Work Experience

The day had finally arrived. The teachers have been telling us to get ready and start worrying about the whole thing but to tell you the truth, I didn’t think the day would ever arrive. Kind of like exams. You know that you’re going to have to take them eventually but they’re just so far away, it feels like you’re going to die before they ever arrive. Now, to the topic at hand… It was the beginning of a whole new experience. Work Experience. Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? That’s because it was dreadful…in my experience.  I had two whole weeks to gain some skill. Think that’s easy? Think again. It was as interesting as watching faeces dry out and turn white. Not as smelly though…but just as messy.

The dreaded workplace was located in Angel, Islington so it took some time to get there. Travelled by train. Two trains, to be exact. I got up at around six in the morning, which was a whole new thing. Morning smells different. It smells fresh…almost soothing…but at the time I could not give a monkey about it all. I was too busy slapping my face to keep me awake. If this is what I have to look forward to in the future, you can forget it. Me? Getting out of bed earlier than God himself? Please. There would have to be a snowstorm in Hell for that. Alas, I had to do that for two weeks. The pain, the pain!

I travelled with my brother Stef. We took the car to Palmers Green and parked it somewhere close to the station. We already had our travel cards so we didn’t have to queue up. Not much of a queue there though… While we waited for the train, I always spotted a familiar face from school. They were all dressed casually and here I was, freezing in a suit. I looked like a dodgy businesswoman. Surprisingly, they didn’t laugh at me. They looked kind of surprised. Maybe it’s because I had to take my black nail polish off.

When the train finally came [stupid delays!], it was always packed and there was always someone on there that didn’t bother taking a bath in the last decade. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for people squashing me. One time, I was right beneath someone’s armpit. It was horrible. I think my eye was twitching. Thankfully, a great deal of them got off at Finsbury Park, taking their foul scent with them. Our stop was at Old Street. From then on, we changed platforms and got on the train we wanted.  

Our next destination was Angel. That’s easy to say…the journey was short but always interesting. There were a lot of mentally ill passengers on the train to Angel. My most memorable one was this one guy who was talking to himself. The friendly conversation turned into an argument. I wonder who won… Schizophrenics are always fascinating people. But anyhow, upon arrival, we were greeted by hippies-on-drugs, as I like to call them. They had acoustics and they were singing a whole load of

jargon. They made my mornings even worse by giving me a nasty headache. The escalators didn’t make the situation any better either. They were tall. We couldn’t just stand on the right side and stand there to get to the top. No, we had to run on the left side because we were always late. Heck, I wasn’t getting up any earlier for no one. Six o’clock was bad enough. Finally, we got out the train station.

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On my first day, I stepped out into the rain. Gradually, as Work Experience was drawing closer to an end, the weather started to change. From rain to shine. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I cursed at the weather. Even the universe was against me. Angel was nice though. Lots of shops to explore during lunch hour and attractive buildings to look at. The people were nice too, which really shocked me. People? Nice? Yeah, I found it hard to believe too. They smiled at you, you smiled back at them and then they winked. ...

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