Today at the Job Centre I was told by a nearby work coach that I had the gift of the gab and should therefore look for work at the DWP. I’m not sure what the correlation is, but I’ll take the compliment and have a look at the vacancies.
I’ve also got an interview (at some point) for a job at HMP Bedford that apparently involves a lot of lifting heavy things and a lot of standing still for hours on end. The description didn’t mention needing the gift of the gab, unfortunately, but I’ll be sure to crowbar it in at the interview anyway, just in case one of them used to work at the DWP and values that kind of thing.
After the JC appointment, I spent the rest of the day at the cafe, working on a very important crossword in the Bedford Times and Citizen. The girls helped, and so too did they hinder. Balance.
But the real event of the day was on my way home, when I decided to pop into Moss Bros and try on some coats and blazers. There is a particular kind of blazer that I’ve had in my mind for over a year now: dark green, not too fitted, and either in tweed or herringbone; and Moss Bros happened to have a lovely tweed one in khaki, and it’s not too pricey (although any price is beyond me at the moment). What pleased me even more than that discovery, however, was realising I’ve been wearing blazers that are size too small for years. I’ve always done that, erring on the side of caution and premptively undersizing myself when it comes to clothes and whatnot, but today was corrective. So it turns out I am more suited to a 38S than a 36S, and mundane though that information is, it means a lot to me.
There we go. A suitable day to follow the final reclaiming of appropriate smallness: land in yourself at last after a lifetime of being psychically too big, and realise you’ve been overcompensating by snuggling into suits that were too small. Balance. Nobody can ever claim I wasn’t balanced, even when I had my axes inverted.
So I’m no closer to the dream blazer era financially, but I am closer in soul-readiness, and isn’t that what really matters? Money is made up, after all, but style, comfort and proportionality are all too real.
MT 