Down at the library this morning, and it’s comforting to see that the generosity of the public in giving gifts of boxes of biscuits to the library staff for Christmas was alive and well last year. Their kindness added to the fact most of the librarians are ladies and actively considering, if not actively on diets (not that they need to be, but being a male of the species I probably just don’t understand the intricacies of the decision), it being that time of year, means a steady stream of delicious biscuits - and not the type you get at home, these are covered in chocolate, who knew! - for me.
So suitably refreshed I face the public, and today I meet an unemployed gentleman, and not an untypical one. Someone who throughout his working life has never had need to use a computer and doesn’t have one at home, because they don’t need one there. However, the government in its’ wisdom has decreed that to get unemployment benefits you need to register on a central website, to search for jobs and demonstrate your activity in doing such. This also entails having access to email. So I spend my morning helping this gent register online and getting him set-up with email, as he needs to be. Knowing full well once left alone he will struggle using a computer, to access the government central website again. Seems like whoever set up the system decided it would help government to measure and manage people, while ignoring the fact that the people who are in a lot of cases unemployed are exactly those who aren’t computer literate, so creating something of a Catch 22 situation. I’ll hop off that soapbox now.
Spent the evening out to dinner with the family at Nando’s, the choice of teenagers everywhere. It is quite something to watch a teenage boy eat a double portion of hot wings plus 2 portions of peri-peri chips and bottomless yoghurt, and still be hungry. You wonder where they put it, though hollow legs still seem to be the best guess.
Yours in awe
Jay
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