I&DeA Assessment Centre - getting my head turned by the bright lights

I was in London earlier this week at an assessment centre (at their request) to find out whether I have what it takes to become a peer mentor with the I&DeA.

That would involve working with principally Labour council/lors across the country as needed to help them with areas of concern or difficulties they might have in terms of being effective and following best practice.

Imagine me, free to roam, in London! I had a lovely Italian meal with friends in a restaurant on Tavistock Place on Wednesday night and then an early night in the Holiday Express on Old Road.

I had no battery charge on my phone, had forgotten the charger and thus had no texts, calls and no alarm, what a strange evening! I had to set the alarm on the TV and the phone and then hope and pray they went off and woke me up, I was petrified of sleeping in and worried about missing important calls. Very strange times.

The assessment went reasonably well I think and it was interesting to spend time with some of the other would-be peers, including leaders of councils and leaders of groups and the elected mayor of Hartlepool. I think I may have been the only Labour councillor, although we didn't really talk about our political party representation, it didn't seem quite the done thing.

However, I did recognise Andrew Cooper, one of the Kirklees Greens, who I was sitting by, so we had a bit of a chat about the old days.

I now have to wait 10 days to find out whether I got through and can begin to give some support elsewhere.

I also enjoyed an hour in the British Museum, admiring some 19th and 20th century European jewellry and pots. Lovely, I was very desirous of some of the pieces I saw.

(Interestingly, when I got home last night and turned my dead phone onto charge, I watched in bemusement as it began to chirrup and light up with texts and unanswered phone calls, like a insatiable child, demanding to be fed. Friends keep encouraging me to buy an i-phone and a blackberry and all that nonsense, monstrous, surely! That you cannot be free even while you sleep.)