Falling behind a bit here, but this Monday was Warped’s annual Halloween Pub Crawl, in which we go around pubs in fancy dress that is vaguely sci-fi/fantasy related. This year the pub crawl happened to be on Halloween night anyway, but with it being reading week and Riftworld (some LARP event) the turnout was slightly smaller than usual at only ten people.
Having said that, there was a wide variety of costumes, and people had definitely put in an effort this year. I went as Jon Pertwee (third actor to play Doctor Who), using my dinner shirt, trousers from my suit, Justine’s velvet jacket (which fitted me quite well) and some frilly bits and a cloak that I had bought from Affleck’s Palace. Unfortunately most people mistook me for Dracula over the course of the night, which wouldn’t have been too bad except if you look at the photos of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing I actually looked more like the latter actor, who played Van Helsing – the enemy of Dracula!
Other people came as an Angel of Death (Justine), Jack the Ripper (Rob) and the obligatory Arthur Dent (Eddy). Poor Gemma (who had come as someone out of Stargate) had a pub crawl all planned out and posted to disc, but a mini rebellion and the appointment of me as the Man With The Vote (who basically decides where and when we’re moving on – it’s usualy the most senior male member) we went down the following route:
- The Burlington Bar (the usual starting place)
- Phoenix (where the girl behind the bar looked rather perturbed and unsure how to react when we walked in)
- The Pub (cheap drinks at almost union prices!)
- Sandbar (very nice beer, but unfortunately rather expensive so only a couple of us actually had a drink)
- The Lass O’Gowrie (much bitching about past relationships)
- Fab Cafe (the traditional end to all Warped events involving alcohol)
Much amusement was had over the course of the night, although the best moments probably occurred in Fab. They were actually playing music that everyone could dance to, with the result that most of us (especially me 🙂 were on the dance floor for most of the night. They played the now traditional Danger! High Voltage! by Electric Six as well as slightly cheesy stuff like Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough by Michael Jackson. I ended up with quite painful cramp in my legs the next day as a result, but it was worth it.
Holy Cross Open Evening
The eldest of my two younger sisters is going to sixth form college next year, so I went along with her to the open evening at Holy Cross so that she had someone to drop her off/pick her up at the end and also to have a chat with the staff who used to teach me. I ended up being asked if I was a teacher on two occasions (in Economics and Law), which was rather weird, although I am nearly old enough to be a trainee teacher now. I got asked a lot of questions by parents and potential students, probably because I was the only person there who had done the whole A level course but also wasn’t a member of staff. It seemed a bit weird though, because it’s so long (four years I think) since I was going round looking at what A levels I wanted to take.
I’ve just sent off my form to do teacher training next year. I’m shitting it! There are only 45 places in my uni and last year they had about 125 applicants! Hopefully I’ve got it in early enough as it’s a bit of a first come first served basis. I’m a bit scared of teaching scally high school kids too. Although I do like the sounds of the perks for the year. I get £9,000 just given to me for taking the course (it’s £6000 if you do other subjects where as RE, maths and science gets more!) and then when I start my first job I get a Golden Handshake or as my lecturer said “A Golden Hello!” which is an extra £4,000 on top of my wages! How cool is that?
I wouldn’t worry too much – as I’ve said in the past you’ll make a great teacher. You have the right qualities that I certainly lack (patience being a major one!) and you obviously know your stuff in your subject area.
I can’t believe you get all that extra cash though, but I suppose it is difficult to recruit high school teachers nowadays. At least when you get the job though you’ll have pretty good security – I can’t remember a local authority ever making hundreds of teachers redundant. 🙂
Cheers for the kind words! Got to get through the interview first though!
They’re having difficulty getting good RE teachers at the minute. Most of them are not trained in the area and are (for example) old PE teachers that can’t run up and down the field any more so they think they will teach a bit of RE insted. They don’t know what it’s on about so they teach it crap. Hence why the cash is there to give. It’s only been in recent years as well because the government are finally starting to see the importance of learning about other religions. It’s a shame it takes stuff like Sept 11th and July 7th to make them see how important it is.