Chilling Out

No, I did not spontaneously combust on a surfeit of rhubarb crumble back in April but the last few months have just flown by ! The major event during this time has been finishing work. This came about through the opportunity to apply for voluntary redundancy. I debated long and hard about this. Although I really enjoyed certain aspects of my job working with teenagers the job had changed considerably over the years. The direction in which it seemed to be going was getting further and further away from why I went into it in the first place. Rather than providing a universal service to young people, most of our resources were targeted at young people who were disaffected and at risk of social exclusion. As you can imagine a challenging target group :) Although in theory the main part of the work was direct contact with young people, there were also increasingly complex and sometimes duplicate recording systems, which did not always make sense to me and my colleagues. I often found myself working in the evenings and weekends to keep up with it. I was getting increasingly disillusioned with my working life and with the thought of yet more changes on the horizon. So back in December last year persuaded by the fact that I would also get my occupational pension as well as a modest redundancy payment, I applied for redundancy and my application was accepted !

The last few months were spent in a strange sort of limbo as I was still working but could no longer make plans for the future as far as work was concerned. I heard the words ' It's not long to go now' and ' How are you feeling?' from my colleagues so much so that I began to feel that I had morphed into an another being. Three other colleagues who I had worked with for years also left under the same terms so we provided mutual support to each other during this period. I finished at the end of July and was overwhelmed by my colleague's good wishes and some beautiful gifts mainly garden related :) I still have some garden gift vouchers to spend but want to take my time to chose something really special. I will know what it is once I see it.

Since then I have enjoyed nearly four months of just chilling out. I was lucky enough to have a few breaks during the late summer and early autumn so it has taken a while to adjust to this new way of life at home. No complaints so far - I feel so much more healthier and happier.

Although I have not posted on my blog I have been working on it as I would like to unveil it warts and all in the near future. I love reading other people's blogs although I know I am guilty of not commenting as much as I should. I feel a bit like that I have been visiting other people but not inviting them back to my 'home', so I would like to remedy that and join the blogging community.There is a wealth of information out there and people are so generous with their thoughts and experiences. I have learned so much and have laughed, been sad and sometimes amazed at what I have read. I now have the time to blog so no excuses. It will also exercise my keyboard skills as well as the old grey matter. I would be delighted and amazed if anybody should read my blog. I have a little more to do before opening up but that day is on the near horizon.