Fvccant!

CDs in Play: Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Chris Bell, I am the Cosmos.

There are weeks that make you wish you were doing something else, somewhere else and maybe even as someone else. This is one such week. I am an Autopsy Tech. I actually like my job, though not always the politics that surrounds health care. This week has been a grind. I am training a new tech this week and working a lot of overtime. Tomorrow I have a case that I am dreading. For obvious reasons I cannot go into detail, but let's just say that it something that gives me shivers down my spine. Weeks like this are good for the pocketbook but not so good for getting much needed rest on a week off call.

The grind really isn't so much the trouble as how it is rubbing some of my other frustrations into some rather tender areas. For instance I have been looking at working in the United Kingdom doing what I do. The pay isn't great and I actually made a bit more than what I would be paid in many areas over there, but I figured the experience would be worth it. Two jobs postings on the NHS came through to me this week and the pay was less than what I was seeing last year. These weren't trainee positions, so I couldn't apply for them, but the pay was on par with what I was seeing for trainee positions last year in other areas of the UK.

Last year the jobs I saw were averaging from $27,000-$34, 000 CDN per annum, but these latest posting were offering $14,200-$17,500 CDN per annum! That is quite a drop, though these were smaller regions to be sure. Still, that is too low for me to actually survive in the highly expensive UK as a single guy.

So I was thinking about my options over here, positions a bit above my current pay scale. There are some jobs I had thought I would like to do, but I need to upgrade skills and take some courses. Easy enough, right? Nope. The qualifications on these jobs have been changed and you now have to be an LPN before being accepted. Which boggles my mind as you would have to take a pay cut to take these jobs. I also don't want to become an LPN, bleah...

So, my longstanding dream on living and working (at least for a little while) in the UK may be fading away and my options here are looking stagnant.

I am not particularly in good spirits right now.