Around 2007 Me, Biker Boy and Betty Boo were living in Oldham (near Manchester), when we suffered the loss of a friend in an accident, which made us reassess our lives and our priorities, and for me made the longing to return Home to South Wales (something I had not even thought about for 21 years) very strong.
After much discussion and phone calls home to mum to see if we could crash land into their lives, and job searching Biker Boy got offered a Job in Cardiff, so notice got ready to pack our lives into boxes.
I however had still not got a job to go to and was beginning to get a bit worried about this, with three weeks to go before we all moved and only a week to go before Simon had to move down (he started a week before I could finish as a Practice Manager for GP) I got a letter inviting me for an interview as a Practice Manger for a Drugs Team. This meant a long over night drive to mums, and my lovely WSD (wicked stepdad) drove me up to Pontypool for my interview.
Now as any good jobseeker knows you have to have a question to ask at the end of your interview, and it must NOT be about money or holidays, and everyone asks about training and promotion possibilities and I like to be different, but my research had turned up nothing!!!!!. So the day of the interview arrived and I arrived a little early (I HATE WAITING) and was shown into the facility and the "drop in" area and asked to wait, as there were several notice boards I took the chance to look around and glean some much needed info into the Drugs Team, and I noticed that they had clinics everywhere EXCEPT the newly crowned CITY of Newport, There was my question!!!! why were they not running clinics in Newport. I went into my interview convinced that this was the job winning question...............
The interview Panel consisted of three people two women and a man I can only describe as a Welsh Graham Norton, dressed in a red shinny suit with a Hawaiian Shirt and Red Doc Martins, with a Colonel Sanders Moustache and a Valley's Accent. The interview went well, i gave intelligent answers to very well thought out questions, then came the final question, "have you got anything you would like to ask us?" this was it would this be the question that got me the job.........................................
Now I must stop at this point to mention that all my friends had been worried about me taking this job and working with "druggies' smackheads, etc etc you name it they have given me a slang name for the service users I would be working with, and I had been at pains to make sure that I did not use any of these slang terms during my interview!!!!!.
So here we go I asked " I noticed the boards in the Drop in area whilst I was waiting and I was wondering why there were no clinic sessions in Newport, as I am sure that they have to have at least one .......... wait for it DRUGGIE, to qualify for CITY status................. there it was I had got the the last seconds of my interview and I had slipped up and said the word DRUGGIE................... the two women, both dropped their heads and smiled as the man carried on answering the question with such vigour, very pleased I had noticed this and keen to given me the answer to what proved to be the perfect question. He appeared not to have noticed my GAFF, i however was mortified and wanted nothing more than the be swollowed up by the ground. i heard nothing of his answer the sound of my own voice saying DRUGGIE DRUGGIE DRUGGIE......................
The nice welsh Graham Norton finished answering my question smiled at me and when i said i had no more questions showed me out, I was convinced I had blown it and walked down the hill away from the building slapping myself on the forehead saying "DRUGGIE, DRUGGIE, how could you get all the way through and blow it like that you MUPPET" My lovely WSD arrived to pick me up and asked as i got in "how did it go" "don't ask" i said : you won't believe it but i said DRUGGIE" i then explained and he laughed and said maybe they didn't notice..................
I drove back to Oldham and arrived just in time to collect my darling daughter from the child minders, when my phone rang.................. I answered it saying "hello" Hi said the voice "this is Jeff, I am happy to say we thought you were fab and would like to offer you the job" - " "Your Joking" i said "no when can you start" "Well I move down friday" i said, "great can you start monday" he said (and I am now sure he wasn't joking) " um well got to get unpacked and find child care, can we make it the following week" "yes great he said see you then" and hung up the phone.
and so my two years of the steepest, most taxing, but absolutely the most fun learning curve started at GPwSI Consortium, and when we lost the contract two years later and I was attending an interview for a job in a Psychiatric Hospital, Jeff text me and all the text said was "Remember don't call them NUTTERS and a text smiley :) " and i knew that he had heard me that day but had decided that this was the right job for me, and to this day I am soooooooo glad he did......
Fabulous story fabulously told
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