Archives
Current thinking
1) What on earth should I wear on my first day at college?
2) My bed is too big for me
3) Where is my kitten and on a related note what was that giant crash?
4) It's been over 24 hours since I had a drink or a cigarette... worryingly at the moment, this is an achievement!
5) Does my bum look big in this?
6) Should I sort out my roots or keep them like Sarah Jessica Parker?
7) I hope my house in London is still standing and my tenant is clean.
8) I wonder when I will fall in love again...
9) Life is a blast when the recommended reading for your course is made into a BBC documentary and then repeated three times daily on Sky.
10) Thank god Trisha isn't my mother...
Mis-education.
I just went out for lunch with my parents and on the back of me becoming a teacher we were talking about the changing face of education. My mother had gone to a grammer school, but my father had attended a comprehensive and had left school before his exams to become an apprentice. For his whole life he has worked his ass off to become a highly successful business man. Certainly, if I'm honest, his success makes my life easier on a daily basis.
Dad: I'll tell you a secret thought Daise
Daisy: What is it dad?
Dad: When I got my first job as an apprentice commercial artist I earn't a pound a week.
Daisy: *Rolls eyes because she has heard this a hundred times, especially when she purchases new shoes*
Dad: And so I saved up every penny I could and applied to do a correspondance course to get my GCE's... it cost me £60.00.
Daisy: £60... Oh my god... how long did you save for?
Dad: I saved every penny I could for three years... but when I finally got the course through the post, it was too hard and so I never finished it...
Daisy: Jesus... I'm so proud of you...
Dad: You would have been prouder if I'd actually got the qualifications though huh?
My father had never divulged this secret to anyone for the last 43 years because he was ashamed his lack of education, all I can say is that I've never been prouder or more humbled in my life.
Grand skinny mocha latte with carmel please
I ventured forth into Liverpool city centre this morning to find myself a bag for college and some new cowboy boots (chocolate brown). I shopped myself into oblivion and then in exhaustion looked around desperately for some kind of saviour. And lo, in a god like fashion - there was a Starbucks infront of me, and I was happy, for I heard rumours of such a place here. It was like coming home.
I entered the Starbucks and waited in the queue. It certainly looked like a familar Starbucks but to my surprise and horror the cashiers were actually smiling at the customers, who in turn didn't appear to as yet have learned the magic Starbucks language.
'Can I have a coffee please mate?'
'What size?'
'Erm, coffee sized? Medium?
'What type of coffee?'
'With milk....'
'What type of milk?
'....'
And so it continued.... Each customer took several minutes to order and yet the staff seemed happy and smiley, sometimes they even cracked a joke... What was wrong with them?
So. when it finally got to my turn I thought I would show these naive natives what Starbucks was really all about. After all I have several years of corporate coffee ordering experience, learned in London, New York and LA and it was really my duty to give them the benefit of said experience.
'Tall, skinny latte.' I said in my best queens English. I made sure that I didn't make eye contact with the server naturally and when she smiled at me I raised my eyebrow very very slowly at her.
I think they were all grateful for me showing them the correct procedure in this way, because, as I grabbed my latte and headed for the door I was aware of several pairs of eyes staring at my back and I'm sure I saw the server scowl at me as I picked up my coffee, just like people in Starbucks should.
I'm definitely fitting in better here now.
Today.
Today I have to register at my college. I start my lessons properly on Monday.
After all of this time waiting for this moment, it would seem inevitable to forget why I am really taking my PGCE and what initially triggered my desire to be a history teacher. Certainly, I have been spending more time worrying about my hair than about the course content in the past few days... but then perhaps that is a defence mechanism because my hair is so much easier to control (even when it's humid).
But I was just watching the last documentary by Simon Schama about the History of Britain while I ate my breakfast and I found myself in tears as footage was showed of Winston Churchills funeral (certain parts of history - like the death of a great man - have always affected me physically). My passion for what I am about to do is still there because I adore my subject, because I am so proud of the history of this country and it's (not always noble) past which is flowing through my vains.
Lord, but I sound totally overdramatic (I blame Winstons rousing speeches) but I think what I am trying to convey here is that this afternoon I'm about to take a huge leap of faith not into the unknown, but into the welcome arms of a lost lover who has so much more to teach me.
I'm so excited, not that I get to flirt with the students, hang out at the cheap bar and get 10% discount in Topshop, but rather that finally, after a very long time away... I am coming home.
Extra, extra!
I'm going to be on Hollyoaks!!
We are filming tomorrow... Ohhh I hope I get to sink a pint in the Dog...
Or maybe Tony will cook me lunch.
He he he.
Extra time.
Am about to leave the house to play a 'customer in Gnosh', obviously I have spent the morning working out my motivation, and applying my lipgloss.
I promise to:
a) try to send you sneaky camera phone shots
b) try to snog Dan Humter, or Ben - or that other bloke they live with
c) give Craig Dean Laurieloo's number....
Wish me luck.
Blink and you'll miss me.
In about 6 weeks, if you happen to be watching Hollyoaks then you might catch a glimpse of a blonde girl in a green coat buying some groceries off Max in Drive and Buy. If you do see her, then you might care to know that in her shopping bag she has 2 tins of beans, 1 tin of sausages and some rice. She doesn't actually pay for the groceries although Max does slam the till shut, but then later she has to give them back anyway.
Later the same girl happens to be strolling past Lee Hunter and OB as she wanders from the launderette to Gnosh, where one would assume she would be buying a coffee (that is if it wasn't full of broken fireworks and pieces of camera - with no sign of Tony). She's still in the area later because you might just glimpse her hanging out by a tree, perhaps she is hoping to chat up Dan Hunter, but sadly he doesn't seem to be around.
So, she gives up and as Max and Lee quarrel outside Gnosh she decides to sneak for a quick cigarette in the beer garden of the Dog in the Pond...