I’ve not posted any entries for a few weeks as I’ve been struggling to acclimatise to British society once again. I’m spending a couple of months teaching in a school outside London. It seems that no matter how often I spend time in the UK, I still need to adapt to the culture here. I’ve chosen to write my first post on the morning of – Cameron’s government’s latest assault on the people of England – the London tube strike.
Filed under Observations
I spent yesterday filling rubbish bags with paperwork and novels that have occupied this earth longer than I have myself. I’ve found exams, which were sat the year I was born and meticulously gathered, and adapted folders of notes, which are completely obsolete. I couldn’t help but allow my mind to drift towards the philosophical as I discarded it all with minimal prejudice.
It really made me think: do we spend our lives accumulating a bank of resources that only reaches completion when it is being thrown in a recycling heap?
Filed under Observations
I’ve written before about the need to write and the significance of this desire to my life and writing. However, the more I think about it – when I’m not writing – the more I believe that it is almost like a psychosis or (more correctly) the cure for one.
Filed under Observations, Scribbling a Path
Image From: http://thecoloradoobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/global.jpg
‘The G7 leading industrial nations have agreed on tough measures to cut greenhouse gases by phasing out the use of fossil fuels by the end of the century’[1].
Is this really something that we, as a society, should be celebrating? We are talking about a political promise that will not even come into effect in the lifetimes of those who pledged it! Doesn’t this seem deeply flawed at its very heart? How many political pledges from the early 20th century can you remember? The time that lapsed saw two world wars, countless social and technological revolutions and the entrance into a whole new age of humanity.
Filed under Observations
As a society we put so little emphasis on emotion health and well being in children that it is surprising how many functional adults we produce. This may seem like a bold statement and a misguided one if one considers the number of people in prisons and institutions across the world. However, the majority of us make it through out teenage years with – surprisingly – few lasting problems and some idea of how to function in society.
Filed under Observations
Ireland – the home of my formative years – has become the first country to legalise gay marriage through referendum. This has been a great step forward for a country that only officially legalised homosexuality twenty-five years ago. It’s a victory for Ireland and a further loosening of the grip that the Catholic Church holds on the throats of Ireland’s people. However, it must be analysed what a vote against gay marriage actually advocates.
Filed under Observations
I am by no means a poet. Though I have a great interest in poetry. I wanted to share with everyone a little poem I put together for my girlfriend on her birthday. I hope you enjoy.
Te Iubesc
Pentru Gabi
Love…
Simple in feeling,
But words,
Disintegrate, sandy against
Concrete emotion.
Filed under Fictional Pieces
It’s that time of the year again when I’ve got to prep students on how to do their external exams. I say prep them for the exams because technique takes precedence over knowledge and skill. It’s a sad fact of teaching that creativity must ultimately be stifled in order to facilitate the answering of a question ‘correctly’. This doesn’t necessarily encompass teaching young adults the conventions of literary criticism and the importance of this knowledge in further study nor the enjoyment of literature and an appreciation of its process. Instead there are certain conventions – varied across different exam boards – which students must follow. If the students fail to follow these then their grade will invariably decrease. This brings me to the central question of this article: Is life an exam?
Filed under Observations
I’ve made a few major decisions this week, as I feel awoken from some self-induced trance. I’ve abandoned the alcohol binges that characterised the majority of my adult weekends. This – it would seem – has been the catalyst of those changes. My Sunday’s have been transformed from an alcohol-coated vegetation into a renewal of life. I’ve started learning Spanish – the official language of the country I’ve called home for the past eighteen months. In doing so, I’ve been attempting to eradicate a lifetime of failed attempts towards competently communicating in a foreign tongue. However, the greatest change is related to my novel.
Filed under Scribbling a Path
The souks of Marrakesh’s Medina certainly seem like a throwback to the Medieval and the forgotten. If it wasn’t for the marketers touting the usual tourist tack, the ubiquitous bottles of Coca-Cola and the mesmerised tourists it would seem like a forgotten time. The chaos, the smells and the products have, sadly, long been cleansed from the streets of Europe. With them the art of haggling has long since been eliminated from common practice. The art of haggling has more or less collapsed in Europe about 150 years ago. And with it, it has taken our ability to partake successfully in the practice.
Filed under Observations
Scribblings and Broken Glass 
