The Jobs fair was held at the County Ground, home of Somerset County Cricket Club, was one of the biggest wastes of time I've ever endured, and I went to see The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at the cinema. First we (me, Clayton and Cannard) parked up and went into the cricket shop to re-grip Claytons bat, and wander around for a bit. Then we strolled into the Pavilion where the fair was, and were immediately disappointed (although I was more let down by the fact that I feel anything with the word "fair" in the title needs at least some kind of raffle to merit the name, and preferably a Helter-skelter of some description). There were stands for employers such as Somerset Care, since everybody round here is either old or works with people who are old. There were also separate stands for the Army and the Navy (no sign of the Air Force), but who would go to a careers fair in order to join up? They are either for the casual browser who are looking for a career change, or someone who has a good idea of where they want to take their vocation, and are looking for more information. A willingness to be shot at for Queen and country isn't really a path trodden by these. There was a brief moment of interest when we came across the booth for "The Space Program". Turns out this is a dance group, and "Space" was a deceptively presented acronym. Leaving meant walking past the woman who minutes earlier had given us our sponsored bags to collect information in, so we waited until her back was turned when filling more bags with leaflets, and made a break for the door. Since we were in Taunton, and it would feel like a wasted journey otherwise, we trekked to Rileys, where I wasn't asked for my membership card. This was a good thing, as it expired a couple of days before.
Upon returning home, I had about 5 minutes to change my shirt and trousers for a fleece and waterproof cargos, and headed out to go fishing with Cannard and Clayton. None of us had rod licences, but Cannard said this didn't matter. I thought it did.
Two rods between 3 people probably isn't the best way to take part in what is already a fairly boring "sport", but we had to make do with what we had. The weather wasn't looking wonderful, but I was prepared with my (brief) history in geology, so I was well able to clamber over fences and wet fields in full waterproof gear. If I'd been asked I might even have been able to give a grid reference or two. It probably wouldn't have been right, but I'd have given it a go. It the course of events though, I managed to step in a large puddle of freshly deposited cow faeces, rip my waterproof trousers, and nearly fall in to a very wet, very cold river. So not unlike most of my field trips at uni. Suddenly a storm hit us, and by suddenly I mean one minute it looked fine for us to keep going, and the next we were running through flooded fields back to the car. Having stood in what was a steadily rising number of pats, it was understandable that my shoes were not entirely welcome in the car. I would usually have had no problem with this. It was my fault, so I'd have to take them off and put them in a bag for the journey home. Fine. However, its not particularly easy to do this when you are standing in gale force winds with rain seemingly going sideways, while holding a large lightning conductor. I ended up walking up the front path to my house in my socks.
We got lost on the way to the NEC. Clayton wouldn't listen to the satnav, and despite my insistence that it was saying "keep right" he thought it would be better to keep left. We missed the roundabout and were heading towards Birmingham Airport. A quick U-turn sorted that out, but it set a tone for the rest of the day. Once in the exhibition it was hard to tell which booths we'd been to, and which we hadn't. Plus all the time you were on the look out for either over-zealous salesman or scantily clad tarts thrusting registration forms into your hands. Better play it safe and sit though the seminars on how to set up a franchise. Very informative, but at the same thing so dull that Clayton decided it was time to see which of his joints click the loudest when left unmoved for a few minutes. Turned out it was his elbows. We left the exhibition at 3, thinking it would take about 2 hours to get home. Back by 5, everyone's happy. On the way out theres a sign saying "Hall 6 via Skywalk". Assuming theres an exit near Hall 6, we thought we may as well take a different way back to the car. The Skywalk, as it turns out, is not like the Skywalk on the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Its more like a corridor of travelators with some windows in, and the view from these windows is that of the industrial units about 5 metres away. Not a huge success, but not much different from the alternative we'd seen on the way in. However, once we'd reached the exit (which was further from Hall 6 than we'd hoped) we didn't know which way it was to the car. Any sensible person would say go back the way we came, wait for the car park shuttle, or at least consult a map before proceeding. I suggested all of these things, but my opinion was thought unnoteworthy after suggesting that the Skywalk might be interesting. What followed was around 1 and a half hours of circumnavigating the NEC and its accompanying industrial park, a total of 3 miles after wrong turns and a lack of shortcuts, the whole while blaming me for getting us into this mess, and how we probably could have been home by now if we'd gone the right way. This was later brought up as we were sat in a traffic jam on the motorway which we probably would have missed if we'd gone went out the way we'd gone in.
We went fishing again this morning. And again it rained. Not so much this time, but enough to force us back to Claytons for Micro Machines on the Sega. There was a brief time where he had beaten my long-standing record on Basement Bumps. There was much jumping around and exclamation as he had become obsessive about beating it. I took the record back within 10 minutes. Clayton is probably sat at MY Sega in his room surrounded by empty Red Bull cans trying to beat it again.
So there we go. A very productive few days. Got a meeting on Monday about doing an AAT qualification so I can become a trainee accountant, which should be fun.
Boje
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