| (no subject) |
[Feb. 22nd, 2006|11:19 pm] |
I've haven't added anything in months, but I am oh so pleased with this:
| Your Candy Heart Says "Cutie Pie" | 
You always seem to have a hot date, even though you never try to meet anyone.
A total charmer, you have a natural appeal that keeps you in high demand.
Your ideal Valentine's Day date: multiple dates with multiple people
Your flirting style: 100% natural
What turns you off: serious relationship talks
Why you're hot: you're totally addicting |
Go me! I'm a love god (apparently, according to a VERY selective test...) |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 12th, 2005|11:12 pm] |
As noted by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) padzor, it is now my responsibility to unleash this lunatic, yet beautiful activity upon the world...
Leave your name and...
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. |
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| padzor and his Thoughts on Me... |
[Sep. 10th, 2005|02:27 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Bloody rain... | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Test Match | ] |
See recent entry from padzor for more information on this... Thanks!
1) You're a minor deity
2) The meaning of life. But I'm not entirely sure why.. :s
3) Lard. Has to be.
4) "Who are you? Get away from me! Who are you?"
5) Hrm, running away from Ruthy's room during her first year to buy wine before that fateful night of too much port...
6) Dinosaur!
7) How does it feel to be a God, and worshiped by so many? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 24th, 2005|05:35 pm] |
I've been at work again, kind of a regular thing now... However, in terms of amusing things going on in the city at the moment, M&S is currently in the process of being rebuilt. This means that it is surrounded by scaffolding and all the other associated gubbins of being rebuilt, while also remaining open, ish. There's builders wandering around indoors and very little dumb stuff being funked, sadly. This is not the point of my post, really. The point comes about when you look at the posters that have been slung over the scaffolding to disguise it from the eyes of inquisitive Brummies, desperate to see how the store is being rebuilt. These have pictures of builders on them, doing the kinds of things that builders do (carry wood, look up ladders, that kind of thing), but instead of captions saying "Phwooar, big ones!" and "Woof, woof lady!" etc. like one would expect of builders, they say things like " I can't get to sleep without a cup of Marks & Spencer's Belgian Hot Chocolate drink" and "Marks and Spencer make the best extra virgin olive oil, organic lemon and parsley crisps".
Now, ordinarily, this ought to irritate me greatly, but for some reason it doesn't, and I think it's quite sweet and something entertaining, almost the kind of thing that would be done in Japan, only without the little men in green uniforms with lightsticks...
Right, off to some free theatre tonight at the Birmingham Rep, courtesy of my colleague's illustrator husband who does the artwork for theatre programmes, to see "Don Quixote Rides Again", about which I know precisely nothing... And I've nearly got a flat in Moseley, which is cool. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 2nd, 2005|10:41 pm] |
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Just a quick one, as one of my Brummie friends noted that I hadn't updated for a disturbingly long time... Am temping, for the council, as a notetaker during career progression interviews (sample question: "How, in the last 12 months, have you introduced people development routines designed to further enhance departmental key performance indicators?"). What I note down, and then write up, forms the basis of whether or not these people get promoted. Poor sods. Anyway, HR love me because I type quickly, I don't moan much, and because I've done so many reviews now that I'm telling civil servants how to run them. Yet, whenever I'm idly typing, why do I always get the urge to type things like "WOMBATS!" and "upmoistbeaverchildrenrobertdouglasfairhurst" in order to waste time? ashglass, you have something to answer for here... One day, the office manager is going to appear behind me, notice what I'm actually writing, and wonder why she ever agreed to pay this idiot an absurd amount of money to sit, drink coffee, and type rubbish all day... |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 26th, 2005|07:45 pm] |
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Can I moan on here? Hell, it's my journal, I can moan if I want to... Anyway, to business: what has happened to sandwiches in the last five years? Today, I happened to be in Guildford city centre over lunchtime (yes, I know: I relocated to Birmingham so that I wouldn't have to regularly be exposed to shopping in damp Surrey streets, but I'm staying with my parents in Hampshire until next week, and have been since I came home from Japan). Since lunchtime is a time when people traditionally have lunch, I decided to follow suit. Therefore, I wandered into a little cafe with a vaguely Italian/continental bent that was set down a small cobbled passage between the (classy) High Street and (marginally less classy) North Street. Being a fat man, I chose to have a small lunch, a sandwich and a cup of coffee. Now, sandwiches... I had a cheese and tomato sandwich, for which the lady in the shop (tall, willowy, Afro-Caribbean, looked pretty in an apron) removed £3.90 from me. My sandwich may have spoken with a slight Italian accent, required squishing briefly in a flat toaster and contained green basil mayonnaise (commonly known as "pesto"), but was still, in essence, a cheese and tomato sandwich. What happened to two slices of granary, some mature cheddar and a couple of tomato slices? I should have gone to M&S... Coffee was very nice, however, but the experience proves that you should never let your choice of sandwich venue be dictated by the attractiveness of a shop's sandwich servers. Clearly, a lesson learned, that I will inevitably forget next time I need dough-based sustenance in a town centre. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 3rd, 2005|07:41 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
Well, the stuff is packed into my shiny new case, I've got money with old men and mountains on sitting in my wallet and I have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning. The time has come to... GO TO JAPAN!!! *allows himself to be guided by childish excitement*. London to Tokyo tomorrow, nearly 14 hours of quality travel with the venerable German airline. My brother has sold me some euro shrapnel for coffee in Frankfurt, which was good of him. In return, I sold him two raffle tickets for the annual CAMRA draw (note to tompullman: I bought three. £2000 would do me very nicely, thankyou...). Not quite sure what else to write, now. Seeing apricorn for the first time in eight months should be good, though, I imagine. I'm about to go a long way from my life in Birmingham... |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 21st, 2005|11:02 am] |
Wooo, feeling the popularity now... It seems that as soon as I stop having any sort of job, loads of people I know rock up to the Midlands. Am enjoying the company of a Mr B D James this week, as he heads to and from Stratford-upon-Avon on a work experience placement. Saw jethbob randomly and unexpectedly over the weekend as he was down in Birmingham for a party with one of his friends from home. Went out for balti with the three of them last night, and lard was consumed. And I believe joellindop is descending on Wednesday, too.
In other news, not a lot. My employment consultant, Grant, doesn't seem to be covering himself with glory in his efforts to find me temporary work, but never mind. Spoke to my brother yesterday, and he's coming up to Birmingham next week to give me a hand lugging stuff down south, so I'll be briefly back in Hampshire from 30th March, before hitting Japan the following week. So, life goes on. Blah.
Just saw this. Christ. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 12th, 2005|10:47 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  enthralled | ] |
I'm in front of the pooter here, accompanied by ashglass, having possibly the least masculine evening possible. We're listening to Rufus Wainwright (yeah, he's SO manly!), having just watched Crufts and darned a coat. We did eat three square feet of naan bread between us earlier, which does redeem us in the eyes of whoever decides manliness issues (i.e. Me). I now have some cider on the go, too, so getting back to full-strength, I suppose.
Additional: It was pointed out to me after this entry was orignally posted that the cider I was drinking was called "Gaymers". So, manly as fuck, then... |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 7th, 2005|05:18 pm] |
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Deferred PGCE (on grounds of frustration, sanity and personal safety). Am unemployed, but have spent ages today emailing people and trying to find a long-term job for when I come home from Japan, LJ ate my update, sadly, so I am angrily retyping shortened version. Now have a life again, which is nice, and saw Helen at the weekend, which was also nice. Looking forward to Japan in a childishly excited way: my brother now jealous; I now feel strangely victorious. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 27th, 2005|04:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  angry | ] |
Sorry to everyone for being horrendously cryptic earlier this week, but I've been feeling generally shit about life until recently and couldn't be bothered to update, which didn't really help anyone. Anyway, my colleague and I got jumped at the bus stop the other day, and I got clonked on the head and kicked by a bunch of ungrateful fucking teenagers who don't seem to realise that my colleague and I exist to help them, that the only reason we do our jobs as well as we do is to help them out and give them a way out of their unpleasant area of east Birmingham and that we used to enjoy being teachers. I spent two and a half hours giving a victim statement to West Midlands Police, who have been really good, and I took Friday off work to calm down, organise myself and get sorted for the run in for Easter. It's only four weeks now, and then I've a pile of work to do before going over to Japan, but I really want it to be over and move on. I've got bugger-all motivation at present, and have had the phases of just wanting to give all of this up and going off to do some sort of office work instead. At the same time, I've come this far, and beyond Easter things start to improve again. I just want to enjoy going to work again, and at the moment I don't enjoy it, and that's sad. I'm going to stop feeling too sorry for myself now... Thanks for all your support, both telephonic, LJ-ish and email: I really appreciate it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 24th, 2005|11:05 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  discontent | ] |
Not much time tonight, so more of an entry tomorrow. There was a very serious incident outside school on Tuesday afternoon/evening, which has involved West Midlands Police. I have had a large amount of my working and personal life fucked about with this week for various reasons, but I'll inform all of you as soon as I get time to do a proper update. One of my colleagues gave me conciliatory chocolate today, though, which was really really nice of her. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 16th, 2005|02:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
I read a jolly good book review in the Guardian the other day. Such a good book review I remember thinking "I shall go to the Guardian website and order that book from their wondrous bookstore". Unfortunately, I can't remember what the book was called, or indeed what it was about. "No matter", responded my ever-optimistic brain, "You can just go to the website and you'll remember, because the Internet can do magical things like that to your brain". It was wrong. I've just spent half an hour messing about on the Guardian's website, and can I remember anything about the book? Of course I can't. Bugger. Anyone got any inspiration as to what I might have wanted to buy, because I've go no idea any more... |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 10th, 2005|11:48 pm] |
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Two interviews, no job. Never mind, plenty more to look for. Am off to London tomorrow, then Southampton, then Farnborough, then back here to Birmingham. My apologies to everyone that I might have seen in Cambridge, but many of you are likely to be in London, I believe, so I'll see you there. Otherwise, it's teacher training tomorrow, and then half-term. Fantastic! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 31st, 2005|06:03 pm] |
I had a bit of a break today: back to the university from school for a review day. Even though we worked from 9:30-4:30 with 40 mins for lunch, it seemed like a really light day, which is beginning to say something about how I'm finding school. On the bright side, I rewrote a lesson plan for my tutor to look at, and I like it a lot better than the lesson I actually delivered when she came to observe me. That, rather unfortunately, seems to be the way it goes. I only have a three day week, peculiarly, this week, because I have a job interview on Friday in Solihull (south east of Birmingham city, and posher, meaning nicer kids, maybe). That's the reason why I'm on the net, honest, not just to procrastinate and read about other people's much more interesting lives...
In general, I'm all right, quite frustrated and a bit disheartened sometimes, but all right. It'll be half term soon, so that's something to look forward to, and I hope to be in Cambridge and Southampton then (14-18 Feb and appropriate weekends). Then, a hardcore pursuit towards the end of practice for Easter and strenuous writing of assignments and progress reports, before finally leaving for Japan. It is inexpressible how much I would like to be over there, sometimes. I still want to be a teacher, I really do, but it's getting unbelievably hard at times now. Still, another week: this could be the one.
OK, enough witter... I'm going to watch some telly and muse on tomorrow's lessons. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 18th, 2005|11:19 pm] |
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Hell, no updates for ages... Um, kids, teaching, some of them little buggers, really tired, stupid for not going to be early enough, fish & chips huge in Birmingham, tired, staff meetings, new behaviour policy - missed opportunity, bloody Year Seven, funky Year Ten, Eid on Thursday (or Friday - depends on mosque), collapsed timetable, less work for me, feel like I'm wearing the inadequate boyfriend trousers, huge fish and chips in Birmingham (deserves two entries), need to iron shirt, off to have a shower.... I'M STILL ALIVE! |
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| And after the football... |
[Dec. 28th, 2004|08:52 pm] |
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We lost. Again. That's two games in three days. This time, at least, we scored a goal. They, however, scored two. Bastards. We weren't much good in the middle of tthe park, and once we wanged the ball far enough forward to be able to have a shot on goal, we either messed it up or passed to someone on the yellow team, which was foolish since we were wearing red and white. And they had a man sent off half an hour before the end, and we still didn't win. Bugger. Still, I can stop going for a while now, giving the team time to regroup before I watch them again, perhaps, later in the season. Ho hum... |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 28th, 2004|11:54 am] |
So, the Christmas holiday continues unabated, but I am strangely bored. It's really nice being at home, and seeing all my family, and not having to do any work, but at the same time I keep thinking that I'd rather be back in Birmingham, or seeing more of my friends, or something. I am overcoming this feeling of general lethargy by going to lots of football matches. I went to the first away game I've ever attended on Sunday, to see the mighty (OK, not very mighty at all) Farnborough Town take on local rivals Woking. The match started ten minutes late, it was freezing cold and we lost 2-0. And I lost all feeling in my feet for approximately two hours. Great. I had such a good time that I'm going to Cherrywood Road this afternoon to watch Boro again, this time playing at home against the probably mighty, I don't really know, Morecambe. We'd better win, although I do know where the snack bar is at Cherrywood Road, which is more than I did at Kingfield, which meant I got increasingly colder as the second half progressed since I wasn't able to score my half-time tea hit. In ten days time, when I am back in Birmingham, I'm going to St. Andrews to watch Birmingham City play Leeds United in the FA Cup, which will presumably be a much better game than some of the tosh I've seen played in the Conference recently.
Clearly moaning about the cold will seem feeble and pathetic to those currently marooned in an horrific northern/Far Eastern winter, but remember that I am choosing to stand around shouting in this weather. If my team lose, I feel that I am justified in having a quick bitch about them/the weather/life/humanity/the problems with trousers/world peace/Scottish banknotes. Note to apricorn : Farnborough will be wearing red this afternoon. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 21st, 2004|07:50 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | lazy | ] |
Home. For Christmas. Peace. No kids to think about, no real lessons to plan at the moment, just Christmas and all that involves. Feeling slightly odd being at home again: it's almost exactly the same as it used to be, even though I haven't been here for three months. Life just sort of continues. Ah well: constancy and a ready supply of mince pies is all I really require at Christmas, so I imagine I'll be OK.
In other more exciting news, I bought a flight to Japan last week, and I'm going over to see apricorn in the first week of April. Can't manage to be there for my birthday, sadly, but can come pretty close before returning to Birmingham for the last term of the PGCE. I'm really quite excited, and it's offered me a target to aim at during my second long school placement, which is at least in a school in Birmingham this time. All in all, am lined up for Christmas, excited about Hogmanay (or however it's spelt) up in Edinburgh and have Japan to look forward to. Life could be worse, I guess... |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 3rd, 2004|11:07 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
So, school is over for now, I don't have to do any more actual teaching until the beginning of the New Year. I am still seriously tired, but a couple of days of decent sleep ought to sort me out. The whole experience was great, really, with some nice (and some less nice) kids, and decent lessons carried out. I'll tell you all a bit more soon, but suffice to say all my colleagues were cool, and much love and respect to Sir Grestelot, Madam Rockett and Miss Mackenzie. It was great. |
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