It's strange really. I formally finished the day job at the start of December and since then I've carried on being an OU tutor and I've been doing some contract work and some unpaid work. Other than that I've been reading and spending time with Calum and visiting parts of the county that I love or that I haven't been to before. The main thing I've not done is feel guilty about not having a 9 - 5, Monday - Friday job. Funnily enough I was in much the same situation when I started this blog but I had a wee bit more work lined up and I lived in Bishopsbourne.
It's the guilt that I'm finding most surprising though. For all of my working life the imperative has been to be employed. Not just for the money but because we, men especially, can be defined by what we do for a living. I think I would probably frustrate anyone trying to nail that down given the range of employment I've had but still "having a job", or "having a full-time job", has been more important than the really important stuff for much of my life. I had a chat with a very wise careers advisor about this and we agreed that I might see this as a practice for being retired and in those terms it is very enjoyable but I still cannot get over the lack of guilt.
