Cooking Up A Storm!

Had to buy a new cooker today, the oven in the old one has been gone for around 3 weeks, and the lack of variety at meal-times was really starting to get to me. There's probably very little wrong with the cooker we have, but the cost of actually having someone just look at it, is more than it's worth probably, so that's why I plumped for a new one. Nothing special, it's a cooker, as long as it cooks, it'll be doing the job for which it's intended. I need lasagane, that's the main issue here, no lasagne for 3 weeks, it's beyond the limits of human endurance!

I'm also looking for a new car. Did I say new car? I meant an old car that's just like new, but at an affordable price, and preferably with low mileage. That's asking a lot isn't it? Well, if you don't ask, you don't get, that's my motto, and it has proven true many a time. When I sort out that problem , I also have a dodgy washing-machine and a knackered hoover needing replacing. Those will have to wait however, as I'm struggling heavily in a financial sense, as I approach the end of 4 years studying, with next to nothing income. Yes, somehow we seem able to save, even when earning nothing. That seems to astound people looking in, who I'm sure suspect that someone must be giving us cash. They're not, we're just good at not being frivolous. What that will mean when I do start making some money, I'm not sure. We'll either be very comfortable, or else won't be able to stop spending insanely.

No hill-walking this weekend bacause blizzard conditions are anticpated, but I do intend to make up for it in a week's time, I have a few expeditions lined up, weather permitting as usual of course. I might have to acquire a few accoutrements first, don't have a compass for starters. I do have maps, and I use streetmap.co.uk quite a lot as well. Anyway, we'll see what happens, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that...

Time To Evolve!

It's cold here today, and very windy too, gale-force even. Not that you're interested, or would even stop to wonder "Where is here?" I don't mind that you don't care, it's the way of the World. Even if I posted something about terrible atrocities happening, it's still highly likely that you wouldn't care, in fact you'd probably navigate away as quickly as possible. You see terrible things on the televison all the time, and you have become numbed by it. You just can't visualise yourself in the position of the victims of crime and violence.

I say that it's because you're a materialist. Don't deny it? You have loads of stuff you couldn't bear to do without. Yet, for every possession you become insecurely attached too, you lose another piece of your soul. That's my realisation, and if you consider it you too will realise that I'm right! I've thought about the ways in which society has changed, from the times when people trusted each other, left their house doors open, helped their neighbours and friends in a crisis, took an interest in the problems or successes of others. That's all gone. People only care about themselves now. Their nearest and dearest, that's all. The trust is gone, replaced by fear. The caring is gone, replaced by greed, and concern for the affairs of others, has been replaced by a selfish drive to keep up withe the Joneses.

I have seen these things, and I think that mankind has regressed because of it. I really think that it's knocked evolution back a thousand years. How can I say such a thing when we have all these new technologies and science is making tremendous break-throughs. I say so, because humanity can't possibly evolve unless everyone shares common goals. Because we only have individual goals, most of which are misplaced ideals anyway, we're far more likely to destroy ourselves before we ever get a chance to take the next big evolutionary leap, the kind that will allow us to find eternal peace for the human race!

The Ruin Of Man!

That's me finished another school placement, 3 out of 4, and the pressure's off for the most part. Becoming a teacher is now a formality, barring some sort of biblical disaster. So, it's back to Uni on Monday again, not too much more of that to go either, thank goodness. 4 years in full-time education, just to spend the rest of my natural stuck in education. With the one proviso, that in future, I get paid for it. I do have a small fortune in loans to pay back, which doesn't really seem fair, you'd think they'd be grateful for people entering a profession where you're to blame for every little thing that goes wrong. There is a blame culture in education at the moment, and the teacher's must be to blame, because it's just not fair to blame the real culprits. Who are the real culprits? I'll leave that for you to decide!

Sorry, that this is short, but I think I'm going to have a little drink to celebrate my making it through another round of testing times. I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Let Me Through!

Why is it that whenever I have free time, the weather turns bad, and as soon as my free time is up, it becomes beautiful once again? And, it's not just the holiday times either, quite often it's beautiful here all week long, then come the weekend, wind and rain. I'm not usually one to moan about the weather, but all I want is a few days out on the hills over the next 3 weeks, and if the weather's rotten for that whole time, then both you and I will know that the big man's got it in for me!

I'm trying to join a forum for hillwalkers, not really because I want to feel as though I'm part of something, but mainly just to help me plan out routes up hills, because on more than one occasion recently, my navigational skills have been called into question, in fact 3 times if I'm going to be open about it. On all 3 occasions I was vindicated, by finding the correct path, but that's not the point. The point is, that many of the hills I intend to climb, don't really have what you might call paths, per se. What I need is information form the horse's mouth so to speak, as to the best route to take, in such circumsatances.

I actually would like to hit a couple of Corbetts this Easter break, gearing up to do some Munros, later in the year, probably at Summertime, because I'm a fair weather man to be honest, and Highland conditions can get really bad, particularly on high ground, and at any time of year, but in Winter and even Springtime people die out there. Ben Rinnes is my number one target this Easter, I don't know how many times I've seen that hill in the passing and never been up it. Well, all that's going to change!

Steer Well Clear!

I came across this picture in my travels. It was taken by someone with whom I'm acquainted, in a professional sense. As usual, I'm not giving away too much, because I always try to protect the innocent (and myself). Honestly, I just thought it was a nice picture of some deer playing near the lochside. You don't often see any photos of deer with water in the background, more often trees or mountain-side, so this photo seems unusual in that sense. These seemingly harmless creatures can leave a fairly nasty dent in your car, and I heard a story recently of someone who swerved to avoid hitting one, and ended up writing-off his car in the doing so, and the Insurance refused to pay up. They said that he should have hit it! Very odd position to adopt, I would say, what if it had been a child? What if there wasn't time to tell the difference?

That's all for today, I'm a very busy man!

Back to Basics!

This week has started like one of those weeks where you just can't be bothered! After all the tension, anxiety and effort I put in last week, this week feels like an anti-climax. I've done the job I came to do, and now I'm ready to move on to my next major goal, which takes the form of a written assessment. With that out of the way I'll be virtually home and dry!

It was the last in the series of "Lewis" last night, which is watchable, but lacks so much of what made "Morse" what it was. I could continue a previous rant I had on here, about the quality of script writing for television in general, and how I suspect that they're hiring young script writers who have next to nothing experience of the World, and therefore the scripts are shit! But, I'm not going to do that because I've done it before. Yes, the Americans have overtaken us as far as script writing goes, I've noticed that even just from clips of new shows that I've caught, and, I'm still watching "Lost" after 77 episodes and Im not bored yet!

Maybe it's just my age (I'm not old), but my expectations of what make good telly have either changed dramatically or the quality of the shows has declined dramtically, and I think I know which it is. Even the film industry seems to have lost it's way, so called big screen blockbusters, keep turning out to be fairly bog-standard. It's not like way back before I was even born, films like Spartacus, Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia. Those films demonstrated the power of sweeping cinematography and brilliant storylines. That was without CGI. CGI should be used to enhance a film, but there seems to be an over-reliance upon it, if you ask me. It's time we brought back some of the traditional ideas, they'd probably rock the establishment, we've gone so far from what actually worked in the first place!

Beaten Back By Hail!

Today we attempted to walk up a hill called Little Conval, near Dufftown. It shouldn't have been too difficult, after all, we've already climbed it's bigger brother Meikle Conval, a few weeks back. However, there were two major obstacles; finding the path up (didn't seem to be one), and the weather. When we eventually made it up out of the tree-line, and had found some semblance of a path, the weather closed in, and about three quarters of the way up, in a mixture of hail, sleet and driving rain, I finally conceded defeat, and so we trudged disappointingly back down.

That's the first time I've been defeated by a hill. The photo above shows the hill, once we had plodded back down. The weather had improved a bit by that time, but it still wasn't that good. Anyway, I'll be back as Arnie says, and next time I will be victorious! This is not over, mark my words!

Into the Unknown!

I've been busy this week and so far this weekend as well, and it's not finished yet, so this might be brief. It's been a good and a bad week, but at least the things I wanted to go right, did so, and the bad parts were very much unforseen. So, in essence, that's me practically a teacher, while at the same time, I've had my real first taste of the sort of problems that come with being a teacher. It's such hard work, and everybody wants your blood. So, why do I want to do it? That's what everyone asks! But if nobody wanted to do it, there wouldn't be any teachers, would there?

Yes, it's true, teachers get flak from all sides. Every day teaching is like being a pilot with the RAF during WWII, leading a sortie over occupied France. Everybody wants to shoot you down; kids, parents, other teachers, guidance staff, management, and other external education staff. At least, that's how it seems. I'm sure there is a lot of co-operation and willingness to work together, but not always.

For some reason they want to make it harder to become a teacher, and also make it so that you need to have a Master's Degree in your subject area as well. All this despite there being a national shortage (allegedly) and as far as I'm concerned, certain huge debts for anyone silly enough to spend 4 years at Uni (would that be 7 for a Master's). You don't have to be crazy to want to become a teacher, but it obviously helps!

The Key To Success!

Nothing more to say really. Well Done Me!!!

Not That Budget!

I'm tired, I'm fairly stressed, and even worse I'm still waiting! Don't ask why I'm waiting, just read some recent posts, and you'll get the general idea. Almost 4 years of hard work, and it will all boil down to one hour of observation. I could handle the observation part, if I knew when to expect it, but I don't, and it's virtually impossible to be fully prepared for any random time. I'm actually at the stage of not caring when it happens, as long as it's soon, because the waiting is intolerable. It's like waiting for the hang-man, or a last minute reprieve. Either one might arrive first.

There's a hell of a lot of roadworks going on around here at the moment. They've got half the bloody town dug up. Not only are they laying broadband cables, the Gas have been digging up seemingly arbitrary areas since October, and pretty soon traffic calming measures will be started. Mind you, March always was a busy time on the roads, what with budgets having to be used up. Yes, that's right! If you don't know it, this is how it works; departments, such as Roads, get a budget for the ensuing financial year. At the end of the year, if they've used all of their budget, then they get an increased budget for next year. However, if they haven't spent all of the budget, it will get slashed for the following year. That's why the road gritters are out on beautiful days spraying salt everywhere. They have to use it all up before the end of the financial year.

It's amazing isn't it! That's why the local authorities are so hard-pressed financially. Every department is competing for cash, and in ordeer to secure that cash, they have to fritter away the cash they have. It's a peculiar system, and one which clearly doesn't work. Probably needs a total overhaul form top to bottom!