It's an assessment, not an interview

The Diabetes UK meeting this month was a hoot. In a VERY hot room, the talk was from an ophthalmologist and ophthalmic surgeon, and ought to have been related to diabetes because of the increased risk of cataracts and diabetic retinopathy. Instead, it was highly technical (metabolism of the lens, anyone? Yes, it's anaerobic, 85% through glycolysis and 15% via the pentose monophosphate shunt), and included not only images more gory than in the lecture about diabetic foot conditions, but also a full colour movie of a cataract removal operation, close up. After one lady in the audience fainted (she claimed it was from the heat) the speaker offered to skip the rest of the video, but the rest of the assembled masochists clamoured for more. Once I'd chosen to believe that it wasn't really a human eye on the screen, I managed to watch most of the operation. I think he fleetingly mentioned diabetes a couple of times, and ended his lecture with some pictures from his holiday in Canada. What a night.

My visit to the last Coeliac UK meeting belied my cynicism, because I got a call from the senior dietitian I met there, letting me know that there would in fact be three posts advertised very shortly in the local area - two temporary but full time, one permanent but part time. Then there was the 'assessment' yesterday, and if I'd been told it was a paper test, multiple choice, I'd have looked forward to it rather than dreading it. I set out leaving extra time in case of hold-ups on the way, the traffic turned out to be dreadful, I reached the venue with about 15 minutes to spare and joined a room of about 30 hopefuls doing the test. When I was done I drove home: more dreadful traffic and a round trip of 6 hours for less than 30 minutes activity. They'll tell me on Monday whether I was good enough to deserve a proper interview, which will be on Friday and I'll have to find another route. I'm not sure how I'll broach the subject of more time off to The Boss.

What with the dentist in the morning, assessment in the afternoon, and badminton do in the evening, yesterday was a Three Outfits day. I even looked through the bedroom drawers to see if I had any make-up, but couldn't find any at all. The badminton do went well, especially after I'd ditched the Lady Shoes for some flat Dancing Shoes that I'd brought with me, but there wasn't quite enough dancey music for my liking. The band cleared the dancefloor very effectively with their medley of Christmas songs, and then there was an interlude with a skipping rope (I'm not joking). Today I have extreme cleaning, that local job application, and it's back to work tomorrow afternoon to get ready for the final turkey onslaught up to 24 December, when it will all be over.