A man of indefinite liesure...

Once again, I have received my 'walking papers'. The project I am currently on at bitHeads is winding down. I hope we've done enough for the client - Lord knows, we tried and put in the long ours to attempt it, despite the Herculean task (at least, taking into account the timeline we needed to adhere to) set before us.

This was a particulary hard run - and this is coming from a guy who is quite used to hard runs. It consumed much of my life for the past 3.5 months. It pretty much destroyed any activity outside of work, putting a serious dent in my social life (what social life?) and leading to some of my friends becoming rather resigned (and annoyed) about my frequent unavailability or undependability (the latter driven by a combination of exhaustion and sudden, last minute commitments that extended into many evenings and weekends).

It is a horrible feeling to be in a situation where you disappoint your friends and co-workers who need your best effort (even on weekends or at night during the week) or else you disappoint your friends with whom you socialize - either choice damns you in some particular. If there is anything I won't miss about this particular project, it is this aspect.

My last day is the 12th of December, 2008, 8 work days sooner than my contract was notionally supposed to end. I'll miss the extra work and the money, since next year seems to be a really dodgy prospect for contractors - rates are down and availability of work is as well. But I can get a bit of a rest before Christmas, spend some long-overdue time with the family, and perhaps try to mend some bridges with some friends too-oft put-off or ignored for the necessity of work. Maybe I can attend to my health which has suffered a lot too during this project.

Anyway, I'm not doom and glooming about next year yet - we'll see how it goes. As long as I have some work throughout the year, I should be okay. It does suck to hit these situations at Christmas, because it reins in my Christmas spending and plans - I just don't know when my next paycheck is coming. That kinda sucks, but people probably understand. It doesn't make me happy as Christmas is usually my favourite time of year, but that's just the way it has to be.

Take care, have a good weekend, and stay out of trouble :)