The end of a couple of eras

Sad times, all, for this week two big parts of my recent existence came to an end. On Thursday I took a big step into the world of hackdom and completed my last NCTJ exam. But potentially even more earth-shattering, the previous night I watched the final episode of the West Wing. From today, I must move on to pastures new.

Virtually every evening since Christmas has seen almost my every move gear up towards the hour when I can retire to my bed, remote in hand, and delve for 40 minutes into the brilliantly-rendered world of Washington politics.

As such, I'm open to suggestions as to the next US TV boxset with which I can fixate myself. I'm not interested in anything with an abundance of initials in the titles, so that rules out NCIS, CSI or any of its geographically-located cousins. I hear good things about The Wire and I know people who positively swear by The Sopranos. Clearly this is something that requires some serious time and thought - probably far too much than should be spent decided on what to watch on telly.

What is far more scary is that the world of unemployment is now upon me. Having been able to chalk up my depressing lack of cashflow down to something as convenient as "being a student" for the last 20 weeks, I now have no excuse than to get my sorry rear end into employment.

And it's not even as if I have some leeway with having to immediately get a job. After finishing a three year degree you'd be amazed at how easily I'd convinced myself that, given the length of my period of economic inactivity, I could afford myself some time off before getting up before 10am every morning with any consistency.

Now consider that I've just finished a course which lasted just 5 months - so by my reckoning I need to find some work within about the next week or else I'm just mugging myself off.

Sad times indeed.