There's no such thing as a free lunch

Well. There is, and then again, there isn't.

L took me for lunch today as she had a windfall. We went to our usual lunching-ground, mainly because it does bloody nice food for a reasonable price and isn't too far a stagger away. She paid, due to her windfall, but it occurs to me sitting here now that it wasn't really a free lunch.

It goes like this: friends do nice things for each other to say thank you for being my friend. In this case, thank you for listening to me think out loud about this particular situation in which I find myself.

We also wanted lunch cos we were hungry and usually go out at least once a week anyway. And we often take it in turns to pay.

I have this feeling now that I'm frantically reaching for a point somewhere but may not have quite managed to reach it yet. Any minute now I will end up base over apex, most likely, due to overreaching.

Head of department wandered in afterhours (I normally work after 5 - too much to do, too little time) for a chat. Have I fixed myself up with a new job yet? Nope, not yet, irons in the fire, yadda yadda. She said she'll keep her ear to the ground but hasn't heard of anyone local hiring. Where am I looking it? Which area or areas of law do I fancy? That sort of thing.

Interestingly, she confessed that she probably wasn't uberboss' first choice for head of department, but he was in a fix and needed someone to run things and she needed a new job to start pretty much immediately as the firm where she was a partner decided to junk their family/matrimonial department. She also confessed that this probably won't be her last job.

Wtf? You wander into a job, start stirring shit up for those who came before you and then admit you don't intend to stick around in all likelihood?

I'd better watch it - I may be in danger of approaching victim mode.

Anyway, I think we got a few things clear, so that w2as good. In a friendly way. No blood on the carpet or anything like that.

It's been a funny week so far.