By rights I should at this moment be driving eastwards along the M4 with Mr R to Reading to hit Ikea to buy shelves for my re-vamped but not quite finished workspace, but after getting home from work I decided that in all honesty I really couldn’t be arsed to go. You can bet your bottom dollar that we’d leave the big shiny blue and yellow building without the shelves and instead be loaded up with tealights, paper napkins, meatballs, batteries and an odd-looking vase. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could get a decent cup of coffee there but last time we went it took us ages how to work out how to get a cup and then when we eventually did it was pretty awful!

Mr R didn’t mind the change of plans. I don’t think he was too excited about going anyway as he drives enough during the week and sitting behind the wheel on yet another motorway isn’t really his idea of how to spend his day off. He is happy with the compromise though of a little gaunt to our local John Lewis Home store for a little mooch and a slice of cake in the cafe. If he’s lucky I might even treat him to his favourite wafer biscuits!

Now that I have a few hours to spare I’ve decided to use it wisely and write another blog post. It’s the one I was supposed to write two days ago but never did because I got carried away with waffling on about nothing much in particular. What I wanted to write about was the idea of hanging up my playtime whistle and  leaving my job as a teaching assistant at the end of this school year. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to pack it in because I’ve had enough of the job, far from it. I love what I do and like to think that I’m good at it. The best bit is that I work with lovely people in a brilliant school and get to support amazing children. No two days are the same and I get to read lots of stories, dress up, use glitter and eat school dinners, which in our school they just so happen to be award-winning dinners! I just feel that if I don’t do it now at 58 I might end up missing the boat and regret making a change. Am I brave enough to move out of my comfort zone? Is it too big a risk and will I regret it because once I leave there’d be no going back? Am I too old, inexperienced, unqualified etc, etc ?

At the beginning of the year I said that this would be the year of making adventures, both little and big. This was also to be a year of making good intentions and so far I don’t think I’ve made much of a dent in any adventure plans I intended to fill my year with. Wouldn’t exploring new avenues in the big world of work be the biggest adventure of all and isn’t it time I stopped making excuses and just did it!

So, the fifty million dollar question has to be, what actually do I want to do?

I’ve made a list. You’ll notice that some ideas are just fanciful and really not likely to be  achieved but hey, a girl can dream can’t she!

So, here goes.

1. Work in a cookery school. Definitely my top of the list choice. If you know me, you’ll know that I run an afterschool cooking club with my friend. I am in my element teaching new skills to children and love seeing them get such a buzz from discovering that they can cook. I can’t actually start my own cooking club from home due to not having a big enough kitchen, but to work in a cookery school would be a wish come true.
2. Make cakes for a living. I know that there is a lot of competition when it comes to cake businesses and that the market is pretty saturated with them, but my cakes wouldn’t be about the sugarcrafting, mine would be about the cake itself!
3. Work in hospitality. I’m a people person and have always enjoyed “looking after” people and providing excellent customer care is really important to me.
4. If I were to work in retail, I’d like to work for Seasalt. I love their products and the fact that they are designed in Cornwall. I imagine that it would be a great company to work for.
5. Be a housemistress in a boarding school. The pastoral care of children is really important to me and I’ve years of experience with children.
6. Own a B&B, preferably in Cornwall. Failing that, helping out in one. I’d just have to perfect the art of poached egg making.
7. Be a tour guide. The only trouble is that being so short people would lose me in crowds!
8. Hotel, guesthouse and B&B inspector and reviewer.
9. Write my book that then becomes a best seller and is then adapted as a film starring Dawn French of course!

It’s a pretty eclectic list of ideas but you might notice a reoccurring theme of working with people one way or another. I’m naturally a caring, people pleasing sort of person. Ok, writing a book is an exception but I did say that some of my ideas were just a little far-fetched and not to be taken seriously!

So there you go. Any suggestions or advice would be absolutely fab. If you want to employ me, well, that would be fab too!

Meanwhile I’m off to John Lewis, who actually did employ me once, for a muffin and a browse around the Easter merchandise!

Until next time. xx