Friday Sign-on

This Friday is sign-on day at the dole office, sorry, Job Centre Plus. The office is at the other end of Broadmayne from the flat, Broadmayne being the large dual-carriageway running the length of Basildon. It's about two miles, so I walked in, which took about 40 minutes. I have to sign in once a fortnight and demonstrate that I have been looking for work, so I keep a list of job applications on a spreadsheet and print them out.

The last time I signed on, it took about an hour or so, because one of their systems had screwed up. In the end, I pointed out that I was just there to sign on and had been waiting a while. They just filled in a line on a form and asked me to sign to prove that I'd attended. This time was the same, but he paid attention to the spreadsheet and what was on it. He also asked me to bring a little form they'd given me about voluntary work. Plus everyone seemed to be on the ball and it all took about ten minutes from me walking in through the door: I'd barely got started on a new number puzzle.

And there could be worse times to be out of work...