Ah, then that settles it. The US is not for me. I would like to visit the United States at some point in my life, I just can't see myself living there when I seriously think about things. I did actually have an interview for a job in Tuscany too, but didn't get it. Which is a shame, it was just outside of Florence, which I would have really liked. *sorry, @matwoolf, I didn't mean to take over your thread. I'll shut up now*
Go ahead please...like most of my posts I thought to delete this one early on. I don't really enjoy politics - outside the house. I penned a bombastic poem on a 'writer site;' I'd rather people chuck in their own jingoistic efforts, for a laugh, but I always get it wrong, and sound like some kind of mouthpiece, eh. The audio clip up the top is from 1940, it's the quintessential [twat] version, a nation on its knees. You can feel the distance, history, emotion, nation in the boy's voice. Oh, and if you have a kid - you can train him to sing it while you drink your wine.
How on earth do you know my teaching techniques!?! (gone back to my usual, not-serious self on this forum - writing like there is a stick up my arse just felt weird).
@outsider I had all your tiny weaknesses detailed on a tiny scrap of paper. I was poised to fire ...facking pop star xx
Mat wrapped his unicorn horn, the lucky string, and boarded the aeroplane to Lagardia International. 'Hello,' he said at the doorstep. 'The name is Lem, Lem X, but you can me Matthew, Ed. I love you, Ed,' he said.
I shall! It's certainly on my list, I've always wanted to see New York for myself, to be among the cyclopean towers of Manhattan with all the sights and smells - see if it's anything like how I imagine it. I remember a university lecturer telling me that he once walked down Wall Street, and there were all these Gordon Gekko types walking around, people calling down cabs and policemen drinking coffee, and the line from the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass came to her 'The United States are in effect the greatest poem', and that sounds like a really rather magical experience actually.
I met this guy - English guy - he said, kind of boasted about how there were all these pubs where you had to say the right password to the doorman to gain 'exclusive access' to the real New Yawk. I didn't like that. I'd like a hot dog, tho' and New York State seems incredible and vast...the Adirondacks.
@Mckk I was seriously considering New Zealand but alas, my particular set of skills aren't required. The moon is looking pretty appealing right now, however
http://www.constitution.org/scot/arbroath.htm It was of this very parchment that our learned friends across the Atlantic based their own constitution. Yes, the Scots, are as legendary as folklore would have you believe.
If you're looking for teaching jobs in Europe, Prague's pretty cool I gotta say. Pay for teachers at international schools is lucrative, and living cost is very cheap. It's a pretty decent place
I find it funny how people who despise the Conservatives enough to consider packing up and leaving always seem to want Australia... a country which, at least from what I have heard, is incredibly right-wing, anti-foreigner, homophobic, hypocritical... well, the bunch. Really, I think saying "Cons are still in power, time to leave," is being a tad melodramatic. I don't like them either, but It's a long shot better than Labour and Millibundi. I do see this, along with the SNP victory, as a symbol of our move away from liberalism into a dystopian future of fear and surveillance, of a fragmented Europe, of nationalism instead of unity.
Remember Culloden. Scots were brave enough to run at a line of rifles - that takes balls. Or whisky. Lots and lots of whisky. It's that where Kafka lived? Actually, googling images of the city it looks very pretty. I might actually give Prague a closer look. Thanks. *dances*
Prague is an utterly beautiful and compelling city. You can interpret that in whatever way you please, the initial statement will still ring true. Get yourself over there @Lemex, even for a weekend. Fuck it, I'll go too. A WF excursion. I know all the cheap pubs!
Will do! The first round's on me, mate. Imagine if that happened, and we got a load of European WFers. Would be amazing I bet.
@Lemex and @outsider - I'm already in Prague so if you do end up here, let me know! I'd love to meet! Unfortunately the Czech's national drink isn't actually my thing (I don't drink) but I sure would be happy to come to a pub anyway and order myself a nealko cocktail
Moving back to the election, I've just come home from a 41-hour shift volunteering for Labour. My constituency was one of few Labour gains from the Conservatives, we've almost done a clean sweep in the local elections, and we've even won two shock seats on the (previously exclusively Tory) town council. Got more than 800 votes myself, but didn't win on the town council. I would give my take on the disastrous national result, but I haven't had time to digest it. I only found out Ed Balls had lost about 3 hours ago. For now, I'm going to sleep.
Firstly, I would argue that whatever place they had in mind was not the real New York in any sense. The "real" New York is not able to be condensed into a single place or experience, which is why, even now, I love it. Secondly, no real New Yorker says "New Yawk". Bostonians do that. Sort of. It is. I am on the board of a statewide organization that meets in Albany twice a year. The train from New York City to Albany runs along the Hudson River for almost the entire journey, and it is a treat. If you continue north, toward Montreal, you travel right alongside Lake Champlain, which is an even bigger treat.
Lol, not quite rioting yet, but if things do kick off I'd like you all to remember that I totally called it.