Time goes by
Well time is marching on, Jenny finished work at the end of December, I'll continue to soldier on until the end of March. This is a very tricky phase, Jenny just doesn't know what to do with herself, she's had a quick blast at outstanding jobs in the house and she's feeling quite uncertain about what she will be doing on VSO and consequently is in a quandary about what to do to upskill/prepare herself.
Family affairs
We have now started to prepare ourselves for the reality of VSO, hoping that we can go in May and not September. We are getting sorted on house rental arrangements and trying to work out how we will manage our finances and affairs whilst we are away.
We had a wonderful fortnight in Capetown over Xmas with Philip and David (two of our sons) and with my brother and his family; I think our fabulous Capetown experience and the return to the short days and British weather has added to our current sense of frustration and impotence.
The die is cast - but when and where?
We know that the recruitment/matching process doesn't commence properly until February but having made the decision to proceed, having both committed ourselves to giving up our jobs, we just want to get on with it now. We are also keen to get on with some fundraising but we feel that we cannot begin to do that until we know where and when we are going.
VSO: Volunteers and Development Training
We have a VSO training programme (4 days) coming up next week; maybe that will give us the lift we need. It looks like a pretty intensive four days and I am sure that it will re-fix our minds on our intentions and help us to make good use of the period until February when potential placements become available.
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2 comments:
Hello,
I've been directed to your blog by my friend Averil Coutinho at NIACE.
I too have made the decision to go volunteering with VSO. Being made redundant (in the next few weeks) it seems the right thing to do to help me take a step back in my career and widen my horizon before deciding where to go next (I'm 41).
I can relate to the 'feeling in limbo'. Having applied initially in November for short term placement, I was invited to attend the assessment day on the 23rd of February. Last week I received my letter of acceptance as a volunteer. Hurrah I thought, that's that hurdle overcome. But not to be! Having discovered the short term placement register only gives very limited chances of getting a placement I decided to switch my application to long placements. Unfortunately this means my skills need assessing again in a different light! So, back to the drawing board, filling more forms, waiting for the decision before knowing what will happen next!As my redundancy approaches I feel I would really like to have some timings so I can organise my time between now and whatever departure time I might be on.
Last Saturday I held a Big Curry Night for VSO starting the fundraising process. It felt good to be doing something and receiving so much support was encouraging. I have raised £800 so far and there should be more coming. See http://www.justgiving.com/murielrussell
Any advise on progressing with my application will be gratefully received.
Good luck to you both and well done for getting there!
Muriel (Russell)
Good luck Muriel - we know how it feels - but it will be worth it!
Nigel & Jenny
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