S. Tamburello BA MA QTS

this morning i didn't have to get up before 7 am and go into school and act as crowd control for class 9m3 because today i added a few new letters to my name- QTS Qualfied Teacher Status. yes i actually managed to get through it, so now i can be one of those people who say " hmm pgce yeah it's really hard, very intense).

so now, what now? well i haven't got a teaching job yet though still on the lookout, sent another application off this mornng. but not too bothered. if nothing else i'll look for some suppply work in september, get in that way. come monday i will back in a field digging away. doesn't work out too well with the whole moving to manchester timetable but its money and boy do we need that after a year of both of us studying.

people falling down

from the maker of one red paperclip (so far he's traded up to "a role in a hollywood movie"- there's a link on the side if you want to know whats it's all about) noe comes PEOPLE FALLING DOWN . does exactly what it says on the tin. very funny.

well, seems steve is keeping everone super updated, which is nice!
but from a lisa point of view: its all coming to a bit of an end here in swansea, the van is booked for next week to move our things back up to manc, although as steve is working in his new arch job, which is awesome, ill be doing the packing, moving and unpacking all on my lonesome. but im a little excited to drive a van. small things eh.
we have to find rox a home in the next week, its just so hard, its like giving a child away, its just awful. but its got to be done and im sure she'll be happy with whoever she ends up with, she's fickle, and if we find someone down here at least she will get to stay by the beach. which is more than can be said for me, grr!
so its stalyvegas for me, and steve ont he weekends. it will be fun, but cant help but be sad to be leaving here. it really is like nowhere else and i never believed this place would become home like it has when i came down 3 years ago. i dont know where else you'd find people like there are down here, maybe its the small city, everyone knows everyone thing, or maybe its the surf aged surf attitude, but it will be hard to leave.
but i am excited to move back north, just to hang out with old friends, find a new job, earn some money and hopefully build up the same group of randoms and misfits as ive had the pleaseure of spending my time with down here.
and due to my... well i dont know how to explain it, but after finishing my dissertation i fizzled out of uni, leaving me with 3 modules to complete by next april. this means i wont graduate until next summer, but i really dont mind, actually quite the opposite, i gives me an excuse to not technically leave swansea. my marks will be capped which is a shame but thats just the way it is, no point in worrying about it, it is what it is and i am what i am i guess and im absolutely ok with that!
so its a time of change. i hate change, im not afraid to admit it! but ill try to embrace it none the less.

things which are making me angry this week

so our future prime minister, mr brown has said we should go ahead and replace our nuclear weapons so we can maintain our nuclear deterrent. even before this hit the news this week i had been thinking that this would be a great opportunity to make a statement to the rest of the world. britain could say that in the interests of world safety and peace they would not renew the nuclear weapons. now apart from gaining the trust of countries like Iran, britain would also be keeping up their side of the nuclear non-proliferation pact. and what would britain lose. well the deterrent but who exactly are we trying to deter, post cold war. this is 25 billion pounds worth of weapon that we will never and can never use.

firstly the (perceived) threat has changed- we're not exactly going to get bin laden to stand still long enough to get him with a nuke. Secondly, can britain really justify, ethically, launching a nuclear missile that is 8 times more powerful than the one that was dropped on hiroshima? even if one hit us could we really inflict that sort of civilian damage on anyone else.

yet if it was just left as it was i think the renewal would be rubber stamped in no time. there looks like there coud be a debate in parliament which is a start. other than that i think CND's membership might begin to swell.

to me a few less nuclear weapons and £25 billion spent on something that saves lives rather than ending them would make britain a much better place.

the reprieve

ok scratch that last post for now. roxy has been been granted a reprieve, another weekend in the sun. she's coming home

all farewells should be sudden

tomorrow we have to wave goodbye to our loyal sidekick roxy, sometime contributor to this blog though more often than not a sabouteur of the computer. we didn't manage to find anyone we know who was willing to take her so lisa is going to have the hard job of taking her to a woman who can hopefully find a good home for her. sad but necessary. unfortunately i didn't know she wouldn't be coming back down to swansea so i haven't really said goodbye but maybe thats the easier option. i had never had a pet before roxy so never knew how attached you could get . it definately makes you view animals differently. i mean roxy certainly had her own personality. so there we are. i wish you well roxy, have a good fun life.

name-dropping dostoevsky

I noticed something the other day when i was thinking about writers being on a par with rockstars, i noticed that actually dostoeevsky gets quite a few mentions in songs. I was trying to figure out why this was when i saw a clip from the office where david brent is 'helping' someone with a crossword clue- something about a dissedent russian author. then there is that episode of father ted where he tries to impress a woman by saying he had read crime and punishment (he enjoyed the crime but thought the punishment let it down abit).

it appears that in our pop culture the sign of intelligence is whether you are familiar with dostoyevsky. if you are you can drop his name into something and look as though you are well read. so i thought i might see what songs a could remember that name dropped him. i thought of the 3 below but i'm sure there are more that i can't think of for now. if anyone can (and i'm sure rainey would have noticed some maybe you can send tham my way.

oh look what ive gone and done. i've only gone and dropped dostoyevsky into my blog so i look intelligent. huh

Sleeper-Lie Detector
she's got green eyes and she's lovely
reminds me of the 'it' girl with her lips
got an automatic license
reads all Dostoevsky's household tips


Willy Mason- Still a fly
But still, you're just a kid
You shouldn't read Dostoevsky at your age
That and nicotine will make you pale and lean
And twist your face like Mr. Grays
Religious manifests in paintings that you make
Or else your eyes will stay the same
Are you that hungry for a change?


Belle & Sebastian- This a Just a Modern Rock Song
I'm not as sad as Dostoevsky
I'm not as clever as Mark Twain
I only buy a book for the way it looks
And then I stick in on the shelf again#


Fun Lovin criminals-Come Find Yourself
I'm not a man with a grasp on reality
Kerouac is wack but I'm down with Dostoevsky
Sugar's got my back plus Baretta .380's
One of which I dropped as the man tried to bait me.

one i found i response to jonny's comment about doing more than just name dropping:

Mountain Goats, The - Love Love Love

raskalnikov felt sick
but he couldn't say why
when he saw his face reflected
in his victim's twinkling eye
some things you do for money
and some you'll do for fun
but the things you do for love
are gonna come back to you one by one

wanted: good home for dog, two careful owners (see post below)

 

well as much as it pains us to do this we have no other choice... we have to re-home roxy. it appears no-one in swansea or manchester is willing to rent us a house with roxy as well. as with us not having a clue what we will be doin or where we will be doing it, having a dog just isnt practical or fair on rox.

so we are making a public appeal! is anyone interested in taking on this awesome little dog?

we really really dont want to have to give her up but there is just no other way, and it would be great if someone up north wanted her because then there is more chance of us seeing her.

we cant even begin to tell you how great she is. she's such good company and she is really great on walks, and no lie, she is funny. and she has such a great personality and she's just really lovely.

she's quick to learn, really clever, and she gets on with everyone (except for a little thing she developed about mark payne, but i blame him) and she is beautiful, and a real dog. and she's a bit of a tom boy.

she love the outdoors, she can run for hours or just mooch around the garden. and she dosent mind entertaining herself whilst we are both at work.

she is welsh. she loves to cwtch and she's fully house trained.

we feel awful that we have to get rid of her, but the way we see it is that she had an awesome year with us and if we hadnt of taken her on in the first place who knows what the man from the pub would have done with her.

we know taking on a dog is a big responsibility and maybe none of you are interested but we wanted to give people we know a chance first before we have to give her away to a random.

but if anyone is interested then you would love her and you can call or post or whatever.

thanks x

make hay not war

the hay festival is quite unlike any other festival i've ever been to. i always liked the idea of authors being as high profile as rock stars-for instance i always thought you should be able to buy big posters of dostoyevsky or tolstoy like you could of REM or the Chilis. i did have a good dostoyevsky penguin tshirt fow awhile but it was a really weird shape.

anyway for one week a year in a little welsh border town the book is king and the writer is received like a rock star. so it was that myself and my sister wound our way across the brecon beacons to get to the front row of the douglas coupland gig.

the festival site is just outside the secondhand bookshop filled town of hay so we killed a little time there. the site itself was a tented village with lots of middle aged/american/ families with wacky kids sitting around reading books and papers on literery themed deckchairs. actually the mix of people kind of reminded me of a christian event.

douglas coupland was his same random self. he read lists from his new book then there was an interview with an observer journalist. he was kind of pissed cause the guardian had given him his first bad review that very day. afterwards though i got to get my books signed. nothing less than the limited edition,boxed, hardback with the limited edition jpod cube figure (see i told you it was kind of like music). we actually had quite a lengthy chat- as lengthy as you can have when you are in a queue. we discussed flaming lips (from my tshirt-he likes them), podcasts and blogs (his book is about life in the time of google- i told him he would be on mine in a day or two) and ebay (he was going to sell our handshakes on it the next day).

of yes i had my picture taken next to some giant books

here comes the sun

ah school's out, the sun's out and i've handed in my last pgce essay. it's a good day by the seaside in my shorts and flip flops. how could things get any better i hear you say.....

....well this morning i managed to get free tickets to go and see douglas coupland talk about his new book, jpod at the hay festival tomorrow.