Friday was a strange day

It started with an interview at a very reputable and well-known recruitment agency.

I'd already explained to the young lady on the phone on Wednesday that I was looking perhaps for a move out of the field I currently work in. I was looking in the meantime for some temporary work once my present position ends, if I hadn't manage to secure a new permanent post by then. I made it very plain that I was disillusioned with my chosen field and wanted some idea as to what I could usefully do instead on a long-term basis.

Well, what she did do was to say that I should fight for the job I had given the reason I was having to move on. She said I should talk to the uberboss, to the head of department, and do my damndest to hold on to what I had. It was clear to her that I loved the job that I had and that I ought to be doing anything I could to hang on to it.

Then she passed me along to her colleague who deals in temporary assignments. Who signed me up and gave me an application form to complete and return.

What a waste of half an hour of my morning! And yet again, it appears that recruitment consultants are a complete and utter waste of time. 'Hello, I'd like to change jobs, could you please give me some pointers as to what I could do instead?' 'Stick with what you're doing'. 'i don't know if I want to, what can I do instead?' 'Just stick to what you know'.

Anyway, on to work. Where I found a very despondent L, who had texted me earlier to say 'hurry up and get to work, I feel like a dirty old slapper'. This followed her post from the previous night, in which she had told me she'd been naughty again and now felt terrible.

She went to the hotel with the uberboss. I knew that she would do from the get-go if I'm honest, and I very much think she did too. What followed was a morning for her of abject misery - she hadn't had a single message from him since the previous night and he hadn't spoken to her in the morning before leaving for court. (Not that she'd spent the night at the hotel - they were only there for a couple of hours or so).

He did text her eventually, after she texted him to ask if, having had his wicked way with her again, she was now used goods. It was like someone flicking a light switch, seeing the glow that came over her face when he (after a couple of hours or so) replied 'of course not. X'.

*sigh*

We went for lunch, where we discussed the matter at length. The upshot of it all is that she doesn't expect it to be a forever thing and realises that she is one of a string of women that he has on the go, but the way things are with her marriage she is quite happy with that. She's relishing the excitement and that someone finds her attractive. I don't understand how marriages can go so wrong...talking to her, it sounds very much as though she married C for all the wrong reasons. They just sort of fell into it after a couple of years, and then a couple of years after that first one baby came along and then another. Now she finds herself bored by her husband and hating the things about him that attracted her in the first place.

The thing about affairs though is that they are exciting, mainly because of the thrill of discovery and the fact that everything has to be so clandestine. It isn't about the sex so much as about how it all makes you feel: the plotting how you can be together, the anticipation of meeting and of the things that you will do to each other, the stolen moments in between longer liaison, the texts and e-mails and instant messages in which you plan each moment you will be together.

Or so I understand.

By mid-afternoon, I still had the words of that recruitment consultant tumbling through my head. I wandered into the uberboss' office to beard him about possibly staying until they found a replacement for me, but before I could speak to him he asked if I'd spoken to the guy whose number he'd given me. I said no, I hadn't, so he rang him for me and had a chat with him then appeared with his office number and a message to call him back, which I did. He doesn't know yet whether he does need someone or not, there are a couple of things he needs to sort out first, but he is interested and will call me in a few days to discuss it further.

Then I went back in to see the uberboss and had those words with him. It seems this Miss Hussain is coming in for one day to see what she makes of the place and whether she feels she could work there, but she hasn't been offered a job yet. It is up in the air as to whether he will even take anyone on or not. It is apparently not anything to do with any problem he has with my work at all, and it isn't because head of department and I don't especially get along. Now he is saying we as a department just don't bill enough money to justify that many fee earners, despite the fact we are stretched to capacity and the reason for the shortfall is that for six or eight months there weren't enough bodies to do all the work we have let alone get the billing and six-monthly claims done. So the files that I have will be divided between the staff already there. Which is to say, one part-timer, L who is supposed to work a four-day week but has managed only about a fortnight of that at best and head of department who is full-time.

Neither L nor the head of department is any too happy about this.

The upshot of it is that I cannot work until they find a replacement, but I can work to the end of the month almost - January 27th. That gives me an extra couple of weeks to find another job in, and I know that it is entirely possible to find work that fast because it has happened for me before.

My details are presently with a firm just down the road from where I work - L thinks that would be ideal because we could meet up regularly for lunch and keep in touch that way. And the admin staff are all saying how we'll all meet up regularly for nights out and what have you too. No-one wants me to go it seems, except the head of department. The uberboss maintains it is her decision, but I think he is shifting the blame on to her to an extent.

The fortnight's extension had to be okayed by head of department. It was. That means I will meet this Miss Hussain, and that I will be present at the family department meeting on the day she comes in. Could be interesting. Could be very interesting indeed. I reckon I'll be excluded from it if I'm quite honest. I can hardly see them wanting me in there asking awkward questions about billing targets and what-not.

The stupid thing is that the new procedures she and L have put into place have worked: all of the new files opened last month were looked at by our consultants and all were absolutely spot-on with no corrective action needed at all. A first for some years, according to uberboss. His department on the other hand got a bit of a slating!

I don't know whether to be optimistic about the situation or not, I really don't. I am at a crossroads, I feel it very strongly. I am still thinking I might wander into teaching instead, but I need to give more thought to that.

I'm not sure whether I mentioned how the WeightWatchers thing is going. Despite the mention of chicken foo yung, chips and curry sauce, I am still on track very nicely. It's all come in within the daily points allowance. I'm keeping a daily journal again and I much prefer that really, because it forces me to keep an eye on whether I've had my milk ration for the day, whether I've eaten enough fruit and veg, and whether I'm sufficiently hydrated. It really does help to keep me on track foodwise, much more so than the electronic organiser, useful as that is. It doesn't allow me to properly record as it is quite limited menu-wise and cannot be updated. Weigh-in day is Tueday, when I really ought to stay to class as I haven't yet this year. Although there's only been one meeting.

I am in something of a quandary now. Someone at a site I go to a lot which I really love to visit is linking a whole lot of blogs together through her space there, and I am not yet decided as to whether I want to post mine there or not. Right now I have it set to be private, so no-one can access it except me. Given that this is my diary, confidante, sounding board, whathaveyou, I'm unsure. I mean, who wants to know more about me? Who am I happy with knowing more about me? And I do gossip terribly in this blog of mine, so it isn't all just about me.

I shall keep thinking on it, that's what I shall do.