So I’ve only got one more week to go before the new job starts. It’s strange to think that I’ve been out of work for two months, even stranger to think that I’ve been unemployed at a time when the unemployment is at it’s lowest record figure ever! Quite an achievement, then again I’ve been in constant employment since leaving school 26 years ago, so I guess that I was due a break.

The time gone really fast and often I’ve found myself running around like crazy trying to get things done. I can certainly understand why people say that they can’t understand how they found time to go to work, once they retire. In the same way that most people spend what they earn, no matter how many pay rises they get, I think the same is true of time. No mater how much free time you have and in theory I have had quite a bit over recent months, you just find more and more things to fill your time.

It’s strange, I did have an idea that I would have read a lot more than I have, watched more old films than I have, wandered around Bristol taking photo’s and generally lived the life if a man of leisure. Somehow that hasn’t happened, I guess that often self-imposed guilt has stopped me doing these things. How could I tell Orynthia that I had been lounging around all day when she came home from a hard day at work?

With reading, I think that I’ve discovered that I need to have a defined time to do my reading in. I used to really enjoy nipping off to a café at lunchtime and squeezing in around an hour with a book; the same was true of my short train journey to work. Well with the new job, I won’t be able to read whilst I commute, but I should get back in the swing of lunchtime reading, so expect to see a lot more updates on my reading habits here.

I also have enjoyed the whole house-husband thing, washing, shopping, cooking and the like it has been really good fun. I’ll miss my regular trips to the shops, and the oddly pleasing sight of an empty laundry basket.

Anyway this last week could well be pretty busy. I’ve got quite a lot of time lined up with Oxfam and Orynthia’s mum is having a large operation later in the week, so we will both be spending a lot of time with her.