Back to Work. Nearly...

It's been a strange last three months. Me and the Missus went to Bali for one of my oldest friend's 50th birthdays at the end of July. This was ace. It was my first time in a Hindu culture and we al chilled and drank and chatted and ate.

We also did some sight-seeing and temple-visiting (as pictured above). It was lovely.

Then it was back to the UK and my return to work. I'd accepted a three-month contract at a major publishing house chief subbing two of their magazines. Week one was fine but week two saw me left with a skeleton staff, a four-day week and two magazines to get to press. And this sort of shit storm continued for about three to four weeks. Fortunately, I am used to busy and pressured environments, so I was sort of OK.

Then the whole department was called into a sudden meeting and told the work was being outsourced. Ironically, to the place I first started working in journalism some 30 years ago.

The staff on the subs desk were ace. But, if I'm honest with myself, the job was a bad fit and I should have turned it down. I smelt something was off during the interview, but I ignored it. I was just too keen to get back to work.

Even more stupidly, I turned down interviews for two jobs I would have preferred out of some sense of loyalty to the new place of work and because I had too much to do to attend them. I won't make that mistake again.

So I was back in work and I am now back looking for work. 

On the plus side, I'm now much more serious about a career shift. Journalism is in decline and I have no wish to fight over the increasingly shitty bits left over from a contracting industry.

I am thinking about teaching. Quite seriously. I need to find a job that will engage and enthuse me. I should have gone into this when I left college, but I needed to fund my community arts work. 

But, better late than never, as they say...