It's been a good week.
I enjoyed my job interview at William Howard school, although I didn't get the job. In some ways it's a relief as whilst working only 12 hours per week would have been great, by the time the baby is in need of childcare my take-home pay would have only just covered the childcare costs!
It was nice to see people from work on Wednesday. Not so good that everything's very uncertain for them, but I'm sure that ultimately everything will work out for the best for all of us. I'm assuming that those who want to take voluntary redundancy will now be given it, and everyone should get at least a year's salary (gross) once the whole thing is wound up. I think people are understandly nervous about whether they can get new jobs: there are a few jobs around but more competition for them. I have to say I do think the entire public sector is heavily over-staffed: it's just whether the 'right' cuts are made: whether the dead wood and inefficient or unnecessary roles will in fact be the ones to go.
I had some promising news this morning, which is that I'm still being considered for a Senior Manager post I had been put forward for. Mixed feelings about it as it pays well but would be full time and involve lots of travelling - great this time next year but possibly not so great at the moment! However I think it would be a really interesting job and I would at least like to get an interview.
I enjoy interviews - as I said at my William Howard interview, I enjoy meeting people. So it was a pleasure to be interviewed by Mike Parr of Radio Cumbria again this morning, and to be told that they'd like to follow my pregnancy and interview me once in a while. What is it about 'performing' and the limelight that is so seductive? I've discussed it before with my singing teacher - some of us just have a yen to 'perform', even if we have doubts about how good (or even competent!) we are. Is it that for some of us that's our way of pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone? Is it that the plaudits for doing something well are so satisfying that they outweigh the nervousness of performing? I still clearly remember the fantastic feeling, at the age of 9, when I got a laugh each night of the school play at one of my lines: it took me aback the first time as I hadn't expected any reaction at all: but what a joyous feeling, to feel that the audience is reacting with pleasure to something you've done!
I'm also cautiously optimistic about the baby. A friend down the road had a 1 in 50 predicted chance of Downs with her little girl (now 2) and had an amnio, and the little girl is absolutely fine. I'm so hoping that once I get the amnio out of the way I can relax and enjoy being pregnant more: and also enjoy the summer with the children. I really should relish the fact that I've got lots of time with them, and enjoy them: it would be great if I could put off starting a job until September. Son in particular comes out with some interesting comments at the moment: he's always been interested in animals but he's becoming more and more aware of the environment around us. I had to strip his bed this morning and was intrigued and amused to find Richard Scarry's What do people do all day?; a set of crayons; various pieces of lego; a notebook, which he's been drawing Star Wars characters in; a model Red Arrow; and sundry soft toys including William the Dragon who has recently been patched after Son's experiment at cutting him open. Daughter's bed was somewhat less cluttered: she fell asleep clutching two small soft toys last night.
Time to hang up the washing, have some lunch and do a big pile of ironing. Two more jobs to apply for over the next couple of weeks, which is good. I hope Sister-in-Law-to-be and Brother-in-Law are having a smooth flight to the Bahamas for their two weeks sailing in the sun. Sounds like bliss so long as they can relax, swim, sightsee and read books and don't have gusty sailing for hours each day.
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