Five to midnight, Saturday 10th October.

I'm off to bed in a minute, got to be up tomorrow to go shopping, and then, yes you guessed it, Latin.
I'll get there, I swear I'll get there, but there's no denying that Latin is tough going.
It's been a very busy few weeks, so busy that I've no time to be blogging - I've been rushing from seminar room to library to grab a bite to eat, struggling up and down that damn hill! The university is in Hillhead, a very aptly named district of Glasgow - yep, it is that Hillhead too, where I think it was the first of the SDP by-elections happened back in the 80s. Which brings me to another rather surprising aspect of moving here - I've moved into the old speaker's constituency and have - or will have, I don't think it's actually been moved yet, a by-election no doubt which will be hard followed by a general election. I haven't seen anything approaching an election poster yet, although there have been a few leaflets shoved through the door. However I should point out that whilst the uni might be in Hillhead, I'm not, so this is not a Hillhead by-election. It's just that every time I return from a Latin class I'm reminded of exactly why this place is so named, it's a very hilly district. In actual fact, the library is sat on what seems to be the highest point, and over the past few days we've had some lovely clear weather. I keep saying to myself that I really must go and take a few photo's, but it's not what I go to the library for, and I've been simply too busy. This week, not only have I had drills to do for the aforesaid Latin, I've also had an exercise to complete for RRSH. This nearly drove me round the bend, because I kept saying no I can do this better, and fussing and fiddling with it, until I totally lost patience with it and went and handed it in. I'm now sat here thinking I could have done it so much better.
RRSH - which is Research and Resource Skills for Historians, mostly seems to be about encouraging us to use computers. I'll get onto more of that in a minute, but the exercise was all about something called Reference Manager, which is a means by which you can keep track of what you've read, not just in general, but in practise for essays and so on, as you can use it to compile a bibliography and footnotes. The exercise was to make up a mini-bibliography and to produce a page of text that was appropriately footnoted. Overall, it wasn't a great deal of work, but you know what it's like when you have to use an unfamiliar system. I just know that in six months time I shall be spitting about how easy it all is, and bemoaning the no-doubt low mark I will receive in this that I could have improved had I hung on to it for what, all of 24 hours, and gone back over it again. Oh well it's too late to worry about it now, I keep telling myself, but this is a sharp reminder of one of my most hated things about uni - getting to the point where you can do no more to a piece, and you have to hand it in. If I had my way I'd be sitting polishing it now. Ah well.

Friday the what?

Totally lost track of the date. Why? I've had to move my calendar into the kitchen, because I haven't been able to find a convenient place to hang it in the living room - something has got to be done about that. I'm used to it being somewhere where I can easily keep track of it and what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm in one of those dreadful half organised states - I'm trying to make this study area, and it's only half done. I feel like it should have been fully done some time ago, all ready for me to start work, but what with one thing and another it hasn't been, and this has not been the week to get it finished off.

Well, it all kicked off on Wednesday for me - I arrived at uni to find that freshers week was in full swing. Amazing the energy these people have, dressed up and handing out leaflets and stuff - the first place I went to was Hunter Halls, where registration happens. In my first time round this was called Matriculation, but in keeping with the change from terms to semesters, it seems it's now called registration. It's an oddly American change of terms, and the university itself doesn't seem to have fully adjusted to it, because in a few of the notices I've seen about it, it appears as "Registration (Matriculation)"! Anyhow as some of you know I was supposed to go and get registered at half past three, which clashed with the induction meeting for History MLits and MSc's, so I figured I'd just go along and see if I could get through early. Which I did, with no problems, I was expecting a bit of resistance to the idea, but no one seemed to blink an eyelid at it.

Hunter Hall is a place I know reasonably well - I've had many exams there in the past. It's quite an interesting place - a very big room, with pillars in it, painted pink with gold stars. It has large paintings of elderly men in academic dress, who I can only presume are past professors and masters of the university - mid exam when your brain has temporarily dried up this can be really quite alarming, as they all seem to be frowning down at the very idea of you, yes, you, sitting there when you clearly haven't done enough work, and well, what are you doing there in the first place, but when you go to register, they seem to reflect your own sense of total bewilderment at what's happening under their painterly gaze. It's queue, after queue after queue - first you queue to get into the room, then you queue to be assigned to the right queue to be processed. Heaven help you if you forget your registration letter - I assume you'd be dispatched off to get it. After this has been examined by a member of the registry staff, they ask you how you're going to pay your fees - yes indeed, a very pertinent question, and then you get to the queue to do this - one for cheques, one for credit cards, etc! These are much better queues than they used to be when I was an undergraduate - now there are rows of chairs laid out, and you bounce along moving from chair to chair - my neighbour and I had a bit of a chat about whether or not they should have provided music. And as an absolutely extraordinary diversion, in the quad outside someone had set up a hot dog stall, and the smell of the frying onions made me so, so very hungry! The quads had been taken over by the freshers fair, with stalls for groups and societies - the sword fighting lot are still going strong, very handsome young men in kilts and rugby shirts, swinging broadswords around with what I was going to describe as gay abandon, but frankly I don't think the term is at all appropriate. Back in the way back when, they used to do this on the lawns outside the reading room, but on this instance they'd roped themselves off for health and safety I presume! The big poster sale is still going strong, and I'd swear that the posters haven't changed very much. Pulp Fiction still reigns strong.

Anyhow with a quick break for a fag between payment and photography, I emerged in about under an hour (somewhat of an improvement, way to go registry!) as a matriculated post grad student. I'm sorry to report though that my photograph this time round is truly awful, whereas in the past I had been quite lucky and got a good one, now it seems to resemble an OAP's bus pass. Dear God, time will have it's evil way with you.

Anyhow on to the post grad induction meeting - this first week is awful, because of the endless waiting in between doing things. You hang around, feeling oddly out of it, because you don't know anyone, with nothing to do because you've got no work as yet,thinking I daren't go off and do something useful because then I'll be late for X or Y. I did meet John for lunch which was great - I felt like shouting out loud, see I do know someone!!! I also ran into one of my old tutors outside the library which was nice. But for the most part I felt very odd at times!!!

Anyhow the induction kicked off in the lecture room in Modern History - if I tell you 2 University Gardens it will mean nothing to most of you, but the History department is based in a string of houses over the road from the main university building. There seemed to be between 20 to 25 of us (no I didn't actually count!) and they'd provided tea and coffee which was very ok. Biscuits too. I'm a bit more used to where you turn up in a large lecture theatre, get loaded with paper and bombarded with information. Well, that hadn't actually changed, but the tea/coffee bit was new, and very welcome. Apparently next week (I think, I have to consult my notes) we're to be bombarded with more information accompanied by wine this time. I'd best steer clear of that, or the aforesaid information will be in one ear and out of the other.

Anyway we had to do the stand up and say who we were bit, which always freaks me out a bit. I start off positively enough then by about the second phrase think I'm babbling, and sort of dry up by the third. Ghastly. Anyway I did establish that I'm the longest person to have been away and returned - I'll get to that later - but there are other's who've been off for a few years and returned. There are lots of eager lads there to do war studies - their convenor promised them a trip to the armoury at Edinburgh with real guns to handle - yes. Yes, I'll need to think about that. The words boys and toys spring immediately to mind. Anyhow we had at least one American, and a Canadian too, and somewhat alarmingly, it appears only one other medievalist. This is truly alarming as you need a certain number of people to ensure that your courses run, but - yep, more of this later. Anyhow this was more about things like core courses, (RRSH, Research and Resourse Skills for Historians), various other meetings, arranging meetings, logging on to Moodle - Moodle is an interactive online information system as near as I can make out, where you get lots of the things that years ago used to be on paper. I did get to meet some people, which was very good, I'm no longer so - not alone, but you know what I mean. I now know other people doing the same thing. Chief among these is a girl called Aimee, who is interested in Highland culture and the role of bagpipes in war. She works as a volunteer in the Highland Infantry Museum I think it is - I've seen this from the outside, but never been in, which I think perhaps I should - but we've hung out together over yesterday, which was great. So much better to be with others than on one's own. She has a much better memory for faces than I do, and thus we've bumped into others from our group - we met Andrew, who's the American chap on our way into the Reading Room - stunningly this no longer has books in it, and is now a sort of circular nest of computers.

Anyhow that was like the first day - we did get ourselves into a bit of mix-up over the Arts Faculty Induction meeting, which according to Moodle was supposed to be on Weds evening, but this turns out to be a total mix up which if we'd have read our handouts properly we would never have made. Turns out this is in October!!! Yes, it would have been a long wait!

Yesterday had to go and get my courses approved - I'm still mixed up over my Latin, but I now have a plan, so I'm going to Latin on Monday morning, this is Basic Latin, and I'm going to Medieval Latin on Weds, and the same professor is running both so I shall talk to her, and arrive at some sort of a decision on this. Apparently they are both supposed to be good for beginners. I must admit over the last week, I'm suddenly thinking if I did basic Latin, which is a more modern form of latin than Medieval, I could get awfully confused between the two. Maybe I should stick to the medieval. Anyhow we'll see. In the afternoon we went to a library induction - I know the library pretty well, but a lot's changed in the past decade, so I thought this was a good idea - the view from the 8th floor is still pretty spectacular and I'll get round to taking a few photo's at some point. Apparently there's now a gallery on the 12th floor you can go out on to to get a better view. I'm not sure I'll make that, what with the vertigo and all, but it's certainly a view and a half.

Anyhow we have no meetings or anything scheduled for today and I'm quite pleased about that - both days I've got home absolutely shattered. Yet I've done nothing! I mean what are a few meetings here and there, it's all the newness of it all. I suppose. It's oddly disconcerting being somewhere you know well, yet there are all these subtle changes to the place. It's not the buildings - there are a few new one's around, but by and large they haven't changed, but departments have moved and you have to get your head around that - it's just been oddly tiring doing all this. Physically demanding too for an old unfit hag like myself too - all those stairs to be up and downing!!! I'd say it's gone well, I've not made a total fool of myself anywhere, and the people I've met have been so nice and friendly. It's been fun, but as this friend of Aimee's said yesterday, it all starts in anger on Monday!!!

Sunday 13th September

Dunno where my head was at last post with 'this is the big day.' Nothing like it. This is the real start of term proper, registration on Wednesday. It seems like it's been a long time coming!
Anyhow I'm just a tad p.o. - I just switched the light on in the living room only to get one of those irritating little pops and the bulb has burst. Exactly how I'm going to get up there to change it I don't know, I shall have to consult with J & P and see if they've got a ladder. I couldn't even get the tail end of a cobweb that caught my eye on what, Wednesday, no matter how much I jumped swinging the broom around in the air! Must be 15 - 20 feet up this ceiling. It's a very long way!!!
And I've been doing nothing but knock things over today. It's probably because I'm cross with myself - I had to spend today searching the flat from top to bottom looking for something that had gone astray. There was no putting it off, it had to be done. So instead of going in to town - where I had been intending to take back a load of shirts I bought from M & S the other day and infuriatingly don't fit, I had to search high and low for it. Happily I did find it, but it's a waste of a day. You know what it's like when small things go astray - I replaced an alarm clock this week, only to be putting the new clock's instruction leaflet away safely when what did I find? Yep, you got it, the old alarm clock. I feel like my mind is going mushy, but I think rather than actually turning into mush, this is the effect of anticipation, and yes, slight tension. Add a dash of boredom into that mix and you've a potent recipe for knocking stuff flying and loosing things left right and centre. I fully expect it to have cleared up by about 9am Wednesday. If not, this might be a more interesting year than I'd planned.

Weds 2nd September

Well the big day finally arrived - I say 'big', it's nothing particularly special or out of the ordinary, but I got to go to uni and see the Post Grad Co-ordinator, and pick up a list of the courses that are running this year, find out exactly how all this part time bit works. Can't say that I've got my head completely around it yet, but as I understand it at the mo, basically I do the core course, Research Training, 5 short courses, and a dissertation. Twenty thousand words I think, which - me being me, hopefully won't present too much of a problem.
Anyhow, you have to spread these courses out over the two years. Apparently most people do it as the core course, and 3 short courses, in the first year, and then two courses and the dissertation next year. (You'll have to bear in mind that I might have got this completely ar*** over tip.) I will have to phone her back again tomorrow and double check I think. It's just that when I got given the course booklet, I was all agog, and 3/4 of what I was told has gone right out of my head!!! And of course, the same courses might not be running next year, so if there's something that I really, really want to do it's best to do it this year. I know - pretty much - what courses I want to do, and of course I have to fit in Latin into this mix along the way. I'm not exactly looking forward to Latin, and to make it worse there are three different types of Latin course to choose from. Latin for those who've never had a Latin Lesson in their Lives Before (in a few less words I should say!), Latin for those who've heard of Latin, and are heading towards or doing Classics, or Medieval Latin for Post Grads. Now that's what I technically should be doing - being like a baby medievalist, but the notes attached to this suggest its a course aimed at those who have experience of language learning. The last time I tried to learn a language was when I was about 15 and being put through the hell of schoolgirl French. And yes, we all know how well that turned out. (As a total side bar, something went in, because David always seems slightly surprised when I know the odd word here or there.) I think I'll go for the Latin for Novices version, I can always put myself through Medieval Latin for PostGrads next year. As I may be one of those people who needs two go's at it to really get the hang of it, that sounds to me like a plan. And since the classes are at 9 in the morning it will give me no excuses not to be head down in the library!!!

So as you can see I've had plenty to try and get my head around. Needless to say after this I had another of my quick trips to the Post Office - tried the one on Alexandra Parade this time, rather than the one on Duke Street - I think I'll be going there probably as my regular post office, it's much quicker to get too. And it's been another of those days where pretty much every time I set foot outdoors the rain came down - but the poor kids on the pitch have had to just put up with that. Nothing like a hockey or football lesson in the pouring rain! Yep, they use it for hockey too - seems nothing like the dire lessons that I had to endure when I was younger. We used to get sent out to this huge field in the middle of nowhere, wind and rain pelting down, nothing like this lovely little half sized pitch which at least has a few walls and high trees to give it a bit of protection. Ankles the size of tennis balls I used to have after that, until I got the hang of swinging my own stick around a bit!!

Anyhow I've now got another while to go before anything more happens. Well, I've got to speak to the Convenor of the Latin course and sort out which course is really the best, and give Christelle a ring tomorrow and double check all the stuff that she told me today. In one ear, out the other that's what it is. Actually it's not, it's this whole two term business. I look at the plan they've drawn out for the terms and I'm thinking if I do this then, I won't have anything to do after Xmas. Part timer eh?

Tuesday 1st September

Lord another month! Still, tomorrow I'm off to uni to meet up with the Post Grad Co-ordinator to find out exactly how my degree structure will work - knowing nothing about being a part-timer that is. At last.. it seems like ages since I've been waiting for something to happen!
I had a funny weekend - that is I had a great day on Saturday and it's seemed like it's been all downhill since then. I went out and got myself a new bookshelf - it looks great in the shop, we'll see how it looks at home when it arrives! Still it works as being flat against the wall or as a room divider, and it's my idea to create a little study for myself by using it as a room divider. Then I have somewhere to work, and somewhere to just sit and veg out. I like the idea of this, but whether it'll work in practise is, as always, another matter.
So on my way home from the shops, I wandered past this church hall where they were having a craft fair. Great I thought let's go have a look - and it was super. A really lovely little fair. I stopped and had a chat to the organiser, and got all the details because they're having another one in November. Just in time for Xmas - perfect. The women I spoke to sounded quite enthusiastic, and I felt all would go well, I sent off my email etc, but what I got back was very disappointing - apparently all of their stalls are sold out and 'they'll put me on a waiting list.' Well it's not the first time, but it's very disappointing. I thought I'd be in plenty of time, it being what, September, just!! But it was such a nice little fair, and it's a nicely handy location - I shouldn't be surprised I suppose. And there's always a chance that a space will come up.
I indulged in one of my favourite activities today - I went stationery shopping! Yep, pens, paper, file binders, plastic pockets - all of that stuff!!! I also just happened to pick up some rather nice bath stuff, and a new scrunchie type thing - I don't know what you actually call them, the plastic scrubbing things you use in the shower. You'd think they should be like scouring pads - and I suppose that they are soft scourers - but I don't think I could ever go back to a plain old flannel again. Oh well I suppose I should go and do the washing up - I had pork meatballs in tomato sauce tonight with linguine. Very tasty. I made it a week or so back and I've got one portion left in the deep freeze, God I love that thing. I suppose this is going to become another thing that I just can't live without..

Busy doing nothing..

Well not quite. In fact, whilst I'd be hard pressed to say exactly what it is I've been doing, I've definitely been busy.
I can't remember if I said, but all of my registration stuff turned up last weekend. Well half of it did - despite copious emails, and changing my address etc, some of it had gone to Bristol and I had to chase after this to be able to get hold of the log in details to access the online part of the registration. This seemed to be relatively straight forward - you log in, change your log in details, and then complete the bits of the registration information that need it. You also get bits like when to turn up for registration, who's your Advisor of Studies etc. I found that I'd been listed as being a full time student, whereas I'm technically supposed to be part time, so I had to send emails about that - they got that sorted out very quickly. I think I know who the Convener is for the MLitt, and I certainly know who's Co-ordinating it, so I've got an appointment to go and see her not too far off now, so I'm kind of hoping that when I've done this I'll be a lot more organised.

I went to meetings about the job - this research that's being done that I'm working on. I've been sending out letters to my interviewees, still haven't managed to catch any of them at home yet to actually interview, but I'm going to set too with a vengeance tomorrow and they will not escape my net! Near disaster set in when my phone gave up the ghost, but I've taken the opportunity to enhance my phone making capabilities and upgrade - I now have a bluetooth headset! This will make the interviewing easier, since I can now sit there and smoothly write everything down. But a fine time for the phone to pack up. Well ok, it didn't 'pack up'. I dropped it and no more dialling tone could be heard. That's the problem with cordless, slips out of the fingers and there's no cord to make a desperate grab for.
I've been loading stuff into the Ebay shop which is up and running - check it out, there's a link to the left of this post. Rather more excitingly, I've been browsing in the categories that I list in, and I have to say that they really aren't full of pieces that offer me a great deal of competition. This has thrown me into a bit of a conundrum, well sort of. Summer never has been Ebay hot time, lots of people are away, and lots of people don't want to buy stuff, so its sort of quiet time. But this seems to be unnaturally so - is it because people have actually stopped listing really good bits and pieces, have people stopped buying completely and utterly - it's a mystery. I certainly haven't sold anything yet, but it takes a while for listed items to work there way up to a point where casual browsers are going to see them. And in my experience, when you stop selling for a while, it's a bit like going back to the very beginning and having to start all over again. Still we'll see.

It's been raining pretty much non-stop. I'm beginning to think that the ark project is a goer! Right now it's not, and it's been dry for most of the day, but this is about the first non-raining day for the last three at least, and there are a lot of dark clouds out there, so I figure it's not long before its back. What else have I been up to? John came round for lunch - his other half is over in Edinburgh. I did pork chops with roast potato's and onions, and dug a bag of red cabbage out of the deep freeze. I admit it wasn't a good red cabbage, I had to use white sugar rather than dark brown, and you could tell the difference. Way too sweet, and sweet in a light way that wasn't too brilliant. I've got some dark brown sugar now, so I may pick up another red cabbage when I go shopping next.

So this has been the highlights of the week - dull eh? Well we can't live a life that's packed with interviews and interesting excursions all the time. Catch up with me next week and maybe it'll be a bit more vibrant!

I can't think of a title for this..

It's been a good week, this week, even if I have had a bit of a cold. Not surprising really considering it's done nothing but rain since I got here, and I then discovered I've not really the amount of shoe-age that I should have to withstand this amount of rain. This called for shoe shopping, one of my least favourite activities - I know, I know, as a woman it's letting the side down to complain about it, but if you had feet like mine, you'd hate it too.
Firstly my feet are quite small - I can get into a size 5 at a push, but 5.5, to 6 for comfort lengthwise, the width, well I'm quite large, and the old feet have spread a bit to provide me with a firm plant. The real problem is one I inherited from Dad, high insteps. Hugely high insteps since I did ballet as a kid and ever since have been curling my feet into perfect points. It's led to the development of a pair of extraordinary insteps, even if my feet have remained flexible and bunion-less during my adult life! Finding a shoe that fits this remarkable foot has become the bane of my life - I've been everywhere, I've bought on-line, I've been to the Shoe Tailor and yes, they make shoes that fit, shoes I even like, and shoes I think are a reasonable price, but are they good quality shoes? They are not. The only pair I bought were fine to start out with by by the time the uppers became really comfortable to wear, the soles had collapsed and you could see they were constructed on a sort of honeycomb cell construction - once the sole under the foot had gone, it then tried to force the sole of my foot into a network of about six square pieces! Nothing to be done with that except throw them away, and think, well I won't bother with them again. I mean you are talking £40 odd quid a pair.
That's the other thing about shoes that I really dislike, it's the cost of them. Yes, I accept you have to pay for a decent pair of shoes, but I remember paying £20 quid back in the seventies and so on, and I really really resent having to pay over say £35 for a pair. But this is what being old is all about really, it's moaning about the cost of things and how it's changed over the years.

Yes well, old is what I am now - birthday this week too. I was very chuffed with the cards and so on that I got from the family and friends. I even got a card signed by all of the people I used to work with back in Bristol, which really did chuff me no end. It's funny how you can work with people for years, really think that you're quite good friends with them and then you move on to another job and you never hear from these people again. Over the years this has happened to me, although I have to say I also had greetings from women I worked with over twenty years ago way back in the dawn of time at the Theatre in Bath. So I count myself very lucky that over the years I've worked with some great people, and I was very touched by firstly the card that turned up from Bristol, and then the texts I had from Sonia & Vanessa in Bath. Well, Brittany actually, because that's where one of them came from!
In the evening I went out for a meal, with some local friends. We went to a bistro type place on Duke Street called Tibo's, very nice it was too, particularly the starter - whisky cured salmon, fabulous. I can't tell you how pretty this was on the plate, and how delicious it was to eat! I followed this with a lamb tagine, but I have to admit that here I came a cropper with an excess of aubergine, which is not my fave veg. But the lamb was wonderful, melt in the mouth type lamb. A nice touch was that the menu listed their fish and meat suppliers, all local, which I thought was a really good idea. All restaurants should do that.
Anyhow to bring us back full circle, I did get new shoes, three pairs in fact. Well I'm a big believer that when you find some that fit, buy in bulk!

Another strange experience...!

I'm not at all sure what or how to describe my day! I found a job that I thought I could apply for, by email, on one of the university's job sites and sent off an application - back came an email inviting me to an interview, so along I went today. I knew from the description it was some sort of interviewing, which it is, for a study being conduction by a professor from the University of Sheffield. I'm not sure exactly how much I can tell you about it really, because I have no idea how confidential it is, so I think for the sake of safety we'll just say it's interviewing people about their financial situations. The prof was extremely nice, and certainly the work would be interesting. But the downside of this is that yep, it's paid - but at present you couldn't say exactly how many hour it would take to do. I have a list of people I have to contact, and the questionnaire, but I have to shell out my own money to call these people, initially by letter is best we think, then by phone. The interview is conducted over the phone if possible, but there's a possibility for those we can't contact by phone that we may have to go visit some - in pairs I hasten to add. We keep a list of everything that we do, and how much time we spend on this, and then at the end of August, hand all of this to the professor, and we get paid at the end of September. And there lies the rub - I'm going to have phone bills come in between then and now. Still I'm going to give it a go - it is interesting, and we'll see what happens.

Adventures in Greenock.

Yes, I'm jobless again. Disaster! Managed the training ok, no problem, because basically the hours of the training were odd - one day I started at 3, another day started at 5 - I thought, ha, to judge by the bus timetables, I'd be able to get too and from the city centre where the work bus departed for the standard shifts without any problem. Fat chance. Yesterday was the first day that I actually had to put this in to practise - and no one had mentioned that this bus took about one and three quarter hours to get to Greenock in the first place. It's only 20 odd miles away, and if you went there directly, you could do it in about an hour, perhaps less if there's no work going on on the motorway. But of course, there never is a time without some kind of work going on on a motorway, nor without an accident , or torrential rain to slow everything down, so it never does take the time that it's supposed to.

Anyhow yesterday, I needed to be in George Square for twenty to seven. To manage this, I'd looked at the bus timetable and found there were two buses - one at 5.48, and the next at 6.19. Its not a long journey, and I figured that the 6.19 would get me there in plenty of time, particularly as it was that early and there's not much traffic around at that time. So I got up at 5.30, which was pretty earth shattering - I'll get into that later! - and eventually staggered off to the bus stop, and made it there for about ten past 6. That seems to me to be early enough to catch a bus that's shot through because there's no one getting on (there's a nasty tendency of bus drivers to speed up along their routes because of this!), and having got there, I settled in to wait. And wait, and yes, bloody wait. 6.19 came and went as a distant memory, and by 25 past, I was getting frightened. I had 15, possibly 20 minutes to make it into town, assuming the work bus hung around for 10 minutes or so for people to turn up. I can't speak for others, but I get a real fear when things don't run according to my plans, it's not that I'm inflexible, but I actually get panicky when things start to come apart. Once something has actually come apart at the seams I can calm down, and pick up the pieces etc, but whilst it's in the process of happening, I get this old feeling of cold terror, of people rushing around and saying "Where is she? I Knew this would happen, she's unreliable, she's useless" and all that kind of thing. Rationally I know it's not likely to happen, but nevertheless, that's the feeling that I get when it's all going pear shaped. So when I saw a taxi, I grabbed it, and needless to say I was there on time to get on the work bus. But I was feeling uneasy, and thinking to myself, just how often is this going to happen, and given that when I arrive back from a late shift at midnight plus I have no option to be taking a taxi, just how many days am I going to have to take one, and shell out vast sums of money to get from a relatively simple A to B. There's not a lot of point in working if 3/4 of the money you earn goes on getting to the job.

On top of this are the treks around Glasgow. Yes it's nice, it's very interesting, to see places I haven't seen before - for example on one day we went past Bellahouston Park, which was very interesting. There's a big athletics club there, and something I simply have to go and investigate properly, the "Palace of Art". I've never seen an art gallery set in a park before, and I'm curious about it. On a couple of occasions we made it as far as the Rangers Stadium - I've been there before, but there's been a lot of redevelopment in the area, and it's changed a lot. In fact I'm sure that at one point a decade or so ago, I went to look at a flat in the area. But whilst I love the beautiful game, I've never been too sure of living next door to one of the biggest stadiums in the country. The key point here though is that whilst it's interesting to see these places, it's not something I want to do on a daily basis, adding quarter hours to my trips to and from work. For every one of these pick up points, it means coming off the motorway, and this adds just so much time to the journey that at the end of the day, an eight hour working day has turned into a twelve and a half hour working day. I've worked odd and long hours for a long time now, but I'm getting on, and I'm just not as up to it as I used to be, even ten years ago. It's a crying shame, because I met some great people, really nice, and the work was brilliant. I could do it blindfolded - well perhaps not quite, but I could do it backwards, and if it had only been based in Glasgow, or they had been more flexible. I asked them if they were prepared to let me do it part time, but no dice, I asked if there was any other way I could get there. There's a train, but it takes about as long as the bus, and you're then a ways away from the centre where we were working.

So in the end, I decided I just couldn't do this. I was absolutely exhausted, not by the work, but by the endless travelling. I did take some great photo's along the journey - check them out, Scottish landscape is fabulous, but I'm back to square one jobwise. Oh hell.

Not exactly an interview...

Well not really. Oh, let's go back and start from the very beginning - I was up in plenty of time, and as I'd done all of the necessary ironing (white shirt, black skirt) the night before I was all ready to go - but wouldn't you know, two minutes out of the house, and the rain pours down! I got to the bus stop, and had to wait what seemed an age for the bus, to the extent that when I made it into town I grabbed a taxi for what's a relatively easy stroll (0k, it's uphill all the way!) to Blytheswood Square. Needless to say that got me there so early, I had to go for a walk about the square so as not to be indecently early.
Anyhow I found the place easily, took a seat in the waiting area, but rather astonishingly, it wasn't any sort of one to one interview thing, but a group of perhaps 12 of us taken off to fill out forms - Just the standard sort of form, but additionally a confidentiality agreement, which makes me wonder if I'm even breaking it by blogging this! But since I haven't said exactly or indeed, at all, what this job is, I guess not. Having filled out the forms, they will call us back tomorrow once they've gathered in the references etc, and book us onto the training course. If I get in, I think I'm likely to be doing the course in the evening - there are two standard shift patterns, 8 - 4, and 4 - 11. Compared to what hours I was working I don't see this as being any sort of a problem. Although it'll be interesting coming home at midnight in the middle of Glasgow! I don't know where the free bus picks up/deposits us as yet, and I'm hoping it's not in Blytheswood, which is a bit close to the red light district. Or at least, where I recall the red light district as being.
Dress is office casual, no denim. Rats. On my way home, I decided to nip into Evans and buy myself a couple of pairs of plain black cotton trousers - indispensable I feel. I don't think I'd get through a week in clean clothes if I didn't do this - I've lived in jeans for the past five years! Popped into M&S on the way home - yum. Had to have a bit of extra for the fridge, because I missed Tesco's this week. Luckily they had some of their wonderful Irish pancakes in stock, which I particularly adore. Not to mention a packet of sausages, some of which I'm having for supper - I missed lunch so I'm really quite peckish!
So we'll wait to hear what happens from all this.

At long last...

Yep, I've got an interview, for a genuine job. Whoever would have thought it? Well ok, maybe not so unbelievable!
Anyhow this arrived via a jobsite alert, for a helpline that's just being set up - I don't really want to say what it is over the internet, but let's say it's medical. It's only call handling, basically people phone in, you follow a script and ask them questions, and give them whatever advice the screen tells you. It's not too badly paid, and they want to set this up in a hurry - hence the interview tomorrow - a Sunday of all days, with a possible start on Monday. Full time until September, which suits me just fine. It is a bit of a way out - Greenock, but they provide a free bus to get there from town.
So, no trip to Tesco for me tomorrow, but then heck, I can stop off in town to do the shopping. I think it's a realistic chance of work, and I'm up for it - I've been idle for way too long! Not to mention that I've got bills building up. So you can expect to hear more after tomorrow!

Bored now...

Yep. Says it all really, doesn't it?
So what have I been doing with myself since I found myself jobless in Glasgow? Well a great deal of time is taken up searching the various jobsites, and applying for various jobs - for the most part it's click and apply, but you still have to write the small email application bit. However I will admit it's very disheartening to be clicking and sending these things off, and you just know for the most part, you're never going to hear anything further of them.
I've been doing a bit of cooking - since I now have a deep freeze, it's only good sense to make the best possible use of it. On Tuesday I made goulash, and I now have four portions of that tucked away, and I've also made and frozen spag bol sauce - at some point over the next few days I may well make a plain tomato sauce, always useful.
I've cleaned until I'm sick of the smell of the cleaning fluids!
I've read more over the past couple of weeks than is really good for my eyes. I don't want to get plunged into the "eye test/new lenses" regime until I really need to. Although frustratingly, I've not been able to get a reading ticket for the university library on the grounds that I don't want to spend the money until it's likely I can recoup it!
I've been staying home mostly, on the grounds that here is where my email is, and I'd rather be here in the vain hope someone responds to one of my applications than not.
But boredom is pretty well where it's at right now. Very, very frustrating. It's a good job that I have good friends and family who prevent this from sinking into depression!!!!

Work part whatever!

Well I decided not to do this work. I tossed and turned all night, and frankly, well earlier in the evening than that, perhaps even as soon as I was walking out of that building, I was trying to convince myself that it was right to do this. But it doesn't matter how much you try to convince yourself, you intrinsically know when some thing's wrong don't you? Hence the tossing and turning!
As soon as I'd made my decision I knew it was right. And consequently felt better! When I told John about this, he said well, I didn't want to say yesterday but I thought there was something altogether dodgy about these people - so it was the right thing to do.
So come Monday I start all over again. More news from the jobs battlefront in due course!
And I also decided to re-vamp the blog. Make it easier to read, and well, new look for a new start.

Interviews!!!!

Ok, so if you read the post below you'll know that I had an interview today. I'm blogging this because I've got so much to say about it - and not very much of it good. Oh nothing way bad either, I've been offered work. I just refuse to call it a job!


Firstly, John & I went to the uni today, and it was lovely weather and not too many people around so I took some pics - here we go. This is the library on the left, as much as I could get into a single phone pic!

This is behind me as I took the other photo, this is the reading room. It's a round building with the most popular books in it for the undergraduate courses - at least that's the theory as I understood it first time round!



This is the entrance to the Medieval History Dept!


And that's your lot photo wise. Anyhow after we'd been here (and I did pick up some useful email addresses, some hints and tips, and the email address of the woman I have to contact about getting a reading ticket for the summer!) I set off for this interview. I got a taxi over there, and it's a bloody good job that I did, because what I thought would be a simple look around to find the building nearly turned into some sort of strange intellligence test - find us and you get the job, fail and you're toast. I found Partick Thistle Football ground, and according to what I was told yesterday, it was supposed to be opposite, but all I could see where houses. Big flash new office a bit further down, so I thought aha! But no, that was number 99. I was looking for 55. At least I was on the right side of the road. But it didn't matter where I went or even who I asked no one knew where it was - and this girl I'd spoken to hadn't thought to give me anything useful like the name of the company running this place. Finally I went to the big Housing Association office at the bottom of the road and asked, and they did know where it was - if only I'd've thought to ask there first! Turned out, of course, that I walked straight past it at least twice.
So in I go, it's a double storey business unit, very basic. Ah, says the girl fulfilling the tasks of receptionist, up the stairs, turn right. Up I go, and yes I did find the right place. It remains a matter of question as to whether I'd've been better off turning round and going home.

Turns out they sell kitchens and windows. What I'd have to do is to phone people up, and masquerade as some sort of researcher for a non-existent magazine - actually I say that, but I bet they've got some kind of leaflet that is the 'magazine' , and ask them questions about if they were to get a free kitchen what sort of kitchen would that be? Once I've got them talking, I then have to get them agree to be called back by another group of callers, who book appointments for representatives to go round. I can just about square this with my conscience, because it's just another phone call, and I can square it all the better because I got home to find another three bills on the doorstep. Believe it or not, I have done this sort of thing before, under slightly more respectable circumstances, but to my way of thinking it's easier to get a job if you're actually working. You don't necessarily have to tell people what it is you're working at. Well ok you do, but I can give this a go and see how I get on. I'm going to go tomorrow, yep they work weekends of course, and see how I get on. If I find it beyond the pale, I shall simply say so and leave. They pay a basic salary, it's 3 hours a day, for 4 days a week. It's on a direct bus route. It is an appalling salary but hey you never know, I might be good at this sort of thing. Not. Beggars can't be choosers people. Let's gird the loins, and actually say it, life's been pretty good for the past few years, and maybe I should have done a bit more appreciating what I had. Now I get a chance to broaden my outlook and do what it takes to stock the freezer!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.

Well those of you who've been following my Glasgow progress will have seen my complaining on Facebook about jobs. Basically having waffled about for the last two weeks, this week I got down to business and went looking for work.
It's incredibly dispiriting. My first couple of trips into town to try and get registered for work at some temp agencies almost had me slitting my wrists! Firstly, of course, this was because the economy is in such a state that the agencies can't deal with all of the people that are coming through their doors - although having said that, I can't say I found myself in any queues. In fact, to be honest, half of the time I felt as if I was interrupting them! You know that awful feeling as you go through the door into an office full of people busy doing stuff, and you stand there like a prawn for thirty seconds until someone deigns to notice you.
And that brings me to point two. The way some of these women look at you. Those of you who know me know my attitude towards make-up, well, believe it or not, I was wearing it. Yep, I did 'dress' up - that is, I looked smart. I do feel uncomfortable when I do this, the stuff makes my face itch - luckily I don't go red as a tomato, but it does make me itch. So I'm surreptitiously rubbing at some part of my face - or rather trying not too. Then there's the clothes - I don't do suits, and it's been years since I wore anything other than jeans to work. My preparations for 'work' in Glasgow which might involve something more formal have so far stretched as far as some new t-shirts and a pair of black cotton trousers. So to do this agency thing, I dug out my black cords - well, they aren't jeans, and a new t-shirt, which I topped off with my rain jacket, which is reasonably new, reasonably smart, and always a wise precaution north of the border. For me this constitutes a bit of an effort - quite a bit of effort actually 'cos I had to figure out what was going to look smart, and yet not overdressed. You tell me, what do people wear to walk into a temp agency?
Anyhow, I got what might be described as a mixed reaction. Probably the fault was mine for not judging the agency correctly and going in to the places where they want a size 8 supermodel with talons to match. You'd think I'd know better by now. Anyhow frankly, I've almost had enough of this. A couple of good things did come out of it however.
Firstly, abandon the entire walk round, present with CV deal. This might have been how things were done as recently as say 18 months ago, now it's all "have you registered online?" Now I've got a cv dressed up into a pdf, I've distributed it electronically and it's saved me a sore foot or two. However, and this is a bit of a problem, neither have I had any response to these - as my friend John said "Oh that's how they're doing it these days is it." He's right of course, they'll do anything to get you to walk out of the office.
On the other hand, job sites are good news. Gumtree is my tip, I logged onto to this, and found an ad where some one's looking for call centre staff, where you had to text your name and telephone number. I did, and didn't really expect to hear any more from it, but lo and behold this afternoon, I got a call, and I'm off for an interview tomorrow. I've ironed my white shirt and black cotton trousers (if it rains, the cords which are just about dry from washing on Weds!) and we'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed eh?

Friday 3rd July

Gosh you've no idea how I've missed my internet connection! Even though I bought that wretched dongle, which was supposed to connect my little notebook thingy, I get here and what do I find? Of course it doesn't work. Turns out I'm in some kind of dip or something, a contactless hell, so bad that whilst I could receive text messages I couldn't even send them until Orange sorted out my server connection!!!

Anyhow, this is in the past, the hub thingy arrived this morning - early, points to BT, and was relatively easy to set up, and barring one or two little mishaps - cables in the wrong holes etc, here I am back with my online family!
Well the move - went suprisingly well. They turned up and were lovely, whipping all of my boxes into the back of this capacious van, drove off - so I basically followed I guess, only on the train of course, lugging this huge suitcase with me.
Here are the boxes going in to the van! What this doesn't show is the police at the bottom of the bus stop, pulling over everyone driving in the bus lane. I thought this was going to cause problems at first, but we were within the loading hours on the road signs, so it was fine.




I had to clean after I left, so I basically had the hoover and brush & dustpan, not to mention enough bottles of cleaning fluids to set up in business with me - my overnight clothes in one backpack, and of course my old leather handbag backpack on the other shoulder - it was a miricle that I got here without either loosing some of this, or breaking down under the weight of it all.



This is a blurry shot out of the train window of the lovely countryside around the lake district. And it's not a UFO, it's a reflection of the light in the carriage in the glass of the window - and there was me thinking I'd got the most marvellous sunset!

Rushed off to the agency to sign the lease the next morning, and now it's hard to think that all this was actually two weeks ago. The best thing of all was that on the day that I arrived, John & Patrick swept me off to theirs for supper, and I got given the most fabulous meal! And I really, really needed it as well.
So, what's been happening? Well, I've got myself unpacked, and not one single thing has been broken in the move. Really brilliant. The flat is huge, with these fabulous cupboards. Years ago when it was built these tennement flats housed quite large families, and they had beds tucked into cupboard niches in the walls, and now that these are no longer needed, the niches have been turned into cupboards - so I now have a walk in wardrobe, and in the one in the lounge I've been able to stash all of my book boxes. This is excellent, because alas, I'm having trouble with the bookcases. As I think I told some people there's very strange 'wall paper' in the living room - I got the impression it was that artex stuff, but turns out it's actually a decorative plaster effect. I don't really fancy drilling into this and bringing the whole lot down, so we tried to fix the bookcases in the bedroom - which my little drill didn't like one bit, as it has stone walls. Patrick bought his grown-ups drill, and we've got one up, but the other of my big bookcases has either warped, or the wall is curved. I can't make up my mind as to which of these has happened, and strongly suspect it's a combination of both.

Haven't got to go to the temp agencies yet - I did set off to do this on Tuesday, but needless to say I managed to leave my cv at home, so that was pretty pointless. Still I did get a bus pass, so it wasn't an entirely wasted trip. Then BT said that the broadband could either come on the Weds or Thurs, and a letter turned up on Weds which said Friday, so I've been trapped in the house waiting for this. Which has actually given me a chance to rest my knee - I bruised it really badly falling on Sunday when I was taking the rubbish out to the bin shed. It was very dark in the corridor leading outside and I didn't see a step, and went down hard on my knees. Luckily no serious damage was done, but I now have a spectacularly purple and yellow left knee!


This is a photo of the view from my flat bay windown at dusk - you can see the pitch between me and the road opposite. This turns out not to be attached to the school, but to be a public football pitch, so we get lots of kids playing, and people throwing sticks and balls for their dogs, and occasionally running those remote control cars. Now I'm up and running, I'll take more photo's and you can see all of the area around me! Oh I'm so happy to be online again!!!

23rd June 09

Well here I am in wait for it, sunny Glasgow. Its not sunny all that often, so best make the most of it! Yesterday was the day from hell, having kittens waiting for the van - about twenty to nine I suddenly realised that the police were outside stopping everyone travelling in the bus lane. I was a touch anxious about how they would feel if a vast pantechnicon suddenly turned up and parked on double yellows, but thankfully a) we have loading permissions, and b) the van wasn't a pantechnicon, but one of the smaller varieties. Panic over!

As for the loading it went really well, three very nice lads, rushing up and down the stairs with all of those boxes - amazing. And the junk that was left after they'd gone! Anyhow my back got shot about three days ago now, so I was glad of a bit of rest - eventually I took myself off to the station, and here I am.

We got in to Glasgow Central Station about 11.15, which was actually a bit early. I t was a magnificent journey up, in fact I'd reccommend the 17.30 train to anyone - not many people on it, plenty of seats, the only problem was with the 'shop' where the hot water equipment was out of order, and there was no tea or coffee all journey. Having arrived I grabbed a taxi, a) because I wasn't exactly sure where the hotel was, and b) because my back's shot, and I had a case not dissimilar to that of Dr Who's tardis. You just don't want to see inside it, trust me. Whe we got there and I found out that I had to lug it that last 50 feet or so from the road to the hotel I was very distressed! On the other hand maybe it did me a bit of good, having been sitting for the last 7 hours or so.

So I'm now clued up as to the differences between a cheap hotel, and a hotel that costs £75 per night. Firstly, the lift. The lift here is a thing out of Grace Brothers, without any form of attendant - you couldn't get one in. It creaks and rumbles it's way to the third floor (where I am) and when you stop, it sort of shakes from side to side as if it can't wait to get anyone inside outside. And the noise! It makes a noise like - well I don't know, but I don't like it that's for sure! My room is nice - not as nice as the Millennium, but you can't have everything. I've moved here now, and frankly that makes any sort of hotel feel like cheating. In a bit, I'm rushing off to the letting agents, and then on up to the house. I shall be so pleased to get there, I'm going to just die for a proper cup of coffee which this hotel seems to think is beyond it. The coffee served with the breakfast was best described as a cup of hot water, appropriately coloured so you might possibly think this is coffee but ha! We fooled you!

19th June 09

Now do I want to bore everyone to death with more accounts of my battles with boxes? Not really. But I'm sitting here in my dear little flat where I've been living for more years than I care to remember, looking at all of the spaces on the walls where the pictures where, and it's so sad!! So many memories associated with this place. Sniff. One thing I don't think that I'm going to forget in a hurry is how sore my back is from moving out!!
Anyway one of the worst things about this, is that I've packed the clock. I keep looking at where it was, the way that you do, you know it's not that you need to know the time, simply that you're used to knowing what the time is. And it's not there!
Apart from this, well, most of the packing is done. Martin and I had a devil of a time with the sacks of stuff going to the charity shop - I rang them to see if they could do a collection, and they tried, but apparently their van broke down, leaving me with 7 heavy sacks of stuff - we got a taxi and it was bad enough having to lug it downstairs! I've booked a collection from the council for the rubbish, but are they making any kind of special effort to pick it up? Are they heck. Nope they're coming on the regular day, but they are prepared to pick up to an extra 15 black bags, which is pretty good going I reckon. So I've got a bit more stuff in the bedroom, and of course the kitchen, but apart from that, I'm done. I must remember to call the hotel - yep, another night in a hotel, but I need to call them and remind them that I'm going to be arriving very late on Monday night. The plan is to have the van collect everything in the morning, do the cleaning, and then grab the bags, grab a taxi (bags girls, bags!) and catch the train to Glasgow. I should (fingers crossed) arrive by about 23.30. Then the next day I rush off, sign the lease, and be there to greet the van which should arrive sometime in the afternoon. I can't believe this is going to be my last couple of nights here. It's been a gas people!

Monday 15th June

Ah well, the boxes arrive tomorrow, and the serious packing starts - I have a week to do this in, and the big move is next Monday! Despite this though, I'm already surrounded by boxes, I've had to stack black bags for the local Hospice Shop on the upstairs landing - I'm hoping that they might even come and pick it up if I speak nicely to them, otherwise it's into a taxi with it at some point. I've put little notes through every one's door to let them know what's happening, and tonight I've spent a good while cleaning the kitchen. Why you ask? Because the wretched agency who rent this place out phoned me today to say someone wants to come and look at it tomorrow. Since the kitchen is the only room wherein there is furniture - ha, furniture, let's say cupboards, cooker and fridge, that's staying. The rest of it's all mine and is coming with me. I feel a bit, well to be honest, really quite violated by this, as if this person is coming to inspect my belongings. But I don't have the right to say no, because basically it's a rented flat and the right to view the property is in the rental agreement. But this person is going to have to pick their way around the stuff and peer about in a very quick fashion, because I'm not stopping.
So what else has been going on? Not much to be honest. Right now my brain is fixated on did I order enough boxes? Am I going to get it all in? Still John has very kindly agreed that he'll pop round on Tuesday night to help me assemble stuff - basically I need to get the bed up as soon as I get there I reckon, and it'd be nice to get the bookshelves fixed so that I can unpack books. I spoke to Sky Tv today, and I'm arranging for them to get their stuff switched on for me. The letting agency do the gas and electric for me so that's ok. I don't need to take final readings down here because it's all communal. I'll have to take the emergency stuff with me on the train, but because this is all happening overnight, I don't have to take as much which is really good. I figure I can put clothes for the night & next day into a backpack, and drag my big bag with me with the emergency kit - kettle, tea, coffee, a bit of food to tide me over until I can go shopping, the hoover - yep, you read rightly, the hoover, must leave the place in a reasonable state. Anyhow on top of all this is my diy kit - hammer, nails, drills etc, cleaning gear. I think I will be able to get this into my large bag without too much difficulty. Then once the boxes and stuff have all been collected, I head off to the station, and that's it - I'm on my way to Glasgow!

Friday 29th May

Well I'm home - much better journey coming back, a lot smoother! But alas I've picked up a bad cold, which I presume I got on the flight up there, & I've been coughing and sneezing and wheezing since yesterday afternoon. This used to happen to me when I lived there before - you've no immunity to the Scottish bugs, and by the time you've acclimatised to them and you go back down south, you've lost whatever immunity to those that you used to have!

Anyhow I will tell you about the flat that I found, but when I've got it all securely tightened up and the deal done so to speak. I don't like catching chickens before they're well and truly hatched! But it's a nice little place in a lovely spot, and I'm very hopeful that it all will go according to plan. Fingers crossed!
I had a great time on Weds, when I met up with old tutors at uni, and was frankly slightly overwhelmed by how nice everyone was to me! Then over to J & P's for dinner, which was great, and they've got a totally fabulous flat. Really gorgeous.
Anyhow yes I know this is all very dull, because it's got no details, etc etc, but you'll just have to wait until it's all done and dusted. I have got photo's, but I'm too sniffy & sneezy to get them downloaded and primped up to publish yet - and frankly I've got my doubts about how it'll all turn out - remember it rained three days out of four! I'm off now, back to veg out in front of the tv or get myself an early night. I'm exhausted I've got to say!

Tuesday 26th May

Well here I am in Glasgow, doing battle with my little notebook computer. When I bought it in the shop they promised me it was a normal sized keyboard, and for the most part it is, but the wretched side keys are in just the "\" keeps getting in the way!
Well getting up here was certainly fast. As my normal means of getting here is the train, it had a certain blink and you miss it quality to it, once I'd got past the unbelievable tension of getting off the ground. It was a very small plane, and the take off felt like it was near vertical, but in reality - ie, out of the window, was somewhat less so. That didn't stop me from jerking like a baby at every single jerk and toss of the turbulence, and yep, I did feel the wheels going up and down. I thought I'd only been up there for fifteen minutes, and the captain's saying if you look out of the window now you'll see the Lake District, (one of my fave parts of the world!) and then suddenly we were landing. Extraordinary. Needless to say it was raining, and today I've been soaked three times. I kid you not. It felt like every time I put my head out of doors the heavens opened, but it can't have been that deliberately organised. Clearly it was simply accidental, but it felt like - am I absolutely sure about this???!
Anyhow, I went to see the little flat that I've been "watching" on the web for the past three weeks. Amazing place, really huge, vast place with enormous storage cupboards etc. But, and isn't there always some buts, anyhow the first but was that the kitchen had barely a cupboard in it, and nothing but bare boards on the floor, and secondly, and premier but of the lot, the carpet in the living room was either sticky with vileness, or (and my personal front runner) sopping wet with damp. You could never take the amount of books I've got into a place like that, and get out with them intact within what, a week? Shame because it's a great little flat, and the rent was unbelievable (coming from Bristol that is) but I'm going to have to give that one a miss. But I did like the area, and I'm going back there tomorrow to have a better look around, and a good look at the local letting agents shop. Very quiet streets, lots of greenery and trees, even a local recycling centre, including a clothing drop off point, combined with a bright and lively high street, and a very good bus service. Can't ask for more really can you? It is a bit far from the university, and I guess that's something I need to think about, but with the transport the way it is, I'm not so sure that's a real disadvantage. They do very good combined bus and rail tickets up here, and it's a reasonably quick whizz into town.
Ah well, I need an early night, I'm exhausted after trekking around most of the day. Catch you later!

20th May 09 - The big move part I!

Well I've left work and I've been spending the past few days de-junking. Right now I'm in the midst of absolute chaos, and somewhat worried about the big bookshelf unit which now has stuff on the top two shelves, yet the one's below are now denuded of the video's they used to hold. And dear God, the dust. I used to think this place was actually quite clean..! It's all been hiding behind the video's and books...
Jo is going to take me to a bootsale before the move proper. This now means I'm sort of sorting as I go, one pile for stuff that I'm keeping, various boxes for stuff going to the boot, and large black sacks of stuff that's going to the dump. Abbs is coming at the weekend to run me there, and then we're rewarding ourselves with a trip to the cinema. We thought we might take in Star Trek. Well ok, I've persuaded Abbs she'd like to see Star Trek. But I hear it's a very good film, so this may not be the disaster it could be - she's not a big ST fan. As for myself this unexpected leisure (ok, de-junking!) has allowed me to sit down with a cup of tea and watch the re-runs of the original series on Sci Fi, at about 5 every day. I don't care how uncool it is, you've just got to love old Kirky babes and the gang doing their thing. At least I do.
Today is the first sunny day since before the weekend - we've had a few spots of rain, but otherwise it looks like a very nice day out there. Pity I'm stuck in here with all this junk. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the living room table, and the little cupboards under the bay window. These things are a wonderful set of 'cubes' Mum & Dad bought back in the sixties, and I 'inherited' them a good while back now. Love 'em to death I'm afraid, despite all the slight oddities about them - they're veneered in some sort of white plastic, and they're pretty heavy when you lift them, but they're a lot of fun. Because they're just small cubes about 2 feet square you can arrange them in any fashion you like, so they're very versatile. But as I say, the veneer is lifting off a bit at the corner, so you have to be careful with them. I've got a basic one, one with a shelf, and two with doors. It's the ones with the doors that I fear. God knows what I've stuffed in there over the years.. I know one is full of paperwork. Uh-oh..!

Thursday 14th May

Ah well, I thought this day would never come - but it's nearly over! Today I left my job, voluntarily, in the middle of this huge recession - but it's all planned. Shortly I will fly - yep, fly to Glasgow, to look for somewhere to live, then come back, organise it all, move, and start the hunt for work. I feel a touch anxious about it all, but I'm pleased that I've reached the point where I get started on all of this. But my God, such an awesome day! I can't describe how I felt when I was going round the office saying goodbye to people - I'd left it a bit late and there were a few that had gone already, which was a shame and I'm sorry I missed you! But all day I've been feeling really almost overwhelmed by the whole leaving thing. I don't think I could put it into words verbally to communicate to people, I mean this is the place I've been going to and from at all hours of the day and night for more than the last five years. These people have been part of my family, so to speak, my sisters. And like all families we spat from time to time, but what's new? Who is ever entirely happy in the circumstances of their work? I count myself luckier than most that I've worked with people I've loved, and the work that I did was both interesting and made a difference to people's lives. You can't say better than that.
Anyhow, on to new things. Well sort of, I've got a leaving do to get through first...! Best take a packet of tissues with me I think!!!!

Tuesday 5th May

Well for May it's rather cold and dull and overcast out there. I thought we were supposed to be having a 'barbeque' summer - clearly it's not started yet.
Anyhow, I'm working my notice at work now, and I've got my place at Uni, all confirmed and everything. I feel like I've gone mad on the internet, checking flats for rent, contacting letting agents, booking hotels, booking flights, going absolutely crazy getting photographic id for the plane.. madness has descended on my head. On top of this I've also been booking the local bowling hall for a works related leaving do! Yep, I know you're not supposed to do it yourself, but I live closest and I've done it before for another night out so I sort of know my way about their system.
Anyhow I haven't really time to go in to any of this in detail so to speak - but at the same time I need to be able to go Yay, it's all coming together!!!!

Saturday 4th April 2009

Well I'm getting sort of used to the idea that I'm not going to be at Women's Aid for very much longer. For those of you who don't know I'm hoping to go back to Uni, initially to do an MLitt, and then hopefully on to a PhD. I feel a bit weird writing this, because I've only just sent the application form off, and whilst everyone keeps telling me I'm going to be fine, I still feel very nervous about it, and it's a don't count your chickens thing. Yet at the same time, I'm so excited about it! I want to be up and at it, get it all started - but if everything goes according to plan, it's only going to be a couple of months before I really do start getting started.
My plan is to leave WA at the end of May, nip up to Glasgow and find somewhere to live, shoot back and get myself moved - and then (obviously!) to find some work, and get settled. It's going to be sad as well - leaving everyone down here. It's really odd how now it's getting closer I'm getting very jittery about the family - not being able to just nip over to see them. We've sort of done the whole 'oh but you'll come and visit' thing, but you know how it is. When people are further away, you have to plan stuff, and fit things in - it's more difficult and complicated. And then friends! It's almost the same as with the family. But I'm pretty good at keeping in touch with people, or I hope that I am, and I'm going to be using this blog and the old Facebook thing to keep people aware of what I'm doing - hopefully they'll still be interested!

So, as I said, I've uploaded the old application form. This happened on Thursday, and almost gave me a heart attack - my form's all completed and I'm going through it for a final check, and before I was properly ready I hit the submit button by accident, and this legend pops up to say withdraw now, or you can't withdraw this at all, and having moved from calm to frenzied panic in about 2 seconds, of course I hit the withdraw button. It's at that point I discover that it's obliterated all of my uploaded documents and I then have to spend about two hours uploading the whole lot all over again, and double checking everything - bloody internet. It's revolutionised life all right, but things happen so blasted quickly!
So having to do all this made me late going to bed, and then I didn't sleep properly, I was too 'Oh God do you think it's all there?' not to mention the 'They're going to look at this and just laugh at my temerity in suggesting I'm a fit person to do this!' - the whole gamut of well let's just give up now and crawl back into my hole. But it seems it has arrived after the millisecond or so journey through cyberspace, and they say that it only takes 3 weeks to hear something, so well fingers crossed. Needless to say I was then absolutely exhausted by the time four o'clock on Friday arrived, and I could go home - yep, another trip to the post office, but after that I went home and sat down with a cup of tea and drifted off to sleep and before I know it, Channel 4 news is on. So I obviously was very tired, and needed to sleep.
Happily I'm now back to my normal self, and yes, coming to terms with these things that I've planned to do. It's not as simple as when you're twenty and you think oh yes, I'll just go and do X, Y or Z. At my age, you have to accustom yourself to the idea and plan for it, rather than pack a backpack and go! And it's sort of almost an out of body experience to be doing these things and thinking to myself, we're in the middle of this big recession, and you're voluntarily giving up your job to go to university???! What are you doing Woman??!! But I know it's the right thing. It's that internal thing that says yes, you do feel comfortable with this. It's not fear keeping you awake at night, it's excitement. The itch to get started. And that's got to be good.

4th March 2009

Gosh it's been so long since I posted anything on here - but over the next year, I'm sure that I will be, big changes coming this year I hope!
Anyhow so what's new right now? Nothing much, I'm doing my university applications, and getting there slowly but surely. Catch up with you soon!

Weds 14th January 2009

I'm trying to get my head round this whole 2009 thing. It somehow seems like I shouldn't actually be alive in a year thus dated, but here I am... I keep expecting someone to deliver my silver catsuit and tell me this is what I should be wearing from now on, but given the current state of the old bod, it's probably just as well they're not compulsory. As it is, I'm very happy in my old jeans and sloppy jumper!
So what else is new with me? Facebook actually, I finally got round to using this properly, and seem to have collected a few friends and have just about got my head around how you go about doing things - I think. I'm still trying to work out how to make things like new photo's appear on my 'wall' - it's all very confusing. If you're my age that is.
So I thought it's about time I told you what I'm reading right now. At this particular point of time, I'm sort of getting over my first flush of falling in love with Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano, i.e., I'm waiting for the next box of books to turn up from ye old Amazone. Have you ever noticed how long it takes some boxes to get to you? I feel like I've been waiting forever for these to turn up. Anyhow in the meantime I'm making do by reading Little Dorrit - which I'm finding curiously exciting. No, seriously. I pick it up and start reading and find myself unable to put it down. I couldn't say in what way it differs from the tv, but perhaps it's the depth of characterisation that you necessarily don't get by the devil screen, or it could be that for the first time I'm actually getting a grip on where Rigaud appeared from - I missed the first episode on the goggle box - but I feel like I understand it much better. Since - ok, confession here, this is the first Dickens I've ever actually read, I do feel like I should read more. This has got to be a good thing. Anyhow waiting to be read is (are) Philip Tetbury's Expert Political Judgment. I heard him on the radio, and had to get the book - it's one of those things that makes you feel as if it will revolutionise the way you think about judgment. The sort of judgment that politicians come out with - "This is the end of recession" type judgment, "Sadam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction" type of judgment. I find myself buying this sort of thing from time to time, and reading them feeling that they're going to change the way that I think, and I have to say, 9 times out of 10, being deeply disappointed. However, we'll see.
Anyhow also on the waiting list is Michael Holroyds' Strange Eventful History, the dramatic lives of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. I'm not 100% sure about this, since it turned up, I've been sort of eyeing it with what I might describe as a wary eye - did I actually buy this? Do I really want to read this? What on earth came over me? That sort of thing. We'll see. It might turn out to be riveting. On the other hand, I find myself strangely disconcerted by the cover which is all navy blue and silver stars. Intersecting circles - no doubt deeply appropriate, in fact I'd go so far as to say absolutely appropriate, but somehow disconcerting at the same time. Predictably disconcerting? Now there's an interesting thought....

Sunday January 4th

It's been a good holiday - went really very well. Then it was back home, and back to work - being as the Helpline works 365 days of the year, I ended up doing the night shifts on Weds, Thurs and Friday - I'm not really into New Year, so I'm quite happy to work them. It was certainly busy enough!
So there's this whole New Year thing. I actually agree wholeheartedly that this setting of unrealistic goals - resolutions, is setting yourself up for failure, and I find it hard to believe that resolving to do something at a particular time of year makes it any easier to achieve. I believe you do things when you feel that the time is right, and your determination is spurred on by the realisation that something needs to be changed. I.E, you start a diet because you can't get into a favourite piece of clothing, or you've stepped on the scales to find your weight has unexpectedly increased. It horrifies you, and that sense of shock contributes towards your determination to achieve the weight loss. You don't say to yourself, oh I'll wait for January the 1st and then I'll start dieting!
Anyhow, the reason for all this musing on resolutions and determination is because I have some pretty huge changes planned for this year, and it's nothing to do with loosing weight. My mother's death has enabled me to make some changes, to hopefully go back to uni and perhaps even get that PhD that I've always sort of had in the back of my mind. It's quite a long road to be setting out on, because I'll need to start off with something that's going to bring my degree up to date! I have a sense of freedom about this, because essentially I can choose where I go to - but at the same time I have to choose wisely because I can't simply afford to make a wrong choice. I've sort of decided that this year will be spent in choosing where to go, moving, getting myself onto the right course to update my qualifications - I've got nine months to do this in, but of course, way less than that because I have to apply etc. I've sort of made my decision, only I have to finalise it - have to start that application process, and get accepted for one thing. So watch this space, there's lots of changes coming!