The winner of one of Britain's most coveted jobs says her new profession is abandoning the housing market to live in a cave. And she says it's a step up.
Carole Bohanan, a real estate agent from Shepton Mallet, Somerset, will be the new Carla Calamity, the Witch of Wookey Hole, beating around 300 contestants for the job. The job pays £50,000 ($80,000) a year and requires her to live in the cave.
"I am on top of the moon. This is a natural step up from my current job. You need witchy skills to sell houses at the moment," Bohanan told UK newspaper The Times.
More than 3,100 people requested application forms, 278 "volunteered" their mother-in-law and 23 church groups sent in letters of complaint, the paper said. It said 401 male witches inquired about the position, which also tempted one London banker.
A photographer, a dive master, an aromatherapist, a local journalist, a tattooist and a stonemason were included in the 15 finalists, the Times reported.
Each contender had no more than 60 seconds to cast a spell on the jury so as to secure the job and some resorted to desperate measures.
"One candidate is carrying around a bottle of her own urine. She drank half of it before we could stop her," John Turner, one of the judges, told the newspaper.
According to the legend, the witch of Wookey Hole was an old woman who lived in the caves with only a goat for company and was casting spells on animals.
Zombies Are Cheaper?
Meanwhile, the catacombs beneath London Bridge, the UK capital's top scare attraction, hired two zombies for more modest pay, just 30,000 pounds per year for each.
"I think it was the passion and intensity of my wailing that impressed the judges. I really tried to throw myself into it, although it could just be that I am ideal for the role because I am plain ugly," Jeremiah O'Connor, an actor and one of the two winners, told the Irish Independent.
About 200 would-be zombies turned up for the jobs, after the London Bridge Experience advertised for "zombies – dead or alive," according to press reports. Being in good shape was one of the main requirements of the new zombies.
"When they come out of the woodwork, they will chase people around, sometimes with a chainsaw in their hand, so it is physically demanding," James Kislingbury, general manager of the London Bridge Experience, told the Irish Independent.