That's the plan ;)

He's just playing with you now to get the attention

Yes, most likely. Doesn't matter. I've accepted there's not going to be a fairy tale ending to this one. I'm going away in the van because I want a break, and I enjoy his company as a friend. Not going with false hopes and not going to shower him with that kind of attention. Have protected myself by knowing nothing romantic will come of it. Problem solved.

You're not bringing a shovel along, I hope :)

Nah, she's just gonna push him into the Irish Sea.;)

Sounds good to me. I did something similar .... having found a place on the edge of civilisation where I wanted to live but the salaries/wages were not enough to get you on the housing ladder I went away to be Something in The City in order to earn me a house in the location of my dreams, calculating that paying the other bills, if no mortgage or rent to cope with, would be possible on local incomes here.
I did not know how long this would take (estimated 10 to 20 years in my head), but got lucky with redundancy and the London housing market, and so got back here in in seven. Broadly speaking, I hated those seven years, but it was worth it to get where I am now. If the job with your old company is less stress and 10k more, I'd take it, and put that 10k a year in the bank.

Right. Problem solved. The job offer with the other company fell through; I was offered more money to stay here and accepted.

However, it may have become apparent to some of you that I am, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about my job. This has also now become apparant to my boss, who has accordingly made me redundant. This decision followed a meeting of which the general gist was:

Boss: You're not doing any work, and the work you do get around to is usually wrong.
Me: I know. I'm bored of my job which is below me and spend all my time on the net.
Boss: Thanks for being honest. You are now redundant.

So I leave in 2 weeks. Nothing to go to. What better opportunity for a change of direction! Now I can actually think about what I want to do. No excuses. No safety. It's a great feeling. Slightly scary having no security, but fuck it I'm only 22. No one but myself to look after, and every choice in the world.

Aaah, freedom... :D

Take a week out in Ireland. Best, coolest most fun place in the world.

Can't afford to, I don't have a job! Would love to go though. Going to get a waitress job in my local strip bar and save money then fuck off somewhere. Can't wait. :)

I'm glad to hear you're on the road to something new, does it feel good now? If you're serious about that job I might have to ask you for a favour, a painter friend of mine and I are research into strip clubs, we've spent the last few weekends trawling around Soho collecting photos, don't spose you could help us convince $manager we're not going to take covert picture of customers? We've got a couple of places to agree but it's a hard slog even after some truly impressive bullshitting.

It feels great. The only thing tying me down is a bit of debt, but hopefully should clear that soon. Yes, serious about the job but I haven't contacted them yet (will be this week sometime). Don't think there'll be a problem getting something though, they always need staff esp. at the run up to xmas. What research are you doing? Proportion of blondes to brunettes; the relative visual excitation of D versus DD? ;) As it's my first job there I won't be asking favours straight away but could let you know in a month or so. :)

voyerism, exploitation (more than one angle on that), the usual catch bag of themes to be honest, I don't have any up at the moment but I'll up a few from some recent trips to soho and you'll get the idea.