Tempus fidget...

...or something like that.

It's been great to be back at work again this week and it's been made all the more enjoyable that everyone has made me so welcome, old and new colleagues alike.

Something I'd not accounted for was the in the 15 years I've been away, although there are a lot of familiar reminders of my previous time with the company, other people's lives have moved on significantly. Not that I'm decrying my career progression and experience gained in the meantime, but some lives have changed significantly in the passing of time.

Our M.D. had the morning off today to take his daughter to university and on Monday our receptionist brought her son to work with us over the summer before he starts college in September. Probably nothing out of the ordinary to you reading that, but the "daughter" in question was a mere toddler when I saw her last and the "son" was the recent reason for my colleagues maternity leave when I left.

And there I was thinking how much I'd changed since I was there last...

The meeting of media...

I'm often reminded that I don't update the blog as often any more, but there seems little point posting here when there's nothing much to say and the last three months have mainly consisted of get up, look for a job, potter about in the garden, go to bed. Of course, I'm delighted that's all about to change again from Monday!

I do regularly post on Facebook and Twitter, but then it begins to get complicated. I've always tried to retain my anonymity on here (even though most of the readers know me in the real world) but I particularly like to have a forum where I can rant about work with little fear of it getting back to anyone concerned.

So we have the blog at one extreme which is reasonably anonymous, and Facebook at the other where every comment is blurted out to all of my friends at once and Very few of the Facebook friends know about the blog and posting a link to Facebook from here would compromise my anonymity.

Somewhere in the middle sits Twitter which is probably still my favourite and with a 140 character limit is ideal for the lazy blogger, but for some reason very few of my friends use it regularly. Some of my Twitter followers know about the blog and some don't, but there's no reason why anyone here shouldn't see my tweets so I've added a tweet feed on the left - feel free to browse, or follow if you wish.

Honestly, all this fuss about anonymity, anyone would think I've got something to hide...

More Bed Activity...

Of course not... what were you thinking?!

Even though it's only a couple of weeks since I last posted a picture of it, the raised bed in the garden continues to flourish (except for the fennel) so having just planted my third crop, I thought I'd share a new photo here and I've labelled this one so you can see what's growing where...

Tis true what they say...

...it's not what you know, it's who you know.

After fifteen weeks of unemployment, despite considerable and persistent effort on my part, I had no success whatsoever in getting a single interview from any agencies or any of my numerous job applications.

Then last week out of the blue, I had a message via Facebook from an ex-colleague at my employer-before-last, who said they might soon have something I could be interested in and how would I feel about going back to work for them. Two informal meetings later, I'm delighted to say that this afternoon I've accepted a job with them, starting a week on Monday.

Just the role I was looking for, about the salary I was expecting (although not necessarily what I'd ideally like!), loads of scope for development and only 2.5 miles from home.

I think that's what's known in the trade as a result...

First Harvest...

Just a flying visit to share with you the first harvest of food from the vegetable bed.

No, they aren't uniform sizes or shapes, but I can assure you that they are much tastier than the radishes I bought at the supermarket earlier this week.

More radishes due in the next day or so, spring onions too and the first of the white onions aren't far from being ready to be pulled. Phase three of the veg bed to be planted next weekend.

Unfortunately, as it stands now these radishes have cost me about a tenner a piece so I'm banking on some more salad and veg crops soon to see an improved return on investment. Watch this space...