Abattoir adventures

Until about a month or so ago I was a vegetarian. Not a very dedicated one (I still ate seafood and I bought leather shoes and handbags) but a vegetarian all the same and I had been for about 10 years. Boredom at work led me to decide that my decision to not eat meat did not prevent any animals from being killed and also made life difficult for people who had to cook for me (many many apologies to my mum, the boy and also his mum who always pulled out the stops to make me yummy veggie options). To be honest I was also pretty curious about what certain different meats tasted like. I'd never had things like duck and I can't even remember eating much pork or lamb as a kid either. My meat eating education is coming on a treat but last week I took it a step too far I think.

You will recall that I'm currently job hunting as my lovely shoe shop is closing at the beginning of August? Well I answered an advert last week for a trainee secretary in what I thought was a food factory. I got an email back to say they wanted to see me and at the bottom of the email I noted, with horror, that the company was actually an abattoir. I decided that if I was going to eat meat, I should be able to deal with this and so I decided to go for the interview, much to the bemusement of everyone around me.

As I entered the building, the gentleman I was supposed to be being interviewed by came running down the stairs, pulling on a white coat streaked with blood and told me 'You've arrived in the middle of a disaster. Would you mind waiting? Watch the blood on the stairs'. I did as I was told, all the while wondering what on earth I was doing there.

The interview actually went ok and I was called back to meet the head of the company for a second interview but between them they talked me out of the job telling me I would be bored and it was a very junior position. I turned the job down much to the relief of friends and family who thought I was mad for even turning up in the first place. So far the job hunt is not going so well!