Longest Day

Yes, it was the Solstice yesterday, as others have noted. We went and sat outside the Hare and Hounds with friends to watch the sun set behind Mitchell Brothers' Mill at 9.17pm (according to S). The sky then did wondrous things for another hour or so, involving long feathery wisp clouds, some constructed from vapour trails, and a glorious palette of shining pinks and bruised purples. We watched until we began to get cold around 10.30, though it was by no means dark. Heading for home, we saw bats for the first time up here.

Our party, to warm the house, welcome friends here, mark the centre of the year, was lovely, if tiring at the end of the rollercoaster week I'd had with the interview. Good food and drink, beautiful flowers, dragonfly lights, and about 25 friends. We sat outside only for the first half hour or so, Saturday being the one cool day amongst scorchers the last week or so... Ah well.

I worked on another job application today, for a job I'm not at all sure I want, and which is poorly paid. I get confused really about what the strategy ought to be, when there are so few jobs to apply for that are even slightly relevant to my skills and experience. Hard work to write a convincing statement when I do not feel much enthusiasm for the work, but I got the job done, and have been reading The Lacuna in the garden for the last hour or so.

My Back to Work session yesterday was the non-event I anticipated. At least they aren't pressurising me to apply for entirely inappropriate jobs... yet. Having been informed when I first signed on, that I would be able to claim travel expenses to job interviews, it transpires that the process for doing so is as follows:-
1. Take letter inviting you to job interview to the Job Centre (6 miles away) before interview date (travel expenses for this journey cannot be claimed)
2. Job Centre telephones prospective employer to confirm (presumably in case of forged job interview invitation letters).
3. Attend interview
4. Attend Job Centre again (travel expenses as 1.)
5. JC telephones prospective employer to confirm that you did in fact attend. ('Unlikely that you wouldn't go' I said - 'yes, but, some people...' my advisor tapered off here, suggesting by his tone that there are no limits to the lengths some people will go to to make a fraudulent claim for a few £££ in travel expenses.)
6. You fill in a 6 page form, attach tickets etc etc
I got quite cross when my 'advisor' told me this, but I don't think he noticed, glassy-eyed and numb like all the JC employees. I told him it seemed unlikely anyone would bother with this palaver, and that I imagined that was probably the idea... No comment made by advisor.