Wednesday 22 November 2017

A loooong wait!

Yesterday, at the after school club, I called the court answering service and learned I had to go in at 11.30am today. It was a bit of an odd time to go in but I hoped I'd be on another case.

We took Sophie to uni and as we had an hour to kill, we called into Costa next to Waitrose and had a coffee. After this we popped into the supermarket to buy some bread (weren't we in Tesco yesterday?) and then Keith dropped me off at the court.

I went in and saw a couple of jurors I'd been with last week so after ordering lunch, I sat with them. I was a bit early and by 11.30am a few of my fellow jurors also arrived, including Megan who I had got on very well with. We all sat together and had a chat and I learnt that Luke and Matt were on another case and had been since Monday, lucky things! I felt a bit jealous!

At around lunchtime the court official read out my name as a possible juror for a case lasting 2-3 days that would start in the afternoon but we weren't given a time, just that we had to be there for 2pm. We all amused ourselves by doing a couple of crosswords and I had a cheese and ham toastie for lunch.

In the afternoon a lot of my new friends were told they weren't needed (the trial couldn't go ahead) and Matt and Luke went back into court so I was on my own. I tried to read but couldn't concentrate and spent the time texting Sophie.

At 4pm we were told we'd be going up to the courtroom so we all made ourselves ready but about fifteen minutes later we were told that the defendant had changed their plea to guilty so we weren't needed! A five hour wait for nothing! Arggh! As they had already arranged for the jurors to attend for the next day, we were told to call on Thursday evening to see if we were needed for Friday. So it's back to work for me tomorrow, then!

Keith and Sophie came to get me, in very heavy traffic, and waiting for them in the car park was not pleasant as it was very windy indeed. When we finally got home it was great to relax and look forward to dinner!

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