A New Era!

A new era began yesterday. For the past nine months I've been contracting at Northamptonshire County Council but suddenly – although I was due to go on there until the end of the year – they've run out of money and have had to boot me out, early. I'm not alone in this – several contractors have been summarily dismissed in an effort to cut costs – but whereas most of my colleagues (both contractors and permanent staff) have viewed this development with dismay, I see it as an exciting opportunity.

It's very easy to become complacent in any role, and if I hadn't been so callously kicked out when I was, I probably would have gone on until the end of the year, and even longer perhaps (before the financial truth hit them, they had a tendency to renew contracts wherever possible). It was all getting rather cosy and because of sheer laziness on my part, I probably would have stuck at for as long as I was allowed to, even though I hated it. Now I have been forced out of my lethargy and have no choice but to think of something else.

God knows, I will miss the money – of course I will. But all of life is change; and all of life is a challenge. So I must embrace that change and that challenge and set out upon an adventure to find something new, something better. And the strange thing is that I am very, very, very confidant of finding it. That's what makes my life so much fun. This has all happened so quickly that I have not had time to "line up something else" (as in "Have you got something else lined up?"), but I don't care. If this opportunity hadn't come along, I'd have wallowed in the misery of getting up at 5:15 every morning and driving 140 miles every day for months to come. So bad for my body; so bad for the car; and so bad for the environment.

So I do not wail or gnash my teeth in self-pity. I laugh at my so-called misfortune and I set my sails for a new adventure. Something good will come from this; it always does. When I think of some of the scrapes I've been in, I marvel at the miraculous escapes I've been presented with. I'm excited – something new is around the corner and I know that (as ever) it will be something good. I'm on the Yellow Brick Road; I'm going back to Kansas.

In the meantime, I took an early flight this morning for Geneva and so am spending a delightful few days in the cleanliness and efficiency of Switzerland (so don't expect another blog from me until next week). I have brought with me a few clothes, but also some essentials that my daughter (whom I am visiting) misses from her old life in blighty: A few bags of Bombay Mix; some Cheddar Cheese; a couple of big bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk; and some Twiglets. Hurrah! What a feast we shall have!

And you'll all be delighted to know that Great Aunt Dolores (she who once went over Niagara Falls in a barrel and who later took up playing the xylophone after being knocked down by a lorry) won't be coming with me. Well, she hardly could – having been dead for years.

And if I suddenly become overwhelmed by morbidity whilst I am taking my Swiss sojourn – well, there's always Dignitas!