Domestic Economy

We have spent the day still a bit overwhelmed by yesterday’s adventure, like travellers returned from the country of the faery, it takes some time to absorb it all. Also Mark is still considering my suggestion that we might be buying a light-up corner shelf painted in gilt and shaped like a high heeled shoe, and he has been a bit quiet and contemplative all day.

He suggested that perhaps the gold and white painted table and chairs might not be too bad, because we have got a thick tablecloth, but he thinks that a thousand pounds for three glass shelves is out of our price range. Of course I know that he is right, but it doesn’t stop me wanting one quite badly, and he has kindly said that we will see how we get on this summer.

With these discussions about our finances in mind this morning, we  rather sadly turned our thoughts towards the job market again. Driving taxis provides an absolutely brilliant income all summer, and then absolutely nothing at all for the rest of the year.

You might remember that up until February, of course, Mark was gainfully employed in the sort of job that had all kinds of amazing features, like a pension, and holiday pay, and sick pay, and a salary which stayed much the same every month whether he had been busy or not.

I thought this was absolutely brilliant, because it was really quite splendid to know every month how much money he would have. Unfortunately, though, it must have taken an awful lot of the interesting challenge out of life for him, because if he wanted some more money he couldn’t just hang on at work until he had earned a bit more, because it didn’t work like that.

Also if I inadvertently spent all the money in the first week after it arrived he couldn’t just get up early and go out to work until he had earned enough for bread and milk, and then come home for breakfast, which is what I have to do sometimes if I have been extravagant. He had got to wait for a whole month, which must have been really tiresome, and I think that I would probably have starved to death if it had been me.

In addition to that it was a nuisance because it meant he couldn’t just come home when I needed him for something. It didn’t matter how urgent my crisis was, if he was in Aberdeen or somewhere similarly horrible then that was where he was going to stay until he had finished. So although I had got very used to being by myself and was a bit dubious and anxious about how things would go when he was made redundant, it was very nice to have him back home so I didn’t need to worry about flat tyres or gearboxes any more.

Once he got home, the holiday season started creeping towards us, and suddenly there was no point in him going anywhere else, because we could earn quite enough money here, and we could both live at home and be together, which I like very much.

The thing is, all of that will change in September, once the summer is over. Of course if he doesn’t start looking for work until then it will take ages, because he will have to apply for a job, and then be offered a job, and then have references checked, and then agree a starting date and all the rest of it, which I think is rubbish. When I got my first taxi job I rang up Paddy’s Taxi Company and said I had got a taxi licence and wanted a job, and he said: “Good, can you start tonight?” which is much a much easier way of doing things.

We are in agreement that the working half of our partnership is going to have to be him, because neither of us has been able to think of anything that I am not likely to be sacked from quite quickly, and also I have got the added disadvantage that I can’t actually do anything, whereas he has got training courses and qualifications coming out of his ears. He even did a rope climbing course a couple of years ago, because some things that need mending can only be reached by dangling on ropes, but I think he is a bit relieved that he hasn’t needed to use it much, because he is no longer a spring chicken and he complains a lot about his back and his knees as it is, and dangling off ropes is an activity far better carried out by youths like Number One Son-In-Law, who is made of enthusiasm and lifts weights in the air just for the fun of it.

So he has started phoning agencies who find jobs for engineers this morning, and I am feeling a bit regretful and sad, because sooner or later he will find a job that he likes and be gone again.

I would probably rather have Mark here even more than I want a set of shelves shaped like a high heeled shoe, I think.

Not to worry. It isn’t going to be today, or even for weeks and weeks yet.

And when he has gone we might be able to afford a high heeled shoe after all.