Easter

It's Easter time which means two weeks off work for us teachers! Woohoo! We're away from Monday to Friday next week to Center Parcs. It certainly won't be a quiet relaxing week as Joan's booked loaded of activities for us so that'll keep us busy most of the time. I'm sure it'll be fun and relaxing….

I remember Easter as a child and there was a lot more focus on the religious aspects of it than there is now. I remember going to my grand while she boiled up some eggs then us kids would paint and decorate them any way we wanted to. After that the whole family would load up into the cars and off we'd go to find a suitable hill to roll them down.
At school we'd have an Easter service where the minister would come out to the school. That doesn't happen these days, there's more emphasis on the chocolate eggs side of things. Not sure how I feel about it to be honest. Part of me is sad about the loss of the message but at the same time things change and less and less people are religious so it makes sense. Maybe though it should be a spring holiday instead of Easter. Ah well, it's time off work so who cares.
Sent from my iPhone

So, how've you been?

 Hello! Yes, I know it’s been a long, long time, best part of 8 years, since I last posted something here but hey, I've been busy! Well, ok, maybe not busy but I've been doing stuff. Lots of...stuff.  Let's face it, this blog was never a regular thing but I'm pretty sure this is the largest gap between posts! So why now I hear you ask, why post something now? 

To answer that I need to go over a few things about where I am now. So, Last post I talked about following your dreams and seeing where they take you. Well, couple of years ago, ok about 6 years ago I decided it was time for me to do just that. I have always wanted to be a teacher, right back to when I was in high school. When I was in 5th year I think, might have been earlier, my friend John Carson persuaded me to go to the Jordanhill open day. Jordanhill was the teaching college in Glasgow back then.  It eventually merged with Strathclyde university and the campus building, a beautiful old place, has now been turned into flats. Anyway, on that open day I decided I wanted to be a teacher. As things went on though I didn't get the qualifications I needed, and I went off into computing instead and teaching went into the "not to be" category. I went through various jobs in computing and eventually customer service and ended up working in a call centre for Tesco Bank in the credit cards complaints team. Loved the people there but the job, not so much. But I used to tell myself “It’s just a job" and it pays money. so, I got my head down and got on with it. 

One of the people I worked with was a man called Donald. He had been in banking since he was 16 working for Royal Bank of Scotland. Eventually, he ended up in their complaints department and eventually ended up with Tesco Bank. After his decades of service, the time had come for him to finally retire. He was in my team, so we all went out for a meal to celebrate his pending retirement years. While we were out, I asked him how he had managed to do work in complaints for so long. His reply was "it's just a job". The very same phrase I used myself when people asked about it. At that moment I saw myself in Donald, I saw me in my sixties getting ready to retire having worked for decades in a job I didn’t like but that I did because " it's just a job".

That stuck with me for the next couple of weeks or so and I kept thinking to myself " is that what I want?" I decided it wasn't. Teaching is what I wanted to do. I hadn't ever really given up on it, I'd went to the Open University and did a degree there with the intention of going on to do the post grad course, but I'd never went further than that. After some long talks with my wife Joan and a good hard look at our finances we decided it was now or never. We could afford for me to take a year away from work and do the PGDE (Professional grade Diploma in Education) 

I won't go into all the details, there were a few steps and obstacles along the way (I'm looking at you COVID), but eventually in June 2019 I left Strathclyde University with my PGDE in my hand ready to start teaching! It hasn't been all plain sailing since then. I did my probation year teaching Primary 5 in Kilsyth Primary, then got a 12-month contract to teach Primary 2 in Ravenswood Primary. From there I ended up in a job that suits me perfectly. I got a 12-month contract as a Digital Pedagogy Practitioner for the Digital School. This is a job which takes my technical skills and combines them with teaching. It's the perfect job for me and I love it! I'm on a second 12-month contract for that now and having now done two full years with North Lanarkshire, I'm permanent to the council which means at the end of this 12 months I'll have a job with them somewhere in education. I hope this position keeps going and I can continue with the digital school but, at the moment, that’s up to the council and how they allocate their funds.

So, what's all that got to do with this blog? Well, I'm doing an Apple Learning Coach course tomorrow. I must log into it from my iPad, so I sent the email with the link to my iCloud email account. When I opened my mail app on my iPad the last email I sent was to "Mick Blogofski", the name I use in my contacts for emailing this blog! I decided to have a look and see if "Mick" was still around and lo and behold here he is! I started reading over some of my old posts and thought it was time for an update so here it is!  I can't promise when the next post will be, but I hope it won't be another 8 years! Thanks for sticking with me folks and if you read this leave a comment so I know you’ve been here. Who knows, maybe you’ll read this and think “I wonder if my blog is still there?” Go and see! If it is, take the time to do an update and let me see it. Who knows, we might just start a whole new Blogging revolution! No? well, at least it’ll keep us busy for a while. Until next time, take care Mick, and we’ll speak soon!  

Dont stop. don't ever stop

When we're young we can be whatever we want. "Daddy, I want to be a fireman, like fireman Sam" " Mummy I want to be an astronaut and go and have a picnic on the moon", "granny I want to be a footballer" We look, we smile, we say " that's great". As we get older things change and we start being more realistic. You want to be an astronaut? then you better study hard at school. You didn't get the qualifications for that? Well, here's an application for something else. Why not work in a call centre or have you considered office work? And as we get older we accept that. We accept that whatever we wanted, whatever we dreamed about doing is just that, a dream and nothing more. Yeah, it would be nice to follow that dream but lets face it, not everyone gets to live their dream and have the life they wanted. So we accept what we have and with a deep sigh of regret move on with our lives and fill in the application for the mundane job we never wanted. We get bored, we settle into it and maybe even start believing this is what we were always meant to do. We  couldn't do anything else. We 're lucky to have this job. Apply for something else? No chance! They'll just say no anyway so why bother.
But it doesn't have to be like that. The only person stopping you from doing what you want to do is you. Sure others will scoff and may think your being daft even trying to change but don't let them tell you what you cant do. You may never be an astronaut,or a fireman, or whatever your dream job is but if you don't at least try to get there then you'll never know if you could have been. It's true, you might not complete the journey and end up where you wanted to be, but you might end up finding something else something different along the way that suits you better. You might never be a footballer but maybe you could be a sports journalist and write about it. The important thing is to start the journey and never give up. It sounds corny as hell but the journey IS just as important as the destination, maybe even more so. Never give up on your dream, never stop believing in yourself and then, eventually, others will believe in you too. Then you can talk about it over a cheese sandwich on the lunar surface.

Prince

Prince passed away today. I don't know why but for some reason it's hit me pretty hard. I can't say I have many Prince albums in my collection and I never saw him live but I loved his music. He seemed to me to be a true artist. someone who wasn't in it for the fame and riches but just loved making music. I get the feeling even if he had ended up working in a dead end job music would still have been a big part of his life. We were lucky he got to share it with us. A singer, song writer, dancer, and musician he truly was an artist. I'm not  going to say he'll be missed because his music is still here. As long as we still have that then he will still be with us.
Music truly is power. It has the power to bring joy and sorrow, to unite people and also, at times, to divide. But those who are able to make music, they truly have the power of Gods. A song can transport you in time, back to your younger days when things were simpler. I remember when I was around 18 or 19 going on a camping trip with some close friends. In fact, I'm still in touch with most of them today. It was at the time when Prince released "Sexy Mother Fucker" Of course when it was played on the radio it was censored. That weekend, in a tiny tent on a camp site in Balloch it became known to us as "Sexy Mother *sniff*" Course it developed from there. telling each other to "*sniff*" off, or "get to *sniff*"  Now its not one of his big hits, and most folk probably wont remember it but when I hear it it always makes me laugh remembering that weekend over 20 years ago.
I love a lot of his songs. When Doves Cry, Kiss, Peach, and or course my favourite one, Purple Rain. That song has a different memory for me. It takes me back to an empty hall in Riddrie in 1989.  I used to do a mobile disco there every Friday for my uncle William. He'd got a hold of this set of turntables and he know I was a big music fan so had asked me to come and run the disco. I couldn't have been very good because no one ever turned up and most weeks I ended up playing to an empty hall, so I'd take a friend with me. Most of the time it was Sandra. I loved those nights, just playing music and having fun. One night though, and i don't remember the reason why, I just wasn't my usual self. I was feeling down. Still, I had a commitment to be there so I called Sandra and off we went. The hall was empty as usual so I turned off the lights, turned on the mirror ball and stuck on Prince and Purple Rain. We both sat there just listening to the music. It was cool, almost magical just watching the lights and listening to Prince making that guitar weep. When it was done Sandra, who obviously could tell I wasn't feeling great, turned and said "Right you, cheer up. I want to dance. Stick on Jive Bunny"
I think its because of memories like these that Prince's death hit me so hard. I'm sad he's gone, and I'll continue playing his music, Jive bunny...not so much!

Paris

I wonder sometimes what kind of world I'm bringing Xander up in. A world where people go to a rock concert and get shot by terrorists. A world where just going out to a cafe at the wrong time could mean the end of your life. Its a world where people are afraid to go outside in case they are the next number in a headline. This "war on Terror" is so different to any other war because its not a war that's fought on battlefields, but one that's fought anywhere at anytime. Worse than that though is the effect it has on peoples mind.  Each attack seems to bring out the racist in people. I've already seen posts on Facebook where the main gist of them is "see, told you those refugees were terrorists!". That kind of thinking, to me, is worse than a zealot with a gun.  Because that has a longer effect and a bigger impact on society than a bullet ever will. It leads to a kind of world were people are judged by the colour of their skin not by who they really are. Its makes us a world of darkness and hatred, and its not who we should be. It's not the kind of world I want for my son.
If you read this and you remember only one thing, let it be this. Life goes on. If you change the way you think, if you decide to change your holiday destination because the place you were going to might be too dangerous now, then they have won. Don't change. Your neighbor is still the nice man who gives you a smile when he passes you in the street. Just because his skin is darker doesn't mean he is a bad person now.  We have to believe there are good people in the world. people who will help their fellow man and will do what they can to help others. if we don't, if we give in to hatred and violence then we have already lost. Tonight, Paris will mourn. Somewhere else, others will celebrate their "victory". The next battle will begin tomorrow, in your hearts and minds. Stay strong. Don't give in.

Clarity

I've quit Facebook. Temporarily. My mum once said to me "if your not enjoying why keep going?"  At that point she was talking about the Greenfaulds Theatre Group but those words stayed with me. That's why I'm off Facebook. There's too many posts lately that make me angry or annoyed. Whether it's video of the vile groups of unionist thugs "celebrating" by terrorising Glasgow city centre or the supposed nationalist who have now decided because we didn't get a Yes vote they are "abandoning" Scotland and no longer consider themselves Scottish. I've had enough. To the first lot I say violence is never the answer. No Surrender? No Sense! Glasgow spent millions hosting the commonwealth games. Showing the world that it was a new better Glasgow. A nice place to visit and a great place to stay. In one night all of that has been destroyed. Hang your heads in shame. I've watched a group attack a young man for no reason, a young girl having the Scottish flag ripped from her hands and all to choruses of God Save the Queen. Vile. Is this "Better Together"? I think not.

To the second group, you showed pride in your country. You stood up for what you believed was right. You believed Scotland could stand on it's own two feet and be a nation again. Yet the minute  the country disagree with you, you turn your back. You claim the country is full of cowards because we didn't vote yes. I say shame on you. How can you claim to be a nationalist when you turn your back on your nation when it needs you the most. That is truly cowardly.  What this country needs is unity, not "screw you, I'm leaving" We need everyone, and I mean everyone, whether they voted no or chose yes to stand up and make this country strong. To show the world that we can make this work. 97% registered to vote. 85% did. That is a country politically aware. We need to hold onto that and make sure the politicians follow through on their promises and if not then hold them accountable. We are a great nation of passionate people. We just need to channel that passion into the right places. We need to teach our children right and wrong. To be proud of their heritage as Scots. To learn from the mistakes of the past and the mistakes we have made and stop this cycle of hatred. I really wish I had some great quote to end with. Something patriotic and worthy of a feature film monologue but right now all I can think of is straighten up Scotland, stop being a bawbag!

I'll share this on Facebook via the blogger app but if you want to comment on it  and make sure I see it then comment below. I won't see Facebook replies, I've deleted the app for now.  Cya later! 

Voting

So I've cast my vote in the Scottish referendum and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Throughout this I've gone from a definite No to "undecided" onto "maybe yes" then becoming "damn right it's yes! FREEDOM!" But in the past couple of days I've moved back to undecided. Over the last month or so Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were simply repeating the same things over and over. Alistair Darling all but vanished and Gordon Brown started weighing in with his points, some of which, made sense. I thought this morning would be easy. I'd walk in there full of Scottish pride, grab the ballot paper and place my cross and leave happy in my decision. It wasn't like that. As I walked to the polling station, a short walk to the local primary school and a walk I've done thousands of times into life, weighing up the various arguments from both sides. I arrived, picked up the ballot and headed to the booth. Then I just stood there looking at it. I still wasn't sure. This was a decision that would affect my sons future more than mine. After what seemed like a hell of a long time but was probably only a minute or so, I cast my vote and placed it in the box. I've cast my vote. Now it's up to the rest of the Scottish voters to cast theirs. Whatever the result, I'm confident I've made the right choice. If the rest of the country agrees with me then great. If not, then I'll stand by that decision and move on. It's clear that no matter the result things will change in Scotland, hopefully for the better. We have to put our faith in the most untrustworthy people, politicians, and hope to god they don't screw it up! Cya later!