Diary 15th To 17th May 2018

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Diary Tuesday 15th May 2018 Day two on the pre-interview 'training course' which is very boring. It has reduced to a by the numbers look at health & safety procedures and obvious observations such as being good to customers is best business practice while sloppiness, being late, etc, is bad for business. Well Doh! Like I wouldn't know that anyway. Back home I sent off my contract for my book deal, signed and agreed to. The book won't be out until next Spring. Diary Wednesday 16th May 2018 The third day of the course, every bit as dull as days one and two. Fortunately our tutor did let us leave over an hour early. In the evening I attended a meeting of the Lancashire Humanist Society at the Black Horse pub, which was serving a delicious strawberry flavoured ale. The meeting covered two topics. The first was how protests by religious groups have obliged undertakers, gravediggers and crematoria staff to arrange funerals very quickly for people in some Jewish and Islamic groups, enabling them to jump the queue over other grieving families. While I feel that once dead I'll be in no position to care what happens to my body, I do feel that my family won't like having the grieving period manipulated or held up while someone uses religion as an excuse to go first. The second topic of informal discussion was Mindfulness, a meditation-like focus on centring the mind on the present day here and now to block out stress from worrying about the past or future. The practice is criticised for drawing an aspect of Buddhist reflection for the purposes of more materialistic gain, and rose-tinted cheery optimism. A thoughtful, sometimes heated but always polite discussion. Diary Thursday 17th May 2018 The final day of the course, and we finally got our interview times, (mine being 9.30 am tomorrow (Friday 18th May). The detail we were not given was the name of the company and more precise understanding of what the work involves. We were told that someone from the job agency will check us over when we arrive and that if we forget our resumes or don't look dressed right for the interview, we will be prevented from attending and reported to our welfare officers. Such a jackboot mentality is quite disgusting. I did some food shopping in the afternoon, and received a phone call and an e-mail telling me again to be sure to bring everything with me to the interview. The caller actually demanded that I see the e-mail and read it back to her to demonstrate my willingness to go tomorrow. I now really hope I don't get the job if this is an example of their attitude. Arthur Chappell