All change please!

A very overdue blog! After not a lot of note happening in my humdrum life for a while, it seems now is the time for change.

The first big step was last month when I finally snapped and signed off JSA. I'd been claiming for 6 months (though I've been unemployed for almost a year). Anyway, I'd got to the point where they were lining up a load of pointless courses and planning to send a load of jobs my way which have nothing to do with anything I'm interested in or qualified for. They were even talking about re-training. If I'd wanted to work in a different field surely it would have crossed my mind that I might need to train in it?! In short, the point is I'd had enough and that, combined with other things lead me to jump-ship.

I was gutted last month when the two rats I'd inherited from a friend both died. They'd both been quite sickly on and off since I took them on so in a way it was a kind of relief not to have to worry about them breaking anymore. I was still genuinely sad to see them go though. Just by chance, while browsing teh interwebz I found a pair of ratty girls looking for a home (at the time I still had one of the old girls so I had to ignore my findings). On finding myself ratless how could I say no? I arranged to meet them before committing, expecting to have to arrange the usual home visit but ended up leaving with a box of fluffy children. Apparently I seem to know what I'm doing (as far as rodents go at least!) I'll probably write about them more another time. They are certainly keeping me busy!

Over the last month or two I've been spending a lot more time with my Nan. She was recently diagnosed with dementia and it's been good for her to have someone keeping an eye her. The second big change I've made is to take up the responsibility of being Nan's carer on a more official level. This was another factor in quitting the dole. I figured if I'm going to be unemployed for the forseeable future, I'd rather be doing something productive with my time. So now I actually have somewhere to be every day and I feel like I'm actually serving some sort of genuine purpose for the first time since I left uni two years ago.

As if all that upheaval wasn't enough, a few days after quitting jobseeker's I had an ominous-looking brown envelope through the post. I finally got a job offer! I'm not going to say too much about it, but providing I pass all the security checks (ooo!) I could be a productive little worker bee again. The only annoyance is that I won't find out anything concrete for a couple of months. It will be a great leap forward if it all works out though. I can build up some funds for the future and the hours mean that hopefully I can still check in on Nan.

So yeah, I'm feeling a whole lot more positive now. I feel like I actually have a reason to get up every day. Something which has been seriously lacking for a long time. Here's to the future!