Today it was back at the work experience program, my very own infant school for out of work adults. It's an interesting experience because with each week the boredom level is clevery designed to increase to mind numbing tedium, so that the workplace actually becomes interesting. We all sat around playing Scrabble. No, really, we did, until the well-meaning advisor brought along a dictionary and proclaimed half our words out of bounds. Young T immediately upset the game board to show her displeasure. I merely left the table to get on with my internet jobsearch (which I'd been trying to get on with since turning up that morning).

Talking about miss T, I was sat on a table waiting for a one-to-one interview and she insisted on hijacking my newspaper, draping herself over my legs in a frantic search for adverts. In fairness she apologised for being so intrusive. I told that I wasn't sure whether she didn't do that on purpose, which got a sly smile from her by way of reply.

That's the problem with miss T. She wants to be the centre of conversation. During our lunchbreak I was chatting with a few other jobseekers, mostly about music, and started talking to another young lady who had expressed a strange and morbid ambition to become a funeral director (she's done that sort of work before apparently, not that you could tell). Immediately miss T lost all interest in communication and draped herself over the desk in a visible signal of disapproval.

Later I got into a chat with miss S, a westernised asian woman who I found very... erm... (this is not intended to be a pun).... colourful. Her life is dominated by pets in such a way that they seem to have become a surrogate family. She admitted that her rottweiller/alsatian cross guard dog has been in the newspapers for threatening behaviour and serves as an excuse for unwanted approaches. Certainly worked for me. I lost interest too.

I finally got my one-on-one interview with CM. Charming lady, and very polite too. Sadly her interview was necessary because there's been loads of errors in the Great Stocktake and as someone involved in the preparation of that fiasco, I have been named as a suspect. I hope I've been eliminated from that enquiry. It might be a very dull and tedious job, but it's in my interest to last the course.

Thought of the Week

Since my Toyota's and Toy Cars post on this blog, I've thought a little more on the reign of the supercar. Last year or whenever it was Jeremy Clarkson predicted the end of the breed. The Top Gear magazine afterward considered that end was premature. I think that in our modern mass production world and throw-away mentality, the supercar is essential.

Now I have to justify that statement. It's really quite simple. With economies of scale and safety legislation making cars duller and ever more indistinguishable (not to mention all made from the same bits), the brand name is more important in order to sell products. As cars become less exciting to drive, the image of an exciting brand becomes ever more important. Why else would dull and ordinary luxury car maker Lexus produce a very expensive supercar they cannot possibly profit from?

Am I right? Is the supercar becoming more of a statement for its maker than the glossy colour photo or the ridiculous and inflated thirty second television advert? The proof is with Toyota in the next few years. Will the largest producer of geriatric mobility buggies build a hybrid ultracar to improve, or indeed, redefine the brand image?