yesterday i spent three hours doing psychometric testing to try to find out what sort of career i would be good at and enjoy. i'd done a few test questions so i knew the sort of thing to expect: guess the next bead in the series; hot is to cold as x is to y; a series of numbers with one number missing, etc.

when i arrived, the room was set out like an exam and there were a dozen candidates. the tests were conducted in silence, with strict time limits. the questions started off easy and increased in difficulty, becoming incredibly hard. it was much more rigorous than i was expecting.

after nearly two hours, we were permitted a ten minute break.

the second part of the test really surprised me. the test questions didn't prepare me for any of the second part. it contained things like writing as many characters as you can in ten seconds; a test for accuracy where you had to compare two numbers and mark whether they were identical or different (as many as you could in the time allowed) and a series of diagrams where you had to add a few lines to turn them into a picture of something. fascinating.

apparently it will be ten days or so before i get the results. hopefully they will be useful and they won't say, "your ideal career is as an artist or a farmer".

on the way home it was pouring with rain. i drove past a big rolls royce with ribbons across the bonnet. every time i see a wedding car in the pouring rain, i am grateful once again for the weather on my wedding day. i don't think that feeling will ever go away.