So much chocolate, so little time

The week of touristy stuff continued on day two with a mad dash up the M1 (and M6) and back to Cadbury World in Birmingham in a bit of a bumped and battered hire car. Joanne's always wanted to go (although not in that car, I'm sure), and in some ways I feel it kind of completes my life in cocoa. Sort of. Perhaps.

It's a good few hours, in case anyone's interested in going, with a good account of the history of cocoa and the story of chocolate in this country and Cadbury in particular (unsurprisingly). Plus there's a little tour of the factory to see some of the less commercially sensitive areas. Plus they give you bars of chocolate as you go round as well as a cup full of 'liquid' chocolate. And then there's the shop at the end of the tour. They employ full time janitors to go round mopping up the drool. Wow. I am still disappointed that they've stopped making Fuses though. But I guess I'll forgive them, after just one more mini egg.

While we were driving up to Brum I got a call from Andy in the office. My old MD wanted to speak to me, could I call him. I wasn't going to delay Cadbury World, not for anyone, so I arranged to call him back after we'd finished. I wondered what it could possibly be about and was quite intrigued. The result was not at all like anything I had imagined. It seems that the person highly fancied and favoured to take over my role will not be doing after all. Tax issues make him just too expensive. So the net is being cast wider. It seems though, that it has been decided that the role deserves a higher salary than I was earning. 30 to 40% higher. He basically just wanted to speak to me to let me know that this was the case, should, on an off-chance a head-hunter contact me, or should I hear from someone else somehow. I was quite pleasantly surprised, I have to say. I really appreciated the call. He didn't have to care about my feelings but was genuinely thoughtful about the matter. A big thumbs up from me for that.

Updating other issues:

• The buyer's solicitor had the day off today so no progress was made on the flat sale. It's enough to make you want to scream. The buyer did go in to their office though, to sign all the documents, so, fingers crossed for exchange of contracts tomorrow. We still could complete on Friday. Maybe.
• I got a call at 6:55am today from a recruitment consultant about a market analyst role I applied for a little while back. I refuse to answer the phone at that time, so returned his call about half an hour ago. He was not in so left a message for him to call me back. He just has done and we've had a little informal chat. The bottom line is that he's interviewed everyone he's going to for the role and the client is quite keen to get a move on regarding recruiting. This may count against me, with me not being in Chch until 8th August. But I've got to send him an email when I get to NZ and am over the jetlag to see where things stand and whether he wants to arrange a telephone interview for me. Fingers crossed, eh?
• On the way back down the M1 I received a call from my old boss, Steve. (Why does everyone insist on calling me when I'm unable to answer the phone?) He wants to chat sometime. I emailed him half an hour ago saying I was free now. I'm waiting for him to call back.
• Regarding the Stats NZ role, they usually request to see at least three academic papers demonstrating a candidates analytical skills. The employment agent is negotiating on my behalf, given all my experience is commerical, rather than existing in the sphere of academia.
• And finally, regarding Joanne continuing doing what she's doing, but from home in NZ, the IT department can't even source her a router now. It's just problem after problem, obstacle after obstacle. She has done everything she can to make this work, but seems to be fighting a losing battle. She knows I think it's time to call it a day and move on to something else. Tomorrow is D-day though, as I mentioned. She's expecting an email from Singapore first thing.

So, this time next week, we'll be in NZ. Is this really happening?