Old News - Newsletter Feb 2002

Well, interesting times over here (I do believe that's a Chinese curse or something).

As you may know by now, Mountain Man has been made redundant - well we're 99% sure he is. He'll find out for certain on Thursday, but we're quite sure. He got told last Wednesday afternoon, and hasn't had to go into work since - which is a bit of a giveaway! His company have decided to stop developing products, and do consulting with their existing product, or something like that. So bye-bye developers. It's a bit of a shock, but we've almost got our heads around it. Luckily he has a bit of money saved, so I don’t have to support him just yet!

Mountain Man is now frantically trying to get another company to take over his work permit, on which he still has 3 years. If he swings it then this will have been all for the best! He was fed up with his job, and was just killing time waiting for the market to improve. He's hoping to get back into contracting, at which point I am going to be horribly jealous – permanent work sucks! We’re not expecting him to have much of a problem, although the market could be much better.

In spite of this we have decided to carry on with our move into a bigger, more expensive flat! We’ve found a lovely 2-bedroom flat in Putney, and will be moving at the end of March. It’s very spacious, and even has a garage to store bicycles and stuff – I’d love to get a car, but probably won’t in the near future!

I’ve finished repainting our current flat back to cream, and taken down all the shelving I put up. All our things are now stacked in piles against the walls again… sigh. Our next flat has lots of built-in cupboards, and I can’t wait!

My job move is progressing in a whirl of paperwork. The company that has bought us is a huge established one, and so they have lots of paperwork routines in place to which we have to conform. I haven’t written a document since I was studying, and they’re going to send us on training to teach us how!

T and J are now engaged. They’re expecting to marry next January, and the planning is already in full swing. As one of the bridesmaids I get to trail around choosing dresses and fabric and patterns and hen night and so on. I am not having a wedding if I get married – far too much effort!

I’ve had a raise and a bonus in the past few weeks, which was very nice indeed. I’ve slapped most of the bonus into savings, and the rest will pay for my 30th birthday party in 2 weeks and my trip home in November. The raise will half cover my rent increase!

What with job loss, job move, home moving and turning 30 we are a little stressed! Interesting times indeed.