fadagaski | Entries tagged with durham

1) What sucks about not getting the job at that school isn't the failure of getting the job (though that sucks). It's the uncertainty. What if they were trying to call me but I didn't have signal at the time? It's such a stupid sliver of hope, but it might explain the lack of email. Stupid optimism is stupid.

2) My half-term 'holiday':

- write essay
- submit essay
- plan other essay
- submit plan for other essay
- read two novels for school
- plan two schemes of work based on aforementioned novels for school
- try to figure out what the third scheme of work is supposed to entail
- work 31 hours at the Pub

3) In two years' time I will be camping out under the stars in the Australian bush drinking whisky and laughing at my past self.

4) I'm putting weight on again. Bah humbug.

Current Mood: apathetic
Current Location: Langley Moor

My sleep cycle is apparently so used to being cut short now that I woke up at 4.45am without prompting. I am putting the extra time to good use by watching Ice Age and reading porn.

( PGCE stuff, or: Reflective journaling )

( Pub stuff, or: Reasons why barwork is awesome )

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Langley Moor
Current Music: Ice Age

Okay! So. After months in limbo, stuff is finally happening in my life. A summary:

- Two weeks in a primary school placement for pre-PGCE work experience. It was enlightening. The staff were amazing, the kids brilliant, but it made me very very happy to be on the secondary course. I couldn't teach basic addition over and over again for the next 30 years.

- I started the PGCE! I am officially a student again. Jeans and hoodies all the way. It also means I'm walking from home to class to another class across town and then home again - about 2 hours total (uphill!). Good for the legs, but exhausting. Also, I haven't done the student thing for three years, so prepping for seminars and reading prescribed journals is a weird déjà vu. I am still, however, the most forward and talkative body in any given group.

- I find myself really looking forward to the coming year. I've never wanted to be a teacher, and I was ambivalent/apathetic coming to this course, but now that I'm here I'm really excited. I think I can be a good teacher, at home or abroad.

- Abroad is definitely where I want to go, but at this stage I don't find the idea of coming back completely abhorrent.

- Glee still owns me. Can't wait to see the new ep!!

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: School of Education, Durham University

Shamelessly pilferred from

loneraven. ( tl;dr meme )

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Langley Moor
Current Music: Riverdance

Individual interview went swimmingly. Have an unofficial, unconfirmed conditional offer of a place. Have been advised to seek work experience in schools and write about it. Awesome.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England

Am at Durham for my PGCE Interview. So far so good - one presentation clarifying that because of government cuts the university cannot guarantee anything, one written task discussing issues facing English teachers now and in the future, and one group interview where I discussed my failing secondary school and the issues presented by teachers throwing chairs at students and having brain aneurisms from stress.

Next up: individual interview at 1pm.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England

Got an interview on 17 November at Durham for the PGCE. Eee!!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England

Got an interview on 17 November at Durham for the PGCE. Eee!!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England

Wah! I need my FFVII icons back. :(

Going for interview with County Council at 11am, so need to leave in about 5 minutes. It got brought forward from Tuesday to today, which is both a little bit inconvenient but also very promising! I am dressed to impress! I washed my hair! I put on proper shoes! I am wearing a necklace!

Didn't get out from the pub last night til 1am; did the entire close pretty much by myself. So freaking tired now. Blah. Must not yawn in interview.

There's been nothing to do at this job for well over a week, but today I got an email attachment from Head Office with about 50 purchase order corrections to GRN. £$&*@%*#! I will feel bad leaving that pile to the returning employee on Monday, but OMG. On my last day? Really? And it's for hires too, so I am completely confuzzelated.

I have been playing with spreadsheets, and - barring any horrific and unforeseen expenses - and so long as I remain gainfully employed at about this amount per month (or higher! Higher is good) - I should be debt-free by next year. Just in time to take out a loan for PGCE. *headdesk*

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Langley Park

+ 'Informal' interview on Tuesday for a job paying £10.83 an hour!!

- Hours are 25 per week over 3 days, and likely to decrease to just 2 days.

+ Agency has said they can get me something else to plug the 3 day gap.

- If they're not quick about it, I will be very much stuck in a rut.

+ It's until March 2011.

+ Gives me a few spare days initially to try to get Secondary school experience to support my application for teacher training.

+ It's with the county council.

- It's with the county council.

+ It's in Crook.

On the whole, am very positive. It'll be nice to catch up on sleep, maybe go for a walk (woods and fields at the back of the house). So long as I've got the pub, and 1-2 other jobs, I'm sure I'll manage. :)

ETA: Discovered today I've been the victim of identity fraud. £506 gone to some twat in the south of London on Esso petrol and a McDonald's meal and two fucking rooms at Holiday Inn, Kensington. Fuckers.

Bank has terminated that card, is refunding me the money and issuing a new card for that account. It's just such an inconvenience. I'll have to try to reclaim the £20 stoppage charge they levied for a failed standing order. I've been struggling to see how to make ends meet all this time; I don't need some turd in south London making it harder.

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Location: Langley Park

Birthday last Thursday. Worked 16 hours straight, but received several cards, £10, a pair of flip flops, a Glee t shirt and a bouquet of roses. :D

Also decided it was about time I acted like a grown up. Applied for teacher training at Durham (PGCE Secondary English with Drama). Fingers crossed I get in for a third time!!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: United Kingdom, England

Going for an interview at 3.30pm with a temp agency in Durham. I don't remember applying to them, but I picked up the call yesterday whilst asleep so my memory of the conversation goes like this:

Me: zzzzzzzz

Phone: *ring*

Me: zzzzzzz *picks up* zzzzello?

Consultant: *Peanuts-style mwaa mwaa mwaa* interview at some point this week?

Me: .... Yes? I'm free Wednesday.

And here I am, freshly showered and ready to roll. Though I think this interview is to sign up officially on their books? And they deal with office recruitment, which - pleh. But whatever pays, y'know? At least office hours are conducive to evening and weekend work.

Speaking of, I have all appropriate appendages crossed that I get the 8-hour weekend job at Ann Summers. *leer*

Umming and ahhing about the future, naturally. It's my default state. If Disney ask to hire me this winter, I'm not sure I'll go. I WANT to go, at some point, but if I've just managed to pull together 2-4 jobs in time for Xmas, the last thing I'll want to do is jump ship (pun entirely intended). So I'm thinking of speaking to their agency and asking them to remove me from the pool of applicants - at least temporarily.

Have instead been looking at the PGCE (Secondary), specifically in English with Drama at Durham. Durham's program is credibly worse than Newcastle's, but NCL is a long way away and I do not intend to have a car for very much longer. Though I'm still debating the merits of selling it.

*rolls eyes* My problems are so First World.

Current Mood: good
Current Location: Birtley
Current Music: Don't Stop Believing - Glee

Subject is emo. Apologies. I'm not feeling remotely depressed or anything. Just feel like I'm waiting in limbo for something to happen. It's been another lazy, unproductive day. I'm sure it's actually an unconscious method of self-harm. Bah.

Thoughts:

- I need to be here in the north, working consistently, for two years just to pay off my debt (never mind saving for New Zealand). Unless DCL call. Then it'll be two years on a boat.

- New Zealand is definitely my next destination.

- Kings College London appeals more every day, but must resist urge to apply right now. There's cultivating multiple options, and then there's just plain greed.

- Tinies called. Asked me to interview in a fortnight. That could be hopeful. I start again at the pub tomorrow night, but I don't know if they've got hours enough for me. I don't know if I'd even want to work 50 hours there, to be honest, but beggars can't be choosers.

Chores tomorrow: mow lawn, clean kitchen, clean bathroom, tidy my room, charity shop dump, groceries, pick up

rhaegal from the airport. At least I'll be busy!

Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you're interested in - it can be anything from the house I live in to my favorite shoes. Leave your choice here as a comment, and I will reciprocate by taking the pictures and posting them as an LJ entry. That way you get to know a little bit about my life, if you're remotely interested in it. :)

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Birtley

Bought car insurance. Cleared out 4 bin bags' wort of clothes for charity. Still so much crap left! Wish I could be more ruthless - it's not like anyone would know if I chucked their gift - but something stops me. Ah well.

Also job-hunted. Will do mass call and email campaign tomorrow. Must stay in England until debt is paid (unless DCL hire me). Looking at those work from home ads. Almost undoubtedly scams, but so tempting nevertheless! What I wouldn't give for some easy money.

I still want to take the NVQ in cooking. I also want a CELTA (when I go to New Zealand, I think) and a childcare qualification. And a PhD. I feel like a sailboat with no rudder.

Need to get a life cobbled together here. How depressing is that? Four months in America, running away from monotony. Camping in tents, eating simple food and drinking with friends - it felt natural in a soul-deep way.

Tim says he wants to come to the UK next year. That'll be interesting, if I'm not on a boat in the Caribbean. Anywhere but here, right?

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Birtley

Got back to Durham at last. I'd forgotten how much shit I have. How do I have 9 pairs of shoes?! I don't want to be THAT girl.

Tomorrow's chores:

i) clear out all my crap. If it can't be stuffed in the car, serves no purpose, and/or I forgot I had it, then it's getting chucked.

ii) sort out my car insurance.

iii) job hunt. Craigslist and Gumtree are my friends.

House is empty bar me. Realise how much I dislike this house. Too big, too fancy, too heartless. Looking forward to moving out again.

About to play The Sims 2. Been so long! Possibly am an addict. Haha.

Hard work begins tomorrow. Including updating this journal with all my travels. LOL.

Current Location: Birtley

Who has two thumbs and got into MA English Studies at Durham?

THIS GIRL. *points*

Glee!

Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Location: Whickham

I'm on tenterhooks waiting for Durham Uni to process my application for MA English Lit. They now have all the papers they need, so it's just a case of them up-thumbing or down-thumbing. I'm praying for an up-thumb!

Depending on whether I get into this MA, I think I'll still apply to UC Berkeley (Rhetoric Department, Film Studies specialisation). I'm also going to apply to Cambridge (because if you're going to shoot high, you might as well shoot REALLY high) and - possibly, if I like the course and the lecturers and whatnot - Durham. And also Hull, as my reserve choice.

Work (Estate Agents) is boring. REALLY boring. I'm scratching for things to do by the afternoon, but it's an open office so it's not like you can sit on Word typing fic up without attracting attention. This is of Teh Suck. If I can stand to, I'll stick it out until uni starts in September. If I can't ... well, the recession is receding slowly, right?

Work (Pub) is still a laugh and a half. The hours were a bit weird over Christmas, with a couple of early closes because of the snow (which is yay-making!). I'm working nearly 20 hours at the Pub this week though, on top of 40 at Estate Agents. Eep!

Next week I'm off to Cardiff for my gran's funeral. She passed away on Christmas Day, apparently with no pain. She was my favourite grandparent when I was growing up ... and I'm going to stop thinking about her at work before I start crying. I'm sure it'll be beautiful. That is, if I don't die trying to get there via Milton Keynes to collect my sister on horrific icy roads in a blizzard at night after a 60-hour work week.

Is it geeky that I'm plotting potential chapters for my PhD thesis?

Current Mood: brainy
Current Location: Whickham

Here I am again, posting on a Saturday from a place of work. I've had 5 hours sleep and cold pizza for breakfast. The world is shiiiiiiiiiiny.

Having issues with locating 1200 word literary essay for Durham app. Don't know whether to edit an old one, try to write a new one, or sit and cry in a corner.

I HAVE TOMORROW OFF WORK AND IT'S GOING TO BE GLORIOUS.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Stockton-on-Tees
Current Music: high street traffic

Durham wrote back and said, "Reapply". Which isn't overwhelmingly positive, but I'm pretty hopeful. Apparently the Head of the Taught MA looked at my MA TESOL application and didn't immediately run screaming for the hills. This is a good sign!

So now I need to go through the whole debacle of acquiring references, transcripts, etc, as well as writing an essay on why I should be allowed in, and submitting a 1200 essay on a literary topic. GAH!

Yesterday I picked up an extra shift at Pub. BAD IDEA. Started at 7pm and didn't finish until 2.20am. Got home for just before 3am. Woke up for Estate Agent job at 7am. Won't have seen housemate for 48 hours by the time I get home, which is sort of silly. Also, laundry machines hate me. Tumble dryer won't dry. Washing machine won't spin. Life is a black abyss.

Not working this Sunday. WOOT.

I have no brain.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Whickham

Have applied to Durham to switch from MA TESOL to MA English Literary Studies. Really really want an answer, like, NOW. *drums fingers*

Also, could sleep for a year. Am really starting to not-like the Estate Agent job, but! I only have to last until next September. W00T!

Dropped out of

startrekbigbang because I am made of fail. However, Housemate should make the deadline. I killed her with homemade hot chocolate yesterday, but she has until 8am tomorrow morning. *cracks whip*

New house is awesome! And new! And awesome! It has food in it. I disagreed with the tumble dryer last night, but will attempt to reconcile this evening. Clean clothes vital; dry clean clothes also vital.

Random post is random.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Whickham

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Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 08:24 pm

The Blob

of mushified brainisms

Entries tagged with durham

2am ramble

5am, we hardly knew ye

Student me!

End of 2010 meme

PGCE Update

PGCE Interview

Interview!

Interview!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzombie

Job news

24

Life as we know it

Day 3 in purgatory

Decisioning is hard

From Birtley, with love

DURHAM SQUEE!!

Happy Change-The-Calendar Day! (from 3 days ago)

Overtiiiiiiiime

Woohoo!

What does a man with 2 left feet wear? Flip-flips.

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