More like Jury Chore

My first day of jury duty and I'm shattered. I feel like I just spent a year preparing for a triathlon, only to find out on the day that the entire event had been called off due to inclement weather.

To shed some light on a somewhat absurd simile, I did sweet eff ay at the crown court today. After the initial talk on what to expect and how to behave during our jury duty (I'd already seen the video, and more besides, on the appropriate website), we were to sit and wait to be summoned into court.

This never happened. One group of jurors who were still serving on a case from last week got involved in their case, but no new cases were called. I think there were about twenty-three of us there in total. I spent almost all day reading a couple of books or staring out of the window. It was a remarkably nice day, and Lewes seems like a pretty laid back town to spend some time in. The cafe down the road from the courts did a nice enough bacon-and-mushroom toasted sandwich, but I couldn't help noticing that the toastie-maker had previously been bathed in copious amounts of cheese. Next time I'll just get a jacket potato or some soup.

The train fare is daylight-bloody-robbery. The train home was so packed that I was crammed into the first class section. What a shame. In four cases that were supposed to be heard today, the defendants pleaded guilty. That means there's no contest and the jurors are all sitting on their thumbs until someone decides that they've been wrongfully accused... or that there's a good chance of avoiding the consequences of their actions by attempted manipulation of the legal system.

So Murphy's/Sod's Law dictates that if I expect tomorrow to be more of the same and take more entertaining nic-nacs to keep myself occupied, there will be a flood of cases or a huge case that I have to sit all day. If I expect there to be a metric butt-load of cases and don't take as many distractions with me... then there will be more delays, absences, guilty-pleadings, and hold-ups.

There's free wireless broadband, so I could take a laptop along with me... only I don't have a laptop. I think I'll take a drawing pad. If I do anything decent, I might post it here tomorrow evening. Chances are I'll be just as tired tomorrow though.