It's here!

So, tomorrow I'll start work in the "second" job. I'm still waiting for the first one so I thought I'd take this, just in case, and switch as soon as the other people call me. The other day I went to check out the place... can't say I'm too happy, it takes me 1 1/2 hours to get there :s
Oh well, I'll be doing lots of reading then :)

Anyway, I'm slightly panicky... I mean, enjoying my own time for over a year, and suddenly being thrown into 11-12 hours' days (including travel)? How am I going to fit in my walks from now on??? And sleeping in just at the weekend? And being organised? And getting dressed before noon? And how about the leisurely afternoons with friends, or gardening, or just bumming around? Arrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!

While I was there I had a chat with the lady at reception. I mentioned that the last year (of unemployment) had had its benefits as I'd got fitter, done a few courses, got into gardening (with the added bonus of making friends on the estate for the first time in the 13 years I've lived here), lost weight and so on. She looked at me with absolute terror in her eyes, mumbling "oh no no no no!" as soon as I said "unemployment" and "has benefits" in the same breath. What is it about unemployment that is so terrible? It's true, I've had to cut down on expenses big time, for obvious reasons, but hey, it's not as if most of us don't have everything we need anyway. When deciding if I could accept the redundancy, I took stock of what I used to do and how I spent most of my money. Guess what? I could probably get by quite a few years without ever again buying clothes, household items, or leisure stuff such as books, CDs and DVDs. I have so much stuff that I hardly ever use, and even if I did in rotation it'd be quite a while before I'd get back to the start. I literally don't know where to put clothes anymore. I have hundreds of CDs and books (not too mention that instead of buying them, I could rent them from the library). DVDs I mainly rent for a pittance (and libraries have those too). The only thing I've missed, really, are the concerts but I'm sure I could survive without them (especially since I've won a few through competitions). Most of the money I used to spend when I was working went in things and activities that were meant to de-stress, but I've not needed to de-stress since I left work. London offers zillions of opportunities to do nice things and see nice places for free or very little money. Just take a packed lunch with you.

Yeah, nice cars, nice houses, holidays here and there and everywhere, weekends away, a good lifestyle... But is it? Or is it just for status? What's wrong with a small flat, public transport, sensible living within means and without waste? Is it really better to get all the additional things and then be stuck with the payments for the rest of your life, never being able to do what you really want because you're always tied down by the never-ending bills?

I suppose it's easy for me to say, as I have no commitments of any kind and the only thing I have to worry about are the basic bills, like gas, electric, that sort of stuff. If you have a family, or if you've never worked, it might be a tad harder to be able to shrug everything away. Of course it's also possible to take some time off here, due to the social security systems in place in the UK which are lacking in a lot of other places.

And I'm grateful that I had the chance in the past year... tomorrow, back to the grind :)