I'll get back to the blog update, now I've had a really long sleep, feel refreshed and have cup of tea in hand...
The job's ok, like I said. It's not ideal, but things seldom are. I think there's enough there to keep me there for a while at least (that's assuming I don't get sacked). I've been assigned to fix a few bugs in a couple of the systems, which has been tricky and stressful in places, as the previous developer didn't seem to have an appreciation of modular, object-oriented design. As a consequence, the code is all over the place. Now, though, I'm more confident about the system and am finding it much easier now I know my way around. I had a large part to play in suggesting we redesign the system from scratch, which is satisfying. On the whole I'm content and enjoy many aspects of the job, e.g. problem-solving and getting things to work!
I get on very well with the other 2 guys, and we go out jogging Mon, Wed, Fri at lunchtime, round Calderglen Country Park. We've also recently got a band thing going, as we can all play musical instruments to a certain degree. There are also plans in the pipeline to go paintballing, which I've always wanted to do.
There are of course downsides to the job. Diane, the girl who did IT support, left about a month ago, and I don't think the office environment has been quite the same since. It's nice to have a girly presence in the office, as opposed to just us geeky male programmers! I'm not really a fan of East Kilbride either, and find it a dull, depressing place at times. I think this is made worse because I'm so used to living in the west end of Glasgow. It's almost like downgrading from a Harley Davidson to a scooter, or from broadband to dialup. It's enough to depress anyone. Another thing is that some mornings I just can't be bothered getting up early, but have to if I want to keep the job. I guess I just need to feel more inspired.
I'm living in Burnside, South-East of Glasgow, less than 20 mins bus journey from East Kilbride bus station, and have been here for just over a month. Like I say, I did live in the west end, but once I got the job in East Kilbride, I found the long commutes made things seem much more stressful. Eventually I saw a couple of places advertised on t'internet. One which really caught my eye was the "luxury accomodation" in Burnside. To cut a long story short, I saw the place, and although expensive, I considered all the benefits and decided to go for it. I pay £430 pcm rent, which, you might say, is steep, but when you consider what I get for that (large room in new build house; brand new quality furniture, bills inclusive, Sky (in my room), wireless broadband, weekly maid service, pool table, month-by-month lease), and consider the convenience of location in terms of commute to East Kilbride and travel to Glasgow city centre, then for me it seems reasonable. Currently there are only 2 rooms occupied out of 6, but the landlord insists they will be filled up soon. The maid service and pool table have yet to materialise, but he insists they will appear at some point. I moved again out of desperation, but for now I seem to be fortunate in where I've landed.
I actually received an invoice from my old landlords, Edzell Property Management. This was a breakdown of charges from when me and "Shagger" lived in the "penthouse" in Govanhill. It did not make for pleasant reading; we were charged a fortune for the damage to the wall. That I can live with, as it was jointly our fault. However we received other charges, such as £50 for replacing blinds which they themselves removed to do some painting, and never replaced, admin fee, VAT etc. They included bounced cheque fees, which Shagger had incurred, and split the charges down the middle (it was a joint lease). I wrote back to say I don't owe all this and gave Shagger's forwarding address; I mean, why should I be expected to pay for his mistakes? Incidentally, I got a text from him recently, re council tax payments. I asked him what he was up to these days, but he didn't reply.
Roughly over the past year, I've lived in 4 different flats/houses, and have had 6 different jobs. I think all this has generally been taking its toll on me and I did find myself very stressed out. Fortunately, I'm now feeling gradually more settled in to my life, and hope to stay in both house and job for at least a solid run of 6 months. All this moving around is not healthy, I can assure you. I think a holiday's on the cards!
To be more analytical, I think I've been lucky in some ways with the way things have panned out. If you'd told me 6 years ago that I'd be working in the software industry, I wouldn't have believed you. I chose to do the degree I did almost at random. For some reason I stuck it out, without any real ambition beyond that, and have now, partly through luck, partly through desperation, ended up here. In many ways too, it's not been so good. Doing a technology degree, the selection of women was absolutely woeful/non-existent, and this is unfortunately also the case working in a small software company in a technology park. My only salvation and path out of singledom is that I either get a job in a hairdressers or reignite the spark that once was my social life. Sometimes I'm tempted to just pack it all in and get a job in a bar somewhere, where I have little stress, little responsibility, and all that's required of me is to serve drinks and chat to the clientelle.
