Day
seven
Sometimes
we as a species make judgements about people, we say things out of
grief and anger which do not represent our real beliefs on an object
or even on a person. I as an individual made this error yesterday and
would like (as is perhaps our species greatest merit) to atone for
this error. After my poetic outburst I returned home and sent a
polite email enquiring if the kind and handsome doctor had indeed
slammed the door on our dream team. The returned email spoke of
apologies for delays, a pushed back start date and he stated and I
quote “we were very pressed by you”. I am to find out this
Friday. If I’m honest I don't actually know what pressed means,
other than what they do to apples at Copella, but it must be good
(because Copella is bloody awesome). I have therefore concocted I new
poem expressing my real feelings not clouded by resentment:
Ode to that fine fellow who might still give me the job.
To
say that sun shines from you rear
Is to undersell you I
fear
Because from every orifice I see light shining.
Your
eyes clear I see as a bright winter dawn’s first beam
Your
mouth warm gives the sunset of a midsummer dream
Your ears
open as the oceans dance and glitter
With phosphorescent and
whipped up spray
And from every pore I see hope kindle
and flicker
Like a taxi’s light or a low burnt candle on
Valentines day.
And
to give a chance to you and I,
For however long the time would
fly,
With wisdom, wit and wilful glee
We could make some
chemistry
If I was to say a sad goodbye to the
tubes and return to being a student I would have to up sticks and
move to London. I have a few friends about London but none of them
are available to become my new flatmates. I also have no intention of
living on my own. I feel this journal would become longer and (if
possible) weirder. I have been advised to look on gumtree for people
looking for someone to fill a room. I might end up making lifelong
friends or being forced to become rent boy in a crack den. In my time
I have had good flatmates (ones who bring home cookies every Monday
and like to clean) strange flatmates (ones with a phobia of tomatoes
and a habit of spending whole days wearing just a towel and watching
chess on the internet) and bad flatmates (shan't go into details). I
have used my experiences to devise a list of the top five most
desirable flatmate professions:
1. Primary school teacher
- if the TV shows - New Girl and How I Met Your Mother have taught me
anything they are hot but not too glamorous, a bit kookie, tidy and
have cool backgrounds in sci fi.
2. A butcher - nothing is
more important to my home life than good food. The most important
part of good food is good meat. As I once again become a poverty
stricken student I will no longer be able to enjoy the fine cuts I
desire (deserve). Living with a butcher seems the only option. Also
he would be our hard man if we got in a fight (have you ever seen a
butcher who wouldn't look good in a pair of knuckle dusters)
3.
A nurse - When in the cold depths of winter I am inevitably struck
down with a crippling case of manly flu I want a professional to
comfort me and steal me an adequate supply of prescription drugs.
Also fancy dress parties would be no problem.
4. A
politician - they undoubtedly will be a borderline alcoholic so in
the wee hours of a Friday night we can discuss global policy changes
which will save the world. Then unlike the other victims of my
drunken genius come Monday morning he can do something with my
plans.
5. A talented (but not famous) musician - their
role is to join me in my poverty so I have someone to do poor people
activities with like not tipping cab drivers/hairdressers and
drinking Sainsbury's basics cider. On top of this they will know
where all the good parties are. NB - band practice must happen
elsewhere.
I am coming to the end of my book and therefore
in need of a new one. I have recently been reading a smart person
book followed by a trashy book and so on. I am 50 pages from the end
of War and Peace (well worth a read, I may review it once I am done)
and therefore consider that I have earned something really trashy. JK
Rowling's new book is out but my sister is reading it and I think I
can allow myself something even trashier. My mind keeps turning
towards EL James and the her(?) famous 50 shades of grey (white being
1 and black 50?). This has some disadvantages in loss of respect from
co-workers, awkward boners, enduring an apparently terrible plot and
the dreadful possibility of perhaps wanting to read the next one. But
on the up side there is an outside chance of improving my sexual
prowess and I'll get to know what the smeg all the women are talking
about.
Kinda excited about the impending release of Red Dwarf X.
I do hope it's good. May watch some classic robot wars to prepare
myself. C'mon hypno disc!
Just to let you know my friend
Antonio blew it with that pretty but naive by being too honest.
Granted that honesty involved telling her to bring condom to their
first date but still something to think about… On a side note he
revealed to her in my presence that his visa is running out so he
will have to return to his native Italy soon. I'm gonna miss him.
Day
eight
A
company, like a tube machine, can run smoothly and efficiently if and
only if all the cogs are well oiled, maintained and working together.
In many ways it is like a bee hive. The bee keeper (or tube overlord)
is the kind gentleman who employed me and is the owner of the
company. He doesn't immediately work in the hive, but watches over
its progress and only intervenes when absolutely necessary. He
installs a queen bee and sells the honey (tubes) produced. The queen
bee (master of tubes) is in charge of the lab, he makes sure that all
the bees are performing and directs the quantity and type of honey
produced. He also installs new bees when a bee decides to find a new
hive. Then there are the worker bees (tube doctors) who make sure the
honeycombs (tube machines) are correctly in place and making honey
and fixes them when they are not, the bee who makes sure the honey is
made right (tube inspector) and lastly the honey bees (the senior
tubeologist and myself - junior tubeologist) who collect the nectar
(some type of vinyl chloride) put it in the honeycomb to make the
honey.
All the jobs are equally important for the selling
of the honey (although not equally paid) and if one bee is not
performing the whole colony suffers. The same is true of the cogs in
the tube machine and in a company. Today one of the cogs cocked up.
One of the pen pushing cogs (who probably hasn't touched a tube in
her life), the bee keeper's wife, who prints to labels to go on the
honey pots. But rather than writing honey better known as ZAB 2088204
she wrote ZAB -
2088204, she might have well written Marmite for the two are that far
apart. And so it was that rather than making honey this morning I had
to unpack 180 individual reels of tube and re-label them. She is
clearly a rusty cog and should be driven from the hive.
The
bee keeper has another hive in his garden (last bee reference I
swear) which I can see through the glass windows. It is a science lab
and is another part of the business. It was actually this colony
(really the last one) I applied to but the position was(p) already
filled so I was offered this job instead. I know that they work on
something to do with air pollution but as I see them busily buzzing
(like flies) around the lab looking productive I can't help but feel
there must be something magical going on in there whilst we just
bumble (what? that’s a normal word!) around in here. I would just
go in and ask but the Polish woman in charge is quite scary and I
might be stung (as in by a nettle) for asking silly questions. I bet
they set off small nuclear devices and test for radioactive isotopes
in the air but no, if that was true there would be black and yellow
markings to show danger (like the kind on hover-flies mimicking other
dangerous flying insects such as hornets). Maybe it's best I don't
know so as to keep the mystery ahive. (ok ok I'll beehave for the
next post)
(Sing along if you like Abba)
The
bee keeper has another hive in his garden (last bee reference I
swear) which I can see through the glass windows. It is a science lab
and is another part of the business. It was actually this colony
(really the last one) I applied to but the position was(p) already
filled so I was offered this job instead. I know that they work on
something to do with air pollution but as I see them busily buzzing
(like flies) around the lab looking productive I can't help but feel
there must be something magical going on in there whilst we just
bumble (what? that’s a normal word!) around in here. I would just
go in and ask but the Polish woman in charge is quite scary and I
might be stung (as in by a nettle) for asking silly questions. I bet
they set off small nuclear devices and test for radioactive isotopes
in the air but no, if that was true there would be black and yellow
markings to show danger (like the kind on hover-flies mimicking other
dangerous flying insects such as hornets). Maybe it's best I don't
know so as to keep the mystery ahive. (ok ok I'll beehave for the
next post)
(Sing along if you like Abba)
I
saw from my chair last night, your hair so bright,
Fernando.
You’ve
been scoring goals for you and me,
and for
Chelsea,
Fernando
Though
I never thought you could move
Have no regrets
If I had the
choice like you my friend I’d do the same
Fernando
I'm
not ashamed to admit that I have an undying love for Fernando Torres
which transcends form and clubs. I'm a fan of Plymouth Argyle but
follow Liverpool in the EPL. My love for him was actually born when I
brought him to Mansfield Town from Athletico Madrid on FIFA ‘06,
where he settled in very well next to Francesco Totti. He is now
captain of my fantasy football team and this song is in honour to the
11 points he earned last weekend (played for 90 minutes and produced
a goal, an assist and picking up two bonus points in the process)
Day
nine
I
was talking to a fellow master of chemistry last night about elements
and moles and stuff. On a slight tangent from our hardcore quantum
debate he challenged me to write a haiku. I replied “Bless you!
write a what?” but after a quick google I accepted master donut’s
challenge. So here it is:
Ode
to a Japanese tube
A tube made just right
My wish may
come true one day
Man was born to hope
But a tube
made wrong
Can be born with much more ease
I
can't help but cry.
My
other activities last night involved a trip to the local pub with
Antonio (yet to be deported). This pub was filled with real locals,
the kind you can only meet in a village pub on a Wednesday night. At
the pub we met a psychic in the smoking area (nasty Italian habit);
she had a strange accent which could only be described as Irish but
it was neither northern nor southern tongue. It wasn't even gypsy.
Her psychic ability was confirmed by the fact she had pulled the
jackpot out the fruity and knew that she was going to before she
played (sadly this miracle happened earlier in the evening - doubly
sad as she bought drinks all round). She proceeded to tell us how the
pub was haunted and she had witnessed the ghost. A frightful tale it
was too. One stormy night (I assume) and alone in the bar with only
the pub cat for company (and probably bar staff) she felt an
unworldly inclination towards the bathroom. Unsuspectingly she opened
the door which let out a dreadful squeak as if to warn of the
paranormal inside. Dumbstruck her eyes gave proof to what in her
heart she already knew. And this in turn gave solidity to all other
theories she lay awake at night thinking on - vampires, astrology,
dragons and homeopathy, even leprechauns all turned from myths to
reality before her. For in the bathroom, the taps were on but nobody
was there. By the 5th telling I became utterly convinced…
There
was no way she was Irish.
Upon leaving she demanded kiss,
(thankfully on the cheek) there isn't enough soap in the world.
Day
ten
So
today is the day I’m supposed to find out about the PhD. I don't
know by what means of correspondence I am to find out by, but all our
past correspondences have been in email. If this remains the case I
should find out on my shift.
It is now 09:16 and I need to
prepare myself for the results. It feels a bit like getting my degree
classification. This time however I'm not hanging like William
Wallace before being drawn and quartered by a bus journey along
Scotland’s windiest, windiest roads by its swerviest, draftiest bus
(from Fort Augustus to Edinburgh) towards what I considered certain
to be crushing failure. Amusingly, when I was arriving into Edinburgh
the results were about to go out and I was still on the bus,
inevitably delayed due to congestion and a missed connection (because
of which I was forced to huddle behind a remote bus shelter in Perth
for an hour). I knew Edinburgh quite well having lived there for four
years and recognised that I was close to campus. So to arrive to the
university more quickly I told some horrific lies to the bus driver
and convinced him to let me off at an unscheduled stop.
I
got off and checked google maps…turned out I was in Queensferry
which is roughly an hour and a half walk away. So had to suck up my
pride and hail a cab. The fare cost me double that of the bus from
near Inverness but I guess that's karma. The story had a happy ending
of course so all's well that ends well.
Truth be told I am
slightly more confident then I was for my degree. It is likely that
this is a bad thing and so (like Rimmer did last night in Red Dwarf)
I need to prepare myself for failure. Thus, if I succeed the joy is
greater and if I fail the pain is diminished. That's the theory
anyway. To do this I shall now write as if I have not got the
PhD.
It is now 10:47 and the bad news is yet to come. On
my break one of the polish girls somehow clocked my poetic tendencies
(must have been the far away look in my eye…certainly not my
recital of Ode to a tube…cough) and demanded a poem to be written
about her. I usually would charge but to distract myself from the
pain of not getting the PhD I'll do it for free (who am I kidding,
I'ma poem hussey and would do it for anyone). Anyway here it
is:
Ode
to a Pole:
Oh
you soft Polish miracle
You’ve demanded I be lyrical
And
I don’t mean to be cynical
But your dark semi-lucid
eyes
Give me no clue as to what’s inside
And if I
scalpelled you open and stared
You’d probably run away
scared
So if you want to ensnare my heart
There’s only
one place to start
And the solution is easy my
dear
Although to others it might sound queer
Now I know to
ask this is rude
But would you turn into a tube?
It
is 11:52 and my inbox is still dormant (soon to erupt with bad news).
I have planned a trip to see the bright lights of Basingstoke
tonight. Now although I already know that I didn't get it (i can feel
the negativity working already), I have realised that the outcome of
today may seriously affect tonight's festivities. There are three
possible outcome leading to three possible nights.
Night 1
(the night which will occur): Confirmation of my failure - I come
back from work in a state of depression, as I have already committed
to this night out I will start my drinking early and continue heavily
until I lose sight of the reason for my depression (and everything
else probably). My choice of drink will be dark rum and coke…and
lots of it. I will end up crying on Antonio’s shoulder by 10pm and
continue until he leaves me. All the beautiful women of Basingstoke
will be impressed with my sensitivity and fight over the right to
console me.
Night 2 (delayed doom): I receive no email
today at all - I come back from work and check my emails every 10
minutes in some vain hope, until my commitments to the night out
prevent me from doing so. I drink lightly and absent-mindedly. Drink
choice - about 2 beers which are nursed for hours. I am not in the
mood to dance so sit looking into space until Antonio gets so bored
of me that he leaves. All the beautiful women of Basingstoke will
admire my distantness and fight for the right to ‘really get to
know me’.
Night 3 (so distant a possibility that it is
barely worth writing about): the PhD is mine - I get home in a
rapturous mood but am prevented from drinking immediately by forming
plans for my future and phoning everyone I know. I eventually crack
open a bottle of my home-made raspberry wine (which mother insists I
save till Christmas). I then move on the my tipple of choice - Gin2O
consisting of 1 part gin 1 part orange juice and 1 part cranberry
juice, served in a small tumbler over crushed ice with an umbrella in
it. I go to town in far too good a mood and inevitably buy OTHER
people drinks (something I'm afraid I'm not well known for). In
jovial mood I sing Queen songs until Antonio leaves me in disgust.
All the beautiful women of Basingstoke, impressed by my evident love
of life, fight over the right to sing a duet with me.
So
it is 15:12 and I think night two is drawing nearer and nearer. I
think the state of uncertainty is the one humans deal with worst. It
causes conditions such as stress, anxiety, fear of the dark and the
belief in ghosts and other higher beings - as proven by the example
of our pseudo Irish lady from Wednesday night, and her uncertainty as
to the cause of the taps being on. We seek to remove it as quickly as
possible and often jump to hasty far-fetched conclusions to relieve
ourselves of this anxiety. Yet I believe it is the time we spend in
uncertainty which makes our lives worth living, making them new and
different every day. Would love be so intoxicating if it were a
certainty? It is thus that girl you might be able to get is so much
more enchanting than that the girl you are certain to get. Take a
high jumper, the height he is certain to make gives you no
excitement, it is the height you might be able to clear that causes
such joy if they succeed. A mathematician who attempts an equation
which has never been solved is driven to sit in front of his desk for
hours digging for that brilliant unknown solution. The longer you
remain in a state of uncertainty the more you want the girl, that
height and that answer. Our souls crave uncertainty, however, it is
not a comfortable state to be in. This causes us to shy away from it;
like the boy who is too nervous to talk to the pretty girl, or the
water my spaniel eyed so longingly for a year before jumping in.
Those of you who feel in a rut - seek it out, pin it down and conquer
it. Then find some more. So I would like to thank Mr (Dr) PhD man.
Today I felt properly alive in a state of anxious excitement
unrivalled by comfortable trivial life. The wait only makes me want
it more. If you wouldn’t mind however, in telling me soon, because
while this uncertainty is exciting, these tubes are properly dull.
It’s 17:00 and no email. Serves me right for building it up I
guess.
Fuck night two, I could use a drink!