Swamped

I'm now rather embarrassed that I complained about the slow pace of the Magistrate selection process. Things have gone into fast-forward recently. For instance, in the last week I have received the following :-

• A last minute invitation to attend an evening of introductory training this week
• An Induction Pack, including a thick wad of paperwork related to the on-going training and assessment process (the ickily named "Competence Framework")
  
• An invitation to join The Magistrates' Association.

The scariest item arrived this morning : a Rota Return return form for January to June 2009, asking which days I wouldn't be available to serve.

The reason it's scary is not just that it is evidence that it's all actually going to happen, and happen really quite soon. It's also because my lifestyle doesn't easily adapt to planning eight months in advance. I have no idea what I'm up to on Tuesday June 30th 2009. In fact, I'm equally stumped as to what I'll be doing on Friday January 2nd 2009, and that's only 11 weeks away.

It's no wonder that the Magistracy is dominated by people with predictable, plannable lives; for example teachers, civil servants and retired people. I have absolutely no answer how to avoid that happening : I just felt like having a whinge.