Edinburgher's balancing act

edinburgher

Today was simultaneously an awful day and a day of great optimism in Edinburgher towers.

Awful = my 'satisfactory' rating for my last year of work - what do you expect when you give an ambitious young graduate a crappy non-job and then tell him that everything's going well all year long, fireworks?

Optimism = I have been offered the job I applied for back in Scotland. I'm now thoroughly disallusioned with the civil service, but I see it as a means to an end, a way to get back home and figure out what comes next...

So good and bad, looking forward to going home.

doodledo_2

Well done on the job offer Ed

beanielou

Great news on new job
When do you think you might start?

edinburgher

The sooner the better, will be at least 6 weeks or so away I'd imagine.

Swinstie73

Where's the job Edinburgher? Sounds fab, that you can move back home!

doodledo_2

Morning Ed, how's you two??

InaPickle

Well done on the job offer, Ed!

Look forward to your next update.

edinburgher

Where's the job Edinburgher?

Sunny East Kilbride - home of wind turbines and grey concrete! Ah well, at least there's a view from the office windows unlike the vision of an alley that I see at present

Morning Ed, how's you two??

Good thanks Doodle. We had a much appreciated quiet weekend after the wheeling and dealing of the last couple of weeks, went for plenty of walks in the park, that sort of thing. How're you and DD?

Well done on the job offer, Ed!

Cheers Pickle, I'm aware that I've been slacking and will try to do a full update later on this morning!

Swinstie73

East Kilbride?? That's not far from where I live, small world eh!

edinburgher

I must confess, dear occasional readers, that I have been slacking and not doing my bit to keep up the DFW ethos of frugality, common sense and dreaming - this needs to change

My good news re. job offer in Scotland has been tinged with the disappointment that I don't have a clue whether or not the job offered actually holds any appeal.

Instead of acting like a moaning minnie, however, I've become painfully aware of the fact that I should really appreciate my life and lot a hell of a lot more than I do :eek: I earn a decent wage, have some job stability and am doing a heck of a lot better than my parents were at my age. I'm debt free, going home and have a loving GF.

But instead of appreciating all this, I grump around like a spoiled child expecting miracles (like a fun job!)

So, I think it's high time I start treating the move back to Scotland as a good opportunity and not an excuse for more navel gazing. Sometimes I forget that at 27 I'm still a young guy and should be out there enjoying life, not agonising over the minutiae.

To this end I have started trying to fit some positive changes into my routine:

1. Exercising more, a great excuse to spend even more time with the GF
2. Setting myself small domestic/adminstrative goals and making sure that I complete them when I get home from work
3. Setting short term financial goals as well as long term - after all, what are we all saving for?
4. Improving my diet (I've gone from 14st 10lbs in February to 14st 3lbs)
5. Automating my savings more (I have set up DDs for everything and have removed the columns from my budget spreadsheet so that I can't shuffle the figures about and ultimately rob myself!)
6. Making sure I make my own lunches, avoid Pret and make my own coffees
7. Drastically reduce my caffeine intake (it gives me mood swings) - have gone from 14 mugs of brewed coffee a week to roughly 5!

I'd quite like to start a hobby as well and have recently been feeling a lot like I should go back to church :T <<<--- happy clappy smiley! In retrospect, sounds a bit like a 1/3rd life crisis...