LONG POST AHOY!
Right, post as promised:
I’ve been immensely crap at posting recently (I know, I’m a bad person) - primarily this is because I have been honestly very busy - both with work and socially.
1) =Work - Ok, I officially finished working at the Uni about 5 (or possible 6 weeks ago), as much as I’ll miss it (well, the people anyway), I’m honestly quite glad to be out of there. Anyway, had a lovely leaving do, and they bought me the best leaving present EVER (an engraved iPod mini) - have kept in touch with a few of them and see them quite regularly for coffees/films ETC.
Anyway, looking forward to some time off, I got a call a day and a half after finishing to start work at the Chelsea building society head office - won’t bother going into it as have already posted, but the job made me quite depressed, the people were mostly lovely and harmless, but in terms of doing something I enjoyed it was a nightmare, the pay was crap, and it was making me seriously unhappy and slightly ill. The boredom led me to be quite lethargic also, I’m used to being tired after busy days at work, but that’s a good kind of tired, with the Chelsea it was a bored-tired, I’d come back and not relly do anything other than slouch in the living room/bedroom for hours until it was time to sleep, then get up in the morning go to work, lather rinse repeat, worst of all, I was even zombie-like at weekends. Anyway, enough was enough, and I kept on at Office Angels to get me out of there, as I was desperately unhappy.
Anyway, finally the general manager Sam, who’s lovely and used to be my temp caseworker, rang me very apologetically and said that she’d do anything to get me out, and was even prepared to risk the Chelsea’s (their biggest contractor) business, by lying to them on my behalf (basically saying I was ill if a job came up and putting me into that whilst claiming I was still ill to the Chelsea). Ultimately however, this didn’t have to happen, and they managed to transfer me pretty striaghtforwardly to my new job as a property manager at an estate agents (which is where I’m currently sat quite cheekily typing this) - won’t go into the role in detail, but needless to say is infinitely better than my job at the Chelsea, and will hopefully take me right up until my contract starts at Cleeve School in September.
Anyway, can’t remember if I posted about it, but I also have, as mentioned above, a job at Cleeve School, which basically means I’ll be doing Pastoral Care - monitoring the behaviour of a year group/attendance ETC/trying to anticipate problems and being a port of call with any problems the students have (I’m going to be working year 10 or 11, so I’ll have all the teen pregnancies, fights, sexual worries ETC…help!). But that doesn’t start until September. In terms of long term career stuff, I’m now not sure, I’m planning on staying with the School for at least a year - during which time I’m going to decide what to do next. Right now my options are quite vast and quite varied:
i) Do a PGCE/GTP and become a qualified secondary teacher - initially this was my plan, as it’s something I’m interested in, the training is good and free, and it’d provide a career once I’m qualified, I’d then do this for a few years until I could afford my MA.
ii) MA - it now costs a ridiculous £10k to do an MA, this does not make me happy, and if I want to do it in the next couple of years it’s going to involve either a) Getting funding, which is extremely competitive, and difficult to do. B) A shit load of loans and debt - uh, no thanks, got quite enough as it is thank you. C) Working in a job until I can afford it - again, not preferable as it delays me getting to do my MA and therefore working towards a career (it’s scary to think I have to have a career now as opposed to an education).
iii) Move to big city and look for a job in the media - again something I’m quite keen to do, I have a few contacts and would be happy to go in at an entry level runner position (not a great job and the pay is not wonderful, but it’s a foot in the door). I’d consider doing a national diploma as training for it as well (would also provide me with a module for an MA possibly).
iv) And the wildcard option - don’t laugh, I’m actually considering this - the possibility of doing a 4 year medical course to become a doctor, it’s something I’m becoming increasingly interested in, and would be a possibility for me (‘though it may involve doing a biology A-level, so wouldn’t be able to start for a while). But more on this when I have more information.
2) Social Stuff; I know, I know, I promised a meet up, and it will happen, I promise, it’s just taking a while (see above for lame-ass explanation of lethargy and stuff). But organising it is back on track; meanwhile I’m tying to arrange seeing all of you individually; had an amazing weekend with Alex and Sian in Birmingham - sorry I was so tired, but next time we’ll all have adapted and we will eventually make it to Snobs/Sunflower lounge I promise. Also Peppa and Zoe were lovely, was really nice meeting them.
Laura - I will make it to Bristol soon, I promise, just bear with me, the next to weeks are manic but SOOOON.
Jon - Will text you soon and sort something, which bit of Gloucestershire are you in again, as would be cool to meet you for a coffee/pint if you’d like soon.
Nick - I’ll ring you soon I promise, as we haven’t caught up for ages.
Katie - I may be down in Winchester for a friend’s birthday soon, and there’s a chance we’ll be in Southampton in the evening. Are you still down there at the moment or are you moving elsewhere.
Also, yes to Laura in August - can you let me know what date it is. Thanks.
3) The Family Stuff - Ok, an attempt to make a long story short enough for this post: Basically, when I was 11, I found out my dad was half adopted - half adopted because, essentially, his real mum ran off with my grandad’s best friend. My grandmother (the woman that my granddad then married afterwards), then gave birth to my dad’s half sister and brother, my Auntie and Uncle. We lost my Granddad around Christmas time.
Anyway, back to the story, about 3 weeks ago my dad got a letter through the post, which essentially began; ‘This is the hardest letter I’ve ever had to write, but I believe that you might be my brother…’. Anyway, long story short, the woman writing turned out to be my dad’s real sister - so I now have a new Auntie and two new cousins. Freakily, one of the cousins looks quite like me, is the same age, was born 4 days before me and did a media degree at Uni, that’s evidence for Nature Vs Nuture.
I have no desire to meet my dad’s biological mother; as far as I’m concerned the woman who raised my dad is my grandmother, biology or no; but I have now met his sister and she’s lovely, it really feels like we’ve known her for years which is quite cool.
4) Other Stuff: Don’t know if I posted about it, but my friend James and I (not the one you all met on my birthday, a different one, have written a script for a short film. The film’s now been cast, and we go into production at the end of August/Beginning of September, with a view to submitting it to the Viewfinder short film festival for next year. If anyone’s willing to get involved as part of the crew then let me know as we’re still a couple of people shy (a floor manager and boom-mike operator to be precise).
5) Dr. Who: I cannot stress enough how much I’ve enjoyed this series - no offence to the previous two, but they seemed like a bit of enjoyable nonsense; on the whole, I’ve just found this series to be far better written, better acted, and has a generally higher production quality - Blink in particular is one of my favourite things I’ve ever seen on television. In time for next week’s finale I do have one theory - so much emphasis has been placed on the ‘last of the timelords’ (obviously he’s not now) that I wonder if the rest might not somehow make an appearance in the finale (if this happens, then either the ‘toclophane’ are the conciousness of the time-lords, or the paradox machine somehow re-creates the Universe to engineer the world so that they still exist); it’s a long shot guess, but just thought I’d suggest it. It’s either that or Billie Piper re-appears at the end. Anyway, so very, very excited.
Anyway, this is quite a long post, so that’s where I’m going to leave it. Love to you all. Hopefully you’re all caught up now. Hope you’re all well. Hope to see you soon.
I’ve been immensely crap at posting recently (I know, I’m a bad person) - primarily this is because I have been honestly very busy - both with work and socially.
1) =Work - Ok, I officially finished working at the Uni about 5 (or possible 6 weeks ago), as much as I’ll miss it (well, the people anyway), I’m honestly quite glad to be out of there. Anyway, had a lovely leaving do, and they bought me the best leaving present EVER (an engraved iPod mini) - have kept in touch with a few of them and see them quite regularly for coffees/films ETC.
Anyway, looking forward to some time off, I got a call a day and a half after finishing to start work at the Chelsea building society head office - won’t bother going into it as have already posted, but the job made me quite depressed, the people were mostly lovely and harmless, but in terms of doing something I enjoyed it was a nightmare, the pay was crap, and it was making me seriously unhappy and slightly ill. The boredom led me to be quite lethargic also, I’m used to being tired after busy days at work, but that’s a good kind of tired, with the Chelsea it was a bored-tired, I’d come back and not relly do anything other than slouch in the living room/bedroom for hours until it was time to sleep, then get up in the morning go to work, lather rinse repeat, worst of all, I was even zombie-like at weekends. Anyway, enough was enough, and I kept on at Office Angels to get me out of there, as I was desperately unhappy.
Anyway, finally the general manager Sam, who’s lovely and used to be my temp caseworker, rang me very apologetically and said that she’d do anything to get me out, and was even prepared to risk the Chelsea’s (their biggest contractor) business, by lying to them on my behalf (basically saying I was ill if a job came up and putting me into that whilst claiming I was still ill to the Chelsea). Ultimately however, this didn’t have to happen, and they managed to transfer me pretty striaghtforwardly to my new job as a property manager at an estate agents (which is where I’m currently sat quite cheekily typing this) - won’t go into the role in detail, but needless to say is infinitely better than my job at the Chelsea, and will hopefully take me right up until my contract starts at Cleeve School in September.
Anyway, can’t remember if I posted about it, but I also have, as mentioned above, a job at Cleeve School, which basically means I’ll be doing Pastoral Care - monitoring the behaviour of a year group/attendance ETC/trying to anticipate problems and being a port of call with any problems the students have (I’m going to be working year 10 or 11, so I’ll have all the teen pregnancies, fights, sexual worries ETC…help!). But that doesn’t start until September. In terms of long term career stuff, I’m now not sure, I’m planning on staying with the School for at least a year - during which time I’m going to decide what to do next. Right now my options are quite vast and quite varied:
i) Do a PGCE/GTP and become a qualified secondary teacher - initially this was my plan, as it’s something I’m interested in, the training is good and free, and it’d provide a career once I’m qualified, I’d then do this for a few years until I could afford my MA.
ii) MA - it now costs a ridiculous £10k to do an MA, this does not make me happy, and if I want to do it in the next couple of years it’s going to involve either a) Getting funding, which is extremely competitive, and difficult to do. B) A shit load of loans and debt - uh, no thanks, got quite enough as it is thank you. C) Working in a job until I can afford it - again, not preferable as it delays me getting to do my MA and therefore working towards a career (it’s scary to think I have to have a career now as opposed to an education).
iii) Move to big city and look for a job in the media - again something I’m quite keen to do, I have a few contacts and would be happy to go in at an entry level runner position (not a great job and the pay is not wonderful, but it’s a foot in the door). I’d consider doing a national diploma as training for it as well (would also provide me with a module for an MA possibly).
iv) And the wildcard option - don’t laugh, I’m actually considering this - the possibility of doing a 4 year medical course to become a doctor, it’s something I’m becoming increasingly interested in, and would be a possibility for me (‘though it may involve doing a biology A-level, so wouldn’t be able to start for a while). But more on this when I have more information.
2) Social Stuff; I know, I know, I promised a meet up, and it will happen, I promise, it’s just taking a while (see above for lame-ass explanation of lethargy and stuff). But organising it is back on track; meanwhile I’m tying to arrange seeing all of you individually; had an amazing weekend with Alex and Sian in Birmingham - sorry I was so tired, but next time we’ll all have adapted and we will eventually make it to Snobs/Sunflower lounge I promise. Also Peppa and Zoe were lovely, was really nice meeting them.
Laura - I will make it to Bristol soon, I promise, just bear with me, the next to weeks are manic but SOOOON.
Jon - Will text you soon and sort something, which bit of Gloucestershire are you in again, as would be cool to meet you for a coffee/pint if you’d like soon.
Nick - I’ll ring you soon I promise, as we haven’t caught up for ages.
Katie - I may be down in Winchester for a friend’s birthday soon, and there’s a chance we’ll be in Southampton in the evening. Are you still down there at the moment or are you moving elsewhere.
Also, yes to Laura in August - can you let me know what date it is. Thanks.
3) The Family Stuff - Ok, an attempt to make a long story short enough for this post: Basically, when I was 11, I found out my dad was half adopted - half adopted because, essentially, his real mum ran off with my grandad’s best friend. My grandmother (the woman that my granddad then married afterwards), then gave birth to my dad’s half sister and brother, my Auntie and Uncle. We lost my Granddad around Christmas time.
Anyway, back to the story, about 3 weeks ago my dad got a letter through the post, which essentially began; ‘This is the hardest letter I’ve ever had to write, but I believe that you might be my brother…’. Anyway, long story short, the woman writing turned out to be my dad’s real sister - so I now have a new Auntie and two new cousins. Freakily, one of the cousins looks quite like me, is the same age, was born 4 days before me and did a media degree at Uni, that’s evidence for Nature Vs Nuture.
I have no desire to meet my dad’s biological mother; as far as I’m concerned the woman who raised my dad is my grandmother, biology or no; but I have now met his sister and she’s lovely, it really feels like we’ve known her for years which is quite cool.
4) Other Stuff: Don’t know if I posted about it, but my friend James and I (not the one you all met on my birthday, a different one, have written a script for a short film. The film’s now been cast, and we go into production at the end of August/Beginning of September, with a view to submitting it to the Viewfinder short film festival for next year. If anyone’s willing to get involved as part of the crew then let me know as we’re still a couple of people shy (a floor manager and boom-mike operator to be precise).
5) Dr. Who: I cannot stress enough how much I’ve enjoyed this series - no offence to the previous two, but they seemed like a bit of enjoyable nonsense; on the whole, I’ve just found this series to be far better written, better acted, and has a generally higher production quality - Blink in particular is one of my favourite things I’ve ever seen on television. In time for next week’s finale I do have one theory - so much emphasis has been placed on the ‘last of the timelords’ (obviously he’s not now) that I wonder if the rest might not somehow make an appearance in the finale (if this happens, then either the ‘toclophane’ are the conciousness of the time-lords, or the paradox machine somehow re-creates the Universe to engineer the world so that they still exist); it’s a long shot guess, but just thought I’d suggest it. It’s either that or Billie Piper re-appears at the end. Anyway, so very, very excited.
Anyway, this is quite a long post, so that’s where I’m going to leave it. Love to you all. Hopefully you’re all caught up now. Hope you’re all well. Hope to see you soon.