Happy New Year 2007!

Happy new year folks. I'm sorry for the lack of updates lately. It's been a busy time around Christmas, and I've spend the last two weeks in Wales with my family.

Since my last entry, I have lost my job as a Nurse at Timken Steel. This was due to the planned closure, but I lost my position sooner than anticipated. Not a great thing to happen before Christmas, and we're now in a new year and I'm unemployed. I have a lot to be thankful for, so I'm not too sad! The better news is that I start work at a large HM YOI (a young offenders prison) any time soon. I'm just waiting for security clearance. I'm looking forward to it!

A cliché I know, but it’s been a funny old year. I ended up embroiled in an ugly battle with my former employer. If I’ve not told the story before, I was bullied by business manager. I’ll not bore you with the details now, but I found out the other week that she has been disposed of! It’s only a shame that I couldn’t see it for myself, but she was asked to leave through a rather elaborate arrangement of consultation - in other words, everybody needed to apply for their jobs again, and the only person who didn’t get it was her! Ah well, all history now, but this year has been dominated by that woman.

The upshot of this was a blessing. I still have friends (I’m pleased to say) in high places. When I told a former colleague about my departure from that company, she told me about how she learned about an occupational health nurse vacancy that had come up at one of the local factories recently – The Timken Steel Corp. Within the week, I’d met the manager there, and started work the following week!

Unfortunately, as my luck with jobs seems to prove, last week I lost this job! The factory was to close, and 400 redundancies needed to be made, so again, I found myself in hot water. The same friend and colleague who found me the job came through again and told me about a position at the local prison. So, that’s my plan.

With any luck, I’m hoping the new year will bring me a new house, with a garden, some job security and some new friends. Whatever you wish for and dream of for the new year, I really hope it come true for you…