Is it really Christmas already?

Whilst sitting here full of chocolate and looking around me at all the chocolate, biscuits, mince pies, sweets, Christmas cake, crisps, nuts and chocolate that is filling my house, I have come to the realisation that I haven’t blogged since September. A lot has occurred since then -  but how is it boxing day already? My dad made the fatal mistake of telling my grandma that she could supply the nibbles this Christmas. Big mistake Dad -  nibbles being a very ambiguous word, and generally meaning anything you can nibble on. Thus, she brought the entirety of Sainsbury’s with her.

Since my last entry, I have completed semester one of my third year at University, and a bloody busy few months it’s been. Right at the start of Uni during Freshers’ Week I was ironically offered a week-long internship at a major publishing house in London. I say ironic, as I had just completed my previous blog entry which was scathing to say the least towards publishers and internships, and employment and just life in general. When I received the email from the editorial assistant, I thought it was some sort of experiment, that they had read my blog and were planning to lure me in and torture me. Or  perhaps to prove themselves as sound employers.

Anyway, as well as the internship – which I’ll discuss in my next entry – I’ve had a busy semester packed with reading, reading, and more reading – the curse of the English degree. To add to the standard reading (which I obviously signed up for, so shouldn’t complain about (but seriously, three novels a week, are you trying to kill me? ))I took a slight change of direction in my career path. I decided, after doing a couple of summer, office-based placements that I want to become an English teacher, and so applied to do a PGCE. Luckily I was called for interview at my first choice of university, and only three days ago received an offer from them. I’m so relieved that I now have a sense of direction for my future, and even more relieved that my student life will be prolonged for another year. Because let’s face it, being a student is great.

Teaching seemed like the option for me for several reasons: a) I get to stay with my subject which I’m rather passionate about, b) I want a job that will challenge me, and the time I spent in offices over the summer was mind-numbingly dull, c) I can’t work in an office for the rest of my life, d) children are alright I suppose – I joke, Children’s development is something I believe is crucial to their future well being, and e) did I mention that the thought of working in an office fills me with feelings of nausea?

So bring on staying up until midnight finishing lesson plans, and being known as the trainee teacher. Please let me be able to hack it. Please. Thank you.

I’m a Student, Exploit Me

As a student about to enter my third and final year at university I’m becoming increasingly nervous at the mention of any of the following: employment, careers, jobs, full-time work, graduate schemes etc. My fears of ending up jobless are very real. If you want to aim high, students are told, and go into a competitive career, you must get some work experience. Just those two words ‘work experience’, along with ‘internships’ and, crucially, ‘unpaid’ send shivers down my spine, and not in a good way.

As my second year at university got underway I started thinking about my career prospects and decided I liked the idea of publishing, amongst other things. A quick look on the various publishers’ websites told me that work experience is a good way of getting a foot in the door. So, I sent cover letters and my CV to every publishing house in London that I could find with absolutely no luck whatsoever. Whilst I was a bit miffed that my cover letters didn’t impress enough to persuade the publishers to take me on, I was also starting to panic – did this mean I could not go into publishing? Were my chances ruined?

However, my thoughts soon took a different direction as I began to seriously think about the whole notion of a two week work placement. What can someone learn from two weeks of work experience – where they are often given admin duties – which a newcomer (sans experience) couldn’t learn on the first two weeks of the job? Why is it so essential in the eyes of the employer, when it is for such a limited amount of time? A search online told me that there were people out there who had loved their two weeks in a publishing house and had been called on in the future to do more work. On the other hand, others weren’t so joyous about the situation. One blogger said that after two weeks they had only learnt how to use the photocopier. Moreover, another article, written by a paid worker in a publishing house, said educating or informing those on a work placement about the company was advised against – their bosses told them it was a waste of time, as the student could put it on their CV, and that was enough. I’m unsure as to how work experience and internships differ in the eyes of the law, but unpaid internships are certainly illegal if the intern is being made to do proper work as opposed to being trained.

If you’re not getting anything out of work experience what is the point of doing it? Surely the idea of being placed in a company was originally intended for the student to ascertain whether the career seemed right for them, and not the other way round. It’s not as if placements are paid, and in most cases expenses include only travel within the London area, if that. So what about those who do not live in the London area and do not have any friends or relatives to stay with? And what about those of us that are skint, our student loans having run dry? The word discrimination springs to mind.

Luckily I live in Greater London, but even then travel would have cost me £15 a day – that’s £150 for the whole two weeks. I probably could have made my available funds stretch for one placement, if that. One publishing website said the company offered full expenses (London area) and a free lunch. Another caused my blood to boil with their paltry offer of travel for London Zones 1 and 2. Zones 1 and 2! Talk about severely limiting the field of keen applicants you have to choose from. To me this is blatant discrimination, as only those who live near could afford to travel in, or those whose parents are wealthy enough to sustain them. And let’s face it, you have to be pretty wealthy to live in central London anyway. Are these companies really going to follow the American route of thought, and act as if England exists of London and nothing else? How many fantastic would-be editors, marketers and designers that reside in Newcastle and Yorkshire, or Devon and Cornwall are they missing out on? It all smacks of London snobbery to me.

It is hard not to come to the conclusion that such companies (not just publishers) are exploiting students and other people who are keen to work for them. If work experience is as vital as they claim, thousands are missing out because of their postcode. On the other hand, if it is not a vital entry route to the industry, those that are doing mindless admin tasks for free are wasting their time, especially if they learn nothing from the process and end up out of pocket. And how can companies demand work experience as a pre-requisite when they are unwilling to foot the bill? Having money does not mean that you are more committed to the career.

A close friend recently did work experience for a PR company, and apart from realising from it that she was by no means interested in a career in PR (perhaps a benefit of the placement) she was left insulted after being contacted by the company to do more work. Will I be paid, she asked, to which they replied no. How utterly disgraceful, how exploitative, how offensive to expect someone to work for free! I’m sure she can safely say that she will never apply to work for such an immoral company who has no respect for its employees, or even the law. The robbers couldn’t even squeeze out a minimum wage. As I type this I’m nearly destroying my keyboard, I’m so angry. Clearly I have been labouring under a misapprehension, as I always thought employers paid those that seemed suitable to work for them…is that not how employment works?

I was recently told a story about an investigation into a major fashion house; it was unearthed that in one of the departments there were two full-time paid workers and ten unpaid interns. How such can such an atrocity be easily explained away? Just because we are students and our prospects of getting work are, according to the media, grim, does that mean we have signs over our heads saying ‘I’ll work for free?’

Downton Update!

ITV has made a trailer for the new series of Downton Abbey. And guess what?…it looks uh-mazing! Do I sounds like a crazy person who is obsessed with Downton? Beacuase I’m not. Well, not really. Ok, maybe a little bit. Or a lot. I just want to share the Downton love.

Downton Delight

Just a short post to express my delight for the new series of Downton Abbey, which will be starting in the next month or so on ITV1. More info/pictures to come, but for now have a look at the ITV site, where there is a short video and stills of the second series. I’m interested to see how Downton will cope with the outbreak of World War I, with characters such as Matthew Crawley (heir apparent, played by Dan Stevens) taking to the trenches to fight for his country. And, judging by the picture below, it looks like Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) will stepping up as a wartime nurse. ITV have claimed that there will also be a Christmas special. I can’t hardly breathe for all the excitement!

Bridget’s Back

Rumours have been flying for the last three years or so that a third Bridget Jones film is on the horizon. Now, it seems, the rumours have materialised into truth, as it has been reported by Entertainment Weekly that Bridget Jones will be brought back to life once more by the British production company Working Title Films! So so so so so excited by this! What is there not to love about Bridget? Colin Firth alluded to the plot in an interview to Access Hollywood, he said:

“I can tell you that Bridget and Mark can’t have children, I think that’s the way it goes on [...] So then she makes the huge mistake of going back to Daniel Cleaver [Hugh Grant's character] for long enough to get pregnant. And I think he dumps her, and she’s left stranded, and guess who comes back to rescue her?”

After the second book, Helen Fielding carried on the story as a column in The Independent newspaper, and as a lover of all things Bridget, I followed this online. Whilst I still found Bridget hilarious in every way, the storyline seemed to go a bit haywire: Bridget broke up with Mark and fell pregnant by Daniel Cleaver after a drunken one-night-stand, Mark subsequently offered to adopt the baby and Daniel Cleaver was spurred into some sense of responsibility by his offer. Finally, the column stopped because Bridget was said to be too busy taking care of her newborn baby. A rather tangled and exhausting plot. I just couldn’t understand why Fielding broke Bridget and Mark Darcy up. After all, he is supposed to be to her what Mr. Darcy is to Elizabeth Bennet. An archive of the columns can be found online here, they are well worth a read in my opinion for their hilarity alone. Plot weaknesses aside, Fielding seems to write effortlessly as Miss Jones, and for me, the language of Bridget’s Diary has always been consistent – so funny, so honest, so Bridget.

Anyway, Fielding is apparently also writing a third book, does this mean the column entries are now void? Will she re-write them to suit a novel form, or pick up where they left off? She is said to be also helping with the third film, as well as writing the third book, and apparently is unsure as to whether they will both follow the same plot.

The good news is that Renee Zellweger – possibly the most spectacularly named actress in Hollywood – will be returning. The same cannot be said for Hugh Grant, however, as he seems to be unsure as to whether he will make a third appearance. I did hear on the radio that Renee, instead of putting on weight to play Bridge, will wear a fat suit. God I hope not! In that case you might as well call the film Little Britain Does Bridget Jones. Not a good idea.

Power to the Broomsticks

This picture pretty much sums up the amazingness of Londoners. It also emphasises the fact that the rioters are a minority. They are immature adolscents who seem to think it is OK to destroy their own communities and the livelihoods of their neighbours. To add to this, they seem to lack the intelligence to understand that for every shop they wreck and flat screen television they steal, the community – including them and their parents – will have to pay the price. I just love the message that this image communicates: what the rioters have taken away or destroyed, the hoards of cleaners will more than replace with their sense of community spirit.

 

Raise a broomstick, not a petrol bomb

A Trip to the Seaside Anyone?

A week or so ago we made plans to head to the south coast for the day and, thankfully, the weather was extraordinarily bright and sunny. Of course, owing to my father’s intense desire to ‘beat the traffic’, we set off at five AM. Yes, that’s right, five o’clock in the morning, stopping for breakfast en route, and avoiding the hellish morning Heathrow rush.

Our first location was Poole, and a beach that literally filled me with joy at around eight in the morning, when only the odd dog walker could be seen on the soft sands. The lightness, and brightness, and calmness of the beach (pictured above) was the perfect antidote to my morning dreariness. There is something about early mornings and late nights where the world takes on a different atmosphere, one that is gentle and mysterious. Even the public toilets weren’t too bad, and that’s saying something.

After dropping my dad off at a business meeting, my mum and I headed to Weymouth, stopping off for lunch in a very Englishey ‘tea rooms’ sort of place. Although there was, in fact, only one room, and we didn’t order tea. I did, however, devour a succulent tuna baguette, sans mayo of course. The bread was warm, and the butter was melting – it was heaven. My mother opted for an equally delicious brie and ham baguette, which I tasted to ensure that it was of a high standard. It was.

Weymouth itself is an archetypal British seaside resort, the type with a promenade that exists in a past decade. It is the sort of location that my grandparents honeymooned in, or came on holiday to as children. I always seem to think that coastal resorts like this manage to retain some sort of old-fashioned charm, whilst simultaneously appearing run down and in need of a face-lift. Then again, I suppose to invigorate them might detract from their charm.

Cream tea - WARNING, to avoid salivation do not look directly at it

After Weymouth we headed to our final destination of the day, the stunning Lulworth Cove (pictured below) which sounds rather like the location of pirating and smuggling adventures in a children’s book. The freshness and intensity of the colours in Lulworth are lovely: the green hills sit wonderfully against the blue sky and turquoise ocean. The cove bends its arms round in a protective way, embracing the pebbly beach, swimmers, and fishing boats. We set up our folding chairs in a field that overlooks the water, then went for a rather tasty cream tea. For those of you who don’t know what a ‘cream tea’ involves exactly, it is a cup of tea (or in this case lemonade – due to the hot weather) and a freshly baked scone (the larger the better) topped with a dollop of Cornish clotted cream, and strawberry/raspberry jam. This is a food-lover’s idea of a very satisfying snack, and I myself am definitely a food-lover.

To sum up the day, it was a continuous visual treat of beautiful sights and landscapes that was punctuated with culinary delights! They say that Dorset is England’s best kept secret and, after spending the day there, I’m inclined to agree.