As I wandered past the happy noise of a kindergarten this morning, it suddenly struck me – I was off to “adult day care”.
On the downside – places are limited, and the waiting list is 12 months long.
On the upside – it’s free for users.
Today’s ratio is one carer to six adults.There aren’t any art supplies, no story time and you have to make your own ‘coffee’ – there’s a ‘no expense spared’ mega tin of Nescafé 43 with a plastic spoon in it.
There were delicious cherries for morning tea, kindly provided by one of the other adults in care today.
Nap time seems to be optional – though the chap next to me has been falling in and out of the seated siesta for most of the morning.
‘Craft’ has been replaced with citizen journalism, which is code for free labour here at “adult day care”. We can write whatever we like, free of any kind of active supervision, so this morning I read a great book and wrote a reflection on creativity. Whether it will ever be published is entirely unknown at this stage, but I reckon I’ve earned my coffee today!
The entrance examination is pretty tough, but I was one of the “lucky ones” who got a HD.
All I had to do was stay unemployed for a whole year and I’m now sentenced entitled to 150 hours of day care, one full day session per week, valid for the next six months.
Winning!
In fairness, there was good stuff accomplished after lunch, and I was glad to do something productive.
The prompt for Fat Mum Slim’s Photo A Day was ‘strange’ so I posted this on Instagram.
What did you want to do & be when you ‘grew up’?
Is that how you earn your living now?
Tell me what you do for a crust in the comments.
Cheers,
Annette
Today’s post was brought to you by the letters S for sarcasm and N for Newstart.
I Give You The Verbs 
good morning Annette!
I think you need to self publish!
you are excellent with the words and verbsI hope you did well with your interview too! … you are clever!
I’m retired, but I was a hairdresser and mum,
then I was a mature age art student in the nineties
I mainly potter around with my art which entails water colours, mixed media, drawings and concepts or not, recycled works including small installations of found objects, poignant prose of sorts! … any excuse I love to play and foof my home too!
I love words strung together in a hip hop way! … my journal works!
my brain is random access and very nebulous and abstract!
at the moment I have some pieces in “red poles” gallery maclaren vale s.a.
please excuse lower case and spelling errors I’m a bit dyslexic! … insight into moi!
love m:)X
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Hi Merilyn, thanks for joining the conversation. I did work experience at a hairdressing salon when I was about 15 – I don’t think I could have been a pro small talker, as well as knowing all that you need to know to be a great stylist. And all that time on your feet! What a great thing to do though, you really formed special relationships with your clients I’m sure.
Thank you for your encouraging words, I am hoping that as I use my words more here on the blog, things may unfold… we never know what’s ahead, do we!
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What an insight into Newstart and the search for solid employment Annette. I loved it and I think your posts give a really important perspective, and one that’s not often heard. Keep writing. I’ve got everything crossed for you that these first few months of 2015 bring on a cracker job. But more than my best wishes, you need an employer to take on a hard working, honest and positive person who writes like a BOSS. You. Keep shining on x
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Hey Pia, I’m SO encouraged by my awesome blog readers, oh that sounds way too formal, my friends here.
I’m really hoping something breaks very soon. It does wear me down some fortnights. This one’s not so easy, so back to the painting and other things I enjoy, to keep myself from going into a funk. I’m out of Chux for fuck’s sake. Excuse the French. Bloody Chux, and I really should wait until I get ‘paid’ again before I lash out on a new pack.
I hope that employer is out there, I really do.
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Oh Annette wishing you all the best for another year of job hunting and I agree with Pia! You deserve the best job in the world because you are one talented mo-fo. Don’t forget that!
I earn my crust as a hard-ass union rep for a health union. Hard to believe when what I do in my spare time is garden, cook and bake! But its all about balance. I need to play in my garden after a hard day fighting mean HR reps 🙂
XXX
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HR reps can be mean can’t they? I’ve actually been on the other side of that where the poor HR rep had their hands tied by the very sneaky employer we both worked for.
I’ll take the third or fourth best job in the world at this stage…. oh my goodness, come on already!
Really appreciate your encouragement Emma x
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I love your description of ‘Adult Day Care’.
I really hope that you find a workplace soon that is deserving of your skills and fabulous personality.
x
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No arguments here Tash, I hope so too. Thank you for joining in the convo.
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I fancy Adult Day Care! I would complain about the art supplies – can you smuggle some in? But, I like the idea of reading a book (Steal Like an Artist is on my list) and doing a spot of writing – Citizen Journalism.
Great post, great sense of humour, but needs art supplies! x
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Definitely needs something – a bit of LIFE perhaps! It was much better this week because ranty guy was absent. He really set my teeth on edge… I’ve actually switched activities, which I hope wasn’t a stupidly premature move. So I’m off to another ADC centre on Monday… stay tuned.
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Oh gosh, have i missed something? What happened to your job? I know I should just read back over the blog posts I’ve missed but i don’t have time now.
I’m so sorry Annette, that sucks.
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It was never, ever going to be a long term fit, but they pulled the plug earlier than my wallet would have liked. Oh well, c’est la vie!
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I hope you had fruit time and lots of time for free play and that you made some good buddies:) You have a gift for writing and you have painted a vivid picture of Adult Day Care for me, even without your art supplies:) On the first day of school, when I was five, I told my mum I was going to be a teacher and I am and I know that’s what am supposed to be and that is what I am good at. Hope 2015 brings you your total dream job x
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I love teachers, especially the ones you can tell were born to do it. I’m Facebook pals with my grade 6 teacher, Mrs Tilley. She was awesome. I had some fab teachers along the way, especially the ones who encouraged my love of words. And look, 543 years later, I’m still using the words, and the verbs. And I still have great teachers, just in more informal ways.
It is kind of all free play time, but in a controlled, weird way. Yesterday was taken up with reading, cherry eating, a little bit of chat and writing an article. I got to proof some pages of their next issue too, which was good.
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I love how you turned this around, you sure do have a way with words and your dream job just has to be out there. Thanks for sharing your day. Oh and no I’m not doing my dream job, but the plus at the moment is I have enough time to pursue lots of creative things and spend more time playing.
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That’s a huge plus isn’t it Emily. Keep playing, you do it well!
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Annette I really hope the job you love happens for you this year. You so deserve it lovely lady. That’s a real insight into the Newstart system. I love your positivity in dealing with it. I work, and I work really hard, and I like what I do, but I am not making a living out of it. As a matter of fact I’m not making anything out of it. So I’m looking at shutting down and going out to get a real job, after my surgery. I don’t want to get a real job because I like what I do a lot. My dream job would be to create fabulous craft ideas and get paid for it. I’m just putting it out there that that may happen one day.
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Deb that’s so hard… is there any way you can morph the current role into something like teaching for a larger organisation? Community orgs, art teaching, art therapy?
Put it out there lady! And good good good vibes for the surgery and beyond.
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