redundancy

One major thing the blog has missed in the past few months is the fact I got made unemployed again. Yep, the nuts and bolt trade went tits up and I found myself back at square one. It wasn't entirely unexpected. I played my part in its' inception and downfall, so at the very least I'm a kind of visionary or twat. Take your pick.

But needs must, so I quickly sorted myself out with some agency work - order picking beer and spirits for DHL Tradeteam in Kirkby. This involved a 6am start in a vast, freezing warehouse, but I didn't stay cold for long - the work was heavy, fast-paced and relentless.

I'm no stranger to grafting, but this was another level. For the first time in my 44 years, I was acutely aware of my age and fitness level because the lads I worked with were a lot younger than me and there wasn't a bulging waistline amongst any of them. For a fortnight I slogged away - the early discomfort soon died down but didn't disappear - until one afternoon I received a phone call from a college near Ormskirk that I'd applied for a portering job with, asking if I'd come in? The pay was better, the hours more regular and the work was varied. So I started the next day. And I've been there ever since.

The only downside to it is I'm employed on a casual-basis for three months at a time. That means that I'm there as long as they think I'm needed. When I started it was in the rundown to Christmas when all the students go home, so it got very quiet by the beginning of this week, but the New Year brings the college back to pace and I'm assured things can and do get hectic.

My redundancy is being looked after by the good folk at the State-backed Insolvency Service. The first form I received to claim redundancy got lost, but the second one did get through. The delay hasn't helped with Christmas. Me and Jayne got everyone sorted except ourselves. Hopefully, they'll be a windfall very soon and we can treat each other to stuff.

I could write a book about the good and bad working in the fastener trade. If truth be told, I'd still like to be in it because I did enjoy it. But sometimes, you know, maybe out of this comes something better and a change may do me some good. Time, as always, will tell.