Catching Up

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic.
First of all my laptop broke, again, and had to go off to be repaired. A week an a half later and it was back with me. Its the second time that its been in for repair with a very similar problem, the hinge between the base and the screen broke. Hopefully this time it will last a bit longer than last time, I really don't want to have to send it off for to be repaired for the same problem again.

Work has been really busy. The project I work on has been working towards another milestone and I was drafted in to help the software developers to check that software fixes had been done. A week of doing that and one of my managers thanked me for my efforts as it had helped to keep the productivity figures up.
At the end of last week my team got hold of the software and we started to test it. To make sure that we achieved our immediate deadline I went in over the weekend and ran all of the tests that had been allocated to me so that if anyone needs help to get theirs done then I'm free to help out.

The situation at work with regards to redundancies is still up-in-the-air. Voluntary redundancy was opened up again at the beginning of June, but only until the end of the month. At that point unless some work comes in or the remaining potential job losses are redundancies then we will be facing compulsory redundancies.
I've seen so many people that I know take redundancy that I started thinking that perhaps I really should apply again. Events last week made my mind up and I put in my application.
Personnel it would seem have had a word with my project manager as my immediate boss asked me if I'd applied the other day, there was no point in denying it so I told him yes. Assuming that my application is accepted, which it should be, then I will be leaving the company at the end of August and either will have a new job lined up or will be seriously looking for a new job.

Events last week did help to make my mind up about VR.

Over the weekend our car started to make a vibrating noise from the engine near the fan belt. We couldn't work out what was wrong so I booked the car into the garage for last Wednesday. On the Tuesday my other half was due to go to Chard to collect a large number of bundles of phone books that she was going to deliver to earn a bit of extra cash. With the car making strange noises I decided that I couldn't let her go on her own so I drove us to the distribution centre where we were picking up the phone books. In the end we had to make two trips to get all of the bundles that she had to deliver.
On Wednesday the car went into the garage and when I received a call from the garage it was to tell me that the catalytic converter was breaking up inside and that the clutch was slipping. The converter being the immediate concern and needing replacing with the clutch needing sorting out in due course.
So far this year the car has cost us about £1000 and the £1000 that we were facing to get it back on the road just didn't seem worth it. I spoke with one of the salesmen at the garage about part exchange but he has yet to come back to me.
Last Friday though things took a turn for the worst and the car refused to start for my partner. The breakdown guy couldn't get the car started but did pull 5 codes from the computer in the car, any of which could be the reason that the car wont start.
With it not starting we decided that we'd scrap the car and use other methods of getting around.

With all of this happening, the money that I was being offered to take redundancy was very, very tempting and so I signed the forms and handed them to personnel.

In order to find myself a new job I signed up to LinkedIn and made myself a profile. Yesterday I received my first response, which was from a recruitment agent in Bristol, which is where I would like to move to work so that I can further my burlesque at the same time. I also noticed a job advertised that was right up my street. I've not applied for that position but again it is in Bristol so it would be ideal for me.

With the car breaking down I've found myself in the position of not being able to get to Bristol for burlesque classes. It has also meant not being able to get to Hampshire to see my father-in-law and to Wales for my mum's birthday. Hopefully I'll be able to remedy both those real soon.

In the meantime I continue to be busy at work but not so much that it interferes with my life outside work. Especially my half marathon training which has taken a real bashing over the last couple of weeks, but I'll deal with that in a separate post over the coming weekend.

Anyway, its 11pm, I've been up since 6am. Yesterday I went along and gave my second donation as Jenna. All of this has left me feeling really tired so I'm going to sign off and head off to bed for a good nights sleep. Hopefully!