Hope springs
There’s nothing like Spring to lift the spirits and bring a spring into my step! (sorry for the cheap pun)
Even at the Firm, things are looking up. After a long winter of privation (redundancies and a spate of voluntary departures, tombstone cutbacks. no Christmas and Summer Party last year, patchy bonuses), we finally have a small budget for team events, are going to have a Summer Party. I know it seems silly to outsiders hung up about bankers’ bonuses and the like. But these small things count and are good for morale - everyone, especially the secretaries, who missed out on bonus, will at least have a fun night of free booze, which will help a tiny towards alleviating the sting of lost bonuses and getting wrongly caught-up in the mass hysteria of banker-bashing. I have been disappointed with my recent unsuccessful attempt to find a new job, but this new development has (somewhat irrationally) cheered me up and mitigated my condition. It just somehow feels like the Firm is finally getting more confident and getting back on its feet, after a year of losses and sacrifice.
And I’m going to submit my naturalisation application on Monday. I’ve gotten my first of two referee to vouch for my “good character”, and soon, fingers crossed, I’ll be a fish-and-chip -scarfing, beer-guzzling Brit! After almost 10 years of living in my adopted city and country, almost 6 years of working, over-paying taxes and under-consuming services, and 1.5 years of enduring vitriolic abuse at my industry, my commitment is going to be recognised.
Other little things are cheering me up too: holidays I’ve just taken (Turkey, Syria and Lebanon), our wooden flooring has been installed and furniture-shopping is underway, spending time with girl friends doing fun things (indoor rock climbing, climbing Snowdonia), upcoming plans (Trinity May Ball, a photography course), more holidays planned (Canada/Malaysia/Singapore, Australia). After a long quiet winter of inertia and desperate anxiety (company, finances, work, quitting work), it seems like little green shoots of fun and activities are sprouting, and the invisible weight on my shoulders has been lightened with the longer days and warmer weather.
I hope this lasts.