Julie's Boggle

Well there are only a few hours left to go before we head off to the airport, and from there, jet over to SA!

I’m pleased to note that the slight trepidation I felt for our last trip (6 months back), travelling with a baby etc., hasn’t reappeared this time.

I feel a lot calmer in the face of a much smaller set of unknowns. (The greatest of these being: how will the parent holding Jonathan – er, that’s me on the way home – manage to sleep on the flight, given that they’ll be sharing a bed with Jon… ?)

Looking ahead though, I’m really looking forward to seeing all our much-missed friends and family! And letting them meet our lovely little boy.

At 9 months, he’s much more manageable now in all sorts of ways. Able to sit by himself when parental backs give in, able to be distracted by finger foods for 15 minutes at a go, and, most importantly, able to sleep for at least 10 hours at a go.

I should mention that the driving force behind this particular visit is that my sister Kristy is getting married to the lovely Wayne. And of course we’re really looking forward to that.

Since we are going to the country of dial-up modems and capped broadband lines, it’s only fair to warn that there might not be any updates here for the next three weeks or so.

So till next time, cheerio, au revoir, sale kahle, totsiens!

On Wednesday, I took what feels like a big step. Letting work know, in writing, that I’m not coming back. Official resignation. Wow.

The company was only expecting me back on 8 July this year, so it’s given them 12 weeks notice. But it was a conclusion that I’d reached a little while ago, so it seemed right to give them the opportunity to move on too.

I heard from my line manager that my replacement contractor had also recently left, so this at least means that they can make a start on the process of hiring a new permanent staff member rather than leaving the vacancy for me to fill.

I’m sure the “why” question will come up. Well, the decision mainly came from the fact that it wasn’t a job that I wanted any more. The position had been gradually devolving into being quite admin-focussed and a lot less software development over the last few years, so the work itself had lost a lot of its appeal.

Chuck in on top of that the complications of needing to find (expensive) nursery care for Jonathan and the fact that I actually don’t mind (and often enjoy) being at home looking after him, and you have all the requirements for saying no to going back.

In saying that, I realise that lots of people don’t have that option financially, but right now we are in the fortunate position of being able to get by without my income. I don’t owe the company anything either, which is handy.

I do rather feel like I’m watching my career drift off downstream, but hey. Opportunities to watch Jon going through these early stages aren’t going to come around again, so I might as well grab this one with both hands…