Life's New Chapter in Diary

Sorry I haven’t been here for a while, I’m so behind on my bookmarks, I have loads to read. But the last week has been absolutely manic with my last week at work and last minute preparations for setting up my business.

Well here we go. I’ve now officially left the world of the employed and joined the world of the self-employed. My last week at work was insane. As we were down to 50% capacity on the workforce (only two of us were in; me in Birmingham and Emily in London, the other two were on holiday) so I had to keep up with twice as much work, while still going to my normal meetings and trying to tie up all my loose ends. I had to apologise to Emily for not picking up any new long-term projects and only doing the quick and easy jobs as it meant she had a whole lot more work to do. She came back and said she was surprised I was doing any work at all; but I couldn’t leave her to pick all of it up!

On my last day I took cakes in for everyone. I lost count of the amount of times I had the same conversation. “What are you leaving to do? Do you have many customers? Oh I need a dog walker, shame you live so far away! Oh well, if it doesn’t work out you can always come back.” I was getting a bit annoyed by that last statement but loads of people were saying it. Firstly, I can’t come back because they’ve already replaced me. Secondly, what makes you think it’s not going to work out??

I went round all the different departments handing out cakes and saying bye to everyone. I didn’t even feel a little bit sad and I was packing up to go when Fiona came in with my leaving present, and I just fell apart lol. I’m not going to miss the job, I’m not going to miss the 50 mile round trip, I’m certainly not going to miss Amy. But Fiona’s only been there a few months and she’s great. So friendly and approachable. She came in with a giant bouquet of flowers, bottle of champagne, box of chocolates and a £50 gift card, as well as two cards. Yes TWO! The first giant one was so full of signatures they had to get a second one! So generous of everyone. Trying to read the signatures was fun.
“Good luck. Chris.”
“All the best. Chris.”
“Who let the dogs out? Chris.”
“Best wishes. Martin.”
“Sorry you’re leaving. Martin.”
Great, there are seven people called Chris and five people called Martin, I have no idea who signed the card, lol. Others literally signed their name so I can’t read it, others were using their nicknames that I didn’t know. But it was fun to read anyway :o)

Excuse the terrible photo, it was taken in a hurry as I was on my way out.

That evening, me and Jay went to the pub with Matt and, for the weekend, I was UNEMPLOYED. Scary thought, I’m still scared now.

I got up at 7am and drove to Nottingham for the next part of the medical screening. I got stuck in horrendous traffic for 45 minutes and was late for my appointment so they told me I’d have to wait until they had a slot free. I was panicking at this point as I had an appointment with a customer in Wolverhampton (60 miles away) at 11:30 and I didn’t know if I would make it on time. I texted Jay and he told me to leave Nottingham and go back in the afternoon....eight hours of driving and 240 miles in one day, just for a 15 minute appointment? He pointed out that, if I was selected, I would earn £1,550 so it would be worth it. I was just starting to panic when I was called in. All I had to do was learn how to use the asthma inhaler and drink a charcoal drink and then I could go. GREAT! I bombed back home and made it to my 11:30 appointment at 11:31. I couldn’t believe my luck! See, this customer is a therapist who works from home. Some of her clients are scared of dogs so I take them out during their sessions, so I couldn’t really be late.

So I spent an hour in the sunshine with Macca the plummer terrier. He’d tired himself out the day before on a doggy social day so he didn’t want to walk far. That was fine with me, we went for a little wander, I threw the ball for him a few times and then he got comfortable in the grass. So I had a nice chilled out session.

I then drove over to Roxy’s house and took her out for her walk. By this time it was 2pm so I had some lunch, went to post some forms to a potential new customer and decided to buy a £1 scratch card while I was there. I won £5. Oh yes. I’ve only ever bought about three scratch cards in my life and I’ve won on every one; last one I won my £1 back lol.

So, including my scratch card win, today I’ve made £22.50. Richard Branson eat your heart out. I’m going to have to make a hell of a lot more than that to sustain myself; I’ll be running out of money in January at that rate.

I have at least two appointments every day this week; on Thursday I also have a consultation so hopefully that’ll lead to a new customer. I also have a mystery shopping assignment on Thursday; £3.25 and a free pint of lager. Big bucks.

Hehe, my ticker’s still counting, and now it’s counting up!