I'm taking it

I've decided to take the job, despite the low annual salary (pro rata and all that). The low annual salary had me very scared. (It's only 68% of what I earn now!)

but look at the benefits:

- I'll be working only four days a week. I can take every Friday off for studying and not fall so behind anymore.

- I'll have access to a large library nearby any time I want

- work will be a 45 minute cycle ride away. This'll keep me fitter than the 7 minute cycle ride my current job gives

- 2 weeks off at Christmas and 6 weeks off in the summer.

Of course, those 6 weeks off during the summer, when I live 15 minutes walk from the beach is naturally going to be very tough. I'm not sure how I'll cope with that... Brighton Beach, 6 weeks off, in the summer, still receiving a paycheck...

So with all that, I think my summer is going to be a whole lot better than last year's. I'll have considerably less money but I won't be trying to juggle the commitments of an OU course while holding down a full time job and trying to keep a man who wants to go off cycling every weekend happy.

Also, since I get 6 weeks off in the summer, the Sous Chef suggested maybe next year we go on an extended trip to somewhere more exotic. YAY! so maybe he won't go off to South America without me after all! I quite fancy cycling off somewhere more exotic than France

got a call from the interviewers. It looks like I got the job but they won't give me the official yes until my second reference comes through. They're chasing me to chase him about it. I was tossing and turning last night about this job though. The money bothers me. It is considerably less than what I'm on now. About 6 - 8 grand less in fact. Am I making a retrograde step here? but then again juggling a full time job while trying to study has been hard and having a boyfriend who wants to go away on cycling trips throughout the summer - a time when my course gets heavy and I have to spend weekends putting in the hours with the text books - has been particularly hard. With the summer off, I could study in the week and am free at weekends to go to the Isle of Wight or Scotland or wherever, secure in the knowledge that I'm not jeopardising my studies. The job sounds interesting but not challenging. It's not a move forward, it's a move out but it is at a university. I'll have access to a library, be plugged into the academic world and may be able to find something more suitable within the organisation once I'm in. I could do it for 2 years while I finish my studies and then use my degree. and if I really don't like it or find the money is making things too tight, then I could look for something else in the summer break. I'm scared of taking it, though. The money bothers me. The ease of the job also. But the good side is the hours, the summer off, the organisation, the location and perhaps what it might lead to. hmmm and they want an answer as soon as possible. They keep asking me whether I'm still interested every time they speak to me.

The Interview

Had my first job interview today. Why do I not find them very daunting? I actually quite enjoyed it. I had a rather epic anxiety dream beforehand (involving having to swim to the interview, being naked, being sent away by the interviewers to join a cross country run - still naked - and having the destination office moving off the map) but I was relaxed because, despite being early, a member of the team met me and we chatted and she seemed really lovely. She showed me the software they use (it looks like a simpler version of one I already use) and talked about the job and I felt as relaxed as if I knew everyone well already. I'm shy - where does this feeling at ease in stressful situations come from?!

I then had two work-related tests to do, which were basically a prioritising a day's tasks and a logic problem in the guise of setting up appointments for people according to the available dates they'd given. It was fun and I enjoyed that bit.

The interview went ok although I do remember several occasions whenI could have given better answers than I did, but that's always the way, isn't it.

The job I can do standing on my head and doesn't daunt me at all but I worry it might be too easy. Also, the money is quite poor. Much less than what I'm on here. It's the same pro-rata but I'd be working 30 hours per week and only 44 weeks of the year. But then again, that means I could concentrate more on my studies, now that I'm doing level 3 of my degree. I could even work jut 4 days a week and have one day for drinking beer in the garden studying.

And having the summer off when living in Brighton is not exactly the worst thing in the world either, is it.

So now I wait and see whether they liked me or not. They might not think me suitable, they might not have liked my answers, they might not think I'd fit in, but all that is up to them now. Fingers crossed

In other news - The Sous Chef has been looking at house prices and mumbled something about it being worthwhile to sell up/rent out his house and go traveling for a year. I have some savings but I don't think I have enough for a whole year of travel with my beloved.

Speaking of my beloved, I do wish my kidsis would stop pinching his bottom. She wouldn't put him down all evening when we went out and her boyfriend was standing right there. She's not so much a flirt as in need of male attention and it's my man she's always got her eye on.

Fortunately I have a "very devoted boyfriend" [his words] and I don't fear he's going to run off with my sister. With my other boyfriends, I'd have been worried but I trust mine with all my heart and most of my brain. Two years in and I don't see my being dippily in love with him lessening even slightly. He still makes my knees go wobbly and I still get that heart-skippy feeling when I think of him looking at me. I thought that stuff is supposed to wear off. Maybe after 10 years it will and 2 years is still too early.