Well, I've gone and got myself a new job!
It's with a company I've worked with for years as a consultant on a contract basis. The owner, who used to be an unruly junior employee in company I managed about a decade ago, heard of my situation and called immediately to offer me a job with him I must have treated him right in the past
It's doing what I like best in my job, purely designing retail shops, bars and restaurants, no dealing with the crap (he has other people for that ). I started last Monday and it's all worked out fine, money's good, people around me are good... all is good.
Time to get my head down and start digging myself out of the hole. At least this is a good start.
They even have unlimited wireless Broadband in the office