Got up this morning bright and early to catch the bus into the city to report for jury duty, my first ever call up...dressed insignificantly conservative, even deciding to not to wear my trademark red lipstick (hoping this would give me the edge to sitting in the box),packed my lunch, put my book in my bag, and trotted off disguised as a city worker starting the new week. Following the bus route of days gone by, I felt quite nostalgic, and excited, with the prospect, I'd be doing this for the week. It all went to plan on arriving at the Sheriff's office to report for duty with a horde of others...all randomly selected - strangers who would be thrown together for days to listen and decide another's fate.
On telling people about receiving the summons, people have a mixed reaction, my husband sniggered, as he has already done it and was bored sh------, most, I spoke to, dread the idea and think it a waste of their time; me, I was quite excited and was looking forward to how it all works - fly on the wall sort of stuff. After sitting for an hour, listening to instructions, and a video, numbers were called out - ballot form - and each lot of 35 were assigned a case and marched off to the appropriate court to face the next selection criteria. Six groups of 35 were called and dealt with before my number came up in the very last 35, ...it was a grievous bodily harm case.
But, alas, the accused changed their plea to guilty, and so, we weren't required...at all for any other case either...that was it...I didn't even get to lunchbreak. I was already, profiling my fellow jurors, and wanted to see who would get chosen, and try and work out the rationale of the selection process. What a downer !
Walking through the city on my homeward journey, I popped into a bookshop to see if a new book would console me and take me on another adventure...I'm now well away from the world of crime and misfortune, 'La Vie Parisienne' by Janelle McCulloch...who wants the basic, when you can have joie de vivre.
