Pig Sty Avenue

"i don't care if your a fictional character created by Mary Shelley, you are still coming with us" , originally uploaded by i didn't mean to go to Stoke . This photo (by i didn't mean to go to Stoke ) gets me thinking: I need to get out more - go places where I can take photos. As it is, I'm stuck in almost all weekend, every weekend. I don't mind so much with studying, but today's its work, marking. I fucking hate this job. Thank God there's only four more weeks of it. The burden of marking, with nearly 80 students, is seriously damaging to a personal life.

We moved here because the mother-in-law is frail and elderly, and needed us down-the-street rather than four hours away. I was very pleased to get five weeks pre-sessional teaching at a Major Scottish University (MSU). I got another week at the end of the pre-sessional as a nominal ESOL teacher to a group of Japanese students; in fact, I mostly supervised them around places like Glasgow School of Art and Stirling Castle. I enjoyed all of this, more or less. And then I was really chuffed to find that there was a thing called (or any rate this is what I'm going to call it) the Strathclyde International Institute. This was not-quite part of the University. It's role was to put international students through a term or two's course which would put them onto being able to join either undergraduate or masters' courses at MSU. The University was responsible for recruiting and paying the part time teachers who formed the bulk of the teaching staff. This ensured SII had ...

In 2003, in between teaching jobs, I worked for a couple of weeks recycling rubbish. We'd drive around Newcastle and North Tyneside, two of the younger blokes would run around collecting the boxes full of paper, tins, and plastic, and pass them into me and another bloke in the back of the lorry, where we'd sort the contents, and send them back out. It was really hard work, a long day. Anyhow. The first day, there were three or four of us new starters, and I got talking to one bloke. He told me that he had to do this sort of thing twice a year or so, to keep the dole off his back. He didn't like to work. I was impressed that he was so dedicated to not working that he would manage on £55 a week and a load of hassle. I asked him why he did it. "When I'm at home, I can just please myself." Sure enough, he managed a few days, complained of feeling unwell one morning, and was sent home and told not to return. I can just please myself... I knew what he mea...

Of course, one can speculate about what labour opportunities Sri Lankans will have in Libya . What skills do they have that Libya needs? And does it mean one'll be able to get a decent curry?

Yes. I can. Early in the new year. Inshallah.

Few blogs, and no news outlets will not refer to this story , so let's get it out of the way. At the end of our working day, most people head for the exits asap. But last night was remarkable because we started to discuss this and all continued to debate it, whilst our own hearths or the pub beckoned unsuccesfully. One person thought they couldn't have done it, one person thought that they probably did, (me, as it happens), and the rest were thoroughly nonplussed.