The Best Laid Plans...

Well they've only gone and offered me the job!

They've bumped up the salary to match what I'm on and they've told me they're happy to wait as long as it takes. I guess that's super-flattering as they are obviously really keen for me to go there but now I'm in a bit of a situation as I'd talked myself out of the job LOL.

DH and I need to have a chat but I think what I'm decided on is that I'll accept the job as I'd be daft not to, wait till work give me the heave-ho and find out the timescales of that all going through and put my CV out to some agencies then.

I'm keener on this new job now I know that they'll match my salary but it's still a longer commute than I'm doing now so if I can find something else nearer to home I'll take it but this is a good backup plan. I know that they didn't interview anyone else for the position so I know that I'm not stringing them along at someone else's expense and I will take the job if I don't find something geographically better for me.

The main reason behind checking out what else is out there is that I don't want to disrupt Lia twice in a quite short space of time - this job is only an 18 month contract so I'll have to find her a nursery for a year before she starts school full time next September. If I get a job nearer to home she can start school now for half days and get used to that with nursery in the afternoons as I'd be close enough to go pick her up in my lunch break and move her from one to the other.

Gosh life can get complicated can't it!

I'm off to do some stitching now as it's all a bit too much...

Another fun weekend

To get the subject of the interview out of the way, it went okay but I'm not that inspired by the job or the commute. I haven't heard back from them yet which I would say means they aren't going to offer it to me but given I told them I didn't know when I'd be released from my current job and I wasn't prepared to go before redundancy I'm not surprised.

As for what's happening with my current job, this weeks meeting that was supposed to decide my fate has been cancelled and is unlikely to re-scheduled so the next one is the end of September (it's a monthy management meeting). TBH, now I've got this interview out of the way and don't want the job I'm much happier waiting - it's another months salary for a start!

I will, of course, share any news as and when I hear anything but there'll be no more job hunting for me until I know what's going on. DH and I are also going to have a chat about my options - I'm not ruling out a career change with less working hours so I can be home more with Lia when she starts school.

As for the weekend, Liz, a fellow stitcher (who is, in Lia's eyes, the official fourth member of the family now, it's always 'one for Mummy, one for Daddy, one for Lia and one for Liz') stayed over Friday to Sunday and we attended the Festival of Quilts at the NEC, my first quilting show.

It was quite a drive (an hour and a half each way) but definitely worth it. The quilts in the show were amazing and I spent lots of money on lovely stash, mainly patterns and books but a couple of small kits too.

We also met up with Lorchen, Allie, Karoline, Betty and Rosie (Karolines MIL and DD) and had a lovely gossipy lunch together (I also got lots of cuddles with Rosie which was great).

Yesterday we all went to see Kung Fu Panda which was lots of fun. Lia was pretty well behaved (she was a bit more restless than when we saw Wall-E but not even close to being badly behaved) and she seemed to enjoy it. We then had lunch out and then chilled out watching some Olympics in the afternoon.

This coming weekend is a Bank Holiday in the UK and my Best Mate and her family will be staying at ours. All fingers are crossed for a nice weekend as we'll be heading to the Portsmouth Kite Festival to meet up with other friends too.

I also keep forgetting to say but Lia's now completely nappy free - we kept them going for nighttime only for a while but I figured she only needed them because she had them (if you see what I mean) and I was right, nappy on and she uses it, no nappy on and she uses the toilet. In fact we're now woken not by Lia coming into our room but by her using the bathroom.

A Job Interview

Tomorrow

*Gulp*

It's been seven years since I attended an interview so I'm a little nervous!

I still haven't been told for sure if my job is going, the meeting that is supposed to result in that decision is next week, and I haven't really done anything about looking for another job until I know all the facts about what's happening here.

However I was chatting with a good friend not long after I found out there could be a problem and she pointed me towards a job vacancy where she works that is perfect for me. I'm a great believer in fate - the lady in question didn't know exactly what my skills were and when I told her she sent me the link to the vacancy, plus I hadn't even planned on telling her about the job issues, we were discussing something else entirely. Add to that the fact that the interviews were scheduled for this week, neatly tying into the timescale for things happening at my current place of work and I felt I had no choice but to apply.

Of course, I'm not counting on getting this job, that would just be too easy, but it is a good opportunity to get some interview experience again and it gets me out of the office for the afternoon.

I've only spoken to a couple of people here at work about what's going on as I don't want to sit in an office full of people feeling sorry for me, especially when I don't feel sorry for myself! Once I have confirmation of what is happening then I'll tell people the facts rather than the supposition. There is, of course, a slim chance that they might decide I should stay but given the people responsible for making the decision are conspicuous by their lack of communication with me over the last few weeks I think I can safely assume I'm off.

However, I have been told by HR that the redundancy entitlement is a months pay for every year I've worked here, tax free, so I'm not leaving before getting my hands on the cold hard cash! There is an official redundancy process that has to take place including job matching, potential re-training etc but given I'm in the only role in the NHS in Hampshire that currently matches my skills I can't see they'll have anything else to offer me. I can also refuse another role without effecting my redundancy pay as long as I have reasonable issues with it.

All in all, I'm still okay with the situation, what's hard is not knowing what is going on, how long it is all going to take, and where I'll be at the end of it all. However, given we can survive okay no matter what the outcome and DH is totally calm about it all I'm not getting too stressed. Work may be slow but that's just more time for surfing, I'm getting lots of stitching done and I'm off to the Festival of Quilts on Saturday for a last splurge before getting firmly onto the Wagon until my job issues are sorted...