So her I am, writing a blog!! what level have I stooped to now?? I've been thinking for some time I must write a blog and see if there is anyone out there who listens?? probably not, but it's a way of gathering my thoughts, opinions, desires.

So where to start?? well a little about me. I am 56, and unemployed. I was/am a professional engineer, but the last job I had lasted for about 8 years and during that time. I passed from my 40's to my 50's and you just don't realise that once you cross the '50' barrier, rules change. Suddenly you are seen as someone who is just cruising to retirement, so no point employing him, or once you have been out of work for a while, you become the unemployable old guy who obviously doesn't want a job. I have applied for so many jobe and had so few interviews. I'm actually an exceptionally bright person, quite laid back. Definitely from the 'old school' not full of buzz words in my CV, just years and years of extremely good experience. So ...out of work, no prospects of getting a job, I decided to go back to University to fulfill a life long ambition and get a Masters degree. One year later---LOTS of very very hard work, because I'm useless at exams, I put 200% effort into the class work which offset how many marks I would need in the exam!!! I did much better than I ever expected to. The thing which surprised me was my ability to soak up information...what surprised me even more was my ability to leak information, but the net result must have been positive, since I passes with pretty good results ...all A's and B's. So now ready to conquer the world with my new qualification!!!!!