For those of us of a certain age, that means That Was The Week That Was.

And what a fucking week.

After losing 350 people since Christmas, it was the end of Q1 09 and as a Publicly listed company, hitting the quarter is everything.

We missed it. Big Style.

So it was inevitable we'd lose more people. I'm over here on a temporary visa, no Green Card yet, although the process is ongoing, but if I were to lose my job I'd lose my home, my car, probably my relationship - for a while anyway as T isn't allowed to work in the EU. So I was shitting myself.

140 job losses later, both T and I had survived. A lot of our good friends had gone, and even though virtually all of them have more than one degree, the industry is in the doldrums and jobs are increasingly more difficult to come by. Those who left lost their Healthcare benefits immediately - if they want to see a doctor today it could cost them hundreds.

Those of us that remain face a salary reduction, and the knowledge that further losses are likely if we don't hit our revised targets.

I had lunch today with our CEO who told me the job losses are done with. Any more cutbacks will permanently damage the company. On one hand, and speaking selfishly, that's good. It means that if the company survive then I'm more than likely to have a job. On the other hand, if we don't meet our targets, where on earth do we go?

I've been in a hell of a funk for the last few weeks, knowing where our quarter was going to end, I'm out of that now, for a while, but with the oil price as it is, fuck knows where we're all going to be this time next year.

Tough times, and I know it's no better back home. Watch this space.