The end of an era....

[richard]

Well thats it as of the 31st January 2008 I will be leaving education for good. As a lot of you are aware I'm being made redundant from 1 of my schools on the 31st December. My other school had orginally offered to up my hours but have since changed their minds stating that they could not justify the increased costs and were very sorry. Iwas going to hand my notice in at the beginning of Decmeber but after the problems I have had today i decided to bring it forward.

After doing the sums wioth my girl friend, we worked out that after paying my bills that I would be left with £64 a month to pay for the simple luxuries one needs like food. So I have decided to give up work entirely and move in with her as she has epilepsy and her fits are getting worse, which means that she needs somene with her as she is not supposed to go out on her own. The thing being we are going to better off if I do this than carry on working which to me is a crazy situation.

I won't won't be leaving IT entirely though as I'm looking into doing a bit of voluntary work to keep my hand in and I probably drop by here from time to time.

[webman]

Hope things work out for you.

[richard]

Hope things work out for you.

Thanks webman. I've been doing this job since 1999 and never thought I'd be leaving it. I have moved schools but thought I was set for a long, long time.

[Halfmad]

Good luck mate, try and get some freelance work so you two can at least have some luxuries etc.

I use to do it now and then, found out I could earn more doing "odd jobs" after work than I would during the day

[contink]

Indeed.. good luck with the future...

.. don't be a stranger

[richard]

I'll still drop by from time to time. One good thing is that even though I will be her carer I will still have plenty of time to do other things and am going to be looking at things like programming and learning more about Linux, which is something I have wanted to do for sometime.

[GrumbleDook]

All the best Richard, we started out at around the same time and had some good fun in uk.education.schools-it.

BETT won't be the same without the mad metal monster coming along to wind people up.

[Oops_my_bad]

Good luck mate and hope it all works out for you - not sure but if you're looking after someone then think you should be entitled to some sort of carers allowance which should ease the burden somewhat

[richard]

All the best Richard, we started out at around the same time and had some good fun in uk.education.schools-it.

BETT won't be the same without the mad metal monster coming along to wind people up.

I will be there this for the very last time unless I decide to class myself a s freelance consultant in future years to try and blag entrance.

Will be on a mission to go out in style and see if if I get kicked the RM stand for a 6th year running. Last year I got a t-shirt from one of their competitors for getting kicked off twice in one day. Ah the memories the sweet memories.

Watch out for me as I think I will dress to impress this time round, leathers, new rocks and a fields of the nephilim tshirt.

We did have some laughs on uk.education.schools.it It was there I got a bit of a rep for speaking my mind which has got me into trouble on here a couple of times

Good luck mate and hope it all works out for you - not sure but if you're looking after someone then think you should be entitled to some sort of carers allowance which should ease the burden somewhat

Because of her Epilepsy I will be getting carers allowance which works out at about £45 a week. We are also looking at what other benefits we can claim but while we will not be well off we will be able to live ok.

[FN-GM]

good look richard!

Z

[tscnmuk]

Good luck mate

Tom

[witch]

Sorry to see you go
I do hope things work out for you and I hope that your girlfriends epilepsy is brought back under control soon

Good luck

[edie209]

Good luck mate I found myself redundant a couple of years back but its funny how soon everything pulls back together.

[bossman]

@Richard:
you will be sorely missed for your frank but fair speaking i for one will miss reading your posts.
All the best for the future and just think, you will be able to devote more time to your girlfriend which is what really matters.

Good Luck to the both of you don't lose touch M8

[tech_guy]

All the best Richard. Hope everything works out for you. Like others here I supplement my crap salary by working from home in the evenings and weekends and the money you can make doing private work does make a difference.