A day in the life...

Written by a 45 year old male Caseworker living in Brighton.

Mass Observation diary for Thurs 15th July in Brighton

Live in Brighton with my partner of six years on the seafront in a one bedroom flat and have worked for BHT for the last year.

06.45am – alarm goes off already regretting going to bed late last night…sat in front of breakfast television – vaguely aware of riots kicking off in Belfast and another item about women too ashamed to breast feed in public – and ate my weetabix. Quickly jump into shower give the fella a kiss goodbye.

7.30am – left for work, heavy winds made the bike ride along the seafront a battle, surf was up and rough and had attracted a couple of hardy windsurfers at such an early hour.

7.45 – arrive at work, colleagues already there. I work in a day centre for rough sleepers run by Brighton Housing Trust. We are open 4 days a week from 8.15 – 12 and provide food, showers, laundry facilities, practical support to enable our clients to find secure accommodation and access to satellite services including dentists, doctors, relocation workers and help with making benefit claims.

8.15 – open for business – session goes off well very busy today with around 25 clients accessing the service, probably due to the inclement weather today. Had a lot of interest from clients regarding the Mass Ob – made up 15 packs with camera and pad and pen and managed to give out 13 of them. Look forward to seeing the results when they come back. Helped one client make a benefit claim and assisted in a couple of client inductions to the service. We are operating out of a church hall at the moment whilst renovation work is completed on out building (wont’ be back in till Feb 2011 )

12.30 – left the day centre and dropped into Tesco for a microwave chicken korma – ate that on my lunch break whilst browsing through the guardian newspaper and nearly completed the quick crossword. I am now sitting on the computer in an open plan office doing this diary entry. Have been a grump most of the day (probably due to the fact I went to bed late last night) just got a bosomy hug from a colleague which has made me feel a lot better!!

2pm - will have to finish writing diary tomorrow because as yet do not know what i am doing for the rest of the the day - finished up some admin work and discussed with colleagues a couple of clients with whom i had been having difficulties with. Finished off the work day with an end of day meeting where we have an opportunity as a staff team to discuss the days operations and prepare for the following day.

3.30 - finsh my working day - jump on the bike and head off too Prince Regent swimming pool to do my 3 weekly 40 laps - i have a yearly ticket which costs me £24 per month although to be honest i do not use it a s much as i should! Feel justified and worthy after my swim to treat myself to a pint of lager - sit outside the Mashed tun pub and watch the world go by for 30 mins and finish off my crossword. then on to the supermarket to get something in for dinner - feeling lazy tonight so decide on fish and chips (minimal effort required)

5.00pm arrive home and lock bike downstairs and climb the long 6 flights up to the flat - do some light housework and get dinner ready for when my partner returns from work in London. listen to the six o'clock news whilst doing this - more doom and gloom with a gunman hiding out in woods after attacking his ex partner and shooting to death her new boyfriend (this one isnt going to end well i think!)

6.30pm partner returns home form work and we eat dinner watching something on TV. we are going out tonight to meet friends for a drink and do a pub quiz at our local around the corner.

7.00pm head of to the Barley mow pub and meet two other mates there. much discussion ensues over a team name ensues and we finally decide on the Mariners - ( that is based on where we all live) after 90 mins of not to hard quizzing we come in at a very respectable second. to celebrate decide a round of shots is required - make mine a Jamesons!

10pm partner and i sway home along the seafront and when we get in get ready for bed as both up at 6.30 in the morning. enjoyed writing this diary but just wish i had something more interesting to submit but i guess that is the point of the mass observation ie to capture a normal day in someones 21st century life.