You’re never too cool (or too old) for school!

I got an unexpected message yesterday from an old friend that read:

“Hey, just realised I hadn’t let you know that you are part of my inspiration for deciding to study my bachelors and by extension a couple of other people who I’ve since encouraged to go back to “school”, just thought you might like to know :)”

Well, what do you know?  I never thought of myself as being an inspiration to anyone to do anything!  But of course as we progress though our lives, certain people effect us, and whether knowingly or unconsciously, they effect our decisions and life choices too.  And we in turn impact on others I guess.  It’s rare that someone takes the time to let you know though.  That you’ve had a positive impact on them.  Generally speaking, people are exceedingly quick to let you know if you are impacting on them detrimentally, but we have a tendency to often let the good stuff go unacknowledged.  I am glad I have inspired this friend to return to study and find some new challenges, and through him other people too by the sounds of it.

formal education return to study mature students

Personally, I feel that education is a life long process, and shouldn’t be considered done and dusted as soon as you finish whatever high school, trade or university certificate is required for your temporally specific job ambitions.  It doesn’t matter if you’re engaged in a formal tertiary education program, or whether you’re a voracious consumer of newspapers, or you enjoy a regular course of ‘steady’ reading ;), or maybe you’re someone who just gets caught up in grasshoppering through Wikipedia on a semi-regular basis – jumping from link to link to link gaining weird and wonderful tidbits along the way!  I think it’s important not to stagnate and to keep learning new things about the world around us and our history, which in turn has a strange tendency to teach us new things about ourselves.

My own educational background has been somewhat hit and miss to get to this point.  Out of high school I was accepted into teaching (senior Biology and English), not having applied for the Bachelor of Psychology I really wanted to do, as it was only available at James Cook Universtity at the time.  After being accepted to study secondary teaching, I promptly deferred – keenly aware that teaching high school, where I had only so recently and happily escaped, didn’t actually sound that appealing.  So I went to work for the govt as a clerk and finance officer for several years.  Which didn’t suit me at all!  Because, I am so crap with numbers!  I remember once, while in that job, I actually lost $300,000 due to transposing a 9 and a 6, which took me three frantic sleepless days to find on a monster of a departmental budget report!  Yuk!

I returned to Uni as a mature aged student – at the grand old age of 24!  😀  I enrolled in, and completed my Bachelor of Visual Arts with a major in Creative Advertising Photography.  I never worked a great deal in the photography industry even with this qualification under my belt, as I altered course soon after completing to start a family instead.  Lots of IVF, one gorgeous son, part-time book keeping jobs, a short stint in IT customer service support, an even shorter stint as an Account Manager and another car accident later… and I found myself returning to study again.  This time as a real mature age student perhaps.  🙂

My situation is both fortunate and unfortunate.  I have chronic neuropathic pain which makes me a rather physically useless creature, and a dreadfully unreliable employee!  Something which sits very uncomfortably with my obsessive and ergomanic personality. So, at Mr K’s excellent suggestion, I returned to study to keep my brain busy and engaged – otherwise I think I would be sitting around the house going ‘Woe is me, I’m in pain… still!’, day in and day out.  I enrolled part time in a Bachelor of Arts to do some history and literature courses that interested me, just for something to do.  After about 60 credit points of that, one of my literature professors advised me to apply for the MPhil program (Masters in Philosophy)… she had been the RHD (Research Higher Degree) convenor at the Uni for over a decade and she told me I was wasting my time and talents doing undergrad classes for shits and giggles.  I didn’t mind, I was learning stuff and getting plenty out of it.

The whole thing proved a bit much for the RHD admin office to get their heads around, so in the interim I enrolled in the Honours program as a back up. In the end my MPhil application was unexpectedly and unorthodoxly accepted, even though I hadn’t finished the BArts degree.  Thus, with a week before classes were to start I had to decide if I wanted to do the Honours or the MPhil, and I chose – for the first time in my entire life – to follow the traditional course and do the Honours year first.  I graduated my Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History and then based on my grades and academic references, found myself applying for a PhD… mostly, because I could.  I was accepted at Griffith and at the University of Queensland for their PhD programs, and chose to go to UQ… because that’s where the Medieval people are!  (Griffith has a piss weak Medieval program all round).

All of this I relate to one end… you never know where these things can take you.  I started out doing a course on ‘The Foundations of Western Culture’ and ‘World History’ with no particular direction in mind, and now I’m doing my PhD in Medieval political philosophy!

I guess the point is… it’s never too late to jump into the deep end!

Aussie Politicians Stacking up on Social Media

I stumbled over some interesting infographics today (taken from The Data Files and compiled by www.news.com.au) which show that our ex-PM, Kevin Rudd is far more internet savvy and social media engaged, than the incumbent PM, Juilia Gillard. Further, we can also see that the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott lags behind his 2IC, Malcolm Turnbull.

According to the prestigious US university, Virginia Tech, KRudd is not only the most “socially networked and most digitally interactive politician” in Australia, he’s the most up to date, social media adept politician on the entire planet.  That’s actually pretty impressive…  Political pundits have been conjecturing that his habitual heavy social media use is an attempt to gain a groundswell of popularity for another leadership challenge prior to the September 2013 election, and in response @KRudd has reduced his tweets and FB status updates by a whopping 30%… though he continues to post his usual amount of Youtube videos to the official KRudd Youtube Channel.

Interesting to see what their most popular “unofficial” pages are too… very telling about how the masses view these politicians.

twitter facebook youtube videos popularity demographic

 

facebook twitter youtube videos demographic popularity

 

facebook nonexistence unpopular demographic male misogynist

 

twitter facebook youtube videos popularity demographics

 

I’m wondering why, in this day and age are the likes of Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull not attempting to harness the enormous power of social media that is largely available completely free at their staffer’s fingertips?  Is it simply a matter of them being technophobic Luddites?  Or are they worried about getting down and dirty with the masses and maybe having to answer some questions up close and personal?

The nightmares come AFTER the travel!

Alrighty then.  I’m obviously spending too much of my time travelling and/or making travel arrangements at the moment because I woke up this morning feeling like I’d had what could be described as a nightmare, but would probably be accurately designated as a PTSD ‘flashback’!   Our travel later this year has one potentially Frightful Day O’Transit – we fly from Anchorage, Alaska to Las Vegas, Nevada with accommodation check outs and check ins, and dropping off and picking up of rental cars at each end too.  The flight unfortunately leaves Anchorage at 12:35am (‘cos we had a choice of three flights that all left between midnight and 2am… apparently that’s just when they fly out of bum-fuck Alaska!), and takes three hours to Seattle, stops there for two hours and then another three hours to Las Vegas. Where we are set to arrive at 08:20am local time!  No doubt we will be moderately to completely stuffed from the sleep deprivation.  But at the end of this particularly arduous travel leg is a very fancy resort/hotel, with a deluxe suite, massage therapists, views of the strips, swimming pools, pillow mints and cocktails too swanky to need little umbrellas!  So I’m cautiously optimistic that we shall survive the ordeal relatively intact…

However, this morning’s ‘flashback’ refers to one of the most horrid days I have ever spend travelling.  I have to say ‘one of’, because I have endured several simply horrendous travel experiences – including (but not limited to) off the top of my head: a ridiculously long 40 hour transit from Quetta, Pakistan to Brisbane, Australia which included 9 hours of being locked OUT of the Islamabad International Airport, surrounded by men leering at the blonde Western Whore; a 15 hour bus drive into Istanbul (whereupon we got lost) with at least a dozen fellow travellers vomiting and shitting everywhere, all of whom having been stuck down with some acute gastro bug; and an unexpected layover in Bahrain (while dressed in shorts and singlet top!), that involved body searches and AK-47s at the airport, enroute to London, due to a passenger having a heart attack on the plane over Tehran!

But this ‘flashback’ was about Edinburgh… It was 1995 and we had been travelling for about four or five months through Europe.  We had done a 70 day Grand European Tour, a quick week pisshead’s drinking tour around Wales and a great week or so in Ireland where we travelled from historical sites and pubs, to more historical sites and more pubs!  Ireland was awesome.  Getting there however – by car – was less so.   We had a Plan – I have no idea whose Plan it was any more… and besides, it was so very long ago, we probably shouldn’t be bothered placing blame at this stage; that is to say, I may, or may not, have been partially or completely responsible for the Plan in question, as I have no recollection of the lead up to these events.  So yes, a Plan to leave Dublin via vehicular ferry, and then drive directly to Edinburgh without Passing Go and definitely no Collecting £200.  Sounds okay, right?  Until I mention that the vehicular ferry left Dublin at 03:00am and the crossing to Holyhead (near Bangor) took approx. 3 hours via ferry, which was then followed up by a 640km, 8hr drive to Edinburgh… a trip for which I was the only licensed driver!  :/

accommodation fuck up travel plans screwed

But as arduous as that particular schedule was, nothing could prepare us for the monumental fuck up that occurred when we arrived, exhausted and bedraggled, early evening in Edinburgh.  Back in the day – before everyone had internets, before we all used email everyday, before tripadvisor.com, before airline online booking systems, before tripit.com, hell, before everyone had global roaming mobile phones! – one used to make their travel arrangements through what we used to quaintly refer to as a ‘travel agent’.  And we had one back in Brisbane who had made all our plans and whom we had been visiting for months leading up to our big trip handing her huge wads of cash.  Her name might have been Tracy, and she had booked our flights, our 70 day Top Deck tour, our car hire and about three places where we definitely needed to have accommodation sorted before we got there… one of those places was Edinburgh – because we planning be there in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival to see the Military Tattoo.   Somewhere along the line, BigSal had contacted Tracey (via exorbitantly expensive international phone calls) and asked her to extend our stay at the Edinburgh hotel we had booked… we had an address, but no direct phone contact details and the booking had to be altered by the travel agent apparently.  Anyway, we arrive in Edinburgh in one piece, having braved the nightmarish and treacherously wet, M1 and having just traversed about half the length of the UK, eyes hanging out of our heads and ready for a quick meal, a pint and an early night… only to find that Tracey had fucked up big time.  Instead of extending our reservation by an extra day, there had been a communication break down, and she had CANCELLED IT!

And of course being Festival, everywhere, I mean absolutely everywhere… was completely booked out.  Fark!!!  Stranded in Edinburgh at their busiest time of year with no where to stay.  However, while I vaguely remember being extremely tired and extremely pissed off at someone who was 15,000kms away and uncontactable, I clearly remember BigSal completely losing her shit.  The poor guy behind the concierge desk at the hotel we thought we were staying at was calling around to other hotels and hostels looking for a room for us, but that all came to naught.  BigSal was in tears, calling around only to discover that of course it’s the middle of the night in Australia, and also desperately calling hostels herself trying to find us a room, and we were standing around on the footpath of this place… three totally exhausted and clueless, stranded Aussie chicks who knew no on in Edinburgh… wondering what the bloody hell we were going to do, as it was starting to get rather dark.

And then, out of nowhere came a knight in shining armour… well, an Austrian in a rented Audi, but you get the idea.  He too, thought he had made a reservation with the same hotel, but somewhere things had gone awry with his booking also.  However, having been a frequent visitor to Edinburgh, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.  He called a few B&Bs and eventually, said to us, “Ladies, don’t cry,” (this to BigSal who was absolutely at the end of her rope!), “I have found us rooms… just follow me.”  So without questioning his directions, his motives, his contacts, or the price!  We did just that.  And after a short drive across town found ourselves in an overpriced B&B with a dodgy but clean, triple room just for us.  So exhausted, so relieved.  I could have kissed him…  I probably did.

Let’s hope the upcoming Anchorage —> Las Vegas leg bears as little resemblance to that particular debacle as humanly possible!

PS:  Once we were sufficiently revived by cider and pizza and a decent nights’ sleep… Edinburgh was fabulous, the Tattoo was awesome and the Fringe Festival was also very cool!

Scotland Edinburgh Festival Fringe Festival Accommodation

Canberra Plus-atives and Minus-ives.

Yesterday I noted that I am often in the habit of writing a list of things that I really liked about places I have visited as well as another list of the things I am not so fond of… and a friend pointed out that even though I have travelled to Canberra on more occasions than I can count, I have never done a ‘Canberra Pros & Cons’ list.  No doubt this list is highly influenced by my friends and the sorts of things we tend to do when I get to town.  So here goes:

Things I like about Canberra…
There’s absolutely no traffic compared to Brisbane – awesome sauce!
The National Gallery of Australia gets all the really sexy art exhibitions.
The CBD is fairly flat and compact for walking/getting around.
Everything feels relatively close, short walk to here, short walk to there.
Poachers Pantry is but a short drive away.  😉
Easy access: fancy new airport takes about 2 mins to traverse from end to end.
They have a cool hot air balloon festival, and I love hot air balloons!
It’s a relatively small city so feels quick and easy to get out of town.
Is a goodly proximity to Sydney, without being too close of course.
Plenty of good restaurants, cafes and bars (maybe too many!)
Close to snow and ski fields and fun winter stuff.
For the most part, very clean city – feels ‘new’ and not that much graffiti.
Lots of nationally significant places… War Memorial etc, Old Parliament House etc.
People tend to be politically aware and have informed opinions – yay!
Doesn’t matter where they move it, CBR is always closer to Festival than BNE.
Most of the suburbs are very green and leafy and feel quaint.
Bonus: it’s a complete sausage fest. Men outnumber the women, big time.

Canberra House of Representatives

Things I don’t like about Canberra…
It gets really fucking cold.  Period.
The CBD often feels a bit bleak; grey concrete bunkers, grey suits, grey skies.
They hide their petrol stations and you can drive for ages to find them.
Anyone not wearing a lanyard/security passes immediately looks like a tourist.
Dining out culture is expensive and unhealthy – always eat out too much in CBR.
Hospitality staff tend towards the snobby side unless they know you!??
Sensitivity towards indigenous communities is completely over the top in CBR.
Yet the names of most suburbs are as Anglo as they come.
Always feels like I’m positively desiccating from the low humidity.
Canberra’s ‘National Zoo’ has hardly any Australian animals in it! (getting better though).
People can be weird about their security clearance levels – Canberra oneupmanship?
Once you’ve done the tourist traps there’s not a lot to do.
Australian National University’s Medieval history department is non-existent.
You can’t eat the seafood – imho, the ocean is too far away!

So many trips to Canberra, and so many good times.  Yet, very little of it stems from the city itself and Canberra has to offer.  It has a good deal more to do with having so many wonderful friends living down there.  I imagine I could easily live in Canberra (so long as I had a house with a really good heating system!), but again, it would be for the same reasons.   We have so many really good friends in Canberra, whose company I really enjoy… not because I like the climate or the lifestyle that the city offers.  🙂

Melbourne Ups and Downs

Back home again after an exhilarating yet exhausting week.  I would normally have written on the way home at some point, but it was a quick and harried journey.  I have been to Melbourne several times before… on my way to go to Hobart via the old Abel Tasman, on my way to a cruise ship to go around New Zealand, on my way to visit a friend in Ocean Grove, and on my way to the Great Ocean Road.  So it has always been a bit of a ‘stay one night and jump off to somewhere else’ destination.  Which meant the jury was pretty much still out as to whether or not I actually liked the place.

Things I Liked About Melbourne:
There’s a pub on nearly every corner
Very strong visual arts culture
Cool blend of old and modern architecture
Clean beaches so close to the city
Awesome restaurants absolutely everywhere
Friendly hospitality staff
St. Kilda and Acland St. rocks
Queen Victoria Market’s delis, say no more
Live music nearby every night
Funky urban photo ops all over the place
Older suburbs have gorgeous quaint townhouse rows
Civic art that doesn’t look like it’s trying too hard
Awesome second hand bookshops
Shopping centres have discovered Dyson AirBlades
Fairly flat and easy to walk around (where I stayed anyway)
Lots of totally cool and creative graffiti

melbourne lifestyle what's on

Things I Did Not Like About Melbourne:
There’s a pub on nearly every corner
SMOKING in al fresco cafes and restaurants!
Smoking outside shops and in public thoroughfares!
The trams were on my fucking road
Grumpy or completely ambivalent retail staff
Traffic sucks almost as bad as Brisbane
Bogans – lots of bogans
Needs more free wi-fi (but most of Aust does)
Nothing seems to open until 10am… what’s with that?
The overhead tramlines are unsightly
Heaps of hippie swamp rat types everywhere
Iconic places not signposted – like the Brighton Beach bathing boxes
The water at the beach was too cold for swimming in mid-summer!
Too many passed out drunks to step over by midday
Most public toilets needed attention/upgrading (not Turkey bad, but still)
Tap water needs more chlorine or fluoride or something; tastes terrible
There was a decided lack of bacon in my visit…
Lots of totally crappy eyesore graffiti

Overall, I really enjoyed Melbourne this trip.  The ANZAMEMS conference was awesome and, much like a geek going to Supernova or something, I felt like these were ‘my people’.  The panels were fantastic, but it was impossible to attend all the lectures I wanted to see, and it was full of intellectually engaging people discussing their unique and unusual work and ideas, and using LOTS of big words!  (it’s the little things)

Staying in St Kilda was a great plan – the area has a fantastic feel to it… a bit like Byron Bay crossed with Fortitude Valley or New Farm.  Plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants, funky shopping, live entertainment, markets, quaint little back streets and all a stones throw from the Esplanade and the beach.  It was also a decent proximity from Monash and the city, not too far out and not so close as to be the ‘aargh, I’m in the middle of the noisy dirty city’ bit, found in large cities the world over.  The only thing I didn’t really ‘get’ about St. Kilda were all the patisseries on Acland Street… it seemed about one in every four shops was another chocolatier, bakery or cake store and either the people around those parts are totally in for the adult onset type II diabetes or half of these shops would be out of business!  I’m not really a sweet tooth and stayed a week in the area and tried only half of one vanilla slice thingy and none of the fancy chocolates, so the Acland Street CakeWalk was totally wasted on me.

All up I reckon I could live in Melbourne… on that side of town anyway.