After about 12 or 13 interviews I was offered a three-month booking in a large urban university just south of the river. This was such a relief I did not stop to think that it might actually be a really shit job and, let's face it, I really needed the money. Not for the best part of 40 years have I had a boss who looks at me with such blank-faced contempt. He laughs and jokes with others and can barely take the time of day to answer my questions. Any information he gives seems to be totally arbitrary, so I cannot take it as read that it will apply next time.
If I were a lesser person, my confidence would have taken a huge knock. My questions are treated as annoyances, my abilities and my experience are challenged, my very words are undermined as I speak them. This man is an utter cunting tosser. But it's three months, and I can do it.
The question is, what happens after that. Permanent work is needed and apparently the reliable winning streak I had for getting jobs has ended. It has to be faced: I am old, and younger candidates with their still-wet degrees and their poor grammar and tendency to sit and use their phones all the fucking time are a better bet than me, it seems.
But I'm not bitter. I'm just really angry. Angry old women are dangerous.
