Side Effects

One of the nastiest side-effects of redundancy is an immediate lack of cash flow.

When I lost my job, it halved the amount of cash coming into our household. This means we will have to cut back. Although I've noticed another odd side-effect of not having a job, is that I spend less money. I eat almost all my meals at home, which is about twice as many as I ate at home a month ago. This is Sydney - that saves a lot of money. I don't buy coffee anymore either.

And I haven't bought drinks. Funny thing, but I needed to drink a lot more alcohol when I was working back at "that place". I used to be a big fan of 'Monday Night Drinks'. Getting through even one day, after being away for two, required an alcohol softener.

As John Irving says in his latest book, "it was a good job to lose". I'm starting to realise this more and more.

With the halving of the income comes the need to find another place to live. This was already on the cards before, now it's just become something I have to do, sooner rather than later.

Looked at a place on Saturday. It was fine. Would be perfectly ok. But I didn't like it. So I'm not taking the first thing I see. That's a huge step for me.

I didn't take the first job I was offered either ... I appear to be becoming a lot wiser, or at least more patient. Shit I must be getting old!

One of the main reasons I didn't like the place was because it didn't have a dishwasher. I like having a dishwasher. My husband said 'we don't need a dishwasher'. He doesn't.

The place had a pool as well but it was a bit exposed and looked a bit dank. The building we are in now has a pool and I've used it many times, but I wonder if I would use one that was outside surrounded by a block of about 50 flats.

The search continues. I've noticed these places seem to go very fast too, so when I get the hang of the competitive battle for an apartment I might be better equipped to handle the competitive battle for a job.