Last Days in Visa Limbo: Farewell To A Sordid Race

"...I doubt not but in time Ardrossan will become a grand emporium; but the people of Saltcoats, a sordid race, complain that it will be their ruin". (Galt, p3). I know where you're coming from, Miss Pringle.  


Mind you, it seems that everyone in the UK complains incessantly, although maybe that's just the impression you get if you watch too much rolling news from the BBC: mostly whinging about the weather, the resultant "travel misery", (where "misery" really means "inconvenience"), and, horror of horrors, Christmas presents bought online which might not be delivered on time.  Ffs.  But there I go, complaining about the complainers.  


And it's cheap to be smug when you're in that serene state that travellers know, when the visa's in your passport and the flight's booked and you're wondering what books you'll buy at WH Smiths in Departures.  Wolf Hall's in the frame, and so is Empire of the Sun, which I read years ago but would re-read with an eye on the topography so that I can entertain visiting friends and relatives with tours of Ballard's Shanghai.  










Galt, J. (1895) The Ayrshire Legatees. London. Macmillan & Co

Comments

  1. MichaelSat Dec 18, 12:07:00 pm GMT

    Enjoy your escape, mate. Another six months of MA work and I'll be joining you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Garry NixonSat Dec 18, 12:07:00 pm GMT

    Cheers. Hard work this country, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. MichaelSat Dec 18, 03:46:00 pm GMT

    It certainly is. Luckily, we have a profession (I use that word loosely) that means we can live almost anywhere we want.

    It's a big, big world out there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Garry NixonSat Dec 18, 04:22:00 pm GMT

    It certainly is. And I'm exhausted trying to earn a living from Our Thing in this bloody country.

    In Istanbul I had a DoS who was a hopeless drunk, but I'd swap him any day for some of the twisted fruitcakes who pass for teachers and "management" in FE and Universities here. It's always a strange profession, but it gets downright weird when you are back in Blighty.

    ReplyDelete
  5. drawjerkySun Dec 19, 10:09:00 am GMT

    good luck with the flight situation.. and you're right about the staff in FE and HE. As much as it's a well paid number and it's what I'd been doing I feel an utter reluctance to even attempt to return.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MichaelSun Dec 19, 02:46:00 pm GMT

    As glad as I am that I've got the qualification, don't think I'd ever go back to FE here. The major benefit of TEFL (and lord knows, there are surprisingly few of those) is being able to work elsewhere.

    Soon as I'm done, it's Asia again for me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Garry NixonTue Dec 21, 06:40:00 am GMT

    Yup. Don't think I'll be back here to live. Ever. Maybe retire to the Thai countryside, get an opium habit in my old age.

    ReplyDelete
  8. drawjerkyTue Dec 21, 10:35:00 am GMT

    ohh... sounds fantastic... give me a shout when that happens.. an opium habit sounds just the thing to provide some excellent distraction from whatever horribly painful disease or illness I have in later years...

    ReplyDelete

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