A doctors appointment at some ungodly hour of the morning forced me out of bed long before my unemployed body was ready to face another day. After all the trouble of using iron discipline and sheer willpower to push the duvet aside and start my epic journey to the bathroom, not to mention a long walk across town in the dark, they were locked when I arrived. Brilliant...

Good Morning Swindon

As the sky first began to brighten a bright star, or more properly some planet or other, was low above the roofs of Swindon and very noticeable. I wonder which one? Venus always seems to be the usual culprit although I understand Jupiter has been making its presence felt lately.

When the sun finally rose it revealed a gloriously sunny morning. A shame then the ground is waterlogged after all the rain we've been having. You can't put your foot anywhere without getting clogged in mud. In fact, walking along the pedestrian underpass that runs underneath the Great Western main line near Swindon station, I found it almost returned to its former glory as a canal. The center was flooded with limpid oily water.

You have to see that underpass to believe it. Victorian stonework still caked in soot and grime, concrete roofs with stalagtites in orderly rows along the edges of the blocks, and a whole series of electric lamps that stopped working round about the time they were installed. It isn't so much a mix of ancient and modern, more like the perfect habitat of Swindon Man, our native species of neolithic throwback.

Referral of the Week

Before the new year I was put on a six week job search support programme. Nothing grandiose. Just internet access and free stationery. That said, the facility was very useful. At the library I have a two hour limit to do everything and it all gets a bit frantic.

Anyhow, I asked the Jobcentre if I could be referred to the programme again. Yes, they said, and promptly discovered no-one in the office had any idea of how to get teir database to allow it. Two advisors sweated of a hot monitor pushing and poking to no good effect.

It turns out they couldn't because officially I haven't finished the first course yet. Apparently I'm stuck in a sort of electronic limbo. I already knew that.