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So a busy week in care homes, second stage interview and a nursery.

The nursery was an interesting experience, no salt, sugar or other seasoning's allowed in the kitchen and everything fresh. Great, a bit of a challenge  but finally somewhere looking after our 'vulnerable' members. Apparently the chef the day before had walked out because it was too much to expect someone to cook well without basic stuff. It's not about you mate is it? This was no high end place either (from what I could tell anyway) and if they can do it then shouldn't our care homes think a little more about what they feed people. I decided this week at the care homes, no packet stuff and no convenience meals (wow radical I know). And yes it can be done, and to be honest I felt just a little better about myself at the end of the week. 

One of the places I worked this week had a guy with MRSA suddenly it brought a lot of things into focus, how easy to spread these things. You start thinking about touching surfaces, handles, crockery, people even. It begins to make sense how this takes over entire hospital wards. They seemed to have a good handle on things (I'm sure they've had to deal with this before) and everyone exercised caution  but it must be really difficult for the guy to be living in virtual isolation while this thing hopefully passes. The whole experience has made me think about care homes and how we treat people there, as I have said before this is no criticism of those who work there, I have encountered nothing but diligence and a desire to do good. But there has to be a better way for people to see out their final days than sitting around waiting to die eating junk food. Oh and one other thing, all those people who want an end to immigration in this country, you better get ready to staff these places because of all the people I encountered only 3 were British, all the rest were a mixture of Central Europeans, Africans and Asians, and all are on minimum wage + 50p an hour, so you might want to think about how we will staff these places (and the rest of the hospitality industry for that matter) without immigrant labour. The fact is many British people do not want these jobs because they  are too low paid.  

So my second interview (an 8 hour shift) was successful and I have a third stage this Wednesday.Its a really nice small chain of good casual dining pubs, each one in fairly remote areas but all beautifully decorated. The food is great and should provide a nice challenge, I'm excited again! I also went to interview for another job in Stratford on Avon. As seems to be usual there was another screw up not of my making. The interview was set for 3.00 pm in another restaurant in a town 50 miles away (not that unusual) with the recruitment director. I called 10 minutes before the due time to explain I was running 10 minutes late because of motorway traffic, only to be told the recruitment officer was based in Stratford, 8 miles from where I had been working. The agency confirmed that it was their mistake, but again I'm left thinking what would happen if I made that kind of mistake? They're trying to reschedule but the whole thing looks a bit of a shambles and I think time will be against it. Shame because I really like the look of the place.

As always at the moment, we'll see...