The Life of Cata

Fast forward to election night and the promising predictions of the Liberal Democrats getting a third of the countries vote, turned out a disappointing 1% increase from the previous election, and 6 seats lost (much thanks to the ‘first past the post’ system). But much more importantly, it thrust the country into a hung parliament situation where neither party had majority in parliament. The Liberal Democrats started negotiation with the Conservatives in hope to form a coalition. (Why they chose the Conservatives over the Labour Party which they have more in common with is a whole other discussion which I don’t intend on bringing up here. Needless to say, I can see both sides and with the Conservatives getting the largest percentage of the vote, I guess they had some sort of right to try to form a government.)

A week and a bit later the ‘Con-Dem’ (not their choice of abbreviation) coalition was formed. As time passed by we discovered that the price that Nick Clegg and his MPs had to pay for a piece of the power cake consisted of sacrifices so large that we barely recognise them for what they used to be. To me, they’ve become a mere extension to the Conservatives. They even gave up on the most important part of their election manifesto; proportional representation. It should have occurred to me then, that with a party who’s willing to give up the fight for their core beliefs, it would only be a matter of time before old pledges were forgotten or just plainly ignored… and so this forgotten pledge has resulted in the destruction of the Conservative’s head quarters, the burning of pictures of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable along with weeks of sometimes violent protests.

Now a lot of people (mainly supporters) have said that a raise in fees won’t be so bad. They say that poor will get 2 years worth of tuition paid for them. Well, seeing as most courses are 3 years, that still leaves the last £9000 to be found or borrowed from somewhere. They say that graduates won’t have to start repayments until they earn more than £21000 per year. Hmmm, so let’s take the average student here. You manage to get the grades to get into the course you want to study. Your parents aren’t rich enough to pay for your tuition, but they’re not poor enough for you to qualify for the two years of free tuition (so pretty much most families). If the course if three years you’d then have to borrow £27000 to pay the fees alone. On top of that you’d take out a loan to cover living costs. Say that your parents can afford to give you some money every month and you only take out the minimum loan. That’s still about £7000 per year, which means that by the end of your degree you’d have accumulated a debt of almost £50000. Isn’t that just a lovely way to start of your working life? Especially if you can’t/don’t have to pay it back straight away and it just sits there accumulating interest.

The point that I’m trying to make here (and I don’t see why this isn’t obvious to everyone) is that education should be free. When did education become ‘the business of education’ for sale on the free market to the highest bidder (a bit of an exaggeration, but you get where I’m going with this right?). I, like many others out there, am just worried how far this can go, and if a decision like this one is ever reversible? By this government or the next…

London's been sub-zero for about 10 days now with snow for the past two or three. It looks nice but makes travelling a bit difficult. Although I'm excited about the very likely potential of a white Christmas :) especially as I'll be in the middle of nowhere enjoying the hillside views. I've properly got into the Christmas spirit too which is the peak of niceness during such dark times. We had "Birthmas" (birthday + Christmas) roast last Sunday and went out to Boradway market for Neil's birthday on the Saturday. Plenty of glögg has been flowing, the flat is fully decorated and the Christmas CD has been on pretty much non-stop since the first of advent. And to top it all off we're having a massive "julbak", litterally Christmas Bake, this weekend... not to sound like some strange over-optimist, but to make matters even better, work is going really well and I'm doing some things now that I'm finding both very challenging and interesting. AND I'm feeling unusually creative lately so I've already figured out what to get everyone for Christmas... so yeah... I guess what I'm trying to say is that my life is pretty frickin amazing right now :D

Real life is proving to take up a lot of my time, and so the on-line version of me will have to suffer a little. Realised that I hadn't been on Facebook for about a month so I logged on but not much had happened. I t seems life moves on. I might even say that I don't particularly miss the on-line world. But here comes a quick update anyway. Lets see... last time I wrote was the 28th October... so first week of November Toby and I celebrated 5 years together which I guess is pretty impressive but I think that's about the only thing worthwhile reporting. Other stuff that's happened is mainly work stuff so not that interesting for most people... oh well. Until we meet again I guess

Thought I'd get another post in here before November hits and I wonder what happened to October. Pay-day today! So the plan for this weekend is to get some stuff for the flat, and maybe even start stocking up on Christmas decorations (not to be put up any time before my birthday though).

I've got some spare time (for once) so I thought I'd write a little. I'm at my first site visit ever up at Lindsey Oil Refinery near Grimsby in Lincolnshire. It's been an amazing week so far and I realised since I've been here that I actually love what I do. Yes, of course I complain... who doesn't? But honestly, I think that my job is amazing. I've learned so much this week and I've met some incredible people. I really hope that some of these new contacts can help me out in the future to get some more site experience. The best thing would be to see a project through from conceptual to FEED and detailed design, onto procurement, construction and commissioning. Sorry about the slightly geeky post, I bet that didn't make sense to anyone else...

6 months ago I was in limbo. 6 months ago we had just lost our home. It's amazing how much has happened in the last 6 months. I just read the post that I wrote on the 30th March. When I read it now I remember exactly how I felt at the time. I just googled "fire Grafton Chamber" and these sites came up. The last one is a flikr account of some architect type person who is upset that he/she doesn't know about the future of the building. All that I feel when I see those pictures it sadness. I still have those pictures I took the night that we were stood outside. I don't think I'll show them yet. Give me another 6 months maybe... So reflecting on this past half year I think it has shaped me more than I think on a day to day basis. I'm still quite upset that I didn't get to go to (or get any info about) Freddie's funeral. I think I took a lot of risks and chances this summer that I wouldn't have normally. Maybe without me being concious about it, I'm living more for the day. I'd say that's what changed most about how I approach things. I used to plan everything so much. I don't any more. I don't want to plan them... and it's not even anything that I can help... or do anything about. It's just how I see life now. Maybe it's good... I don't know yet. Again, give me another 6 months...

This is the first day I've had off work since I started. Not counting weekends of course, but I normally have other things to do then. So this is the first day that I've had off where I don't have anything that I HAVE to do. It feels strange. I've been back at work for six weeks now and I've literally been thrown in to a really interesting project. It's something I've never done before so I'm learning a lot. Anyway, I really cannot believe that September has gone by so quickly. I struggle to remember what I've actually done. One thing that's certain though it the change in weather. Rainy autumn is here and the temperature has dropped to the low teens. Might be a good time to turn the heating in the flat on, but I think I'm gonna try to push it for a while. Oh I just remembered what I did last month. I graduated! My family were here and we went for holiday in Paris! Sorry, for the majorly confused post, but that's what my head looks like right now...

Sorry for my extended absence lately. I can't believe it's September already! I've been busy at work and tired when I got home. Actually I've been out quite a lot and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon as my parents and several other people have just arrived in London for my graduation. Then I'm off to Paris for four days from Saturday morning. Lots to do!