I don't usually blog twice in the same night, but I felt this matter deserved an update.
Currently reading:
'Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo (an abridged edition)
Next few books lined up:
'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury
'David Copperfield' by Charles Dickens
'Breakfast at Tiffany's' by Truman Capote (might actually get it read this time...)
'Emma' by Jane Austen
The rest of the list, currently at the foot of my bed:
'Ghostwritten' by David Mitchell
'The Canterbury Tales' by Geoffrey Chaucer
'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest' by Stieg Larsson
'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
'Kafka on the Shore' by Haruki Murakami
'Grimm's Fairy Tales' by the Brothers Grimm
'Death of a Ladies' Man' by Alan Bissett
'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens
'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden
'The Great Gatsby' by F Scott Fitzgerald
'England, England' by Julian Barnes
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde
'Transition' by Iain Banks
'Northanger Abbey' by Jane Austen
'The Incredible Adam Spark' by Alan Bissett
'The Mill on the Floss' by George Eliot
'A Scanner Darkly' by Philip K Dick
'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson (another one I started at uni and never finished)
'After Dark' by Haruki Murakami
'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' by Anne Bronte (after all, I've read both her sisters)
'The Death of Bunny Munro' by Nick Cave
'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling
'The Handmaids' Tale' by Margaret Atwood
'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen
'Post Office' - Charles Bukowski
'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe
'Hope for Newborns' by Rodge Glass
'Kidnapped' by Robert Louis Stevenson
'Wetlands' by Charlotte Roche (tee hee)
'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain
'Running With Scissors' by Augusten Burroughs
'The Wind in the Willows' by Kenneth Grahame
'The Bullet Trick' by Louise Welsh
'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens (probably a little early in the year for it, but I've seen so many adaptations of it)
'Sputnik Sweetheart' by Haruki Murakami
'Kim' by Rudyard Kipling
'Old Men in Love' by Alasdair Gray
'Persuasion' by Jane Austen
'The Men Who Stare At Goats' by Jon Ronson
'Selected Poems' by Robert Burns
'A Partisan's Daughter' by Louis de Bernieres
'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy
'Pulp' by Charles Bukowski
'Dangerous Liaisons' by Laclos
Phew...but then again, you can never have too many books.
Fuck, it's 0223 according to my laptop clock :/ Better go to bed and perhaps make some headway on this list on my way. G'night!
Photo by Chris Scott
Friday, 17 September 2010
The Pope Was In Glasgow? Honest, I'd Never Have Guessed.
That's bullshit, of course. Needless to say, I did not take part in the Popefest. I didn't even go to work that day - much as they were anticipating an Epic Onslaught as they do on such occasions - although I did have two other excuses that conveniently helped. The first was an optician's appointment I had that morning in the ongoing saga of my contact lenses (I'm due new ones made of a lovely fresher material - thank fuck, cause I think I must have got soap in my current set since they keep burning my eyes). The other excuse, though, was a book launch - no, not another Cargo affair. This launch - held in the Sauchiehall St branch of Waterstone's in Glasgow - was that of Dougie's War, a graphic novel written by Rodge Glass and illustrated by Dave Turbitt. I may have mentioned this previously, but Rodge edited 'The Year of Open Doors', Cargo's recent short story anthology. As well as this, some of us at Cargo - myself included - studied under him at Strathclyde University, where he currently lectures in creative writing (and before that was writer-in-residence). So I'm trying not to be completely and utterly biased when I write this.
The story concerns Dougie, a young veteran of the war in Afghanistan who returns home to the southside of Glasgow. We find out about his experiences and his struggle to adapt to civilian life, made more difficult by the symptoms of post-traumatic stress he exhibits. Making it a graphic novel was a wise move - it's definitely more effective for this. The story itself is compelling (the author did his homework - kudos, Dr G), but the illustrations bring it to life massively, making it altogether more harrowing, and a lot easier to sympathise with Dougie and what he goes through. Overall, I would definitely recommend it.
The story concerns Dougie, a young veteran of the war in Afghanistan who returns home to the southside of Glasgow. We find out about his experiences and his struggle to adapt to civilian life, made more difficult by the symptoms of post-traumatic stress he exhibits. Making it a graphic novel was a wise move - it's definitely more effective for this. The story itself is compelling (the author did his homework - kudos, Dr G), but the illustrations bring it to life massively, making it altogether more harrowing, and a lot easier to sympathise with Dougie and what he goes through. Overall, I would definitely recommend it.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
I ain't ever satisfied
That's the title for this entry because I am still miffed about missing Steve Earle in Shetland on Thursday. I really, really need a trip home.
Anywomb...
Worked my first Saturday evening at the busiest station on the subway network. It was pandemonium. First of all, that station has four ticket machines. Of these four, three were completely kaput and the fourth was in action intermittently. This meant there were several points during the evening when I had large queues. One guy complained that we should have a second window. Then there were the drunken idiots. We shouldn't let passengers who are drunk travel, but if we turned away all the drunk people we ever had we'd lose so much money. (Yeah, I'm in corporate whore mode.) Of course, the trouble with drunk folk is serving them. They drop their money, or when they don't, it's the wrong amount. When you tell them this, they tut loudly, thinking they got away with it (junkies tend to be much the same). Last night, though, I had three guys try and get singles back into town. One tried to say "Aw, c'mon, three fir two an ah'll gie ye a kiss." Needless to say, he was turned down. Didn't stop him, though - he simply tried to get me to leave him a mark on the glass panel between us. He was ignored. At that stage he decided to get my attention by leaping the barriers, at which stage I got the manager involved. They did still get to travel but we probably shouldn't have let them.
(I'd like to point out here - although I'm well aware his attitude was probably the drink talking, I actually can't stand being openly flirted with anyway. I prefer a guy to get into my head before he tries to get into my pants. I am, after all, human.)
Earlier in the shift, we'd had a passenger with an unlimited pass for all the city's public transport trying to get through the barrier. He needed his pass validated and wasn't keen to wait in the queue to do this, and got stroppy when we told him to. After swearing at the manager he was ejected. Later we got a pished guy with a season ticket for the train (not the subway; you wouldn't believe how many folk are bad for that) and got arsey when we told him it wasn't valid. He also insulted the station manager - right in front of the security guys. So he also got ejected.
That shift was enough for me to get my finger out with this application for the library job. I was, however, cheered up by today's event at Platform with Cargo again, which was a great day in all. We've still got more to go. Meanwhile our editor of the Year of Open Doors is having a launch for his new graphic novel, Dougie's War on Thursday, so we're all looking forward to that.
Merlin is back on telly - I'd missed it. Along with Doctor Who and Sherlock, it's one of the Beeb's best. I'm also watching Dead Set over 4OD, about two years later. It's pretty creepy. Thank fuck for Youtube having Mr Men episodes to cheer me up...
Anywomb...
Worked my first Saturday evening at the busiest station on the subway network. It was pandemonium. First of all, that station has four ticket machines. Of these four, three were completely kaput and the fourth was in action intermittently. This meant there were several points during the evening when I had large queues. One guy complained that we should have a second window. Then there were the drunken idiots. We shouldn't let passengers who are drunk travel, but if we turned away all the drunk people we ever had we'd lose so much money. (Yeah, I'm in corporate whore mode.) Of course, the trouble with drunk folk is serving them. They drop their money, or when they don't, it's the wrong amount. When you tell them this, they tut loudly, thinking they got away with it (junkies tend to be much the same). Last night, though, I had three guys try and get singles back into town. One tried to say "Aw, c'mon, three fir two an ah'll gie ye a kiss." Needless to say, he was turned down. Didn't stop him, though - he simply tried to get me to leave him a mark on the glass panel between us. He was ignored. At that stage he decided to get my attention by leaping the barriers, at which stage I got the manager involved. They did still get to travel but we probably shouldn't have let them.
(I'd like to point out here - although I'm well aware his attitude was probably the drink talking, I actually can't stand being openly flirted with anyway. I prefer a guy to get into my head before he tries to get into my pants. I am, after all, human.)
Earlier in the shift, we'd had a passenger with an unlimited pass for all the city's public transport trying to get through the barrier. He needed his pass validated and wasn't keen to wait in the queue to do this, and got stroppy when we told him to. After swearing at the manager he was ejected. Later we got a pished guy with a season ticket for the train (not the subway; you wouldn't believe how many folk are bad for that) and got arsey when we told him it wasn't valid. He also insulted the station manager - right in front of the security guys. So he also got ejected.
That shift was enough for me to get my finger out with this application for the library job. I was, however, cheered up by today's event at Platform with Cargo again, which was a great day in all. We've still got more to go. Meanwhile our editor of the Year of Open Doors is having a launch for his new graphic novel, Dougie's War on Thursday, so we're all looking forward to that.
Merlin is back on telly - I'd missed it. Along with Doctor Who and Sherlock, it's one of the Beeb's best. I'm also watching Dead Set over 4OD, about two years later. It's pretty creepy. Thank fuck for Youtube having Mr Men episodes to cheer me up...
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
I'd give you everything I've got for a little piece of mind
This ended up turning into one of those evenings when I ended up simply trying to catch up on sleep following an early shift, and slept till about 2:30am. I hate such nights.
I've found a job to apply for in one of the libraries in Glasgow. I think it'll suit me better than my current paid job - assuming I'm considered to have enough experience for it.
I now own a printer at last :)
I'm still involved with the publisher and loving it a lot.
I still haven't found a new home yet. There's nothing within my price range in the west end. Having been to the south side the other night for an open mic night with a friend I'm starting to think it might be just as good, plus not as pricey. Besides, all the writer types seem to be living there. Funny how all the parts of the city that aren't the west end have thus far contained a major pull factor for me. I discovered the advantage of Dennistoun in the latter two years of uni because about 70% of my friends from the union (at least, the ones who didn't live at home) lived either there or in the Merchant City. I could only name you two of them who lived somewhere in the south side (one lives in Dennistoun now) and three in the west end, and one in north Glasgow (who, to my knowledge anyway, no longer lives there). Now I've graduated and gotten properly into the writing scene, still hardly anyone seems to be in the west end.
It's not that I think the west end is a bad place - it's not at all. It's full of lovely things. It deserves its good reputation for the most part. But after a while, when you've lived there too long, you start to take it for granted.
I wish I could think of something exciting to put in here. I promise it'll be exciting next time.
I've found a job to apply for in one of the libraries in Glasgow. I think it'll suit me better than my current paid job - assuming I'm considered to have enough experience for it.
I now own a printer at last :)
I'm still involved with the publisher and loving it a lot.
I still haven't found a new home yet. There's nothing within my price range in the west end. Having been to the south side the other night for an open mic night with a friend I'm starting to think it might be just as good, plus not as pricey. Besides, all the writer types seem to be living there. Funny how all the parts of the city that aren't the west end have thus far contained a major pull factor for me. I discovered the advantage of Dennistoun in the latter two years of uni because about 70% of my friends from the union (at least, the ones who didn't live at home) lived either there or in the Merchant City. I could only name you two of them who lived somewhere in the south side (one lives in Dennistoun now) and three in the west end, and one in north Glasgow (who, to my knowledge anyway, no longer lives there). Now I've graduated and gotten properly into the writing scene, still hardly anyone seems to be in the west end.
It's not that I think the west end is a bad place - it's not at all. It's full of lovely things. It deserves its good reputation for the most part. But after a while, when you've lived there too long, you start to take it for granted.
I wish I could think of something exciting to put in here. I promise it'll be exciting next time.
Monday, 23 August 2010
I need a big weekend to kick up the dust, big weekend, if you don't run, you rust.
Big weekend? Well, I lifted the titular lyric from the Tom Petty song of the same name, but anyway, I definitely had one.
The publishing company I currently work for had events on at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this weekend, and we had an absolute ball making our presence known. So far, we've had an awesome reaction to the book we put out last month (and - here's me in sales mode - methinks you ought to buy it from the website, pretty please). We were even allowed in the authors' yurt - as in the big tent they all sit in to prepare for their show. They even let us drink their wine and eat their apples. We had a lot of promoting to do too. The other stuff outwith the book festival involved wandering around Edinburgh city centre while my boss and our events person hunted down a 24 hour shop in order to procure cigarettes, and the following evening we had a pre-event tea at the nearest Wetherspoon's which involved ripping the piss out of their Edinburgh Festival menu (50p dearer than their Rest Of The Year menu, as our editor / resident comedian was quick to point out - it looked the same to me). I was on my feet so much I now have a huge blister on my right heel. But it was worth it, because I'm so proud of what we're doing and I feel privileged to have been involved. It's not quite over yet - we're part of the final night of the festival too next week. But I have a feeling that this may be a summer I look back on with some fondness. Still not sure if I'll consider 2010 to be the best of years, but it's so far had a lot of good things about it.
I'm also still looking for a new home. I do at least have the advantage of now having a friend in a similar situation to move in with, so I'm now looking for a whole flat as opposed to just a room with strangers. This does at least give me a little more freedom, which is never a bad thing. It's just that we've picked such a shit time of year to actually be looking for something - seems like all the students are snapping the nice flats up. Now that I'm no longer a student I'm starting to see how annoying that is. It can't take long, though. Surely?
The publishing company I currently work for had events on at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this weekend, and we had an absolute ball making our presence known. So far, we've had an awesome reaction to the book we put out last month (and - here's me in sales mode - methinks you ought to buy it from the website, pretty please). We were even allowed in the authors' yurt - as in the big tent they all sit in to prepare for their show. They even let us drink their wine and eat their apples. We had a lot of promoting to do too. The other stuff outwith the book festival involved wandering around Edinburgh city centre while my boss and our events person hunted down a 24 hour shop in order to procure cigarettes, and the following evening we had a pre-event tea at the nearest Wetherspoon's which involved ripping the piss out of their Edinburgh Festival menu (50p dearer than their Rest Of The Year menu, as our editor / resident comedian was quick to point out - it looked the same to me). I was on my feet so much I now have a huge blister on my right heel. But it was worth it, because I'm so proud of what we're doing and I feel privileged to have been involved. It's not quite over yet - we're part of the final night of the festival too next week. But I have a feeling that this may be a summer I look back on with some fondness. Still not sure if I'll consider 2010 to be the best of years, but it's so far had a lot of good things about it.
I'm also still looking for a new home. I do at least have the advantage of now having a friend in a similar situation to move in with, so I'm now looking for a whole flat as opposed to just a room with strangers. This does at least give me a little more freedom, which is never a bad thing. It's just that we've picked such a shit time of year to actually be looking for something - seems like all the students are snapping the nice flats up. Now that I'm no longer a student I'm starting to see how annoying that is. It can't take long, though. Surely?
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Book List As It Stands Just Now
I'm officially back into reading books again :D
I've finally managed to get most of the books that I bought / borrowed within the last two years read. I didn't make much headway on these during uni because I tended to prioritise the stuff I was reading for classes, which ended up not really working for me because (a) some of the books I read for class were utter, utter shite, (b) I usually didn't get through the books I was reading for fun at a particularly fast pace, and (c) reading went from being a favourite hobby to a chore I carried out. There's nothing worse than when (c) happens. I was still bulk buying books though. As I mentioned before, I'm addicted to buying them from Fopp - they're always (well, usually) pretty cheap, or at least decent value for money for what you pay for them.
I'm not actually totally sure how many books I've got through at this point in time, or what order they're in off the top of my head. But amongst the ones I've read are:
'Mrs Dalloway' - Virginia Woolf
'Q&A' - Vikas Swarup
'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' - Stieg Larsson
'Dracula' - Bram Stoker
'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' - Louis De Bernieres
'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' - Jean Dominique Bauby
'Neverwhere' - Neil Gaiman
'The Road' - Cormac McCarthy
'The Vampire Lestat' and 'Queen of the Damned' - Anne Rice
A couple of the Isabel Dalhousie books by Alexander McCall Smith
I could go into more depth but I fear I'd bore you.
I bulk-bought a load more books from Fopp in dribs and drabs whenever I could afford them. This, as I've stated before, is why I'm thankful for those cheap classics Penguin sell on recycled paper. But they sell loads of other good books too. There are other places that sell good books - HMV, for instance. I've also got a basket load saved on Amazon, but not sure when I'll get those bought - have to conserve the few funds I do have, having been massively buggered about with my pay packet this month. But anyway...I've now made a dent in the 'new list' (so-called).
Currently reading: 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens.
Next two which I keep on my person to be read next: 'Poor Things' by Alasdair Gray and 'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville
The rest:
'Dead Until Dark' - Charlaine Harris
'The Hound of the Baskervilles' - Arthur Conan Doyle
'No Country For Old Men' - Cormac McCarthy
'Vanity Fair' - William Makepeace Thackeray
'Smoke and Mirrors' - Neil Gaiman
'Pride and Prejudice' - Jane Austen
'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' - Haruki Murakami
'Madame Bovary' - Gustave Flaubert
'The Girl Who Played With Fire' - Stieg Larsson
'Les Miserables' - Victor Hugo
'Fahrenheit 451' - Ray Bradbury
'David Copperfield' - Charles Dickens
'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - Truman Capote
'Emma' - Jane Austen
'Ghostwritten' - David Mitchell
'The Canterbury Tales' - Geoffrey Chaucer
'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest' - Stieg Larsson
'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' - Arthur Conan Doyle
'Kafka on the Shore' - Haruki Murakami
'Grimm's Fairy Tales' - The Brothers Grimm (yes, this was among the Penguin Popular Classics I found in Fopp. No joke)
'Death of a Ladies' Man' - Alan Bissett
'Oliver Twist' - Charles Dickens
'Memoirs of a Geisha' - Arthur Golden
'The Great Gatsby' - F Scott Fitzgerald
'England, England' - Julian Barnes
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' - Oscar Wilde
Phew! That's the list so far...it'll have increased soon enough, mark my words.
Edit: two new additions - 'Transition' by Iain Banks and 'Northanger Abbey' by Jane Austen
I've finally managed to get most of the books that I bought / borrowed within the last two years read. I didn't make much headway on these during uni because I tended to prioritise the stuff I was reading for classes, which ended up not really working for me because (a) some of the books I read for class were utter, utter shite, (b) I usually didn't get through the books I was reading for fun at a particularly fast pace, and (c) reading went from being a favourite hobby to a chore I carried out. There's nothing worse than when (c) happens. I was still bulk buying books though. As I mentioned before, I'm addicted to buying them from Fopp - they're always (well, usually) pretty cheap, or at least decent value for money for what you pay for them.
I'm not actually totally sure how many books I've got through at this point in time, or what order they're in off the top of my head. But amongst the ones I've read are:
'Mrs Dalloway' - Virginia Woolf
'Q&A' - Vikas Swarup
'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' - Stieg Larsson
'Dracula' - Bram Stoker
'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' - Louis De Bernieres
'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' - Jean Dominique Bauby
'Neverwhere' - Neil Gaiman
'The Road' - Cormac McCarthy
'The Vampire Lestat' and 'Queen of the Damned' - Anne Rice
A couple of the Isabel Dalhousie books by Alexander McCall Smith
I could go into more depth but I fear I'd bore you.
I bulk-bought a load more books from Fopp in dribs and drabs whenever I could afford them. This, as I've stated before, is why I'm thankful for those cheap classics Penguin sell on recycled paper. But they sell loads of other good books too. There are other places that sell good books - HMV, for instance. I've also got a basket load saved on Amazon, but not sure when I'll get those bought - have to conserve the few funds I do have, having been massively buggered about with my pay packet this month. But anyway...I've now made a dent in the 'new list' (so-called).
Currently reading: 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens.
Next two which I keep on my person to be read next: 'Poor Things' by Alasdair Gray and 'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville
The rest:
'Dead Until Dark' - Charlaine Harris
'The Hound of the Baskervilles' - Arthur Conan Doyle
'No Country For Old Men' - Cormac McCarthy
'Vanity Fair' - William Makepeace Thackeray
'Smoke and Mirrors' - Neil Gaiman
'Pride and Prejudice' - Jane Austen
'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' - Haruki Murakami
'Madame Bovary' - Gustave Flaubert
'The Girl Who Played With Fire' - Stieg Larsson
'Les Miserables' - Victor Hugo
'Fahrenheit 451' - Ray Bradbury
'David Copperfield' - Charles Dickens
'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - Truman Capote
'Emma' - Jane Austen
'Ghostwritten' - David Mitchell
'The Canterbury Tales' - Geoffrey Chaucer
'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest' - Stieg Larsson
'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' - Arthur Conan Doyle
'Kafka on the Shore' - Haruki Murakami
'Grimm's Fairy Tales' - The Brothers Grimm (yes, this was among the Penguin Popular Classics I found in Fopp. No joke)
'Death of a Ladies' Man' - Alan Bissett
'Oliver Twist' - Charles Dickens
'Memoirs of a Geisha' - Arthur Golden
'The Great Gatsby' - F Scott Fitzgerald
'England, England' - Julian Barnes
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' - Oscar Wilde
Phew! That's the list so far...it'll have increased soon enough, mark my words.
Edit: two new additions - 'Transition' by Iain Banks and 'Northanger Abbey' by Jane Austen
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Where Will I Go From Here?
This blog has been brought to you by a severe case of insomnia. I'm not even lying. I've actually not slept at the time of writing this. I'm working in an hour and a half too - that'll be even more fun.
Speaking of work...I'm still not too sure that job is even going to last beyond summer. If they offered to keep me on the roster beyond then I'd be delighted. But there's no guarantee of that. The other problem is one of a flat hunt. I'm not meant to be in this accommodation for an awful lot longer. I can't really take on something I can't afford, but I don't know what else to do.
I also still need to make some headway on Masters applications. It's highly unlikely I'll get in, being that I've been insanely slack on writing since leaving uni. But I'll see how those go. If I don't manage, there's always the option of the JET programme.
I've wanted to go back to Japan since going there first in 2005, but the hankering has intensified since graduation. I initially wasn't sure what I'd actually do when / if I went back, but I knew it wouldn't be an exchange programme, like it had been the first time. It would also be for longer than the previous eight days (which were during rainy season, boo!). Seriously, what I wouldn't give to sit on a tatami mat in a kimono, eating proper Japanese food...well, save fried prawns, a week of those makes you a little sick of them. Not to mention that pickle shaped like a dehydrated slug, eww. I imagine I'd go for six months - I can't quite imagine a whole year abroad, if I'm honest. But I think teaching English sounds good. I considered just drifting around, but that seems a bit aimless, and I've never been one to do things spontaneously.
There's a couple of things I'm not sure about, though.
For one thing...I need to actually sort out a new passport. Mine expired three years ago this month and I haven't a new one. The passport office is down here, but getting it renewed on the spot is pricey.
There's the matter of cost as well - I'd need to save up a hell of a lot of money.
Finally...so far I'm doing okay down here, out of getting my internship and all that. If I left Glasgow I might lose out on all that. I'd love the experience of the JET programme, but I don't intend to ever settle abroad (I think I'd appreciate it more for this reason), nor do I intend to make a career of teaching. I think, though, that being out of the country for a while would do me a lot of good. It might give me a little space to think, it could inspire me...that old chestnut. It's true, though.
So yeah, there we have it - if the CW Masters ends up being a no-goer, JET programme will get a look. Anyway...I have to be at work in about an hour and haven't had my breakfast yet.
Speaking of work...I'm still not too sure that job is even going to last beyond summer. If they offered to keep me on the roster beyond then I'd be delighted. But there's no guarantee of that. The other problem is one of a flat hunt. I'm not meant to be in this accommodation for an awful lot longer. I can't really take on something I can't afford, but I don't know what else to do.
I also still need to make some headway on Masters applications. It's highly unlikely I'll get in, being that I've been insanely slack on writing since leaving uni. But I'll see how those go. If I don't manage, there's always the option of the JET programme.
I've wanted to go back to Japan since going there first in 2005, but the hankering has intensified since graduation. I initially wasn't sure what I'd actually do when / if I went back, but I knew it wouldn't be an exchange programme, like it had been the first time. It would also be for longer than the previous eight days (which were during rainy season, boo!). Seriously, what I wouldn't give to sit on a tatami mat in a kimono, eating proper Japanese food...well, save fried prawns, a week of those makes you a little sick of them. Not to mention that pickle shaped like a dehydrated slug, eww. I imagine I'd go for six months - I can't quite imagine a whole year abroad, if I'm honest. But I think teaching English sounds good. I considered just drifting around, but that seems a bit aimless, and I've never been one to do things spontaneously.
There's a couple of things I'm not sure about, though.
For one thing...I need to actually sort out a new passport. Mine expired three years ago this month and I haven't a new one. The passport office is down here, but getting it renewed on the spot is pricey.
There's the matter of cost as well - I'd need to save up a hell of a lot of money.
Finally...so far I'm doing okay down here, out of getting my internship and all that. If I left Glasgow I might lose out on all that. I'd love the experience of the JET programme, but I don't intend to ever settle abroad (I think I'd appreciate it more for this reason), nor do I intend to make a career of teaching. I think, though, that being out of the country for a while would do me a lot of good. It might give me a little space to think, it could inspire me...that old chestnut. It's true, though.
So yeah, there we have it - if the CW Masters ends up being a no-goer, JET programme will get a look. Anyway...I have to be at work in about an hour and haven't had my breakfast yet.
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