I don't think I post enough now. Since I started working more "social" hours I've felt like I haven't had enough time to make a note on what is going on in my life. Back in my old job, where I might not start work until 4pm, it was easy to pick up the computer and make a post.

Now I return home from work at 6pm and by the time I've done a bit of general surfing it's pretty much time to go to bed.

But in the very laborious process of importing all my old LJ entries to here I've noticed little titbits in posts that make me smile. At the time it probably seemed mundane, but I've written something that brings back a memory of a different stage of my life.

Hell, right now I'm going through one of the most exciting periods of my life with Lu's pregnancy, and I've barely written a thing.

So, that's my challenge. Write a bit more, no matter how mundane. I should view this blog as a bit more for my benefit than for anyone else reading it.

Random thought of the day

I wonder if someday historians will use blogs to help construct their understanding of this period of history.

Going by some blogs that I have read, they'll have a very funny vision of the world.

Moving

Well, after considering it for a long time, I've finally set up a blogger account. I'm not sure if it will stick, but we'll see.

I currently use LiveJournal, and to be honest the only reason I do is because all my friends do. But what with the world of RSS feeds and social networking, I figure that I'm less tied to that.

Because I'm mad, I'm going to import all of my old posts onto here. It's a slow process, lots of copy and pasting, but I would prefer to have all my previous ramblings in the one place.

Work stuff

So, just to expand on my post the other day.

On Tuesday I had three interviews over in Bristol, and my boss was kind enough to give me the day off at relatively short notice to go to them (he did say that he would give any assistance to help me find new employment).

The first I was quite hopeful for anyway as I had had a good conversation with the director on the telephone before we arranged an interview. He lives just down the road from where I grew up, which was a talking point, as was the fact that I was starting a family - he's just had his second child and is a big family man so completely appreciated why we wanted to be closer to family.

The second was at the University of Bristol within their JobShop service. As well as offering students help with finding work, I would also be required to talk to local business leaders in order to convince them to advertise through them, so not entirely different to my current role.

The final interview was at a small IT security firm. The job advert asked for someone with some sales experience, when I spoke to the owner on the phone it turned out that I would be the first one and the guy would want me to slowly build up a sales team.

I went to the first positive about it but wanting to get a better feel for what the role would entail. It didn't disappoint, it will be a very varied role in a very small company, doing anything from marketing, selling, operations, fulfilment, working on new business ideas, writing up news stories etc.

I enjoyed the interview and think I really stumped them when I asked if there were any gaps in my CV or anything they felt I was lacking for the role (always a good question to ask in an interview! Remember, it's better to try and respond to it than them finishing the interview and pondering on your weaknesses)

During the interview he asked what I was doing after and said he wanted to take me to lunch, which I was more than happy to accept. We walked there after the interview and talked a bit more casually, sat down and chatted more. He really is passionate about two things: enjoying his work and his family. I think we talked more about family than work.

Part way through he said something along the lines of "I'm not going to beat about the bush with you and sit here with a poker face and say I will consider things and get back to you in a few days - I will be offering you the job and would love you to join the team. I have interviewed a couple of people and have a few more in, but if you take the job I will be quite happy to cancel them. When I first read your covering letter and CV I was impressed, I spoke to you on the phone and was impressed and I was hoping that when I interviewed you you would still impress me".

We carried on talking about stuff and I said to him that I would let him know at the end of the day. He said he didn't want to pressurise me and I could have a few days to think it over, but I insisted that I had no other jobs in the pipeline that I really wanted to be interviewed for so would know my mind by the end of the day. He said to call after 8pm as 6-8 during the week is his time playing with the kids. We shook hands and I went off to get ready for my next interview.

Then I decided that I didn't really want to go for it anyway. There were several reasons. Firstly, it was in an area of Bristol that I would need to catch the bus for. That might sound silly, but I'm not paying finance on my car just to catch a bus everyday. Secondly, they had annoyed me somewhat by calling me to invite me to interview, but failing to mention that they would want me to prepare for an exam and a presentation, the instructions for which were pretty vague and I had to e-mail for clarification for (which also took them a few days to respond to).

I called them and just said that I had been offered a position and would be taking it, so I didn't want to waste their time.

I now had a few hours to kill so headed to the Mall where I knew a friend was and spent some time with her before attending my last interview. That one went well - the owner even e-mailed me after to say so. But there were a couple of things that confused me about it. Firstly, he said that until now they had grown organically but now he needed a dedicated salesperson as he didn't have the time to do all the sales. He believed in his product and wanted to take it to "the next level". But then he was saying that he wouldn't want me targeting really large companies as they wouldn't be able to handle the contract, and that he didn't want to grow the company beyond 10 people as it would be too difficult to manage. He even had to ask me how my current bonus was calculated and structured, and admitted that he hadn't given it much thought for this position yet. Tempting!

Basically, I questioned his motivation. My current boss is very motivated and has a clear dream of what he wants the company to be and where he wants it to be in the future. I was surprised that it was lacking in him.

So in the end it was a pretty easy decision. And for my new role I can move back home - literally. I haven't lived in the town where I grew up for six years, but can commute into work from there in about the same time it would take if I lived in Bristol (due to the traffic). We will be right with family but only 40 minutes from friends, and can easily visit. If Lu wants to see anyone during the week, I can easily get her a lift in and she can catch the bus from there.

Our alternatives are to live in North Bristol, where I know most people, and have a journey of the same length before and after work, albeit not moving so quickly, or live in South Bristol where Lucie would have to take two or three buses to see friends and two or three buses to see family - which seemed not to make much sense.

Now on to house hunting again!

The yay post

1) I felt the baby kick for the first time on Saturday. YAY!

2) Bristol City are in the play-off final to go up to the Premiership. YAY!

3) I had three interviews today. YAY!

4) After my first interview, the owner of the company took me out for lunch and told me he wasn't going to "beat around the bush" and was going to offer me the job. He had some other interviews later in the week but if I took the job he wasn't afraid to cancel them as he liked me so much. YAY!

5) He said that he will give me slightly more money than I'm on now as he really likes me, he liked my CV, he liked speaking to me on the phone and he thought I came over really well in the interview. YAY!

6) He is extremely family-friendly and is going to give me full paternity leave. He also said that if I have a bad night with the baby he is fine with me calling in and saying that I'll be a few hours late. He also makes everyone work a strict 35 hour week and won't let anyone stay after 5pm. YAY!

7) Once a month the office closes down and everyone goes out for a 'challenge' day, whether it's going tenpin bowling, playing pool or golf. The winner gets a silly little cup for the month. YAY!

8) One of the other interviews went really well, the managing director sent me an e-mail after it saying that it went well. YAY!

9) Even though the above went well, I called the first interview man back this evening to tell him that I would love to join the team and look forward to beating him at the next bout of tenpin bowling. YAY!

I have a new job and am going home!

Latest scan

Latest scan pics:







Whilst these are obviously fantastic, and the baby is healthy, it was a tad disappointing.

As you may recall, last time we paid for a private scan. This one was on the NHS. We turned up at reception and the woman there was quite friendly (in amongst taking an obscene amount of money for each photo).

Then we were called by a foreign woman who took us to the scan room.

"Is this the first time you've been here" she grunted. We replied yes. She followed up with "is this your first baby?" with no emotion. Again, we said yes.

Lu laid down on the couch and she went to work silently. She didn't even describe what we were seeing. One minute you're looking at the head, and before you can comprehend it, she's moved away and is looking at the feet. Then she's checking out the spine. Then checking the skull. You are desperately trying to keep up with her.

"Do you want to know the sex?" is the next thing she says. No, we reply. More silence.

Then she zooms in for a detailed look at the heart. It all seems OK, it's beating away and you can see two chambers... I think that's right. But you're not a trained sonographer! Then she changes the image so that you can see the blood moving, with fresh and oxygenated blood and used and blue blood swilling around. Should they be mixing like that? Is that normal?

No word from the lady.

She zooms back out again and looks around again. The spine looks OK, but is it too curved? I don't know!

Suddenly she removes the scanning device, says "all is fine" in a low voice and gets up and walks away. I check my watch, it's 12.28pm and the scan started at 12.20pm. The whole time she's said only four or five sentences to us. We're left there as she writes something at her desk then hands Lucie her notes back. Somebody knocks on the door. "Come in" she says. A nurse walks in saying that the previous person wasn't given their notes back. A short conversation ensues where she denies this before they both leave the room.

We remain there, motionless. Are we still meant to be there? A couple of minutes later she walks back in, and looks surprised that we're still sat there.

"Did I give you back your notes and your photos?" she asks. We reply yes. "Well, all is well and the baby is healthy. Good luck for the rest of the pregnancy"... and she sits back down at her desk with her back to us.

Nice to see that customer service isn't dead!

Am I mad?

OK, as promised, here is an update....

First of all, Pip is fine. We have another ultrasound scan today, hence I'm off work. There's something nerve-racking about them, as there is always the niggling thought that they might find something wrong. But so far all has been well with the pregnancy, so touch wood!

Next, work...

Yes, I handed in my notice last week. I am probably mad, hell, I don't even have a job to go into (which has pleased our parents somewhat). But, basically it all boils down to one major reason: homesickness.

I've never really been homesick before, I haven't lived at home since I left for uni six years ago. I've lived in Bristol, Swindon and now Basingstoke. And it does feel like a move too far. Whereas I've always lived about an hour or less from home and friends, I now live two hours away (if the tourist traffic by Stonehenge isn't too bad). This makes a day trip pretty much impossible and I always need to plan to head back for two days. And when I do do that, I feel like I haven't really had two days off work and head back in knackered.

And miserable, as going home always makes me realise what I'm missing. I don't see my friends often enough, I don't see family often enough, and I'm missing my nieces growing up - which pains me even more now that they don't have a father.

I think that's when it really hit home what I'm missing. When Neal died in February, I felt truly isolated from my family for the first time.

Then there is the baby. Again, we're going to be miles from our support network when Pip is born. Lucie really isn't looking forward to being sat at home all day with a baby - as you can probably imagine, we don't really know anyone out here. I began to worry that she might get post-natal depression from this (we spoke and it turns out it was something she was worrying about as well).

Work is next. I'm not enjoying it as much as I should, whilst I love the company and we are looked after well, the job itself isn't everything I hoped for. In effect, I can be a bit bored as most days feel the same. Trust me, when you do the job I used to do it is quite a change! I was actually beginning to find it hard to get up in the morning. You shouldn't have to begin to dread work, should you?

I know the sensible thing to do would be to find a new job then move. But we're in a contract at our house and need to give two months to break it. You could also say "why not wait until the end of the contract?"

But that would put us in October and I'll have a two month old baby. To me, moving with a newborn and having a potentially unsafe job situation is a lot more insane than this plan.

What is our plan?

Well, as I said, I've handed in my notice and am currently working it. We are only living here for another two months until the end of June, and mid-June Lucie will start her maternity leave as she's putting holiday at the start.

I'm looking for work, but if I don't find any immediately we'll be moving in with my mother-in-law. Not ideal, but needs be. If I do find work then we'll try and move straight into another property.

Doing this gives me a chance to get back into work before the baby is born, which seemed the best compromise despite our parents' protests (which are mixed between "great! You're coming home!" and "you have a child on the way! You need to be earning money!".