Roll Again For Improved Will
Posted by Alex | | Posted On Saturday, 31 July 2010 at 18:21
Well, last week I gave up alcohol. Yesterday, I was downing a dirty pint in a friend's lounge. It's nice to see that I totally lack any sense of willpower at all. Alcohol will just have to sit as my primary vice in life - I can't escape it no matter what I do. I can avoid hard drugs, I can keep away from nicotine cravings, but I can't run from the sweet taste of alcohol...or so it seems.
What I've learnt, however, is that even if it is my primary vice, it doesn't come with any benefits. I pay for it in the mornings with my hangovers. I pay for it on the night with my exceptionally poor-form and emotional outbursts. In short - I probably pay for it more than I should really be paying for something I enjoy. I am shelling out financially, physically and psychologically - eventually, I'm going to be a shell-of-a-man...
In other news: I can start working on filling out the forms to get my ERASMUS grant for next year. The Insurance forms came today, and reading them is one of the criteria for getting the grant approved. I read them, and I laughed at how thorough insurance is these days - "You are not covered for cases of nuclear or biological terrorism, exposure to radiation, or cases of war, uprising, revolt, rebellion, civil war, or military sponsored coups" - could they be any more precise in their findings? I highly doubt it. However - getting this filled out will mean I'm one step closer to living abroad happily!
Also, last week I got around to teaching some Italian. It turns out that my Italian really needs brushing up on. At least the basics - things like foods, body parts, all that GCSE nonsense. I'll end up doing more of these little lessons, but, I'll also have to plan them a bit more in future. Sitting around going "Uhm..." really drags out the time of a lesson. It'd be so much easier to say "Today, we're covering [x] [y] and [z]." Then again - I like a challenge...
And finally, a bit of AOB, to clear up things I'd rather not ramble about:
1. I've set myself up with a YouTube account. If I can get a laptop with a webcam, you can expect plenty of vlogs along with these updates whilst I am abroad. For now, I'll leave it at that - if things go right, I'll update with usernames (for handy subscribing purposes!)
2. As mentioned, I'm actually (finally) looking into getting a new laptop. While my dad says "Processors are all the same...", I'm on the lookout for a cheap i3. He's thinking via Dell; I'm thinking via PC World. We'll see.
3. The outward journey to Pavia has been finalised. It now stands at a trip from here to there, stopping in Calais, Baden-Baden and Certosa di Pavia. We just have to decide whether or not to travel via Reims, Strasbourg and toll roads to Baden Baden, or via Belgium and the autobahns.
4. The Ukulele is still on the cards. Watch this space!
And that - as they say - is that.
What I've learnt, however, is that even if it is my primary vice, it doesn't come with any benefits. I pay for it in the mornings with my hangovers. I pay for it on the night with my exceptionally poor-form and emotional outbursts. In short - I probably pay for it more than I should really be paying for something I enjoy. I am shelling out financially, physically and psychologically - eventually, I'm going to be a shell-of-a-man...
In other news: I can start working on filling out the forms to get my ERASMUS grant for next year. The Insurance forms came today, and reading them is one of the criteria for getting the grant approved. I read them, and I laughed at how thorough insurance is these days - "You are not covered for cases of nuclear or biological terrorism, exposure to radiation, or cases of war, uprising, revolt, rebellion, civil war, or military sponsored coups" - could they be any more precise in their findings? I highly doubt it. However - getting this filled out will mean I'm one step closer to living abroad happily!
Also, last week I got around to teaching some Italian. It turns out that my Italian really needs brushing up on. At least the basics - things like foods, body parts, all that GCSE nonsense. I'll end up doing more of these little lessons, but, I'll also have to plan them a bit more in future. Sitting around going "Uhm..." really drags out the time of a lesson. It'd be so much easier to say "Today, we're covering [x] [y] and [z]." Then again - I like a challenge...
And finally, a bit of AOB, to clear up things I'd rather not ramble about:
1. I've set myself up with a YouTube account. If I can get a laptop with a webcam, you can expect plenty of vlogs along with these updates whilst I am abroad. For now, I'll leave it at that - if things go right, I'll update with usernames (for handy subscribing purposes!)
2. As mentioned, I'm actually (finally) looking into getting a new laptop. While my dad says "Processors are all the same...", I'm on the lookout for a cheap i3. He's thinking via Dell; I'm thinking via PC World. We'll see.
3. The outward journey to Pavia has been finalised. It now stands at a trip from here to there, stopping in Calais, Baden-Baden and Certosa di Pavia. We just have to decide whether or not to travel via Reims, Strasbourg and toll roads to Baden Baden, or via Belgium and the autobahns.
4. The Ukulele is still on the cards. Watch this space!
And that - as they say - is that.
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