Sometimes has good news!

It's official people.

I'm am once more pink, sparkly and fluffy. I have a job. No more free government money for me, I'm back paying my dues to support all the remaining wingless fairies out there.

Happy days indeed.

(I'm sure I'll be moaning about it in about a month or so when the shine wears off)

xxxx

RF

Shut Up and Drive

Well I've just completed another conversation that included the line - "I'm afraid I can't drive".

It's a bigger conversation killer than "I have a contagious flesh eating bacterial infection".

I've had three phone calls all from my b-e-a-utiful CV posting on Monster.ie. All for jobs in the not terribly far-flung corners of Ireland. Places I cannot get to by public transport. Which if you live where I do, is most places except Dublin city centre or some station-centric areas in Kildare if you need adequate services for a 9-5 position.

And what's my excuse for not getting behind the wheel of the beast? I really do not know. A bit of cowardice. I do hate doing anything new for the first time in case I look a fool. And to be honest, if I do start, the thought of spending a few hours thrashing the poor car to get me in and out to work doesn't appeal. Nor do the costs. I support public transport, I'd rather see it than traffic jams but there really is no incentive. At worst, it's prohibitive to my search. And if I do get something, I'll well over €2k a year for the priviledge of buying a better value house. Between myself and my husband, all the train charges will build up into the price of the city centre dwelling such are the extortionate charges.

Forced to live in the outer ring of commuterville by disgraceful over-inflated house prices, I now cannot find work. Sure, it's not the only reason, but it's a contributing factor.

Where's that Theory Test CD-ROM?

Yours,
RF

In the beginning....

Well you have to start somewhere, don't you?

However, structure was always my downfall in creative writing. I can write and write and spew forth ideas and sarcasm until the cows come home - unfortunately - it's the whole 'beginning, middle and end' planning thing I could never get my head around.

Beginning and middle okay - end not so good. I do hate the end. The end of books, films, parties, jobs...

Ah jobs, that's the whole point of why I started this blog. I am without one. For the first time in a while (don't let the cute fairy face fool ya, I'm kinda old by today's pop culture standards) I do not have a job. The recession that I made fun of before Christmas, came and gave me a big shadowy hug. Redundant, I am. And it's a word that hangs around you like a fog.

Ah the recession. With it's beautiful euphemisms, 'the current climate' or 'these challenging time'. It hasn't managed to pick up a marketable moniker like 'The Celtic Tiger' just yet. Maybe the word alone has such shiver inducing properties it's catchy enough already. Isn't it all we talk about, think about, read about? We could have George Lee just saying it as a ringtone.

It was just an economic notion to me in 2008. Something that happens to other people. I was fine, I could pay the bills, I could regularly relieve Penney's of enough clothes to warrant a wardrobe re-shuffle.

Then it all changed at the end of January. I knew something was coming, we all did. We knew things had slowed, costs were rising, expectations were falling. I can still recall the emotive speech I got and not appreciating it right up until the 'We have no other choice but to let you go'.
Not only are they the last words you want to hear when some one's holding your hand as you dangle off a cliff, they're terribly final. It takes a split second to register, then you realise that the job you moaned to your friends about - you actually really enjoyed. Then you realise you've always lived to work. Work was your whole day. You mattered because you worked. You did things.

And now I don't. So that's the general outline. That's the short road that got me to sitting at my keyboard in a pink dressing gown at nearly 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

So I've started this blog. I'm going to write, because I always said I didn't have enough time to. Now I have all the time in the world so maybe it's time to connect with some of the people like me who are going through this, or the people who think it just happens to other people...