National Poetry Day

Today upon the radio
...I learned something I did not know.
......This day, it would appear to be,
.........Is to be filled with poetry.
............Now I've been known from time to time,
...............To pen an epic tale in rhyme,
So here upon this blog I scrawl,
...Dear reader, here I give my all!
......It's been a busy time all told
.........In job hunting I have been bold;
............Pro-active is the phrase I spake
................Whilst touting an employment break.
I went to schools and left my card
...Contacting me should not be hard.
......Supply you need? I'm on my way,
.........I'll stay all week or just the day!
............So far no interviews have come my way
...............One possible said 'no' today.
But that's okay, I'm not upset
...There will have been, I'd like to bet,
......At least four hundred folks applied,
.........And I can always say I tried
............To write a real exciting sheet
...............To make them put me on the leet.
However it was not to be
...The other job? I'll wait and see.
......Now I have to go and play
.........At housework for the rest of day.
.............I hope you have enjoyed my rhyme
................Fare thee well, until next time.......

Oktober-festers more like...

Eugh! Weather is practically bi-polar, one day lovely and sunny, the next gale force winds and monsoon type rain. Still no work and none of my applications coming up with anything positive. Have started the rehearsals for the Juniors' show and have it cast. Now just need to sort out the dates for the performances and make sure everyone is able to be there and then it's onwards and upwards!!
Our Biggar Little Festival week is almost upon us and I'm now back against the wall trying frantically to learn songwords for Mostly Musicals and script for Biggar Shorts. No matter how much time I try to give myself for these tasks, I always end up at the last gasp, giving my ulcers, ulcers in a vain attempt to at least appear in control of the situation...
House is still like a squat - have pushed vacuum about a bit but need to get stuff shifted and either dumped or put away. I suppose I ought to have spent the time out of work getting the house sorted out, but the advent of the Corn Exchange refurbishment knocked that on the head. We have till the 7th Nov to get every stick and scrap out, either to the dump or to storage. I must say it is immensely satisfying to see the order created from the chaos it was, but I can forsee future moans and groans as people realise just how much stuff we had to get rid of. I mean we only have two storage units and we have all the lights and tech equipment still to pack up, not to mention the scenery, curtains and props. In contrast, the house will be here when I'm not!!
Have an evening service to participate in tonight so I'd best be off and get the guitar out of mothballs.. suppose I'd better cut my nails too.....
Till next time,

Yah Boo Sucks!

There, that's just how I feel today! Getting fed up with the continuing lack of a job, but now hoping to get a crack at one or two in yet another Local Authority! Started filling in Application forms yesterday and had to stop at midnight as the eyes were giving up! Talk about complicated!! Some of the questions were sensible and straightforward and some were just evil - I don't see how you can answer the question about why you think you are suited to the job fully and then answer a question about what qualities you will bring to the job without duplicating information. They even give you a space to give any relevant further personal information that you may not have mentioned anywhere else!!!! Talk about overkill? Anyway, I have till the 14th to get the applications in so am having a short break off the brain busting to see if things clarify and gel in my brain before I go back and compose my final answers.
Missed the chance of going to Edinburgh and listening to another concert today as was in with a chance of a supply post - unfortunately I didn't have the Special Needs experience wanted.... so it's just keep on trying!
Will spend the day gathering books and old videos for a Tearfund Coffee Morning which is taking place this Saturday and in doing so will clear my lounge of stuff and generally make things neat and tidy - well that's the plan anyway!
Built my Ikea CD tower and started to fill it - blimey I have a lot of CDs! I think I may even need another one to put them all in! The DVDs are going to go onto the bookshelves that I am clearing out - so there will also be a few DVD racks going to the Coffee Morning sale unless anyone wants them - I have 4!! On that note, maybe I should go back into Twitter and make that known..... Hmmmm.........
Till next time.

And the beat goes on...

So here we are on the cusp of September and nothing changes! Still out of work and looking for supply to keep the wolf from the door. Had a very interesting experience in the local job centre where I went to 'sign on' as it were. Apparently all the National Insurance I've paid over the years is not necessarily enough to ensure my getting what folks of my generation would call 'the dole' or is currently known as 'Jobseekers Allowance'! It is a strange thing to be told that I can work up to 16 hours per week and still be entitled to this allowance, yet if I do one day as a supply teacher (7.5 hrs) I automatically become exempt as the salary for one day supply is so much more than a weeks dole! Similarly, if I do one day's supply, my claim has to be closed; ergo if I do one day supply my claim closes and I don't get any money from them but if I don't get any further work and have to go back to them, I have to start again with another claim!!! Surely this is the most ridiculous thing ever? Why can't it be sensibly dealt with? As 'Big Brother' knows all about my working career and what tax and N.I. I have paid over the years, knows where I work and for how long, then why is it so hard to compute that I'm not working and automatically pay me my unemployment benefit? Is this not a function that the wonderful computers of our era could be harnessed for? After all, there surely is very little of our lives that is not recorded somewhere, somehow.... not that I'm paranoid or anything......
More pleasant things have happened thankfully. Went into Edinburgh with the gang a week past Saturday - they went to see Amanda Palmer and I went to see 'The Time Traveller's Wife' in the pix. They had a whale of a time and I sort of enjoyed the film but perhaps would like to see it again to make some sense out of bits of it! It flies in the face of all the previously mooted theories of time travel. Any other thoughts of time travel seem to have agreed that it would not be a good thing to meet oneself as this would create a paradox, or a matter/antimatter problem, the assumptions being that the same molocules or atoms. I forget which, cannot exist in the same plane in duplicate, if you see what I mean. In this film the main protagonist not only meets himself and speaks to himself, he actively seems to manipulate or organise things that will happen, or set up cover for eventualities. Very strange, but very poignant and a bit of a weepie!! Maybe one to get out of the cheapie bin at Morrisons in six months time......
After watching the film I went down Lothian Road and sat in a pub drinking coffee - yes! Me! - and studied my script for Biggar Shorts while I waited for the boppers to return from the concert. The journey home was hilarious, hysterical at points even!! So, a good time was had by all and we slept soundly that night!
The following night Jen and I went with another friend, Alison, to see Bryn Terfyl in the Usher Hall - brilliant! What a voice the man has! I loved the music and the programme he opted to perform. We were in the organ seats and although Byn had his back to us most of the evening he turned around and sang to us a couple of times!! We even had a singalong! Not quite Kareoke but fun nonetheless. The lyrics were printed in the programme for each piece he sang, this made it so much more interesting to listen to for some reason! I think because when you listen to something you maybe don't know well or have never heard before you concentrate on the words and maybe miss out a bit on the performance. This way the words were there and one could really appreciate the full beuty of the delivery with all its dynamics and nuances! Fabulous!
So... back to the mundane and ordinary again. As I am not working it seems I am expected to tote that barge and lift that bale and get the house into a sparklingly immaculate and pristine condition, as well as complete all laundry and ironing and cook from scratch tasty and nutritious meals!! Where do they get these ideas?
Till next time....

Time vanishes in a flurry

It's late and I'm supposed to be heading off to bed - big day tomorrow, going into town to a book signing. I'm not a particular fan of the artiste involved but the girls are keen. So it's up and at 'em and Devil take the hindmost.
Had an odd sort of holiday, with no teaching job in the offing I've been exercising my ulcer and stress muscles over the past few weeks. Have managed to get onto the supply register for Borders region and that is good, but I still have to have a disclosure check done, they can take weeks, before I can actually do any supply work. West Lothian has nothing coming up and South Lanarkshire are ditto. I've been very fortunate that friend Rosemary has given me holiday cover shifts in her bakery - I've had fun and earned a few bob but it's hot and heavy work at times - I don't know how she does it day in, day out! I'm still hoping a miracle will ocur and that I'll get a post in a school that will develop into a permanent one! But I've rabbited on about this before and so should find other things to blog about. Or even to rant about as I am wont to do in here! My most recent annoyance is that the Panto I've been working on, along with a whole production team, has been pulled. Not because it was no good, but because the refurbishment of the theatre is now actually going ahead. This is a two edged blade for me; on the one hand while I'm delighted that at last we will be getting the, well, quite frankly, desperately needed, work done on the Corn Exchange, the Workshops' autonomous use of the building will be no more. The community use of the building will see to that. While this is good for the community I see it as being a bit of a knell for the workshop, which will no longer be able to operate in the way it has done for years - putting on less well known and even experimental productions which stretched the membership and helped them grow as performers. Instead productions will need to bring in as near to capacity audiences as possible in order to pay for the hire of the theatre and so on and so forth. My pet peeve is that the rewrite I did of the Panto included topical material which will not be remotely usable next year - that's if we do it next year of course, I may get gazumped and find myself pushed out to make way for other productions... My Junior workshop show has also been affected as the theatre will not be open in time for our usual calendar slot in March. Instead we have to go into April, after the Easter holidays, which is not good, you always lose ground over a holiday and the older members are involved in the Gala and the practices for that begin immediately after the Easter hols, so it is a potentially lose/lose situation for the show. As always, I will endeavour to remain positive and upbeat, but one can only have the rug pulled out from under so often before one says "enough is enough"
It is now very well past my bedtime and so I must go and get some shuteye - I started reading a book last night and have no recollection at all of what I read, so I might just go and have another scan over it and see if anything is familiar.
Till next time.

Happy Holidays!

It's finally here! The summer holiday!! How can I contain myself?! Off up to Dornoch for a couple of weeks with the laptop, books, Nintendo, Dvds, iPod, audiobooks (thanks David!) memory sticks to sort and tidy up, scripts to rework, type up and learn respectively. Walks to take, sights to see, Torchwood to watch, sleep to catch up on, food to cook and eat, how the dickens am I supposed to fit all this into a fortnight holiday? Answers on a postcard please...
Had a lovely day in Glasgow on Tuesday - bought more stuff to read, watch and to listen to and walked the feet off - good times! Weather is being particularly good at the moment and it is making such a difference to life - the sun seems to inject one with a sunnier disposition than is normally elicited by the usual drizzle and chill we are accustomed to suffering in July!
However - wondering whether I'm going to manage to get the packing done without a major hassle. the washing maching has decided to sulk and tossed it's agitator bars out of the drum and I'm hoping for a visit from the engineer to sort it all out tomorrow. Unfortunately I can't tell when he will turn up so will have to sit tight and wait for him, and then it's a hit or miss whether he'll be able to fix it or not.
Got sight of some pretty funky drawings of proposed plans for a building I'm fond of - they look awesome and I can't wait till they become real. I have some misgivings about the operation of the building once it's been altered and the role my interested party will have to play within it, but am prepared to sit back and watch and learn before throwing my hat into the ring!
Had a rather heavy day, working in the bakery - a few shekels to subsidise the lack of gainful employment in my chosen career. It was very hot work and I'm totally cream crackered. Going off to bed now having indulged myself for a lot longer than I would normally - sitting here reading blogs and Twittering, chatting on Facebook and writing on my own blog. In between times I'm swatting an incredibly annoying fly which is bibbling about in front of my face and once I'm finished here I'm off to get the electric tennis racket and will then proceed to fry the offending insect!!
If I don't see you before I depart for Dornoch, have a great time doing whatever you'll be doing, and remember, Life is not a rehearsal, but don't do anything I wouldn't do! (Gives you plenty of scope!)
Till next time!

Never a dull moment

It's been a while I know but I have been trying to get an awful lot of stuff done. With little success I might add!
Still on supply, still no sign of a job of my own and still no signs of there actually ever being any jobs available for us poor out of work teachers! I may have to rethink my career change and go hunting for a different one. Maybe a few shifts in the Co op each week to keep the wolf from the door. Who knows where it's all going to end up but I will not stop trying.
All things seem to be drifting to an end this month. Our favourite TV programmes (not that we watch many) are all at the season finale stage, Ashes to Ashes, Desperate Housewives and The Apprentice - all done, so to speak. We have the summer(?) to get through and then the next onslaught of stuff we like will appear. Torchwood, Dr Who and maybe one or two other things might grab our attention and we'll be hooked for another wee while!
Soon I'll be starting the next theatre things, the Juniors show and the Seniors' Panto. The music for the Panto is a truly eclectic mix with literally something for everyone! The Juniors show will be a lot of fun I think, but in both cases I need to get a bash on and get the scripts sorted out. The fortnight break up to Dornoch will provide me with a good opportunity to get things organised and brought up to speed. Laptop, scripts and a few books will see me through, will listen to music and really chill out. But before I get to that level of nirvana I'm going to have to get a grip on the house and get it shipshape and Bristol fashion! No easy task as it turns out, as the days I was expecting to have clear to catch up in look now to be filled with working days - not that I'm complaining - I'm very grateful for the work - and the wages, I just had not planned to be working the last week of term and had decided to get on with some heavy chores before the holibags in that time. Now I have to revamp and see what can be done in evenings. Got the garden, such as it is, done yesterday and will attack the ironing tonight while watching the last episode of The Apprentice. The rest will have to wait and see what time allows for.
So that's how far we are - not much further that before really but, hey what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Till next time,