Hey Nonny No

In Shakespearean vein, it's Spring. I don't know what time it hits your part of the world, but here the last frost may now be over (possibly), the first early potatoes (Rocket) are well on their way, and the second earlies (Saxon) are just beginning to show. The tulips are just going over, and we await the roses. It's all fairly unremittingly jolly.

Does this cheer up the worried job-hunter? (see previous pages). Yes, it does, but for no logical reason whatsoever. On Saturday we got off our respective rears, and drove out to a place called Hellifield, which looks a bit like its name. Hellifield, in case you don't know it, is a bleak and ribbon of housing strung along a road in the middle of nowhere. It's the only place twinned with Krakatoa.

Anyway, on this Spring day, it positively twinkled in the sunlight, and looked almost pleasant.

What' sthe moral of this little tale? Well, maybe perception is a part of reality. Gouranga.

Applications, applications

As described in the blog yesterday, I'm on the hunt for jobs, not entirely willingly.

In an ideal world, I'd write novels for 2-3 hours a day, and do other things such as walking, violin making, programming, gardening and holidaying the rest of the time.

However, the novel (see much earlier blog) is somewhere about the end of Chapter 6, and I'm in, I think, two catch-22s at once. I can't write to finish it, as I need the time to apply for jobs. I need to apply for jobs because it might take a while to finish the novel and begin the next, and ther'e no guarantee that it would produce any income at all anyway. If I do get a job, then I won't have time to write. Aaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh! Does anyone know what to do?

In the meantime, I've applied for various posts, including a lecturing job at a college, and next week I might also put in for the vacant Vice-Principal's job at the same place. Is this hedgehog mad? very probably.

Long Time no See

Well, here I am, back at last. What, I hear you ask, (but fairly quietly), has our renowned hedgehog been up to for these missing weeks? Has he backpacked through Thailand with a flute, a broken-down donkey and a copy of The Wit of Margaret Thatcher?

No. The University faculty where he works has decided to shed 20% of its staff, and has asked people to volunteer before a large anvil falls out of the sky and does the volunteering for them. I couldn't take the chance, and signed up for a pension that's about the size of a gnat's kneecap, and am going at the end of July.

Interestingly, our compulsory graduation ceremony is sometime before we all go, so it ought to be interesting when 25 totally dissaffected and fed-up staff are parked in front of the Vice-Chancellor in the presence of the public. Hmm...

Now all I have to do is to find a source of income to replace the 80% of my salary that will be missing come August, and all will be well. If anybody out there wants some Web/datbase design, or custom sofware, the hedgehog is your man. If not, it's off to join the staff at B&Q or somewhere similar.

Meanwhile your hedgehog must fill in some more job application forms. Now, do I want to be an Asda checkout person? Hmm again...