I'm three weeks into my new job. I'm already overworked and exhausted, but there's potential here. On my first day, Judy, one of my two new colleagues, said she wanted to start a bakery. I asked her if she enjoyed baking; it transpired she'd never learned to bake. So we've started baking together. Yesterday we were joined by Chippo, a volunteer, who said she'd love to bake but can only make cupcakes; it turned out she meant cupcakes from a packet mix. When she'd finished pressing a double quantity of flapjack mixture into the tin she struggled to find the words to express the sense of achievement she felt.
This is a job unlike any other I've had. I'm on my feet the whole time, apart from when I eat lunch (about ten minutes) and when I go to the loo (er...). There are people around all the time - the kitchen has no shutter so the whole cooking process is punctuated by making cups of tea, answering questions, talking about last night's telly and a generous amount of laughter. It's lovely, but for an introvert who prefers to cook alone without even the radio for company it's been a bit of a shock to the system...
