Monday morning and the quest for blue and white enamel

This morning felt a little Joycian. I had decided to task myself with recording exactly how a JobHungryGrad feels on a Monday morning, when the rest of the world has disappeared off to their offices and places of learning, and is left at the kitchen table drinking tea in front of their red laptop.

Next to me is a small pile of crusts (I have not yet reached the depths of unemployed graduate poverty that I will willingly eat the crusts of a week old gluten-free loaf). My left hand's ring finger is sticky with marmalade, so I am taking care not to allow it to touch the keyboard. My tea is simmering in a white and blue enamel mug. And what a mug. It is a fabulous, light, unbreakable mug which started my quest to replenish my crockery stash with a row of blue and white enamel mugs hanging off hooks in our new kitchen. (http://www.surplusandoutdoors.com/shop/camping-equipment/plates-enamel-wear.html)

My excitement was fueled by the discovery that it's also possible to buy a classic blue and white enamel pie dish and a classic enamel Billy Can. The Billy Can I can understand, but who goes camping and bakes a pie? How do you bake a pie in a tent? All the more questions for the JobHungryGrad to query during the long week ahead.

Otherwise, I feel happy. I had an incredible weekend, and and have an invite to interview tomorrow. It's unlikely I'll get it and the hours are long and yes, it's based in an office, but it fits my schedule and I crave human interaction.

I went to an incredible coffee shop in Shoreditch yesterday (www.weekendnotes.co.uk/fix-126-cafe-shoreditch-it's got the best coffee in the whole of London) and sat down with my boyfriend to make a comprehensive list of everything I want to achieve this week. I stayed up until midnight last night writing article updates and then this morning have decided to finish writing my chapter on Budapest in my book. I job hunted before my toast and marmalade, found nothing because it was 7am and will resume the search later this afternoon.

If there's one job hunting lesson I learnt last week it was that just searching for jobs can drain the energy and the life out of your short time on earth. The reason I left the civil service was because I wanted more time to write and because I didn't like the painfully hierarchical and unpleasant structure. Why waste my new found free time trying to conform it to the constraints of a working day? I work best early in the morning and late at night so why try to impose a 9-5 structure when it didn't really work before? Surely the middle of the days should be for doing things, seeing things I wouldn't usually get to see, walking around in circles and catching up on writing?

I quit my graduate job because I needed some space to work out my path but also to work on my path. I can't forget that like I did last week.