It's just thinking about the bottom line. It's quite refreshing not having to bother with the rest of the shenanigans for awhile. After a month or so you'll slip in to it.
The journey is a non issue for me. I live in the hills outside Manchester so even a city center gig is a 40+ minute drive on a clear run and I did 2 years bus and tram which took an hour. I also did a couple of years in Macclesfield and Knutsford which are 1.5 hours. That's almost the minimum for me. You could work some flexibility in once you've nailed the gig and then at the very worst you can find some cheap lodgings for a night or two a week just to recharge mid week. 50 quid just to keep your sanity yet keep 5k+ rolling in isn't a lot.
I'm on the bench and it's a desert out here at the moment. I'd be snapping this gig up without a second thought. Anything to get you comfortably up to and hopefully past April and then see where the land lies after.
At worst you've got a notice period and may have to use it.
Lucy used to run CU and has now started her own so it's going to be more or less the same.
Yep but it's going to be more depressing if you have to go perm and even more so if you end up doing a long stint on the bench while the arse falls out of the contracting world.
It's an odd world when 6k a month is depressing

. Like you say, it's just a head game now. If you can think of it like a one off, short term, poorly paid gig that's a bit of a pain in the arse it will change. In 8 months to a year you'll be back in the saddle with an outside gig and it'll just be a dim memory.