Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed.
Tonight, my little brother left Birmingham for Dubai, en route to New Zealand. 9 months without my little brother around the house when I go home, or popping up on Facebook. I knew he’d been planning this for a while, but some thoughts just hadn’t crossed my mind; he won’t be around for Christmas or my birthday, he’ll be operating in a time zone that’s 12 hours ahead of the UK, and he’ll be on the other side of the world, literally.
This reminded me of something I’d said earlier this year. People asked me about “changes” and how things will be different now that I’m no longer an undergrad. I told them that it wouldn’t make much of a difference as a large proportion of my friends will still be around Bangor, I’ll still be involved in the Students’ Union, I’ll still be volunteering for St. John Ambulance, I’ll be living in the same house… Over the Summer, I was working in the University Halls Office again, just like last year.
One thing I wasn’t banking on when I said that things wouldn’t really change was Vicky. Over the last three months, she’s told me quite a few times that she has no idea how we got together. Neither do I. She really did just appear in my life like the proverbial whirlwind, but I wouldn’t change her for the world. Sell her maybe, but I wouldn’t change her! :-P
People will quite often tell you horror stories about the PGCE course. “Don’t smile at them until Christmas” is a phrase I’ve heard several times in the last two weeks. It’s also a phrase that my tutor and lecturers have been quick to pour cold water on. Already, I’m tired. 9am lectures everyday. A couple of hours of lectures a day, every day of the week. And all the time I’m looking at everything from three perspectives… I have to look at it from the perspective of an 11 year old child, a trainee teacher, but I’m also inevitably looking at it as a Biology graduate. This isn’t always easy; trying to work out how to explain “a cell” to an eleven year old whilst only talking about 3 components of the 20 I’ve spent the last 5 years learning about isn’t easy!
I’m not even sure what the purpose of this post is. Partly to order some thoughts in my head, partly to get them out of there… It’s just come as a bit of a surprise that something I had thought was going to be fairly straight forward and constant has changed quite so much, almost without me noticing, and without really having changed much at all…
Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed. ~ Irene Peter
TIGERS WOULD BE PERFECT PETS IF THEY WEREN’T WILD ANIMALS.
THEY ARE SO CUTE. AND THEY LOOK LIKE THEY ARE SO FUN. AND THEY ARE HOMIES WITH PIGS.
Doctor: Your girlfriend isn’t more important than the whole universe.
Rory: She is to me!
Do you want me to repeat the question?
(Source: lokiinthetardis)
H.Synergia: Dear world, get a grip
Dear World
Some days you seem to do so well, and others you just seem to get things so very very wrong. Thankfully, those getting it wrong seem to be a shrinking minority.
After the attack in Norway, there have been claims that Norway’s security is lax and that they need similar laws and…
(Source: h-synergia)
The first thing I thought when I saw this… “Elder wand! Nyaaaaaah!”
Amazing lightning photo Anna took when she was on holiday in Chicago
This is a cool picture. ^_^
Sometimes you really do need to swear. I know I do.
(Source: organicnenergy)
The Pipe
So tonight, after a day of revising about wetland ecosystems (thrilling stuff) and a bit of planning for various other bits and pieces, I went with a few mates to watch a screening of a docu-film “The Pipe”.
I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much; a fairly straightforward film about a proposed gas pipeline of the coast of Ireland. What I got was a thought provoking, and at times, rather scary view of the power that multi-national companies have peoples lives, the environment and national Governments. One of the things that surprised me most of all was the fact that this protest was still going on recently, and I hadn’t heard of it.
The film showed footage of Garda officers beating peacefully protesting residents with batons. These residents were protesting against plans that they weren’t consulted on, that would damage their livelihoods, that would bring a high pressure gas pipeline within proximity to their houses and which proposed a major risk to land that was protected under EU legislation. Shell, the company behind the plans, tried to buy to consent of the residents, a move which split a community.
The Irish Planning Authority, under pressure from the European Parliament ordered that the pipeline was redirected in 2009, calling it “an unacceptable risk” to be placed so close to houses.
The case took an even worse twist in March of this year, when the then Energy Minister Pat Carey signed key documents allowing the final sections of the pipeline to be built. Fair enough. But these papers were signed on the day of a General Election, allegedly after close of voting, whilst votes were being counted. Carey lost his seat in that election.
The fact that a Government can be influenced so heavily by a multinational company is, perhaps arguably, unsurprising. But the images shown in this film of Garda officers physically assaulting peaceful protesters, risking lives, homes and a legally protected environment were something I was not expecting, and I for one, will be awaiting the review by the EU of the way this case was handled with a keen interest.
