Today I had my contract review at work. I’ve been campaigning for one for a while now, due to me feeling under paid for the amount of responsibility I have. So, now that my contract has been expired for about a week now, my review finally rolled around.

I had a performance review a month it two ago which basically told me that they were really happy with my performance and wanted me to stay on as a permy. Armed with this knowledge I was expecting a raise. As you might be guessing that didn’t exactly happen.

They reaffirmed that they were very happy with my work, but were going to offer me two choices. Stay on, get a promotion, and take a 5 grand pay cut, or continue on my current rate and finish in June. The choice was quite simple.

I’m finishing in June.

I sorta get the feeling that it wasn’t the answer they were expecting – saying that I should consider moving to Cambridge (which would even out the costs), but there is no way in hell I’d want to do that. It would be like moving to Australia to live in Canberra. So they asked me to take some time to reconsider, which I will do – but my mind is already made up.

And you know what? I’m really quite happy about it.

It means an end to waking up at 6:30, and getting home so late in the evenings I don’t have the energy to do anything. It means the end to spending my rent again in train fares. And it means an end to limiting my friend pool by living in a different city to my workmates. It means an end date – a light at the end of the tunnel.

Best of all, i finish in June. At the beginning of summer. What will become the summer of Phil.

Like the Summer of George, the Summer of Phil will be awesome.

I’m going to do what I set out to do here in the first place: travel. I’ve got some decent savings now, so I’ve decided to spend however long I can afford travelling around Europe. And right now I feel envigorated at the prospect.

The problem now is that I’m not entirely sure where to go. My initial idea is to bunny hop the mediterranean. Through Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greek Islands, Cyprus and Egypt. I even spoke to someone last night who mentioned that there were 4 month sailing lessons you can take which take you to all of the above.

So that’s what I’m thinking right now, but am open to ideas. Anyone got anything they suggest?

Cal has mentioned it in one of her posts before, but for me the idea has finally hit home. This summer, the world really is my oyster.