One Year On...
Day 365 of The Recording Angel. I guess this is as good a time as any to recap my year, which has been quite the rollercoaster ride (in a few cases quite literally).
When I started this blog I was on my way out of CITB, which I have come to decide was a good thing. I wasn't going anywhere there, and was being strung along until they could find someone willing to do the job for less money- I maintain there is a connection between the fact that I was told I wasn't being kept on immediately after I reminded my boss that I'd been told there'd be a pay-grade increase with the position and that I hadn't been given a job spec.
So I left CITB halfway through July, after having been turned down for a number of other positions within the company. I proceeded to spend the summer unemployed, frantically trying to find a new job before my financial reserves (put aside for the possibility of going to teach in Japan) ran out. More on that shortly.
Graeme moved in and Ed moved out at the start of July, around the same point Pete was told he'd failed the year at Uni. That put him also in the realms of the unemployed. And around that time there were also issues with Vicki's enrollment onto Publishing with English. However, all of those dark clouds didn't stop us enjoying our summer.
Vicki and I went to Holland in September, taking advantage of cheap flights to spend a week with my parents. We had a great time, marred only slightly by the news that my father had died. His funeral was in October, about a week before my birthday. I still don't quite know how to feel about it, partially because I don't know the circumstances and cause of his death, but mostly because I can't really say I knew him. Even when my parents were together he was mostly absent from my life, and having not seen him since I was nine at the time of his death I'd lived longer without knowing hin than I had with.
My birthday was spent at Alton Towers, getting drenched yet enjoying the fireworks extravaganza and the coasterage. Vicki and I both got the coaster bug that day, and we ended going again a week later as part of Adrenalin Week (and, I dare say, having an even better day with much shorter queue times and much better weather). The day after my birthday I was told I had a temp job out at East Leake which would last until Christmas, perfect timing as money was really getting tight around then. While I was there I had an interview for an IT Helpdesk position, and was told halfway through December that I'd got the job. I've been there since.
Vicki and I spent Christmas with her parents down in Kent, including going to her brother's wedding (which I can't see lasting more than a couple of years, sprog or no sprog). Though tempers were a little strained in places, all in all it was a good week- and we're planning an away-match in hitting my parents' for the holiday season (both Christmas and New Years) this year.
On a similar note the pair of us took another week over there around Easter, and again had a fabulous time. We managed to hit Walabiworld, a theme park out in the middle of nowhere which was close to AT in quality- definitely a place we'll be going back to.
I've still been doing a fair amount of RPing, mostly Shadowrun 3rd or 4th Edition. True to my decision to concentrate on GMing as opposed to PCing, I've been running most of those games. I'm still working on Revelation 13- creating a roleplaying game is a hell of a lot of work, even when you've got a rules system ready-made. Once that's finished I intend to concentrate on running that.
Graeme's been off work for most of the past few months, either through holiday, technical problems or stress. As of the end of this month he'll have been away from work more than he's been there since the start of the year. I don't want to know what that's doing to his job prospects- if I were his company I certainly wouldn't be interested in keeping him on the books much longer, and I'd be willing to bet they're looking for a loophole to allow them to cut their losses.
Since Christmas it's been one expense after another- bills, tax, the death of my PC (which should hopefully be resolved as of the end of this week, at a final cost of around £500 since I started buying bits) and the forthcoming house-move (assuming we find somewhere to move to), so the rest of the year is going to be quite lean. I'm probably going to have to sweet-talk my grandparents in order to break even over the next month or so, and entertainment's definitely going to have to be based on nights in as opposed to nights out.
This year would have been really difficult if it wasn't for friends. I can't say I haven't thought about upping and leaving more than once over the last year, and at this point I'm glad I didn't- if I had, I'd have lost touch with the people I've got to know around here, which would have been a crying shame. I can't imagine not being around these people now, which is probably why, as of the end of summer, I'll have lived here longer than I've lived anywhere else. It's the people that make a place, and I wouldn't swap the people here for anything or anyone else.
So here's hoping the next year will be an upward spiral...
Song of the Day: Best I Can by Queensrÿche.
When I started this blog I was on my way out of CITB, which I have come to decide was a good thing. I wasn't going anywhere there, and was being strung along until they could find someone willing to do the job for less money- I maintain there is a connection between the fact that I was told I wasn't being kept on immediately after I reminded my boss that I'd been told there'd be a pay-grade increase with the position and that I hadn't been given a job spec.
So I left CITB halfway through July, after having been turned down for a number of other positions within the company. I proceeded to spend the summer unemployed, frantically trying to find a new job before my financial reserves (put aside for the possibility of going to teach in Japan) ran out. More on that shortly.
Graeme moved in and Ed moved out at the start of July, around the same point Pete was told he'd failed the year at Uni. That put him also in the realms of the unemployed. And around that time there were also issues with Vicki's enrollment onto Publishing with English. However, all of those dark clouds didn't stop us enjoying our summer.
Vicki and I went to Holland in September, taking advantage of cheap flights to spend a week with my parents. We had a great time, marred only slightly by the news that my father had died. His funeral was in October, about a week before my birthday. I still don't quite know how to feel about it, partially because I don't know the circumstances and cause of his death, but mostly because I can't really say I knew him. Even when my parents were together he was mostly absent from my life, and having not seen him since I was nine at the time of his death I'd lived longer without knowing hin than I had with.
My birthday was spent at Alton Towers, getting drenched yet enjoying the fireworks extravaganza and the coasterage. Vicki and I both got the coaster bug that day, and we ended going again a week later as part of Adrenalin Week (and, I dare say, having an even better day with much shorter queue times and much better weather). The day after my birthday I was told I had a temp job out at East Leake which would last until Christmas, perfect timing as money was really getting tight around then. While I was there I had an interview for an IT Helpdesk position, and was told halfway through December that I'd got the job. I've been there since.
Vicki and I spent Christmas with her parents down in Kent, including going to her brother's wedding (which I can't see lasting more than a couple of years, sprog or no sprog). Though tempers were a little strained in places, all in all it was a good week- and we're planning an away-match in hitting my parents' for the holiday season (both Christmas and New Years) this year.
On a similar note the pair of us took another week over there around Easter, and again had a fabulous time. We managed to hit Walabiworld, a theme park out in the middle of nowhere which was close to AT in quality- definitely a place we'll be going back to.
I've still been doing a fair amount of RPing, mostly Shadowrun 3rd or 4th Edition. True to my decision to concentrate on GMing as opposed to PCing, I've been running most of those games. I'm still working on Revelation 13- creating a roleplaying game is a hell of a lot of work, even when you've got a rules system ready-made. Once that's finished I intend to concentrate on running that.
Graeme's been off work for most of the past few months, either through holiday, technical problems or stress. As of the end of this month he'll have been away from work more than he's been there since the start of the year. I don't want to know what that's doing to his job prospects- if I were his company I certainly wouldn't be interested in keeping him on the books much longer, and I'd be willing to bet they're looking for a loophole to allow them to cut their losses.
Since Christmas it's been one expense after another- bills, tax, the death of my PC (which should hopefully be resolved as of the end of this week, at a final cost of around £500 since I started buying bits) and the forthcoming house-move (assuming we find somewhere to move to), so the rest of the year is going to be quite lean. I'm probably going to have to sweet-talk my grandparents in order to break even over the next month or so, and entertainment's definitely going to have to be based on nights in as opposed to nights out.
This year would have been really difficult if it wasn't for friends. I can't say I haven't thought about upping and leaving more than once over the last year, and at this point I'm glad I didn't- if I had, I'd have lost touch with the people I've got to know around here, which would have been a crying shame. I can't imagine not being around these people now, which is probably why, as of the end of summer, I'll have lived here longer than I've lived anywhere else. It's the people that make a place, and I wouldn't swap the people here for anything or anyone else.
So here's hoping the next year will be an upward spiral...
Song of the Day: Best I Can by Queensrÿche.
posted by Union Jackal at 11:19 am
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