Apparently Today is “Blue Monday”
…which is the most depressing day in the calendar. It’s a popular media term, and is very handy for filling a few column inches each year. It’s so called because according to “studies”, the third Monday in January is the darkest place to be – Christmas has worn off, the weather’s foul, there’s ages till the next paycheck, and most of that has already been spent on Christmas, it’s Monday, it’s dark and so on.
Most years I personally think this is complete bollocks, as I’m self employed, so I don’t follow a normal calendar. However, this year I couldn’t agree more, as I started Jury Duty this morning.
I realise that as someone who’s been self-employed for more than 12 years I’m actually a little spoilt, mostly because I can do what I want – even if the consequences of doing what I want mean I won’t earn much cash! I also have very few encounters with bureaucracy, for which I am eternally grateful. So to have to play the bureaucratic game, and spend the vast majority of my day waiting around (some of which was in the rain, as there was a huge queue to get into the court), doesn’t fill me with joy. I often find when I encounter large organisations, in this instance the legal system, that I stand amazed at how they can exist in such a state of sluggishness and bureaucratic stagnation. Today was no exception, as for quite some time today there were roughly 200 jurors sitting on their arses waiting to be assigned to cases, then some would wander off, and some would wander back again as they weren’t needed. I tried briefly to calculate the cost to the economy of keeping so many people hanging about for roughly half a working day, but gave up fairly quickly as it was becoming soul destroying…
Anyway, there’ll be no shooting this week, and barring a miracle, none next week either. I may have lots of time spare to sit and write things on the blog, or I may not. Don’t hold your breath.
And, last week I managed a lot of runs, including my first 10K in about 6 months, a shoot for Golf Monthly with Paul McGinley, and that’s about it.
About The Author
Photosmudger
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I feel your pain. I did a two week stint in Southwark. But I guess its worse if you're self employed.
They allowed me to use my laptop and internet in the waiting area which at least mean't that I could do some work and serious browsing.
I didn't get to sit on a single jury all the time I was there.
I'll give you a tip. When you are near the officials make sure you tell the other jurers that you hope you'll get picked for duty because you can tell if someone is guilty just by looking at them. You might just get sent back early
Yeah, I've seen a few people hanging around in the past 2 days who've been there since last Monday, and not done a thing. What a wonderfully efficient system.
For my part I've been in and out of the court room several times, as each time we get started we get stopped again because there's a document that's not been prepared or similar. I'm not too impressed with the overall system to be honest with you!
Hope all is well at your end.