Last Dole Meeting?

Today marked what I hope was my last ever dole meeting. I signed on for the last time before my new job starts next week and hope I never have to go back to that depressing place ever again. Although, somewhere deep down inside of me I almost know that at some point I will. It was actually quite quick and pleasant today, and since I was telling them I had a job starting next week I was treated almost like royalty. Probably not like our royalty, maybe more like the royalty from one of those small islands in the pacific, but it still counts. They were pleased with me. 


In fairness, I didn't really do much to get this job, I just signed onto a temp agency at the same time I signed onto the dole. They promised me they'd have a job within a few weeks and have only just come up with something. So all I effectively did was wait, forget I applied, and then out of the blue, get something. With any luck I can find something more permanent to move to during this temporary spell.


This early evening, I dipped into my local for a bit and chatted to the regulars in there that I often spend a few pints with maybe once or twice a week. They are generally all a lot older than me and all from various different walks of life, but I quite like that. A group of very different people who would never socialise outside of the local pub, or rarely even bump into one another, but somehow manage to share an age old British male tradition - the after work pint. We talk art, music, politics, sport, history, and I very much enjoy having this different form of company, despite being much younger than them. Gerry fits kitchens, James is a retired carpenter, Phil used to be a well-regarded jazz musician, and Bill used to make formula one cars. 


Gerry was kind enough to buy me a pint, as he did the last time I popped in for one, and I was eternally grateful, if not, as I protested to him feeling slightly guilty that I hadn't enough to pay him back. "We look after each other", he said, and I liked that. Like the bond we share as purely after-work drinkers really means something. I hope I can buy him one back really soon though.


And hopefully it won't be too long either, I start this temp job next Thursday, so with any luck I should start getting paid for it a week or so after, and for a while my monetary problems shall be over. For a while I won't have to come home early on a Friday evening and be forced to watch Children In Need on telly, which is how it's gone so far tonight. I don't want this, no matter how provocatively the BBC News presenters are dancing. 


Although I do like Susanna Reid.