The Dole Office Part Two

A week later on Friday the 4th of November 2011 at 10:25 am at point B I sign on officially for the first time. My reward? A stubby pen with which I stab my signature on a piece of paper which I assume is part of the bureaucratic process which will enable me to claim my glorious £67.50 per week. Thank god I am almost 30, those who are under 25 can claim a measly £53.45. 

As part of the protocol, and once she has snatched the prized stubby pen from what I have now realised are my equally stubby fingers I hear the first attractive person say in a really husky, smokes 40 a day, due to the social demographic she interacts with say "Have your circumstances changed since last week?" at this point I make eye contact with her and briefly wish I were a lesbian,  muster a sigh, a shrug of the shoulders and a somewhat nonchalant "No". 

The amount of people I would perform sexual acts with in the room has increased dramatically from last week: one. I am still dumbstruck it is with a woman. 

Job Club

As a means to evade boredom and to meet up with people in a similar situation (also to hopefully include a spot of afternoon drinking) I have arranged a "Job Club" with my unemployed brother and his best friend. My brother does not show up. His best friend does. And later in the same afternoon as I signed on for the first time I am sat in a local library surrounded by fellow unemployed bums, students with no aspirations, some actual bums who smell like bum and my brothers best friend. I feel the world closing in. Thankfully my brothers mate leans across the table and suggests what every recently unemployed person on a tight budget loves "A pint of cider?".

With the first meeting of Job Club over and no possible leads (The Evening Argus really was VERY disappointing that day) we headed to a local pub. The weather turned. Which actually worked out in our favour, we ended up in a beautiful pub by the fire with ploughman's and some locally brewed cider and ale. My brother showed up. He was equally at a loss with the lack of job prospects that day.

The First Interview

On my way home I dutifully checked emails on my phone. Amazingly I had been offered an interview for a job I cheekily put an application in for a week after the closing date. Job Club had inadvertently had its' first success.