2005-02-01 - 12:41 a.m.

For the love of everything that's holy, people should NOT have to act as though they are alive at ungodly hours such as the time I had to get up today!

5.30am

I tried to go to bed early too but 1am was the best I could do. I had to fight the urge to be a right bastard this morning. I tell you, my face didn't seem to fit right and if I'd have gone out on the town with Michael Jackson - HE'D HAVE BEEN THE LOOKER!

Jeez....

Anyhoo, today was the stage 2 testing to see if I had it in me to become a trainee prison governor. Got to Westminster, found the place on time, had no stress and went in. The place was a huge stone, high ceilinged evangelical church and it was set out like exam day at school. I learned that last year there had been 18,000 applications for just 20 places. I am assuming that this year will be similar - at least I made it into the top 250. The good news was that as I stood there, one of my mates (Paddy) from Uni came strolling in and when he saw me came over and gave me the most enormous hug that I was crushed to his chest for a second. He's a big bloke and works as a bouncer so when Paddy hugs you, you stay hugged :)

The tests were bloody hard so I don't know how I've done. The first was 2 hours and involved reading a huge set of complex documents (20 pages or so) concerning a merger of a couple of government units, the problems, the figures etc etc and we had to identify the key issues, the potential problems, how we would resolve everything and how we would make budgetary changes which would make 9% savings. There was too much to read, absorb and write in the time and what didn't help was that the calculator I'd been given was solar powered and I was sitting in semi darkness! Bloody thing wouldn't work.....

I did learn a valuable lesson today though: NEVER GO FOR A WALK WITH A BLOKE DURING THE LUNCH BREAK OF AN IMPORTANT DAY. I assumed that Paddy knew where he was going as we wandered around past Big Ben, past Westminster Abbey and through the streets; he was certainly walking with purpose. It wasn't until we had but 20 minutes left to get back that he admitted that he hadn't got a clue where we were!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH, MEN!!!!!!!

Gawd only knows how we got back in time, I certainly don't. The curled up sandwiches that had been provided were unappetising and nasty so I spent the rest of the afternoon with aching feet and a grumbly tum. Part 2 of the test wasn't as bad; drafting a letter in response to a complaint from a Hindu guy who hadn't been consulted about something and had been insulted when a meeting he was supposed to attend was scheduled during Divali. That was ok and I feel confident that I handled that well. We won't know anything until around the 21st March! The competition is quite stiff, I thought there would be more places so I really don't know if I will get through to the next stage.

To be honest, I really don't care either. Tomorrow I am off with Phoe when she gives a presentation to the local police force. The trainers want to see all of my feedback in order to give me advice and find out exactly why the guy didn't like me.

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