I've spent a little time trying to get this one going, but it seems like there is never anything important to say, and when there is, I'm far too busy to write a blog entry about it.
However, there is something good to say at the start of this new year. Last December I 'retired' from my old job -- after 31 years working for them. I was 55, so entitled to retire, and collect my pension.
However, this wasn't an easy decision -- financially, of course, but also emotionally and logistically. I wasn't considering retirement in my list of potential life changes at all until October last year.
I notice that in this very blog (a post about a year ago) I lament the loss of a colleague -- who went to work for another company. Well, it turns out this other company was interested in my joining them, too. My friend (we have kept in touch) mentioned this to me last September, and I thought about it for a month or two.
Finally, I decided to jump. I managed to retire and start work for the new place in December 2008.
The last three weeks of 2008 have been interesting, to say the least. I'm enjoying it immensely, though it is a little scary, too. Everything is different: the people, the equipment, the development systems, the coffee... and they are all brilliant. I've had to be the 'new boy' again, and it is tremendously refreshing. For a very long time, I now realise, I wasn't enjoying my work -- nor giving my old company my best shot. These days I get up with a spring in my step -- I'm eager to learn and develop -- I want to do well. I didn't know I'd lost that spark.
Do I miss my old mates? Yes, immensely. Are there any regrets? Some. On a scale of 1 to 10, how stressful a transition was it? About 6. Nowhere near as stressful as, say, moving house was (three years ago), but it feels like good stress.
So now I'm in the new place, the coffee is free, the people are bright, the work is challenging (very, at the moment) and the future slightly less certain than before; it is probably the best single career decision I have made in twenty years.
As I begin to fit in, and learn how to make a positive contribution (rather than now -- where I'm slowing people down with silly questions more than helping, just at the moment) I'll try to remember to return here and let you know about it.
[I've decided not to mention names -- not because there is any reason to hide them, but simply because it is not relevant. However, the title of this entry gives a clue.]
