On the one day in probably the last year the UWE decided to close all campuses across Bristol due to “extreme weather”, my built-up anticipation was sorely dashed against a very snowy pavement on Jan 6th and my PGCE interview wast therefore cancelled. bummer. my thoughts exactly.  When I woke up in the morning and heard absolutely nothing outside, not even any traffic, I thought that either I’d fallen asleep with my earplugs in, or there was a truly wintery blanket of pure white snow covering everything outside.  Luckily Sadly, the latter was the case, and after a 07:30am call to the Uni, my joys fears were confirmed and a play day in the snow was suddenly the plan for the day!

Interview Day!!!!!!

I was desperately holding out for a message telling us it would simply be rescheduled until tomorrow, but alas….I’m still waiting on the alternative date!  Trying to not dwell on the negative and look at the bright side of it….erm, trying to.

Still, it gave me extra time to get out and about in Bristol and see what a groovy city it is.  I liked it alot.  I noticed that it seemed to be a really young city – I hardly saw anyone over the age of about 50 the whole time I was there…but afterwards it dawned on me that was probably because of the “extreme weather” and they were all avoiding potential broken hips and staying indoors with hot tea and daytime TV.

So, I return to the 24º that is the Canary Islands in January and await further news…!

Being woken up in the middle of the night on Friday by the rain was a totally unexpected pleasure.  It started off with a few drops then suddenly someone opened the tap fully and down it all came.  For me the sound is almost hypnotic and sends me straight back off to sleep with no problem whatsoever…and then of course it made this sight for me on my drive to school on Saturday morning…

the after-effects of the rain

Saturday school went off with no major problems…we are getting used to each other now and they are gradually starting to listen and I feel like a teeeny-weeeeny bit of progress is being made.  Some of the kids who previously never contributed are starting to answer questions and have their voices heard which is really satisfying.  Our mini-cookery class was great..the older kids just get on with it and don’t need spoon-feeding and being Christmas, it gives us chance to play around a bit even more and they seem to enjoy it….

kind-of holly cakes

The rest of the weekend went somewhere along these lines…..lunch in one of my favourite Italian restaurants, overlooking Las Canteras beach, pasta, white wine, frangelico with ice watching everyone else struggle along in the wind and the drizzle whilst we were tucked away on the sheltered little terrace convincing ourselves that we were doing the right thing by applying to go back to uni back in the UK…no sitting out on little terraces in December back in Scotland…!

lazy saturday lunches

but we were trying to convince ourselves of what we COULD be doing back there at this time of year…it’s all swings and roundabouts in this world…and none of us can have it all.  I’ve had this lifestyle for the last few years, and am ready for something new.

Linda is great company.  She is a good friend who I have a huge amount in common with on so many levels and is one of those friends you just pick up on by chance.  Sheer coincidence means we are both in the same boat at the same time and this makes the whole process of maybe going back to the UK a much more painless experience.  She is going through the same thing, exact same concerns, same potential future – a bit of a kindred spirit for which I’m über-grateful.

The afternoon, strangely enough turned into evening and after some serious flirting with the shops, trying on lots, getting pissed off and not buying anything, we knocked it on the head and went for more booze…via my fave xmas tree in Las Palmas…

the bubble-tree..

I’m starting to hate Xmas with quite a passion but this tree is my only exception so…this is me acknowledging Xmas for 2009…

Next stop, the Monopol cinema, maybe my most favouritest cinema in the world..small, intimate, heavenly-comfy seats, old movie posters still up from 10 years ago, cheap popcorn, almost-smelly theatres, but I love it.  Long may it continue despite not being all-singing, all-dancing.  Film of choice was “Looking for Eric” by Ken Loach, another most favouritest of things.  Was slightly more up-beat than his usual stuff, but I lurvved it…much.  Even better for it having a happy-ending.  Not a cheese-fest, sickly-sweet hollywood ending, but the ending that you wanted.  Who knows where it went from that point onwards, but it was heading in the right direction.  Other than the obvious nasty, all the characters were lovable, you warmed to them, desperately wanted it to work out for them.  Thanks Ken!

After getting home, via a couple more bars, ending up in Sheehans (can’t beat a good irish bar) – thanks for a great Saturday.

thanks to:

• our wonderful Argentinian waiter at the Piemonte restaurant for letting Linda smoke all your fags
• the chef at Le Monde for treating us to some papas bravas just cause I laughed at your rudolph apron.
• the waiter at Le Monde who bears an uncanny resemblance to Shrek
• Ken Loach and Eric Cantona – loved your film
• Linda – you’re a good friend.
• The prison officers in Sheehans.  Funny, entertaining and gentlemen.

At one point during the film, I started to wonder whether it was one of those spoof films, like a “Naked Gun” type rip-off of the typical over-hyped American disaster movies.  But of course I was wrong.  But, to allow myself to get some enjoyment out of it, that’s the way I had to watch the movie.

Think of a racial stereotype, go on, any stereotype, (poor Indian honest family man, selfish, fat, Russian millionaire, etc etc..) – it has them all.     I’m no physicist, or geologist or any kind of -ist but I didn’t need to be to know that the film was so full of shit to make it laughable.   Horrible reminders of Indiana Jones came flashing to me during the “nail-biting moments” which made me long for Indie and his cliff-hanging adventures.

The best comment I’ve read about this film is that it’s like “being hit on the head with a plank time after time”…and I couldn’t agree more.

I actually can’t even be bothered to write any more about it.  I hated it.  Punto.

But yeah, this is great news and is the news I’ve been waiting for.  It’s a great step in the right direction.  It’s my chance to show them who I am, show them what I can do, show them that you don’t need to be a fresh-out-of-uni-got-no-direction to be a good teacher.  I KNOW I’ll be a good teacher.

So of course the first bit of waiting is over, but now I just have the preparing to worry about, the researching on what the issues of the day in the world of education are, what I should know, try and remember how to do long multiplication and division and brush up on those time-tables…… But it’s a project, a plan and a plan is good.

I submitted my application for doing my PGCE starting September, ’10 a couple of weeks ago and now am on tenterhooks waiting for a reply…which will either be an invitation to an interview or a kiss-off email saying thanks but no thanks.   I’m kind of hoping for the former, not the latter.  I even get nervous every time I log onto my emails.

In a way, my life is kind of “on-hold” until I know one way or another whether I have a place for September or not.  Since I lost my job a few weeks back, I’m reluctant to start looking for something else “serious” until I know whether I’m going to be going back to college again in September.  I SO hope I am.  It’s direction, it’s purpose, it’s future, it’s all these things that I want and need.  So, I’m hoping this is  going to be the first of many blogs, blogging my way through the process of getting onto the course, getting through it, and success at the end of it.

So, University of West of England, my future is in your hands!!!

Call me a bit slow on the take up but I just watched my first ever episode of My Name is Earl.  Yeah, only 4 years too late, I know, I know.  But it has been an epiphany moment….I now have a grown-up crush on Jason Lee.   Or is it actually on Earl?  I’m not even sure.  Either way,  I feel I have a hell of a lot of catching up to do in enjoying him.  I can overlook his (Jason’s) religious beliefs for the pure shallow reason of his amazingly “my type” looks, his 5 o’clock shadow, his teeth, his smile…blah, blah, blah.

OK, I’ve got this off my chest.

It may not be what they really mean, but slogans used on the picket lines, such as “British Jobs for British Workers” are going to backfire in such a nasty and painful way if we are not careful. Those are the kinds of slogans we expect from the pond-scum that is the far-right British National Party (BNP) and it’s hardly surprising that they’re jumping up and down with glee at this opportunity to hand out purely racist, vitriolic material to try and drum up some more recruits. It makes my skin crawl and my heart, literally, start to race with anger. And how ironic that they are using the words of their arch-enemy, Gordon Brown, to head-up their campaign.

Sorry, if for most of you Americans, this means very little, but for me as British, this is worrying news. We all know that times of economic hardship make people vulnerable and they listen to any voice that offers them a solution. But, isn’t that what happened during the deperession in Germany in the ’30s and we all know what road that lead down……

I hate to see the British people living up to the negative stereotype of the racist, bully, ganging up against “johnny foreigner”. I had kind of thought we’d moved on from that, were starting to rise above it, multi-cultural society and all that. Who was I trying to kid? As soon as times get hard, people show their true colours and you obviously don’t need to scratch the surface very deep to see those old-school racist sentiments showing through.

This has all been sparked by something that has nothing to do with foreign workers, but all to do with money and all to do with the people in charge. The foreign, and perfectly legal workers are only doing what all construction and engineering workers in Europe and around the world do, and that is go where the work is. Brits have been doing this for years so why the problem now?

I could go on and on because this is something that upsets me and bothers me and worries me. But, I would like to think that deep down, these men aren’t striking against foreign workers in person, but against the decisions taken by the big chiefs. The bosses are the only ones profiting from divided workers and these are the people that the anger should be turned towards. Not, the Italian mechanic who is just trying to feed his family like everyone else.

OK, I will stop now,  I don’t like the way things are heading and I hate to admit that it makes me glad I don’t live there anymore. Every now and then I think about going home because there’s a huge amount that I miss, but at the moment, why on earth would I do that?

All I’m going to say is that I have no idea what path this blog is going to take.  Some days it may be political, mainly me flapping around wondering where I actually stand on many issues.  Other days it may be personal, pouring out how I feel as I know no-one is going to read this.  I might also be very tempted to let off steam about just how bloody annoying some people and some things are some times.  I guess I’ll just see how things go.

Still, to finish off, this is something I miss….I miss cold winters, I miss the seasons, I miss the greenery, I miss the white clouds of sheep in the fields, I miss the patchwork of fields and stonewalls.