The silver lining game

Recently I feel I have been through quite a bit. Somehow I have managed to keep vaguely sane (or should that be as sane as I ever was?) and cheerful thanks to a little game I have devised. The silver lining game is all about trying to find the positives of whatever situation you're in.

An example....
*Boyfriend suddenly goes all weird for no apparent reason and you find yourself single, not moving in with him after all and one less place to go when your job ends in a matter of weeks. Loss of supposed best friend and soul mate.

And the silver lining? Well in this case I found a few
*Could have happened in the future at a much worse time e.g. when you were married or having moved in together in a flat in a town where he has loads of mates and family and you end up all alone trying to shoulder massive rent bill.
*All of a sudden I find myself more busy than I can cope with. I'm seeing so many of my friends and filling my time with so many hobbies I haven't got time to be bored. I've taken up embroidery, knitting and researching the topic I did for my dissertation at university
*I'm less stressed because I'm not trying to make a long distance relationship work by being available all the time and organising my life to the nth degree to ensure I actually see them once in a blue moon and fit around their calendar

it's a great game but sometimes it can be tough to play. For example today.....

*It has finally sunk in that I'm getting my official letter of notice this week for my job. Bit scary to realise you have two months left of gainful employment and as yet none of your applications have been successful. Not even an interview as yet.

*Have finally had my exit interview so am now down for re-deployment. Found out today that I can only be redeployed to another job on the same grade as I currently am (and one that I'm suitable enough for). Was sent this week's list and the only jobs I qualified for under salary scale were social work, housing support officer and transport co-ordinator responsible for bus routes and bus strategies.... Whilst I am eligible for redundancy if nothing suitable can be found by the end of my contact, HR are refusing to discuss this option as yet.... beyond acknowledging I will be eligible. I was not eligible for the one vaguely suitable job I'd so far seen as it's on the grade above the one I'm currently at the top of..... a difference of a mere couple of hundred pounds.... typical.....

*Boiler still not working after a week and a half. Landlord company less than helpful but passed my number onto the engineer who had been round twice last week to 'fix' it. He deigned to call me but was convinced he had fixed it already and insinuated I was stupid. He eventually agreed to go back and try again when I calmly pointed out that the fault would only develop after about 20 minutes and that turning it off and back on again was akin to pressing the reset button which is what I already have to do to kick start it and get a short period of hot water/heating.

*The weather has been a nightmare. Very heavy rain, but mostly at times when I had to walk rather than be in work/on a train/in a shop

*I managed to leave my lunch at home.

*I was working the side of my job I hate the most..... enough said

So given all this I spent most of the day racking my brain as to what on earth the silver lining to all this could possible be.

About half an hour ago, I suddenly realised what the silver lining is.....

Things can only get better!