Yesterday round about close of business I got invited back to Americaland. They’re waiting for me to let them know what I think I can manage out of tomorrow to the end of Feb. The response goes something like:

Yay!

I’ll get to see the grand canyon, death valley, monument valley, petrified forest, meteor craters, dinosaur footprints, yosemite, goblin valley utah.

Boo!

I’m booked for the whole of September in Australia and a week in July in France. This isn’t a problem in terms of time off, but the aus trip will end up being preposterous: about 36 hours’ flying the long way round most of the world.

Yay!

Living is great over there

Boo!

The cost of property / rent is immense. So I’d better get assistance.

What do I do with my stuff? I have the cinquecento - better sell that I guess - the spitfire - I’d rather not sell it but where do I put it? I could take it with, which might be more cost effective than renting a car over there, but highly unlikely given that I’d still have to rent a car for longer journeys. If I mothball it - where? Plus, that’s a complex job the like of which I am very good at cocking up. Perhaps I should sell the spitty? But I just (January) spent £500 on exhaust, carpets and tonneau, which I was JUST getting round to fitting after the last US trip.

The last trip was 10 weeks and Sam very kindly visited my place to check on it and water the plants. I couldn’t ask her to do that for 6 months or more.

There’s a Kate on the scene, who is invited but probably wouldn’t be allowed to work there. So I’d be asking her to give up allotment, home and job (possibly in that order) to hang out all day watching 72 channels of crap and making crafts to sell (possibly illegally) on the sunday craft market.

Though I want to own a place, the rental place I have in york is great value for now and I don’t really want to lose it. That said the landlord might decide to move in a housemate any time so it’s not a given.

I have a roomful of junk which needs to be jettisoned or stored. I need to do a “life laundry” ASAP. Especially since ebay are apparently having free listing day this thursday.

The “new opportunities” offered by ETAS are passing me by and I’m missing out on all the training / indoctrination into the corporate culture. This sounds like so much horsefeathers but I really do need to get my salary caught up with avarages. I keep selling myself low in job interviews which works great but then I fail to negotiate later. So doing all this gadding about the world ought to count for some interpretation of “commitment” but I don’t have that much faith in our new highly proceduralised management engine to notice and reward that. If in the meantime I’ve lost chances to learn the rules of the new game, and to take true opportunities, then it’s going to end up costing me big style in the long run.