Trials and Tribulations. . .

So the last 24 hours have not been among my happiest - what with Russ' back condition and a few other issues. As it's coming up to almost 4 weeks since Russ went off work with his back, and with both he and & I concerned as to the impact this will have on his job, I decided it was time to take action. One of his bosses, who shall hitherto be known as "Bob" for the sake of anonymity, is an old friend of mine, and whilst Russ was sleeping last night, I decided to give him a call to hopefully glean some information as to where Russ stands with regards to his job. Needless to say, after I spoke to him, I was more than a little concerned.

It turns out that regardless of whether or not Russ had this problem with his back, he was going to lose his job. The company he works for, Forstaff Aviation, have offered it to some bimbo secretary, no doubt at a much reduced rate of pay than they will pay Russ (BTW, I'm not calling her a bimbo because she is a secretary - there's a little more to the story of this woman than her simply being given Russ' job). The reasoning behind this is that it's "just a clerk's job", however, that simply couldn't be further from the truth. Granted, part of what he's doing could be considered "secretarial", but the majority of it requires a hell of a lot of experience with aircraft maintenance, and there's no way in hell that this woman will be able to provide even a quarter of the professionalism in that arena as Russ can. There's a lot more to this story than I have the time, or inclination, to explain, but suffice to say that when push comes to shove, what this is really about is the almighty dollar. Oh well - I figure if you pay peanuts, you're going to get monkeys. After all, you ultimately get what you pay for.

So... what does this boil down to? Well, it basically means that within the next few weeks, Russ will be unemployed. That thought fills me with unimaginable horror. Not only because Russ is almost 53 and therefore considered by most potential employers as a non-entity, not only because he is considered "too old" to retrain for anything else, but also because we were in this very situation 7 years ago when Ansett Australia went into liquidation. It took Russ almost 1.5 years to obtain another job after that - particularly since it happened less than 24 hours after 9/11 - the aviation industry has never been the same since then.

Now I am going to be once again put in the position of breadwinner. That in itself doesn't bother me. I've always been in control of my own income and have never needed anyone else to take care of me. However, it took us almost 5 years the last time to get back on our feet. When Ansett went under, we also didn't have a mortgage to worry about, and neither did we have to worry about supporting my mother. Now we have both issues to deal with. I have to say I'm more than a little concerned.

However, on the upside - and I am trying to remain positive, if Russ hadn't been off work with his back condition, I wouldn't have had to call Bob, and we wouldn't have been forewarned that this was going to happen. It would have just been the case that Russ would have come home from work one day to tell me he had been fired. At least now we know where we stand and we can take steps BEFORE he has lost his job to plan for the future. I have already informed the company I work for that I will be increasing my hours of work from 9am-4pm to 8.30am-6.00 pm Monday to Friday, and possibly even weekends, starting next week. I'm not sure how I'm going to cope, but I know I *will* cope. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm a firm believer in that. We've been through this before, and I know we'll get through it this time. It'll be tough, but we'll manage.

Oh! And on a positive note - my wireless modem arrived today. I've been wanting a wireless connection to the internet forever, and at the moment, I'm typing this from my laptop whilst sitting in the lounge, waiting for one of my favourite shows, "Grand Designs", to start. Although the past 24 hours haven't been the most fabulous of my life, there are always little things to keep me smiling.

And on that note, it's now 8.30 pm and Grand Designs is about to start, so I'll finish up here. Thanks for checking in. I always appreciate you folks and your support. Catch you again soon.

PS. To T.. I'm so sorry, but I doubt I'm going to get a chance to answer your emails today. I was going to start them, but then I got sidetracked. You've been on my mind all day my friend. I promise I will reply ASAP. x