Thanks

UA

It’s not so much the flu and pulled muscles that really get to me, it’s also the lack of money. I am broke beyond anything which I ever thought possible before. Broker than the brokest person living in the brokest town who just found out he was extra broke (if we want to get all Monty Python about it). The thing about being broke isn’t for me so much that I can’t buy anything, but the boredom, much of which is self-induced and indulgent. I can sit for ages in the front room, with nothing to do and think about all the things I would do if I had any money. I would go to the cinema, have a walk around the shops, go for a pint, etc etc, even though I am fully aware that even if I did have money I would be rather unlikely to do these things anyway and would probably just be spending my time thinking about something else. Therefore it would seem to me that financial deprivation leads to depression more through state of mind than actual brokeness. As I will undeniably be penniless for a good while longer I may as well try and work on my mental skills for dealing with this situation rather than dwell on all of the things that I would do if I actually had any money (I’d love to be going to the cinema today…….STOP IT STOP IT).

What pittance I do have to spend during the week has to be planned out very carefully. Once food, heating and bills are covered what little I can currently call ‘fun money’ tends to be spent on alcohol. If one is going to be bored and broke my feeling is that I may as well be a little bit sozzled too. Beer is good, but I find I tire of it quite quickly, and it turns out some cheap wines are okay (as long as one lines the stomach beforehand). Saturday night tv, watched in the full knowledge that all of your friends are out having a good time spending their money, is much better once one has consumed half a bottle of Tesco’s five euro Soave wine. Even now, at midday, I’m thinking about whether or not I can scrape together enough change to have a little drinkie. This will have to stop soon though as not only is it very likely to lead to alcoholism, but it is also not very friendly to the waistline.

Perhaps I should try and lose myself in some work instead……………………………….

Or maybe not…………

I have been meaning to start working on an article for quite some time now and still haven’t mustered the courage to do so. I really must do it this month, for fear that it runs into the New Year and I will still be unemployed and will also be without a published article, hence diminishing my chances for getting a research grant.

I have decided that I will start this week. Or at the very least start researching the possibility of perhaps starting to work. Ah, the procrastination skills of a recently finished PhD student are second to none. I bet you I can procrastinate all the way into the New Year……

Ciao for Now,

UA (The Unemployed Academic)

As you can probably tell at this point, I still don’t have a job, as I am sat her rambling about the perceived benefits and deficiencies of skinny legged jeans. Nor have I yet embarked upon writing my own article yet. Obviously said article would be hugely beneficial for an academic career were it to be published, however, at the  moment, I am still revelling in the freedom that post-phd liberation provides. Also, for the last two days, I have been minding, cooking for and cleaning up for the rest of the house, all of whom have the dreaded lurgy. So far I have not succumbed. If I were to come down with it at this point at least the house is clean and those who were ill could mind me (and hopefully mind me as well as I have minded them!).

No jobs around today. Might head off into town. Today I think I’ll take that umbrella. While my sunglasses were very stylish yesterday, they did little to prevent my drowning in rainwater!

Ciao for now

UA (The Unemployed Academic)

There is sneezing galore, headaches, sick tummies and general misery. Luckily I have managed to avoid the bug so far, though I fear that my time may be short. In order to protect myself I have taken control of the antibacterial spray and am spraying every conceivable surface in sight. Door handles, banisters, knobs and taps don’t know what’s hit them. Apparently it is possible to protect yourself from swine flu by doing this and making sure everyone washes their hands and uses their tissues and ‘catches it, bins it and kills it’ but to be honest, the rate at which it’s surely flying around in here, I’m not sure there is much hope.

Though I am of course buying into the hype by calling this bug the flu. True, it is a nasty bug, but to be fair, there are no temperatures around (yet anyway) and surely one of the things that classifies a flu over a bad cold is that a high temperature is present.

So I’m off out for a while to lay in stocks. Tissues, tinned soups and paracetamol shall be added to the cupboards as well as any other easy to cook/eat foods. With any luck I’ll have us all set up for the plague before succumbing myself. Fingers crossed.

Think good thoughts people

UA (The Unemployed Academic)

In fact there is even less of a chance of a job now than there was three months ago. The websites have become even less helpful and the hope of a job in a university have lessened given the time of the year.

Oh Well. Though the downside of the changing of the seasons is that the days become shorter, the weather becomes chiller, and there are fewer opportunities to go outside and spend some time walking the dog, window shopping or generally frolicking in the sunshine (though I must admit that I didn’t do too much frolicking even when the sun WAS out!).

In other words boredom has started to set in. Life on the dole is fine. Life without a job is fine. Life stuck in the house is okay. But all of these things together can lead to boredom. Some weeks seem to fly by at the moment. Meeting friends, lunches out, taking care of a Jack Russell, cooking, cinema, birthdays and of course jobseeking, all take up quite a long time. But sometimes one finds oneself sat, on a Tuesday morning, in front of the telly, with no money, no one to meet, nowhere to go and totally nothing to do. No doubt my working friends would suggest that I’m complaining about a situation they would love to find themselves in, but one finds that after a few such mornings this situation can become more than a little depressing. So, I’ve decided I will have to do something about it before I slip into the darkness that is the winter and depression.

So where to begin……

Well, by blogging is one way. Though I set up this blog a month ago I have been rather less than diligent, and should it continue than this page will become yet another dead page on my favourites list that I have signed up to. So, I shall aim to update three-four times a week and aim to get a readership.

I have also continue to cook quite a lot, though became a little jaded of the constant sweating of onions and continuous washing of pots and pans. Plus, cooking is not a cheap hobby, nor easy on the waistline, but I shall continue and have decided to move into creole cooking (though I aim not to confuse my blogging with my cooking as the whole online Julie and Julia thing has pretty much been done to death, though the odd story may be posted of my general cookery advances and failures).

I have considered getting my Latin books out again and brushing up on my amos, amass and amats, but I’m not quite that bored yet.

I shall also try to get back into my reading again. I was doing pretty well until I started Wolf Hall. I understand that it won the booker and all, and I like historical fiction a lot, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe that is more a reflection of my jaded reading ability than the quality of the book. Very likely indeed.

Also, I’m going to try and get an article published, lest I slip into the academic wilderness and perhaps even forget what my PhD was about. This is easier said than done. Motivating oneself to write an uncalled for article is one thing. Actually getting it into a journal is another thing entirely. But I shall try. Or at least start to think about it!

So these are the plans, and with luck I shall not find myself lounging in my pyjamas and 11am on a Tuesday morning with nothing to do and no reason to get up.

That way lies madness!

Regards,

UA (The Unemployed Academic)

Well that certainly lifted what was turning out to be a rather dull Thursday morning

The first of October has dawned bright and clear. Reminiscent of walks to school with cold knees and hands as autumn begins.

A nice bright picture of Rome on an Autumn morning.

(Here is a picture of Rome to remind me, and maybe you, of bright mornings exploring a new city with the chill of autumn on the air)

Alas (and thank goodness) no school for me today. No work either (I’m not really upset about that today I must admit). An early night last night has meant an early morning. I stayed up reading until about midnight. The one great benifit of not working, and finishing the whole PhD process, is that I can now return to reading for pleasure. This is not to say of course that I don’t enjoy reading for my own reasearch, sometimes there’s nothing better than sitting down with a new article and finding new arguments and taking lots of notes and all that stuff. But not at the moment. The last five years of article reading are still too fresh, so I have dived into fiction. The book I’m reading at the moment is ‘The Shack’ by William P. Young. It has started well, though is differnet to what I imagined. By page 80 the main character has already lost his daughter and has started to talk to god (in the form of a large African American woman who may also be mother nature). It’s really quite different to my last book, The Bone People by Keri Hulme, though ultimately, one hopes, rather more understandable in the end (my lack of knowledge about Mauri myth, religion and history rather let me down when it came to interpretting Keri Hulme’s book).

I have read a good few books in the last few weeks. Ken Follett’s ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ was maybe my favourite. I also read the new Dan Brown, which was okay. I like Robert Langdon and I also like Masonic imagery, but it was a bit hit and missive, and really rather repetitive.

Of course this is not to say that the life of an Unemployed Academic is full of bookish behavour. Much tv has been watched too. Is it just my experience or is there a rather strong relationship between doctoral writing and the watching of science fiction television? Maybe it’s just me, but among my associates and friends there is quite a large number of sci-fi fans. Star Trek (all of them), Stargate (both of them), Battlestar Gallactica (the new one), Supernatural, Fringe, Lost, all of these programmes and many more seem to be watched by PhD students (and their supervisors!). Maybe this is particular only to archaeologists and students of the classical world, though I have meet science doctoral students who also watch these shows. Of course given that most sci-fi shows are based on classical mythology and legends I suppose it really shouldn’t suprise me.

Today is a day for getting out of the house, so I’ll be off to the park for a walk with any luck. It’s good to get these things out of your system this time of the year before the cold and wet days draw in and make such outings impossible. Other than that the day is mine. Perhaps some cooking, dog walking and reading. Oh, and I must look for a job as well !!

Until next time,

The Unemployed Academic (UA)

Or perhaps that should be just ‘you’, hello you, or at this point, perhaps just hello ‘me’ as there are no readers of the blog quite yet. Yet.

I have no set ideals, standards, rules or hopes for this page, only that I have set it up to allow me to relate to the world what it is like to be an unemployed academic currently seeking work while also attempting to keep the grey matter working. But it will not just be the ramblings of a job seeker, rather I hope to document what it is like, for what can only be classed as an ‘institutionalised’ PhD graduate, as she tries to re-enter society after 10 years of full-time schooling. From what I have learnt in the last three months since I emerged from ‘The Room’ where I wrote my thesis for the last two years, the outside world is a very engaging, active and fast paced world. Quite different from the dusty, often bookish world, or Roman history and archaeology.

I hope any of you who end up reading the blog will enjoy it, and post comments and suggestions. All shall be gratefully recieved.

Ciao for now,

UA (Unemployed Academic)