Getting this out of the way...

There are times when my enthusiasm and confidence get the better of me.

I know, that may not sound like me, but it's very true. I'm an optimist at heart, and I like to think that everything is going to work out in the end.

And, sometimes, things seem to be working out so well... everything appears to be moving in the 'right' direction, and I start to get comfortable. I start to get happy.

Then, and only then, does the rug gets pulled from under my feet.

For example, the job I'm doing at the moment: Perhaps I should have suspected something was up when the company switched a 9-month contract for one month on my day rate. Possibly I should have detected something more in the note of uncertainty about putting me on a contract even after a solution was agreed that was equitable to the company, to me and to my agency... But I was too wrapped up in loving the work and the product.

It was announced last week that the particular product I'm working on will cease print publication, possibly with the next issue.

I'm not the only one who's flummoxed by this decision - literally everyone on the team cannot understand this move, least of all the sales team who have doubled last year's takings. Last year, the company gave them champagne for bringing in one million pounds. This year, after bringing in two million pounds, the company is essentially handing them their P-45s.

Most of them are actually being redeployed within the company, but one - who had devoted a third of his lifetime to that one product - has already been let go.

Amusingly, I just had a phone call from (a salesperson employed on behalf of) one of the charities I support. I told him his timing couldn't be worse, and that I'd just been made redundant, and he still tried to get me to increase my regular donation. I cannot express how much these people aggravate me now.