In Hertfordshire I coudn't afford to buy a cardboard box in t'middle of t'road. This is the house that we're buying (provided it all goes through and all that)

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Working as a statistician at my last job has got to be about the cushiest little number a boy from Sunderland can aspire to. There were days when I'd roll in about 9:45, mess about online till dinner time, spend 2 hours in the social club having a pint and a game of Scrabble, do nowt much in the afternoon then go home at 4pm. In case my former boss is reading this, I should point out that I am embroidering the truth a little. There were occasions too when I would work late, sometimes till 5pm, if I was engrossed in a project.

It did feel cushy at times but I dare say that on average I worked a little bit more than my 37.5 hours a week. The company has a sort of freedom culture where if you didn't fancy being creative in the morning, then maybe you could be in a long afternoon or early evening. Motivation is extremely high and that arises from senior management's faith in the people they've recruited. I was lucky to have worked in a stats department that had a fine repository of knowledge. I certainly learnt a lot both from the people working at adjacent desks and the formal training provided.

So leaving must seem like madness. And indeed I worried that I might have been making the daftest mistake of my life in joining a little company where money is always short and people are expected to do some work every day. This worry was reinforced on my first day when I was informed of The Policies. No using the phones for personal use. No using your mobile except in a small designated area under the stairs, otherwise your mobile must be switched off. A maximum of 30 minutes surfing all day (the technology locks you out if you exceed it). If you're late in coming in, Security will report you to your manager. Fifteen minutes break in the morning and fifteen in the afternoon and the luch hour is only 60 minutes long. All this is on top of the lower salary than at previously and only 20 days holiday per year.

Despite all this I would say that on balance I made the right move. GSK was good in that it taught me a load of technical stuff one way or another and I met lots of people who were intelligent and interesting and I hope to keep contact with them for many years to come. But my new job gives me more sense of control and self worth. I am regarded as an expert (cos compared to other statisticians they've had in the last 6 years I am) and I manage to get my fingers in an awful lot of pies. I can invisage a lot of interesting stuff for me to do for a year or two or three. I've found that I don't really mind having to do work, in fact I rather enjoy it. I'm starting to feel like I did when I first went into the stats game in 2000 ie excited!.

Having misgivings about the job before I started meant that I had to have a plan B in case it went pear shaped. My plan B was to try to get contract work, for 6 to 12 months at a time, probably in Switzerland or somewhere. This is still something I'd like to do at some stage in the future. In the meantime I am the manager of a very small data management group in a small company and my long term plan must be to use the experience in this job to get a similar role in a larger organisation one day. Alternatively, it is a small pond here and maybe I could become a bigger fish in it. We'll see, but I think for the first time in 2 or 3 years I'm feeling confident about the future.

I pay £460 per week rent for a 2 bedroomed tiny Barratt Homes type terraced effort. Despite being no more that 20 years old, it has no central heating. In the winter the house was freezing and we swore (The wife and me) not to be living in it next winter.

It is situated in the town of Newent on the outskirts of the Forest of Dean. 9 miles from my work, 7.5 miles from Linda's work, 12 Miles from Gloucester, 18 miles from Lydney, 115 miles from Hertford, 190 miles from Diss and about the same from Sunderland.

On the face of it Newent is a pituresque town in the countryside, overlooked by the spectacular May Hill. However, though I've no doubt that the majority of inhabitants are nice, it only takes a few inbreds to spoil a place. I suspect it was such inbreds who vandalised my 6 month old Skoda by scratching a key down both sides (BOTH sides, mind you) and my wife's slightly older Fiat Seicento. Such actions have made us anxious to leave Newent tout de suite.

The two good things about Newent are; the roads out of it, which lead to nice countryside, great for running; and Marinades restaurant - delicious carribean and meditteranean dishes - completely out of character with the surroundings http://www.marinades.co.uk/ .

Since leaving my job in Hertfordshire at the end of February 2006 I'm pleased to say that several people have asked me in emails about how the new job's going and suchlike. But because I can't answer questions like that quickly, I tend to leave the email in my inbox and then take ages to get round to replying, during which time my former friend and colleague is probably thinking I'm an ignorant sod and will not bother getting in touch again. Therefore my chances of being invited on holiday to Pakistan, Jamaica or Italy (or even Derbyshire!) or being invited to a showbiz party by a rock 'n' roll star is reduced.

So from now on I will simply reply 'please read my blog....'; then we can get onto email chatting over trivial matters such as Sunderland AFC, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here or how young and fit I'm looking.