Thursday 23 March 2017

My last three days


Being a little confused at the time, I turned up to court and sleepily signed a bit of paper saying that I was able to sit in on a trial which was due to last for about a month. When I woke up I wondered how I was going to be able to do the work which is deadlined for the end of this month.

The consequences of making myself available for a long trial was that I was not selected for the shorter ones, but then the longer one was postponed for some reason, so I was back on the short ones again. My name was called out along with 16 others, but I was not selected so went back into the boredom of the waiting room with the other 4.

Yesterday morning we were dismissed until after lunch, then an hour later a perecntage of jurors were given the opportunity to be discharged completely, and as soon as these words came through the speakers, I virtually ran to the office to sign up for early release and was first in the queue which formed behind me.

That was it. About an hour later I was free to go. Many stayed behind but were told to have the rest of the week off and return the following. I didn't have to try hard to fight off feelings of guilt about not having perfomed a civic duty. To do so would have put a huge strain on my working life, because the nature of it means I am asked to lie dormant for weeks, then suddenly come up with the goods in a very short time period, and this period would have corresponded to any lengthy case I might have been on, never mind the money. If I had not signed up for a long trial I would probably still be there for the next two weeks - who knows.

Last year when I was called up for jury service, I had a phone call at the last minute offering me the chance of being dismissed immediately and I took it. My friend called me a 'jammy bastard', and when I recounted this here on the blog, a couple of readers snootily accused me of having no sense of civic duty.

This year - on hearing the latest outcome - my friend called me a 'jammy c***', and I daresay I might get the same opinions from last year's commentators, despite that I turned up willing and able. Nobody called me a jammy anything for getting two summons' in one year.

The most rewarding aspect of the last three days for me were exploring a part of old Bristol which I was not familiar with. There are architectural gems all around, including an intact 18th century coffee house which is still serving coffee, and a massive market which is thriving with stalls which spill out into the streets on all four sides, selling all manner of eatables, wearables and usables.

I bought an Irish jumper of the kind which I love, but is rarely seen outside Ireland or Celtic areas like Cornwall. £45. Bargain.

It is strange how I am now missing the long, uphill walk from the station to the court - in the pouring rain. I suppose I had better get on with that work now.


23 comments:

  1. Gawd, is that all some people have to moan about, you not doing your so called "civic duty" by getting out of being bored to death in a waiting room and losing commissions for work.

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    1. I think that if we still had capital punishment and I was assigned to a murder case, I would refuse to do it anyway.

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  2. Interesting you still count the "jammy etc." person as a friend. I would only worry about civilization as we know it if no one showed up.

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    1. We have an abusive relationship, but it's mutually equal.

      I had thought about standing up and saying, "I do not recognise this court," but that would have made things worse.

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  3. I went to Colston Hall in Bristol when I was 16 and saw Yes having hitch-hiked up from near Torquay. I went back to Bristol two years later and had a row with my boyfriend in the new, never seen before, Habitat. I was staying in Bridgwater with him at the time.

    My walk from the station is up hill too making the walk back such a pleasure.

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    1. I didn't think you ha any hills in Norfolk. When I came from Kent then Cambridge to Bath, I hadn't climbed any gradients for years so it took me a while to get my wind.

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    2. The walk from the station to the city centre is a long uphill drag. A woman asking me directions the other day said she didn't know Norwich had hills. It has taken me three years to manage it in one go without a stop for breath.

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  4. You made yourself available, as a good citizen should, were sidelined, rejected and given the opportunity to get away and can now get to the work you were worried about not being able to do. Sounds like a win/win ...

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  5. I want to see a picture of the jumper.

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    1. Ok, there's a crap one for you. There is also one of the St Nicholas's Market 'nails' on which traders would place money to seal a deal. This is where 'on the nail' comes from. Bath has a stone one but this one (of three) is bronze.

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  6. That is such a traditional sweater. The central pattern represents honeycombs, reward for hard labor; the cable on each side represents ropes. I cannot see the side pattern well enough; it appears to be diamonds. They can represent fish nets or small fields on the islands. Nice find.

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    1. Yes - it does say all that on the ticket. There is also the makers contact details in Ireland:

      www.arrancrafts.com (West End Knitwear Ltd. County Kildare.

      These are my favourite jumpers.

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    2. Correction:

      www.ArranCrafts.com

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    3. There should be only one r in Aran, so that the link will work.

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  7. Ah, ye lucky besterd! (I don't know what kind of accent this is, but there we have it.)

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    1. So we do, so we do. Fecker would have been better, but who am I to say?

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  8. Much ado about nothing.

    A two or three day trial might be fun, but a whole month. No thank you!

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    1. It isn't often you get the opportunity to say 'no thank you'!

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  9. It's a very nice jumper, I like the colour, and it looks very nice on you.
    Greetings Maria x

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  10. Stylish, practical, warm and a good colour...a bargain.

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  11. Two years ago I was called for jury service in Perth. I had just turned 70 and had long since stopped "going to work" every day. I was selected at random for a 4-week fraud case and there was no escaping it. The month of February was lost to me! One morning, after a late night, I literally fell asleep. I became an expert on the use of papaya ointment for wounds and the therapeutic goods administration: the subject of the fraud. The accused was a US citizen and serving 4 years in jail, after which he will be deported from Australia.

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    1. Corporate fraud was what I was dreading for the reasons you mention. At least it was February lost to you, and not August!

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