New Job

New job starting tomorrow. Cutting grass for the council will be a change of scene and hopefully riding around on a mower should be quite good fun! As always seems to be the case, it's not what you know, but who you know. I look around ineffectually (and somewhat halfheartedly if I'm honest) for a job for a few weeks and then a friend mentions he is leaving a job where they are looking for a replacement and boomshakalaka, full time job a few days later.

I spent yesterday trying Silk Teddies at Dunkeld on a shunt. By the time I was done I felt like I had been trampled under a rugby scrum. Trying about a thousand improbable moves in search of the correct sequence and thudding repeatedly onto a minimally dynamic system, it turns out, is quite masochistic.

I have been training indoors somewhat sporadically but now that I have a job in place and some kind of scheduled framework to my life once more, I shall endeavor to climb enough to get properly strong. And if I write this claim here then I can hold myself to it!

Memories

In my adult life, I recently glimpsed something from my childhood, and it was changed. I find that a memory, cherished over many years has lost its focus, the details of the memory have fallen away like so much old paint in the wind and rain. The memory, carefully stored, polished, worshiped and ultimately twisted by my own love of it now feels every bit as false as any storybook myth.

I base my life, actions and choices on memories, experiences, knowledge learned and stored. What if my every memory is warped slowly by the weight of time building ever upon it? How can I hope to endure when my memories morph like quicksand beneath my feet and the world around me makes a thousand tiny attempts each day to bend me to its will? Am I destined to be washed away in a tide of conformity?

Back to school

I have spent the week in various schools acquainting myself with what passes for teaching these days :p. I was lucky enough to attend one school near the top of the league tables for my city, one in the middle and one close to the bottom (I'm not going to debate the validity of 'league tables = school quality' argument). The visits were certainly insightful and viewing the process from the opposite side of the battlefield revealed a wealth of information I don't remember from my school days or simply never knew. The behaviour of children for starters was much better than I had expected in all the schools I visited, discipline was well organised and, while I only visited long enough for a snapshot, even disruptive children seemed to respond to moderate measures. I regret that my ignorance of the real state of classroom behaviour has been horribly coloured by watching too many Hollywood films. I was surprised that I actually relished the task of helping children to focus and progress with their work more when they struggled to concentrate (ok, when they were messing around and distracting others!), perhaps there is a challenge in persuading a recalcitrant pupil to work and achieve that simply is not there when the class quietly and obediently progresses with their assignments. The questions pupils ask are frequently very entertaining, one that comes to mind concerned diamond bullets and infinitely thick walls.

Observing teachers in different schools of differing ages and experience it rapidly becomes clear what a disparate profession it really is. In a few days I witnessed adherents to the traditional teaching methods with decades of experience, students with only a few months of experience and all else betwixt the two. In many professions there is such a dogmatic adherence to the accepted norms that trying to change the method of accomplishing a task becomes a titanic struggle with the established doctrine and it was refreshing to note that this is not an accusation that can be levelled at the teaching fraternity. The freedom enjoyed by every teacher to formulate their own lessons and choose the manner of delivery is encouraging and I think must contribute to the enthusiasm that almost all the teachers I met possessed (in varying quantities of course!). The tendency to complain about ones job/salary/boss is certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life and teachers are no exception but I did feel that almost all derived a great degree of satisfaction from their occupation and genuinely cared about the pupils under their tutelage. Overall I am left with a strong conviction that teaching is the career for me, now all that remains is to persuade a university interview panel that I am suitable for the role.

The Shelter Stone trip didn't come off after a late bailing by my climbing partner but I was able to invite myself along to Glen Coe instead and had two superb sun kissed days on the mountain crags of Anoach Dubh. The drought meant everything was in condition and I was chomping at the bit to get on some hard routes, in the end though, my partners were a little more reticent at the prospect of brit tech 6a climbing and I scaled my aspirations back slightly. I still did some superb routes, including the excellent line of Crocodile where the finger jams are so solid I almost stripped my fingers trying to rip them back out of the corner crack. Sadly the idyllic weather broke and I fully suspect that Glen Coe will remain seeping and wet till next May!