Not in a cheerful mood...

[stellar_muddle]

Variable day so far with generally melacholy undertones.
For the past 2 1/2 years I have had a good idea of what I was doing for the next ~6 months. Now it is rapidly starting to not be the case.
Argh...
Someone got uses/employment for a used astronomer with crap publication record?
What do I want to do?
What do we want to do?
Not helped by the fact that most good paying potential mining geology jobs for Z involve 3 weeks in the field and 1 week home... How long can we survive that? Can we put up for it for a couple of years and then move onto something else or is that the future?
How do children fit into this? They are on the books for attempted turn up sometime in the next 5-10 years. Actually they are supposed to be thought about in more detail when hit 30, but since that comes knocking next year...
More argh...
Want to come back to NZ. Straight like it better than Aussie. Aussie pays better, with better working conditions, but their heath, social welfare and general governmental conditions seem worse.
So, is it time to start getting longer term employment in NZ established?
Time to move sideways?
Unfortunately, out of synch with the NZ MetService meterologist training program. They just took their intake this year, and they only offer the course work through Vic in alternate years. Is it worth filling in time until 2008, then taking 2 years to train up as a meterologist in Wellington? How rusty is my maths for that? How much does that muck up potential timetables? Am mad enough to have sent an enquiry to them just in case...

And all this stressing is also procrastinating on the actual work I should be doing. Time to sit in a patch of sunlight, eat lunch, destress, sew a little, then stack some lines and plot up excitation potentials and log(gf) values.

Comments

[stellar-muddle.livejournal.com]

Well, Met service were quick in replying.
If still interested, ask again around April 2007. At least I do have the qualifications they are looking for...
Worth noting in the diary?

[staranise.livejournal.com]

I do know how you are feeling. It is so stressful and uncomfortable to not know what is coming next. I have no idea which way to turn once the thesis is done. However I do have a couple of options in mind and one thing that was suggested to me was just to apply for everything then see what turns up. All of my options are equally valid with nothing that makes one stand out against the rest so I'll just see what happens.

A move to Welly is not a bad thing, just like everyone else it is a move we are considering too.

[stellar-muddle.livejournal.com]

Wellington has the advantage of my parents and my sister and lots of mad medievalist, which is good. Less close to Z parents though. Depends if the attrition rate on money due to the extra fly in, fly out from Z is worth it...

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

My brother worked fly in/fly out in Indonesia for many years. He spent 7 weeks on, 3 weeks off. During the off time he flew back to Perth where he has a wife and kid. He said it worked for him -- no different to working 5 days and having a weekend really, you just get all of your weekends all in one lump. So when he was home he didn't have to worry about work, phone calls, etc. His wife also took the 3 weeks off (she had a casual cleaning job) and they could spend the entire time together. He could also do things like walk his kid to school in the mornings, take him out to the cricket even mid-week, go see a movie after school, etc.

It might sound stressful but it's not all bad. You adjust your life to fit. Think of it as when Z's home you can spend an entire week not getting out of bed before mid-day.

I've been in long distance relationships before, even quite committed ones. About the 8 week mark is when it really starts to hurt. Anything less than that is tolerable.