Out / Action and Action tour late March. Two big things to look forward to.

Will post again soon.