What a difference a week makes

Well. OK. Eight days, between you and I. But never mind...a week sounds rather snappier somehow.

I have a new job. Fingers crossed I do. L wrote my reference for uberboss to sign and she promised she would make me sound brilliant. But...but...what if she didn't? What if they get my reference and change their mind about offering me the job?

See? See? I am ever the pessimist when it comes to good things happening to me!

I also - and you may say this is pre-empting things rather - have found myself a flat. I won't be able to move in to the actual flat for a week, so I will be camping out in one of the other flats for a week first. We went down to look at flats and houses yesterday and this was the very first place we looked at.

It was quite funny really, because we drove off the A1 into the village itself and J just yelped 'You are living here! No arguments!'. We drove on to the sound of: 'Ooooh! Oooooh! Look at that quaint little church!' (Car stopped in lane, exchange of meaningful looks). 'Oh my God! The post office is in someone's front room!' 'Argh! Would you look at the local pub! How quaint is that?!' (It really is all very quaint).

Now. The directions were kind of 'turn off the A1, go along the High Street, turn right at the pub, drive down Low Lane, take the left fork in the road, drive up to the security gates and press the buzzer and I'll come down and let you in.'

The main house is a former vicarage, set in five acres of parkland with trees some three hundred years old. A river runs through the middle of it all. There were sodding real bulrushes in the damn river! I mean! I never saw a bulrush in my life outside of Odsal (r. league injoke there, sorry). The lady of the house inherited it from her father, who bought it at auction from the Church of England in 1980.

The main house is where her family live, in part of the building at any rate. They also have a licence for civil weddings and can hold services in a suite in the house. They can arrange the whole package, including marquees in the grounds for the reception, caterers, bars, mobile disco, bands, whatever you want. We just kind of looked at each other at that point and went 'Ug'. It's like some kind of conspiracy!

Anyway, there is the Gatehouse (which is much more modern inside), living room downstairs and bathroom, kitchen and bedroom upstairs. Very nice, in a bit of upheaval because it is being rewired - they only recently bought this building from an investor. Then there is the Coach House.

Now. I have a cat, and I know if I don't keep right on top of the litter tray situation it can begin to get a little fragrant. The lady who presently has the ground floor flat in the Coach House has two cats with an overflowing litter tray. One tray between two cats. Never a good idea. Cat owners may know the slightly chocolatey smell of desiccated cat poo that's sat in the litter for a good few hours. Not too pleasant. That was right in the doorway - sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

However. Bear with me on this. OK. Kitchen is less modern. Long and narrow with slightly cobbled-together units but nice black granite effect worktops. Serviceable. A mix of wall units, not matching but quite appealing in their own way. Cooker...bit of an ancient electric with eyelevel grill but it will scrub up OK I reckon. It all looks as though it really hasn't been taken too much care of, but it will be cleaned before I move in. There is a fridge-freezer that belongs to the present incumbent that I will buy off her for £30 as she doesn't need it where she's moving to.

The bathroom is a decent size. No bath, but a really nice modern electric shower in a new glass cubicle of a decent size, basin in one corner and loo in the third corner. The bathroom is at the end of the kitchen.

The living/dining room is massive. There are huge black beams in the ceiling and two three-lamp overhead lights as it is quite a dark room - the window is quite small and looks out on to the Jurassic Kueper Marl rock that used to form part of the river bed. It looks like a huge multi-coloured sandstone, full of holes and riddled with caves. The soft rock of the area is honeycombed with tunnels, apparently, from the old Abbey nearby. Prosaically, they keep the lawnmower in one cave and logs in another. It is furnished with a huge green sofa, three seater easily with big soggy cushions, a matching armchair, a gorgeous dresser, shelving units, brassbound coffee table, tv stand, dining table and chairs.

The bedroom is quite small - room for a double bed, wardrobe and a dressing table and that's about it, but who needs a massive bedroom?

It is painted white throughout, with the beams painted black. The doors are black. The carpet is a darkish blue, beige in the bathroom.

It has masses of potential to be a really comfy, cosy, homey place to live. Once it's had a damn good clean and been aired out a little! *lol* I am already planning all the things I can add to make it 'mine'. I have pictures that aren't up here at the moment for lack of room, family photographs that are framed but not on display as they creep J out, soft furnishings that I can take over that he won't miss (I've had them since university days for the most part). Then there are the silly things like the food processor, the hand blender, my paints, sewing stuff, that sort of thing.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I had two interviews, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. The Tuesday place loved me but wouldn't offer me till I'd had Wednesday's interview and come back to them on what I thought to that. They thought I'd be snapped up. Well, I was. Or would have been. The Tuesday job required relocation on my part as it is too far a drive to commute daily. Another reason why they were fairly pessimistic that I would say yes to any offer they made. The Wednesday job was local to me, and they were very dismissive of the Tuesday firm due to the fact that it would mean relocating and would take me away from my home here.

The points to consider are these:

1) Which position offers long-term security, the chance to develop my work skills and obtain further qualifications and accreditation?

2) Which position offers the better salary and more chance of a bonus and a review of salary annually?

3) Which employer is larger?

4) Who did I prefer at interview?

From my perspective, on Tuesday I firstly met with the senior partner in my area of law. We had a good long chat, he was upfront with me and said he liked me, he could honestly say he would recommend to his partners that they make me an offer but he wanted to wait and see what happened at my next interview in case I liked them more. Then I met the managing partner and his wife (always a good sign). Then I got to have a long chat with the people I'd be working with in our office on a daily basis. In all, I was there an hour and three quarters, and my future colleague drove me to the station to catch my train and left me with the words 'I really, really hope to see you again very soon' ringing in my ears.

Wednesday...well, I knew both my interviewers already. I'd temped at this firm in York after I did my post-grad year. I knew the lady who owned the firm by reputation also. They have four offices, the other firm 5. However: she is the sole principal. It is her firm, take it or leave it. The main offices are in two different cities. The branch or satellite offices are tiny, the Leeds office - where I would be based - being a fee earner and two job-sharing secretaries.

They were quite cold at interview. It wasn't what you'd call a cosy chat, just straight down the line business. Contrast that with the day before, when we'd talked about people we each know (my favourite District Judge only used to be a partner in the firm, and is a regular Saturday golfing partner of the senior partner who interviewed me, so when I said he was a lovely man and one of my favourite DJ's, and told a little anecdote about him, it went down a storm), we'd talked about where I come from (my schooling is on my CV) and he turns out to be a keen hillwalker and knows my village well from many a holiday - in fact knows the family business well too. It was a real investigation not just of my work experience and background but a chance for him to suss out my personality - such as it is - and to see how I fit in to the firm's ethos.

I had a call on the Thursday from Wednesday's interviewer. She made an offer immediately and proceeded to go through the diary entries for the next month. Consider I might have been in my last post in court twice or three times a day, and seen two or more clients in the office as well. Certainly I never had fewer than two appointments in my diary each day regardless of other engagements. Contrast that with one or two hearings a week if I'm lucky, two or three clients a week and three days in succession with nothing in the diary at all. The post incumbent was taking work off people in other offices for something to do. Does this sound like a job with prospects? I thought not.

So, at the end of the day, there was very little choice.

Back to the accommodation. I mentioned the litter tray and that there were two cats. Well, it seems that the cats can't move with the present occupier and only one has a new home. So, I find myself - or will shortly find myself - the proud new 'owner' of a little, affectionate, slightly deranged tortoiseshell love-addicted feline who demands to be loved and fussed over by any human present in the room.

I think a larger litter tray, better cat litter and a regular change routine will soon deal with the odour problem. As will a damn good clean as already said.

Yes. What a difference a week makes.