Pics of Hudds

Greetings from Huddersfield! I thought I would take advantage of the fine weather today and go out and about with my camera, unfortunately checking the batteries before I left the flat would hav been a good idea! Anyway, I managed to get a few nice shots but this lovely blog would only let me upload two at a time...so here are the chosen ones.....

The building here is the University not a great shot but the building on the right is the English Lang Dept., my office is on the ground floor. The other shot I am really pleased with. As I was walking back to my flat I thought I would take a photo of the canal that I can see out of my window. As I got nearer a barge appeared...good timing! so I managed to get a good pic....even if I do say so myself!

York and melancholy....

Well apologies folks for the lack of postings this week, but a/ I have been very busy b/ I wrote a huge blog on Thursday which got zapped (not happy!) and c/ for the last 2 days I have had some sort of lurgy which has affected the brain cells ... so now I am feeling better I am back on track.
Unfortunately I can't be bothered to write the whole story again from Wednesday's trip to York, so here are just the highlights...

I travelled by train to York via Leeds as I had to attend a seminar at the University which is on the outskirts of town. I arrived an hour early as I wanted to vist Yorkminster Cathedral which was fab! I only managed to have a look around for half an hour but I plan to go back again for a longer trip. I have taken some photos, which are on here today, unfortunately they don't convey the size of the building which was huge...but it was tricky to get it all in...so to speak.....er...moving on...
....the town itself is very old and the River Ouze (which I think is a fab name) runs through it. It's definitely somewhere that I'd like to live ... as it reminds me of... me...old but classy!

The train journey to and from York was the most interesting....on the way there a young mum sat on the train across from where I was sitting with a very young baby, almost a newborn in her left arm. From nowhere she produced a bottle (thank God it wasn't one of her 40HH mammories.....much to my relief and the guy opposite's disappointment) which she fed the baby using just the left arm in which she was holding the baby .... in her right hand she stuffed a big bag of prawn crackers and downed a can of Strongbow (classy!) only shortly to be followed by a Mega bag of pickled onion Monster Munch....all at the same time! now that's what I call multi-tasking!

On the way home I was surrounded by 4 different people with Mp3 players, whose "private" musical taste (that's a laugh) ranged from Def Leppard to Justin Timberlake with a bit of Savage Garden thrown in. Lordy what can you do? I am a great lover of music but all of that racket going on at the same time really pi**ed me off!
I thought about it logically....maybe last week they all at some, stage sat on a train surrounded by the same level of noise and annoyance...their solution was to refer to that old chestnut...."if you can't beat 'um, join 'um" .

So I am returning to York next week..... and have just downloaded Duran Duran's Greatest Hits onto my MP3 ... so if I am going to pi** my surrounding passengers off ...at least I will do it in style!

On a more melancholy note...... do you ever have dreams which when you wake up the next day you believe that they are real? Well this happened to me last night (as a result of eating too much Celtic cheese methinks).

I miss my cats.

Last night I dreamt that my cats escaped from the RSPCA and went to my old house in Trethomas, my Mum rang me and told me that she would look after Marble if I snuck Chloe into my flat in Huddersfield. I planned on taking the train back home and driving up here on Sunday with my beloved cat.
So when I woke up this morning for a few seconds I actually believed that I was going home today to get my cat back. It was really horrible when realisation dawned that I dreamt the whole thing. What would Freud make of it? well I think he'd establish that even though it's 33 days since I left them, I am still missing them like mad and still feel terribly guilty for leaving them behind.

Sorry for moaning but this blog is not just for the good stuff.

Also, I signed the contracts for my house sale yesterday which is due to complete next week. I think my mood is as such, due to the fact that another chapter in my life is officially about to close. As with everything in life, talking is one thing....and as I have found out lately.... doing is another. So I will close with a quote about cats....

"A cat's got her own opinion of human beings. She don't say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it" - Jerome K. Jerome

Holidays and Babies....

Well I haven't managed to write anything for a couple of days as I had an assignment due...my supervisor gave me 3 weeks to complete my first piece of work, but as per usual it was a night before 4000 words scramble....not good really as I was hoping to turn over a new leaf. Ah well never mind ... I will get feedback on Thursday so I'll let you know how I get on.
I spoke at length with Brady last night, for those of you who don't know who he is or what he looks like....I have supplied a photo which was taken on one of his infrequent visits to Caerphilly. He is a very good friend and provides me with support when all of this academic stuff gets too much...after all he is doing a PhD himself so he knows the score...anyway we were chatting about Africa, as he is from Sierra Leone and I began to realise how little travelling I have done. In fairness I have been lucky and visited Canada, America and Italy etc but why haven't I made more of an effort to travel?

Financial problems have definitely been a factor, especially post divorce and studying .....but I have decided definitely to make more of a effort. I really want to go to Africa one day and I will do this within the next 2 years...it's now in print so it's going to happen!

On happier news ...I have just heard that Baby Shahwan has arrived...hooray! Congratulations to both Lynda and Sharif and welcome to our world Logan Shahwan ...what a cool name!

I have calculated that this is my 35th child and personally I think I am doing quite well, although starting to wilt slightly....so a bit of a break before the next one would be appreciated!

tomorrow I am off to York for a seminar, I haven't been there before so I hope to have a bit of time before my meeting to take some pics. Amerie has told me that there is a good yarn (UK translation = wool) shop there...but as I have yet to learn to knit it may be a wasted journey....but I have discovered a yarn stall in the local market in Hudds, so maybe the jolly lady behind the counter will give me some knitting lessons?
I used to have an Auntie called Celia ....well she wasn't my real Auntie...it was a title given out of respect for my elders...but she used to know where every fish and chip shop was in every town and city in the country...Amerie is the same with yarn shops...quite a talent!

I couldn't find a suitable quotation regarding childbirth ...so I thought I would write a little ditty of my own to celebrate the new arrival.....so here it goes

So you have a new arrival, a little baby boy,
he will fill your life with pleasure, lasting pride and joy....
well that's what all the books say, but they don't quite say enough,
as they miss out all the bad bits when things start to get quite rough.
Waking up at 2am and then every other hour,
not letting you get on with things, like going for a shower,
Throwing up their breakfast, their lunch will swiftly follow,
but this is not a one off, as they'll do the same tomorrow!
Filling up their nappies when the old one's just been changed
your house looks like a war zone, your life is just deranged........
Even though all this sounds dodgy, there's one thing makes it worth while,
when he looks up with those big doe eyes and hits you with that smile...
all the hastle melts away and you'll forget the stress you've had,
cos now you are so special, you're his loving Mum and Dad.

I just know you will be such fabulous parents and I am really thrilled for you both.... D xxxx

Gargling gravel anyone?

Apologies for those of you who
have already seen my flat post-furniture installation...but I did promise last week to post some pics. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to my Mother for doubting that these curtains were the wrong shade of red .... but upon arrival here I was pleased to see that they are a perfect match ... just another example of Mother knows best!
I would also like to point out that my flat was thoroughly tidied up before I took the pics...oh if you could only see it now.... moving on....

I'm sorry I know it's the weekend but I have a bit of a grumpy old woman moan to perform.... After watching the X Factor tonight, which was a Rod Stewart theme night, I thought to myself why on earth do men and women, who sound like they are gargling gravel in a cement mixer, decide to become singers??? I appreciate the aforementioned Mr Stewart has sold millions of records over his 111 year recording period .....but who is buying them...? He mentioned on tonight's show that in the 60's nobody in the UK would give him a recording contract...er..yeah ..right that's because the record executives at that time were not tone deaf!

Anyway, after he began to sing "It's a Heartache" which should be re-titled it's
an earache....I had had enough...so I decided to switch channels briefly to BBC 2 in order to watch TOTP 2....a bit of 80's reminiscing would cheer me up....but OH MY GOD ...who was on there...only Bonnie Bloody Tyler..singing......yes you've guessed it..."It's a Heartache"!!!! What torture! The two examples of gravel-throat warbling on the planet and they were on both channels. I was too scared to turn over onto BBC 1, as I was in fear of seeing Joe Cocker "singing" on Strictly Come Dancing....not good! My conclusion is that there must be some gravel guzzling TV scheduler with a cement mixer in their office, who gets a kick out of making us all suffer!......
so on that musical note.....here is today's quote....(Pam strikes again!)

"If you hear bad music, it is one's duty to drown it by one's conversation"
- Oscar Wilde

If you want a job done properly...etc and so forth

Hello reader, well today's story is about a not so little girl who went to live in a big town called Huddersfield. She had a job in a University and was told that she would have research office ..... this was a big porky pie boys and girls...as what she she did get was a storage room full of cardboard boxes, white boards and bubble wrap.....so the not so little girl moved into her office anyway, had to beg for a key to lock the door, clear out loads of rubbish in order to get to a desk and has jumped up and down and made some noise in order to get a computer .....rah! She is now in a sort of half done working environment which will hopefully be completed next week.

The moral of this story? When you are promised something and it doesn't materialise, don't just sit back and wait for it to happen.....make noise and things will change!

The above picture is not my actual office but it is pretty close to what it looked like...as I am a self confessed organisational clean freak...this was not good...and didn't help the IBS!

Well the weekend is here...and Dawny has a deadline which is Monday...so I will be buried in my CA books for the next 48 hrs :( but hey it's only another 2000 words to write...which for a woman of my last minute capabilities is not a problem...well not usually anyway! I think at the moment I feel under a bit of pressure to present something "academically credible"...which is silly really as it hasn't bothered me in the past! but hey ho ...we'll have to see what happens....

Still waiting for news from the impending launch of baby Shahwan.....but have resisted ringing Lynda, the mother in question, as I have learnt from my Sister's experiences that the "Any News?" question is NOT welcome when you are overdue! so I will wait with anticipation for the "text of joy" which I hope to receive soon.......?

So how to end today? Well we have covered the issue of my office not being ready and also the lateness of baby Shahwan..so I thought a quotation on punctuality would be appropriate......

"I always arrive late in the office, but I makeup for it by leaving early"
- Charles Lamb

Sympathy with hedgehogs...

Today's theme is the sympathy I have with hedgehogs. Not the rolling around in crispy leaves or the midnight crusades for a saucer of milk, but that dangerous misson they have to endure - known as crossing the road!


My mission impossible started today after work, when I decided to pop to Sainsbury's to replenish my empty fridge and have my weekly fix of staring at Caerphilly cheese. Anyway, as I needed to do a big shop.... I took my newly acquired shopping trolley with me. Yes ok I know I sound like a complete OAP, but my continuing "back" problem prevents me from dragging 6 bags of shopping across town so I purchased my little "Granny Chariot" ....and no there will not be any photos of it posted on this site!
Anyway....after filling the trolley with shopping I trundled across the car park to the main road which is outside my flat. This is a road like no other as it comprises of 3 lanes of busy traffic each way...so that's a total of 6 lanes to attempt without a safety net or the green cross code man...scary! As soon as one lane was clear......the other two weren't .... so after waiting for 6 mins and worrying that my fish fingers were defrosting ... I took my life in my own hands and sprinted across the road....
....the problem was the little plastic wheels on my trolley are designed for the slow melodic pace of the aforementioned OAP, not a 37 year old traffic dodger!.....the inevitable happened...my wheel fell off mid sprint ...OMG I am going to die...or even worse.... (considering the state of my cupboards)...my shopping will get squished!

I managed to drag the trolley, with sparks flying across two lanes and make it to the island in the middle of the road....only to face the daunting prospect of tackling the next three lanes on the other side........luckily the lights were with me at the end of the road and the traffic stopped long enough for me to cross...but my wheel was still in the middle lane of the first crossing and my desire to die wasn't strong enough to go and retrieve it....

So RIP my trolley, we didn't have that long..
I treated you so roughly, I know where I went wrong...
that rapid sprint across the road, just killed your wheel stone dead,
Next time I want some shopping, I'll just buy online instead!
(Matthews, 2006)

So after my bereavement ...I have been cheered up by a programme that they have up here called "Eye in the sky" ....basically a blonde Anneka Rice look-a-like travels around in a helicopter pointing out places of interest..... well Dawn that's not very amusing I hear you cry! ...yes but what tickled my dirty mind is that the guy flying the helicopter aka the pilot...is called..."BJ" ........which does not stand for Joe Blob .....everytime she shouts "hey that's BJ" a sad smirk appears on my face......apologies for my lack of morals!

"Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it" - Lewis Carroll

Mad woman up North!

OK so things were all going too well..... yesterday I got a call that my soon to be ex-house has damp and my purchaser needs to get a specialist in...therefore more delays! we are already 3 weeks behind schedule and I am not a happy bunny :(
After many years inspecting houses myself, I know what damp smells like and my house, although not perfect, is not damp! Anyway, the specialist came today and confirmed what I had been saying...not a spot of damp to be found anywhere...quelle suprise!

My point of mentioning this is the annoyance of people who do certain things and don't realise the consequences. The "people" in question in this context are surveyors......the idiot who wrote on my purchaser's survey that there is a "high level of damp at the property" should be shot! or at least decapitated as without realising it they have 1) caused me a further delay in my house sale and 2)triggered my IBS to go into overdrive....thanks guys I'll be sending you the bill for the toilet rolls I've got through! (TMI?)

On a brighter note....I managed to get to the pub today :) after a seminar given by my supervisor. It's so much easier to talk to people over a pint than in Uni. One of the MA students Rachel is very friendly, also I managed to speak to Matt the other PhD student here who is "into" The Smiths and The Cult...hoorah a human life-form! :)
It was only after returning to my flat after a pint of God's Juice ...that I realised how many stairs there are for me to climb ...2 flights! Not good after a skin-full! (Note to self: after lots of beer sleep in the garden)

So I am starting to feel a bit more human today...the social butterfly was starting to wilt..but now my wings have started to flutter once more!

Well tomorrow I have decided to squat in the research office, the computer links have still not been set up and I have been working from home.....but as I am writing for the next 4 days and don't need internet access ...I can cope with just a desk and a chair. This way I will feel more integrated into the Uni rather than shut away in my bolt hole. If they see somebody is working in there this might give them the kick up the arse that's needed...well one can only hope!

Thanks for the call Janey, hope you enjoyed today's installment?

Sorry "Love Monkey" but I feel the need to end with another quote......today the theme is madness, so I found this little gem.... who needs medication when you can just get out the cook book!

"If you feel depressed or let down, my advice is to roast a chicken" - Delia Smith

Africa ......

This is a picture of the ancient Churches of Lalibella in Ethiopia ...why is it on my blog I hear you ask? Well listener I saw this place on the Holiday programme tonight which was a poignant reminder that Brad was there in the summer as part of his fieldwork trip. He told me that it's one of the most amazing places he's seen......now I have seen it on the TV.....I feel the need to go there in person and see it for myself. So it's been promptly added to my "things to do before I die" list.

The basic thing is, I really want to get some travelling in over the next few years. I know I will be teaching soon and I have the little matter of an 80,000 + dissertation to write..but hey I am sure I can fit a few trips abroad in.....after all travelling is something that everybody should do at some stage in their lives...and as Lesley keeps reminding me.....I am 10 years behind everybody else..so let' crack on!

God says "Return of the Mack" tra la la ...

OK it's Sunday and as I have been up here for nearly 3 weeks and have yet to get my sinful backside into Church, I thought today would be a good day to start. After careful consideration I decided to partake in the bread and wine of Christ at St Peter's in Huddersfield....I chose this Church as it clearly does not stipulate in the published literature that I have to spread the word of the Lord, and also it is a 10 am service which is very civilised...even though my name is Dawn at this time of the day I am generally not at my best.

Anyway, the Church itself was built in 1838 and that's about as much as I know! It is about the same size of St Martins and therefore is not as personal as St Catharine's. As I walked in there were about 40-50 parishioners already sat down, average age as you would expect 104.....well ok a slight exaggeration...84. As the organist strutted his stuff, there was the sudden sound of a choir together with the melodic chants of some bloke singing bits of scripture in Latin...hang on a minute I thought, am I in the right Church? I didn't see Roman Catholic on the sign outside....and also I thought how sad to have a tape playing with the "Latin Choral Society" doing their best...

I am ashamed to say that from the vestry the choir all appeared in 2x2 formation, all 20 of them, plus their musical director, assistant curate (who looks about 14) and 4 other blokes in white (not sure who they were at that point) and then of course the vicar...who is a woman...hoorah! The only woman priest I have ever seen is the Vicar of Dibley, so I will be making a keen comparison in future blog entries....

Anyway, after the relief and shame of the singing not actually being a tape and establishing that I was in a Protestant Church.....I had a sneaky peek at the congregation. Well all I can say is that the youngest person in there was me, followed by the lady sat next to me who I later found out is the wife of the visiting Arch Deacon of Halifax who was there to give the sermon.....I will mention this shortly....

The "ladies" sat behind me were worthy of note...not sure of age...I'd guess in their mid 60's...but the one directly behind me bore an uncanny resemblance to the late Les Dawson's drag character ...crossing her hands and moaning about problems "down below".....the moment she started to sing the first hymn I nearly cracked up....she had a voice like a ton of gravel in a tumble drier....made me sound like the voice of an angel....yes that bad!

Anyway back to the Arch-Deacon...nice guy....tall, skinny, grey, obligatory beard ...used a lot of humour in his 15 minute sermon which I particularly enjoyed.....especially when for some strange reason he brought up the 90's rap star Mark "Return of the Mac" Morrison, whose album is still in my CD rack and there is will stay! Apparently, the AD lived for 18 years in Leicester from where the Mac also hailed...but unfortunately I think I was the only one in the congregation who had ever heard of him......so when AD started talking about how the Mac had once said that only God can judge him....everybody in Church looked a little bewildered and there was a stony silence ever time AD cracked a joke...poor thing he was like the 1st act on at the Comedy Club....with the non-enviable task of warming up the audience...Unfortunately this lot were very cold and by the look of them, some of them will be a lot colder fairly soon..if you know what I mean???

The highlight of the service was indeed the choir who were fab, and included a young girl who sang a solo after communion, Lord she could sing ...but I think the Musical Director thought he was arranging an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical rather than a Church service as all of the "responses" were all over the shop.....I can see a lot of miming in the next few weeks until I pick up the melodies!

So the 100 mins service went by ....I had decided not to stay for the tea and biscuits but was grabbed by the AD's wife who could see and hear by my worryingly, increasingly Welsh accent that I was new in town. So she did me the favour of introducing me to the assistant curate and the vicar who are both female and ginger, so it was like the rich auburn version of the 3 Degrees stood in line by the font! In order to return her kindness I told her to inform her husband that I did have a Mark Morrison CD, so he knew there was at least one person who appreciated his humour!

The whole experience of today just confirmed a lot of the stuff that I wrote about in my dissertation and I wish in hindsight that on one of my previous visits I could have gone to St Peter's with my tape recorder...as they just all fit the profile of the over 65's I was researching..never mind!

At this point I could write a bit about my latest research but I think it would be far too boring...but if anybody does have a burning desire to know about adjacency pairs or preference
in conversation analysis, you know where to find me!

Thought I'd end this blog with another quote...just because I can and it kind of makes me appear semi-intelligent and well read ..... moving on......so for those of you waiting to get a response from upstairs...bear this in mind:

"Prayer must not be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence" - Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde anyone?

"The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach"
- Oscar Wilde

Well my University does not have this module on my lecture programme ..... shame! I wish I could be idle actually I wish I could go on holiday right now, even though my flat is still giving me the hotel feel, mainly due to the extractor fan in the shower room which automatically goes off when you switch the light on. The other factor is the size of the actual shower cubicle which I believe was designed for the currently popular American size zero.....the sensation of your buttocks sliding down the tiles everytime you drop the soap was at first a novelty, now it is just confirming the very apparent fact that I need to loose weight!

The whole idea when I moved up here especially with out my car was to get fit, loose weight and generally shift the 14 pounds gained on my jam sandwich/ M&M diet during my dissertation. So far my 3 minute crawl to the library and my constant supply of Sainsbury's "Taste the Ddifference" ready meals and Galaxy chocs have not made much of an impact! .....
Talking of "Taste the Difference"...they do exactly what they say on the box.....they taste different from all the other ready meals I have tasted....'cos they taste like sh** !

Anyway I will briefly move on to my Moan of the Day section which today is autobiographies.
I love autobiographies and own several great books which describe the lives of important politicians or icons like Nelson Mandela etc.......but what really gets my blood boiling are these so called celebrities who at the age of post-puberty decide to write their memoirs! The person in question ,who is the latest to jump on the bandwagon is Chantelle ...who? I hear you cry ...exactly!
After winning celebrity Big Brother and marrying a two bit pop star ..this 19 year old...yes 19! has decided to share her "life" story with the nation. Life...what life?...God she's only just left school! Her 300 page + masterpiece could have been fitted on a 2 sided insert and placed in OK magazine with all the other bits of rubbish advertising catalogues and timeshares in Turkey....RAH! why is she allowed to get away with this? I bet the new guinea pigs who are auditioning for BB29 are already digging out their school diaries in preparation for their own publishing deals in 2007!

Ok rant over...... according to Noel Coward....who once said "television is for appearing on, not looking at" ....I can see why we are in such a mess!

Friday October 13th - Cheese crisis and M&M's

Well I've just spent nearly an hour on the phone to Kate (who has a proper job as a lecturer in Oxford..a true academic not a shandy one like me!) she has given me lots of helpful advise about my forthcoming 3 years all of which has been digested with thanks. The sad thing about it is that we were both stuck in watching Corrie on a Friday night and after mentioning I had a bag of M & M's Kate felt the need to go and get a bag.....Lordy the excitement of being single!

Other news today......OMG crisis at Sainsbury's! I went for my usual fix of cheese ...well actually I like to look at the Caerphilly cheese as it has a picture of the castle on the front which reminds me at home....unfortunately the store is currently under refurbishment and when I got there the cheese had been moved. When I found it the Caerphilly cheese was missing...yikes!!!
One of the shop assistants saw me in distress and asked if she could help me ....I pondered for a while and decided that I would feel a bit guilty asking for some Caerphilly cheese just so I could look at the label, as actually I don't like to eat the stuff! so I declined and came home with some Irish chedder which is ok 'cos it's from another Celtic country..... they seem to eat a lot of Double Gloucester up here which I personally think is like eating sweet fudge!

On the work front haven't got too much done today but the weekend is ahead and no doubt I will have a burst of inspiration soon! The joys of Conversation Analysis are calling me.......

Here we go........continued.

Well I am so pleased that my first (far too long) blog entry worked and I even managed to upload some pics...at the cost of not getting to bed until gone 3.00am! but then Matt rings me this morning and tells me about flickr which means I'll have to investigate how that works...oh the mental torment!

Anyway, back to the epic saga of my move etc ...... not much more to say really...
On the first Saturday in Hudds I went for a wander around town, it's got 2 large shopping centre's here including a Beatties which is part of the House of Frazer chain (somewhere I won't be spending a lot of time!). What struck me were the similarities to Caerphilly....especially at the top of town where all the "£1 shops" are. There is a constant stream of push chairs, track suits and loud 14 year old mother's ....so I felt quite at home!

The above pics of my flat were taken before I moved in, I will take some more post furniture installation as soon as I can. It is very cosy here and in a really useful location for town/shops etc. The best bit about it is that it only takes 16mins to clean....whereas my last house was 2-3 hours..not good!

As Hudds is a former industrial town, it has a canal going right through it which also runs past my flat. The building itself is a former mill and has very creaky floorboards! I didn't really notice this until last night actually...as the guy who lives upstairs (who I am convinced has size 14 feet) was visited late in the night by a friend, I am assuming who is female, but you can't be too sure these days....anyway, "they" have been thumping and humping around all night and now today, one of them is marching backwards and forwards as if they are on guard duty! Not sure what is happening and part of me really doesn't want to!

Anyway, the University itself is a former Polytechnic like Glamorgan, small and a bit disorganised! but everyone there is friendly and helpful. I am getting on well with Liz and they have given me shed loads of work to do. It has made me realise that this is a "proper" job as I have to give talks and stuff....yikes!

The only downside has been that there are not many (if any) other new PhD students, so I am really missing the student "community" spirit that I had in Cardiff ... but then again three years is a long time so I am sure it was all sort itself out!

I am now in my second week and things are definately a lot better, I feel more at home and getting into a routine. I managed to see my sister's kids on webcam yesterday which was good as they are as completely wild as ever! The best thing is they do not have a microphone on their webcam, so it was like a silent film ...fab! There's a pic of them at the top.....all nutters ...it's a family trait!

Well that's about it for today best get on with some work......

Me, Laura, Anne-Marie and Steffi at our post dissertation hand in party..trying our best to stay awake!

Me and my "bitches" Huw and Steve ...wicked grins all around!

Goodbye Dawny! This is me surrounded by my "old" school chums. Thanks to Nikki and Jane for standing in front of me..hiding the belly!

OK here it goes!

News from up North

Well it's Friday the 13th of October at 12.20 am is this a good time to start a blog? After all I have been reading all day, my little eyeballs are tired and also I have an eye infection...but I felt the need to get going on this "blog" thing.
I have never really been interested in new technology, I don't own an I-Pod and it is only last year I traded in my Walkman for a personal CD player...so the idea of joining the latest craze of sharing your every thought with the world aka blogging didn't exactly "float my boat". Upon reflection and as I am supposed to be a writer of some description I thought "what the hell" and here I am! I must however point out that I am very technophoebic and uploading photos and creating all singing and all dancing web pages is not my thing, but I will try my best!
After reading Anne-Marie and Katharine's attempts I feel very intimidated, as I doubt that mine will be as half as interesting...but hey ho let's give it a go!

So here I am in not so sunny Huddersfield. It seems like a bit of a mind melt actually being here as if you had told me this time last year that I'd be doing a PhD in Hudds I would have laughed..a lot! Escaping from the land of song wasn't an option but it's been a hard road to follow, especially after jut having a superb year at Cardiff University.

After leaving Glamorgan with a First Class Hons and some sort of prize for apparently being old but clever, starting at Cardiff fo my MA seemed the obvious next step...confidence was high and enthusiasm unquestioned. How quickly I was brought back into reality after my first meeting with Prof. Alison Wray, who informed a room of "green" students that "We can fail you!" (a day we shall all remember for a long time!). How lucky I was to met a fab group of students who were as intimidated as me in the presence of the aforementioned AW.

The "Americans" comprise of Anne-Marie and Katharine (with an "a") who I spent many a happy hour talking about anything and everything over a coffee in "our coffee shop with the nice Scottish bloke". The "German" is the incredibly tall Steffi, although a gentle giant she was particularly useful on sunny days as she gave my dwarf like body ample shade! The "Greek" mad Georgia when I say Greek I mean "Week" as she sounds more Welsh than me..is partial to a bit of bad language but a good sort. Finally there's "Posh Welsh" or Laura who lives in a huge house, is very rich, has a butler called Jeeves and finally takes it all in her stride how I take the pi** out of her postcode!
So there you have it, the collective who kept me company through 12 great, sometimes stressful months.

Anyway, the last 4 months were a bit of a 'mare! Started off really in late June, I decided to apply for a studentship in Huddersfield, not really thinking that I had a hope in hell of getting it, as I hadn't actually finished my MA. To my suprise I actually got an interview, so I toddled up to Hudds with my sister Jane for support (who actually wanted a few days away from the kids but ended up having a 'mare of a trip). We drove up which took 4 hours and found our hotel which prided itself on its "Award winning carpark"....personally I have never heard of a carpark winning an award before...would like to have heard the acceptance speech!..
Anyway, when we got there it was a "family" run firm but the guy behind the bar/reception/breakfast bar area (good use of space) introduced us to his wife and sister, but there was only one woman stood next to him (get the picture?). This did not install me with confidence!

We had a wander around the town, looked ok, but I wanted to get an early night as my interview was quite early the next day. However, I didn't read on the webpage for the hotel that it is "immediately adjacent to Johnny's Nightclub where Karaoke goes on a high volume until 1.00am" ...they seemed to have missed that bit out...strange?
After 3 choruses of "My Way" and "Light My Fire" I was not very pleased!

Three hours sleep later....my alarm went off....so we got dressed and went to breakfast....which you had to see to believe.....the reception area was now the breakfast bar having been "transformed" by a checkered table cloth...amazing! We sat at our table and were given two cups of stewed cold tea.....but then the mutation or son of the previously described proprietor came over and in a deep, I smoke 60 a day voice asked "Do you want cooked?" .....now I wasn't too sure exactly what he was offerering to be cooked, but I assumed (as one does) that he was referring to a Full English Breakfast. At this point my sister, who was trying to contain herself from laughing, managed to squeak "yes please", so I did the same. Jane's belief that Huddersfield was actually the real "Royston Vasey" was only fuelled by the breakfast experience ! I could go on to describe the "devastation on a plate" aka "cooked breakfast" that arrived, but as I have a lot to get through I will save anyone reading this the stomach churning read, but needless to say that I attended my interview after eating a Special K cereal bar and an apple!
So the interview came and went...I "dazzled" them with my gant charts and literary searches..but most importantly, when asked if I could re-locate, I was at the peak of bravado...re-locate? of course I could re-locate, not a problem at all!

The phone rings at 10.15am the next day, it's Liz Holt the main interviewer and successful candidate's supervisor...."We'd like to offer you the studentship" she said...my world changed. I accepted. I thanked her. I cried.

So that's what started my 4 months of torment. I didn't think I'd get it. I now had to sell my house, find a place to live in Hudds, re-house my cats, leave my friends, leave my family and completely uproot my life to West Yorkshire 216 miles away. OMG I panicked, did I really want a PhD that badly? what other options did I have..none! Well I could work in Brinsons Estate Agents FT, but that was not an attractive proposition! There were several reasons that made me decide to go for it .....

1. I am 37 I have made a bit of a mess of my life so far. No husband, no kids, a career I didn't want or was any good at but more importantly a feeling of low self worth and belief that I never thought I'd be capable of getting a BA without an MA (award pending!) so a PhD....OMG what an opportunity to stick 2 fingers up to those who have doubted me over the years.
2. Talking of opportunity, it is not often that these studentships come up. Funding in academia is non-existent as some of my MA pals are unfortunately finding out...and I have this golden opportunity to get where I want to be, a lecturer and researcher.
3. I am not doing this for the kudos of being "Dr Dawn" ..I am doing this for me as an individual who was always told "Dawn needs to make more effort" in school, who was kicked out of "A" level English ...and who wants to make people close to me proud, rather than see me as a continual let down and failure.
So I accepted and put the house on the market.

After selling the house ..twice....finding a flat in Hudds which is 3 mins from the Uni (so much for walking to work to get fit!) ...the only thing left was to re-house my cats..this was the bad bit. My two "children" Chloe and Marble were not just cats they were the company I had in the house when all of the 4 years of chaos of living with ungrateful tenants got too much. I loved them dearly and even writing this after two weeks of saying goodbye to them is making me upset. The guilt of giving them back to the RSPCA is terrible and I miss them more than words can say. I just hope and pray that they find good homes for them and this PhD is worth all of the sacrifices that I have made. OK need to move on now.

While all of this madness was going on, I still had the little matter of writing my MA dissertation. "intrinsic and extrinsic religious motivation: a qualitative and quantiative analysis" (so bored of writing that notice that I couldn't be bothered to use capitals?). Anyway, got my data in July....but wrote 18,500 words in the 5 days before hand in....yes DawnyLastminute.com strikes again! Poor Laura and me were in constant crisis communication...her advising me to drink lots of black coffee and me advising her to take lots of deep breaths...it was all too much! We were all in the same boat and even after handing in and attending our pre-planned post dissertation hand in piss up..we were all to knackered to paint the town red...not even a pale pink was achieved that night! (see attached pic!)
After all of that...I had 10 days to pack. Not good. A large 3 bedroomed house and 37 years worth of crap had to be fitted into a 1 bed flat.....ummm......even though I am not mathematically inclined (as Brady keeps reminding me!) even I knew it was not going to be easy. I as very lucky that my Mum and Sister helped or I never would have done it.

I had a "leaving party" at the Goodrich Pub in Caerphilly on Saturday September 23rd. It was a great night. Claire, Jane and Sharron had got to the pub earlier and decorated it with balloons, banners and lots of embarrassing photos which showed the various hairstyles of Dawn over the years...but the talking point of the evening was a "walrus arse" shot, which even tough it was the same size of my ever expanding back side..I dispute to this day was actually mine! Anyway, lot of friends from school, uni and work turned up, I was very humbled by the effort everybody made to see me off...or as John put it...make sure I go!
Everybody was very drunk, even Matthew Jones said that he'd miss me which totally threw me as words of kindness are not often thrown my way!

OK so I arrived on Wed Sept. 27th. It was a 5 hour train journey and then the cowboys arrived to deliver my furniture. Two smashed glasses, a broken mug, a chipped headboard, 3 broken finger nails and a lost temper..not bad! After they left, leaving a horrible sweaty man smell behind them, I sat on my sofa, stared at the mound of boxes surrounding me and thought "bloody hell"....in the true British spirit I had a cup of tea and got stuck in. By the time I went to bed I was aching in places that I didn't know could ache so I slept well.

The next day I had my first meeting with Liz, before which a lovely NTL man came and connected my broadband, cable and phone..I love him! Back to the meeting...it went well even though I had to stop yawning and I looked like a rabbit in the headlights. However, she did hit me with the bombshell that's she's pregnant...how inconsiderate! So I my have to teach in January which is earlier than planned..after the 4 months I'd had I just said ...Bring it on!

Friday 29th.....bad day at Fraggle Rock! Another bunch of delivery people who wore spurs and stetsons appeared to deliver my washing machine.and more importantly fit it. This did not happen. They couldn't get it to work so they left. AAAAARRRGGHH! didn't really need this. So I decided to wait for the managing agents "handy man" Jack to turn up in order to look at it. He was already booked in for Wed. as I had a leaking tap, broken toilet seat, and a window and door which wouldn't close properly (the joys of renting property). Anyway this appointment was moved swiftly forward on the Sunday, when I noticed that the connection pipes for the washing machine were leaking all over the floor under the sink. Not good.
I tried mopping it up and putting a container under it, but it was bubbling away merrily. This was the last straw. I turned the water off and went for a lie down. I began to sweat and shake, I had pins and needles in my fingers and fet and pains across my chest. With the history of coronary disease in my family I feared the worst.
I pictured the headlines "Welsh student found dead in flat - suspected heart attack due to leaking pipes"..... yikes!
In order to calm myself down I listened to Duran Duran and did some breathing exercises..it seemed to do the trick. After I felt a bit better the last four months caught up with me in 4 minutes...I cried...a lot.
What have I done? Why the hell am I here? Dawn you are such an arse...were the three main questions/statements screamed out in frustration that evening. Followed by a lot of ...Oh for God's sake pull yourself together...that old chestnut always seems to do the trick!
So the next day, feeling better after the previous night's hysterical outburst, my man Jack turned up and fixed all my drips..oh er missus! I started to like my flat again as all it's problems were solved...so there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!

I think I'd best end here as there's so much more to say but it's 1.40am......if I press the publish post button and it looses everything I have just written...it could be a swift end to my blogging experience! Ah well here it goes....