Of Other Worlds October 25, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Journal , 20 commentsSo. The interview with Hastings Council. Anything was going to be better than the non-speaking hospital, right? Sigh.
Off I went, clutching my Google map instructions and feeling more bewildered as each minute went on. Past the Conquest Hospital, past some massive industrial estates and on and on… and on… Where was the huge, gleaming glass and chrome council building I’d been expecting?
I found myself on the biggest council estate in the whole world, a city made of burnt out pubs, boarded up shops and houses with smashed up fridges in the front gardens. This can’t be right, I thought. ‘Har’, said the Google map instructions, ‘it sodding well is right.’ My stomach felt a little bit funny. I glanced at the bottom of the email from the agency. I looked ahead at the day care centre. I gulped, as if I were in a rather low-budget horror film.
I parked the car and looked at the large clump of people looking at me. Teenage girls clutching babies and lanky, spotty boys wearing hoodies. I took a deep breath and got out of the car and wibble-wobbled past them in my high heels and black suit. I wondered if they would think I was the police and try to beat me up. I’ve seen The Bill. I know about these things. I felt a bit scared.
I was buzzed into the centre and some right-on, scruffy social workers looked me up and down before I was taken into a non-threatening room and interviewed by a touchy-feely lady with a voice like honey and a frayed skirt who told me about deprivation and breastfeeding.
Somehow, I don’t get the impression I was quite right for the job.
Phew.
