Unemployment, solar panels and lucky pants.

Once again I am unemployed. I left my temporary job at the cider farm on Sunday and don't start my new job until next Tuesday. I decided that after working for a month I had earned a week off.

The time span from being made redundant until starting my new long term job next week is nearly 4 months which I don't think is too bad. In those 4 months I have applied for umpteen jobs, attended 5 interviews, worked for a month, completed a number of craft projects, written 17 blog posts, claimed job seekers allowance for a month and lunched with friends 27 times. I can't help thinking that maybe the number of interviews should have been higher and lunches out lower, but that's cappuccinos under the bridge now. These months have flown by and have taught me a lot about myself, life in general and the world of work in particular. Everyone loves a list so here are my top 12 lessons learnt since redundancy struck.

1. Contrary to popular belief you can teach an old dog new tricks. In the last few months I have learnt how to waitress, a lot about cider and am learning slowly about the world of blogs. I had been in my original job for nearly 16 years and when it ended I did doubt that I could do anything else but have proved to myself that I'm not a one trick wonder.
2. The people who work the hardest are often the ones who are paid the least. It seems to me that people on minimum wage work twice as hard for half the pay.
3. Using the redundancy card is a great way of getting rid of cold callers. When I have had phone calls in the past from double glazing sales people, solar panel installers, drive tarmackers etc it has sometimes been hard to get them off the line. However if, before they can get into their full sales pitch, you ask if their product is going to cost anything as you have just been made redundant they soon end the call.
4. Even when it seems that you have loads of time, there still isn't enough time to do everything that you want. Hence my violin playing is very much at the planning stage and I still haven't worked out how to upload pictures to this blog.
5. Living on your own can be a more financially precarious position than living with a partner. If there are 2 of you then hopefully even if one person loses their job there is still one income coming into the household, unless you are unlucky enough to both lose your jobs at the same time. If there's only one of you and your job ends then that's all of your income gone. In a couple your financial outgoings maybe higher but at least there are two of you to shoulder the burden.
6. When in a fairly well paid job it is amazing how much money you waste, there are many economies that can be made. 
7. Toilet paper is cheaper than petrol (see blog entry 22/4/15, Petrol, shopping and sprouting broccoli).
8. Jobsearch really does take a long time. Trawling through websites, writing CVs, filling out applications, preparing for interviews, all take much longer than you think. Various governments have made noises in the past about making it compulsory for benefit claimants to do voluntary work in order to be able to claim. In theory I think that this is a good idea, but I worry that this might backfire as the more time spent volunteering the less time available for jobsearch.
9. Things don't always turn out as you expect, but that's ok.
10.  Peacocks are very loud, pushy and intimidating birds. (See blog entry 8/7/15, Peacocks, astronauts and cream teas)
11. You can't help but take rejection personally. You spend ages looking for work, even longer applying and preparing for the interview, just to be told you weren't successful. What you actually hear is that despite your best efforts you're just not good enough.
12. Since being made redundant, I have actually only learnt 11 things, but you can't have a list with 11 items on.
13. I can't count.

So this time next week I will be in my second day of my new job and the nerves have started already. I feel like a kid again starting a new school. What if no one likes me, what if they ask me questions I can't answer, what if I have to read out loud in front of the class and accidentally say fart instead of art and get called Windy Wendy for the rest of my time there and what if I forget my PE kit and am made to play netball in my pants and vest (OK this might be unlikely but I must remember to wear a vest and my lucky pants just in case). So please wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it!